Amid the constant, deafening noise and curses, the Marine soldiers struggled to maintain order, pushing the crushing crowd back with the butts of their rifles.
They wouldn't interfere with arguments among the civilians, but anyone crossing the military red line would be immediately treated as an enemy combatant.
Those in the front rows could clearly see two Marine officers holding the Navy flag at the forefront, followed closely by eight elite executioners armed with long spears.
Walking calmly in the middle was the heavily shackled Pirate King.
Roger's expression was remarkably peaceful.
He even carried a wide, faint smile at the corners of his mouth, as if the man about to ascend the execution platform wasn't him at all.
His completely optimistic, fearless demeanor infuriated the civilian crowd.
"Bastard! Is this the so called king among pirates?! He deserves to die!"
"Arusha, do you see? Today, the world's strongest pirate dies in Loguetown! The Navy isn't turning a blind eye to our suffering anymore!"
A gaunt man wept bitterly, while surrounding civilians comforted him.
Nearly every family here had lost someone to pirates, and as ordinary people, they despised the romanticized criminals most of all.
Throughout this long, humiliating walk, Roger remained completely deaf to the hateful voices, slowly moving forward step by step.
No one knew what was truly in his heart at this final moment.
Except for Raleigh.
Raleigh knew Roger had deliberately allowed himself to be captured by the Navy, and had intentionally arranged for this to be a worldwide broadcast, all to officially usher in the Great Age of Pirates.
But Roger would never have imagined that, besides the pirates, there was also a faction within the Navy eagerly awaiting this new era.
Only when the Great Age of Pirates arrived and plunged the world into absolute chaos would Raleigh have the perfect cover to slack off.
Only when the World Government and Navy's main focus frantically shifted to fighting Emperors in the New World would they completely overlook Raleigh's hidden hands seizing control of the Four Blues' infrastructure.
Before the execution platform, as the soldiers cleared a final path, Roger ascended the wooden stairs step by step.
"Kneel."
Two executioners abruptly kicked the back of Roger's knees.
Prolonged starvation, his incurable illness, and the heavy shackles had left him terribly weak, unable to maintain his formerly upright posture.
Under the Navy soldiers' rough handling, the once-invincible Pirate King was forced to his knees on the wooden block.
"Captain Roger...!"
Shanks, hidden deep in the crowd, clenched his fists tightly, tears streaming down his face.
Had Buggy not quickly clamped his hand over Shanks's mouth, the Navy soldiers' attention would have surely turned their way.
"Shanks, shut up! We can't save the Captain. Besides, the Captain doesn't want saving!" Buggy hissed, looking at his enraged, weeping friend.
"Have you forgotten what kind of monster Captain Roger was? If he didn't want to be captured by the Navy, there is absolutely no way they could have caught him! In other words, the Captain deliberately allowed himself to be captured for a reason!"
"Just look around!" Buggy whispered frantically. "Rayleigh-san and the senior crew haven't shown up at all!"
Buggy had merely made up this lie on the spot to calm Shanks down, completely unaware that it perfectly summarized the truth of the event.
After hearing Buggy's frantic words, Shanks bit his lip and pulled his straw hat down, hiding his furious, tear-filled eyes.
Besides Shanks and Buggy, a young, grinning Doflamingo was also present.
So was Crocodile, now missing his left hand, and a towering, ambitious Gecko Moria from the New World.
The future Warlord, Bartholomew Kuma, was silently reading a Bible in the back.
And Monkey D. Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, was watching the execution with a fierce storm brewing in his eyes from a highly concealed, tall building.
These future leaders of various factions had all gathered in Loguetown, demonstrating the immense, historical significance they placed on this single death.
Roger showed no trace of fear, even at this final moment, he maintained a wide, fearless smile.
Like a wise man who knew a secret no one else did, he gazed down at the foolish, waiting crowd below.
From his balcony, Raleigh coldly ordered the executioners to proceed.
The elite soldiers standing on either side of Roger raised their long, sharp spears, ready to cross them through the King's heart.
At that exact moment, a loud, desperately curious voice suddenly rang out from the quiet crowd.
"Hey! Pirate King!"
"Where did you hide all the treasures you collected over your years at sea?!"
"Is the legendary Great Treasure of the Grand Line already in your possession?!"
"That one—the treasure that connects everything in the world! ONE PIECE!!"
Hearing this fateful question—which sounded almost suspiciously like a planted Navy plant—Roger's lips curled into a massive, iconic grin.
In that single instant, he forgot all about Raleigh's dark threats.
He forgot his illness.
Throwing his head back, Gol D. Roger laughed maniacally and addressed the entire world.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"You want my treasure?!"
"If you want it, I will give it all to you!"
At that moment, absolutely everyone present pricked up their ears, their greed overriding their hatred, not wanting to miss a single, legendary word.
