Subdue Lucci? Make him his subordinate?
That temptation was not small at all. Lucci's talent and potential were beyond doubt. If Ronan could pull him over to his side, it would be an extremely powerful addition. The Quest Points on offer were just as enticing.
But Ronan knew exactly what kind of person Lucci was. This was a killing machine raised by the World Government from childhood. His worldview and values had long since been molded. What he believed in was the World Government's "dark justice." His loyalty was built on absolute recognition of his own strength and the authority of the World Government. That kind of loyalty was almost blind devotion, carved into his bones.
And what did Ronan have?
A prince's title that no one in the royal family liked?
A mysterious panel in his mind with an unknown origin?
Maybe the future looked promising, but right now, what did he have that could make Lucci swear fealty to him? Some kind of "overlord aura"? Don't be ridiculous. That kind of thing only exists in novels; it was impossible here.
After only a few seconds of thought, a decisive glint flashed through Ronan's eyes.
"Decline."
With his refusal, the quest on the panel vanished at once, as if it had never appeared.
Ronan stood up and walked over to Beth's side, looking down at Lucci, who was struggling to lift his head from the floor.
"Lucci-san," Ronan's voice remained calm, with no hint of the quest he had just triggered, "it seems the World Government's intel was off. Relying on you alone is far from enough to take them away."
Ronan paused for a moment, then continued, "Go back and tell whoever sent you this: Lulusia Kingdom's internal affairs don't require the World Government to trouble itself. I trust my bodyguards."
Lucci gritted his teeth and used everything he had left to push himself up. Swaying on his feet, he stood again. He gave Ronan a long, deep look, then swept his gaze over Beth and over Alicia, who hadn't said a single word from beginning to end.
In that gaze there was defeat, humiliation, but even more, a cold determination to carve everything he had seen today into the depths of his memory.
He said nothing. Covering his still aching stomach, he walked out one unsteady step at a time.
Watching Lucci's back disappear beyond the doors of the hall, Ronan knew this matter would not end here. But he wasn't worried. Right now, the World Government had no spare energy. All of their focus was on the seas.
Because of Roger's death, the Grand Line had exploded with a flood of powerful pirates. At this point, Whitebeard was not yet that old, Kaido and Charlotte Linlin had already begun to show their fangs, and all of them were giving the Marines endless headaches.
Now that Beth had easily defeated Lucci, the World Government should also be able to make a rough estimate of her strength.
What was more, Ronan had already clearly told Lucci that this was an internal matter of the Lulusia royal family. Whether it was for the sake of maintaining the façade of "not meddling in allied kingdoms' domestic affairs," or out of secret fear of Beth and Alicia's power, the World Government should lie low for a while.
After Lucci left—especially after seeing the sorry state he was in—Seki's expression was extremely ugly. He very much wanted to question Lucci, to demand that he bring someone stronger to deal with Ronan's bodyguards.
Gordon stopped Seki's foolish impulse. After all, Seki was just the prince of an allied kingdom. If he really enraged Lucci, and Lucci killed him on the spot, the man probably wouldn't face any punishment at all. In the eyes of those people in the World Government, the only true nobles were the Celestial Dragons. Small countries like theirs were practically disposable.
Watching Lucci's retreating back, Seki's mind spun at high speed, but he couldn't come up with a single effective plan. Faced with overwhelming power, all his little schemes were useless.
"All I can do now is wait for the World Government's reaction!"
Seki had no other options left. Now he could only pin his hopes on Lucci's failure provoking the wrath of the World Government's higher-ups and making them send someone even stronger to "handle" the problem.
A few days later.
Holy Land Mary Geoise, at the pinnacle of power.
Deep within Pangaea Castle, inside a certain council chamber, the World Government's overall military commander, Kong, sat behind a broad desk. His expression was dark as he quietly listened to the report of the young man standing before him.
That young man was none other than Lucci, who had just returned in disgrace from Lulusia Kingdom. The man hailed as CP9's strongest in eight hundred years still looked a little pale, and the sting of humiliation in his heart refused to fade.
"…That is the full course of events, Commander Kong."
Lucci recounted in detail his brief yet shocking exchange with the blonde woman named Beth—how the Rokushiki techniques he prided himself on had been effortlessly dismantled one by one, and how he himself had been taken down in an instant with no power to fight back. He didn't even conceal how pathetic his defeat had been.
"She didn't even… truly use the huge sword on her back," Lucci added at the end. "And the one who looks almost identical to her, who stood by her side the entire time, never struck once. But the feeling she gave me… was just as dangerous."
Kong listened in silence. His fingers tapped unconsciously on the polished surface of the desk, producing a dull, rhythmic thudding. His brows were knitted tightly together in the shape of the character for "river."
He understood Lucci's strength very well. Young, but with enough talent and cold ruthlessness to stand out among CP9. Given time, he was certain to become a razor-sharp blade in the Government's hand. For someone to so easily defeat Lucci—and even make him feel a crushing sense of helplessness—meant that their power far exceeded his.
"In that case, that woman called Beth… her individual combat power is likely already at the level of a Marine Headquarters vice admiral."
At Kong's words, everyone else in the room stared at him in disbelief. A Marine Headquarters vice admiral was not some random nobody off the street.
Across the entire Marine organization, there were little more than twenty vice admirals. They were the backbone of Marine combat strength, forces capable of holding down entire regions of the New World by themselves. And such an existence had appeared at the side of a prince from a weak kingdom in the first half of the Grand Line—a prince who was openly ostracized by his own royal family?
According to Lucci's report, there was another woman with exactly the same face, who had given him the same sense of danger. Kong could only make the most pessimistic assumption.
"Possibly two… at least Marine Headquarters vice admiral–level unknown powerhouses…" Kong muttered to himself.
An intelligence officer stepped forward, choosing his words carefully. "Commander, should we conduct a deeper investigation into the origins of those two women? Or… dispatch additional forces to Lulusia Kingdom to clarify their situation? After all, having such uncontrollable power around the core members of an allied kingdom's royal family is, ultimately, a potential risk."
"A risk?"
Kong gave a dismissive shake of his head. "From what Lucci just said, that second prince didn't look coerced at all. He even had Lucci pass a message back to us. This is clearly a matter inside their royal family. The World Government does not exist to be used as someone's hired blade."
(End of Chapter)
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