Roger mustered the absolute last of his fading strength, unleashing a final, invisible wave of his Conqueror's Haki as he proclaimed his challenge to the globe:
"GO FIND IT!"
"I HAVE LEFT EVERYTHING I OWN IN THIS WORLD IN ONE PLACE!!"
"ONE PIECE!!"
THUD!
Two sharp spears brutally pierced downward, crossing perfectly through Roger's chest.
The Pirate King finally died with a smile on his face!
But at that exact moment, both the massive crowd on-site and the millions of people watching the broadcast worldwide erupted into deafening cheers.
The untold wealth of a Pirate King who had roamed the seas for years... and the legendary, ONE PIECE!
Every single piece of information stirred the dark, greedy hearts of those who heard it. People around the world instantly began preparing for their voyages, eager to find the ultimate treasure before anyone else.
The crowd at the scene was also growing intensely restless, a riot of excitement brewing.
But just as the future pirates prepared to leave the square to buy ships, they noticed a tall figure landing lightly on the bloody execution platform.
"Hey, wait a minute. Vice-Admiral Raleigh seems to have something else to say."
"What's the Butcher going to do now?"
"Wait before leaving, let's observe first."
Thus, the originally agitated, screaming crowd quieted down once more, preparing to see what the Navy's most terrifying officer intended to do with the King's corpse.
Raleigh's voice wasn't particularly loud, yet it clearly reached every single person present in the square.
"Everyone. Before you foolishly rush out to sea... why not look over there before making your final decision."
Following the direction Raleigh pointed, an object covered by a massive, blood-stained tarpaulin came into their view.
They had actually noticed this large mound earlier, but their attention had been entirely focused on the Pirate King, so they hadn't paid it much mind.
Only after Raleigh spoke did they properly observe this mysterious structure.
Marine soldiers surrounding the mound received their orders.
They each grabbed a corner of the heavy tarpaulin before pulling it away with a sudden motion.
WHOOSH.
As the canvas was lifted, what lay beneath was fully, horrifyingly revealed to the world.
"UGHHHH!"
"OH MY GOD!"
Several civilians with weaker constitutions immediately vomited violently onto the cobblestone, while others stood frozen in terror.
They never imagined that beneath this tarp lay a literal mountain of thousands of severed human heads!
Instantly, it felt as if a heavy, bloody hammer had struck the racing hearts of all the aspiring pirates in the crowd.
Raleigh stood over Roger's corpse and spoke with an icy, unforgiving expression.
"Everyone... these are the severed heads of the thousands of pirates executed by my soldiers over the past few days! I placed them here to serve as a permanent warning to the world!"
"Being a pirate brings no romantic adventure! It brings no good fortune! Those who choose this pathetic path must face the Navy's relentless pursuit!"
Raleigh's voice echoed with terrifying authority.
"We care nothing for your dreams! We will exhaust every single means to eliminate those who choose to become pirates—even if they were once ordinary civilians! Even those who manage to become the 'Pirate King', standing at the apex of this world as the strongest, will eventually be hunted down and captured by our Navy for execution! The corpse of Gol D. Roger lying beside me serves as proof!"
Then, Raleigh smoothly drew his Supreme Grade sword, Mikazuki Munechika, and with a single lightning-fast stroke, cleanly severed Roger's head from his shoulders.
"RALEIGH!!!"
Vice-Admiral Garp, seeing Roger's corpse being violently decapitated by Raleigh, angrily charged from the back of the plaza.
He couldn't bear to see his respected old rival meet such a wretched humiliating end, with his head remaining here for a sick public display!
BOOM!
Raleigh callously kicked Roger's severed head through the air, sending it landing perfectly at the very peak of the towering mound of pirate corpses.
He then calmly reversed his blade, coating it in Haki to parry Garp's incoming, earth-shattering fist.
The two top-tier fighters separated after their brief, shockwave-inducing clash, cracking the execution platform beneath them.
Raleigh lowered his sword and asked coldly, his voice echoing for the crowd to hear:
"Vice-Admiral Garp... what is the meaning of this? Attacking a fellow commanding officer constitutes betrayal of the Navy's justice. Don't bring about your own downfall for the sake of a dead pirate!"
Garp stood frozen on the execution platform, his fists trembling, feeling somewhat at a loss.
He naturally understood the immense severity of his emotional reaction, but his heart couldn't tolerate his old rival's head being taken as a grotesque trophy.
At Navy Headquarters in Marineford, Fleet Admiral Kong and Admiral Sengoku's faces darkened as they angrily watched Garp's outburst through the live visual feed.
Fleet Admiral Kong directly picked up his secure Den Den Mushi and roared into the receiver connected to Garp's coat.
"GARP! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! STEP DOWN FROM THAT PLATFORM IMMEDIATELY!"
"IS EMBARRASSING HEADQUARTERS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?! MUST YOU SHAME THE ENTIRE NAVY BEFORE THE WHOLE WORLD TOO!!!"