Chapter 119: On the Self-Cultivation of Self-Hypnosis and Shifting Blame
When you give a beating with a stick, you also have to offer a sweet date. Since the other four were all reprimanding Kong, Saturn naturally took it upon himself to appease him.
In Saturn's words, not having to continue fighting Nereus in the future was a great thing for the Marines.
"Besides, we haven't given the entire Fish-man Island extralegal immunity. If anyone causes problems in the future, the Marines can still take action."
Simply put, this was also part of the agreement. To prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, Nereus himself would not make a move, and the World Government would not make a move either. Marine Admirals, the Fleet Admiral, and the like were similarly forbidden from interfering.
The conflicts were delegated to the subordinates, kept within a certain limit, having an effect similar to a proxy war.
"But the Marines' face... the attitude of the other soldiers... how am I supposed to explain this kind of thing to them when I get back?"
"That is for you to consider; it has nothing to do with us. However, Kong, you have a cognitive error."
Saturn paused, looking at Kong with a solemn gaze.
"Your so-called 'face' is worthless in our eyes. Do you understand? Go back and make sure everyone is properly informed. I do not want the Marines breaking out into conflict with that guy again over some senseless reasons."
"...Yes, I understand."
Kong fell silent for a long time before standing up and leaving Mary Geoise. But before he could even walk out the door, he was stopped by Mars.
"The Marines' engineering corps isn't bad. Have them come up here again. Mary Geoise needs repairs."
"..."
Kong accepted the task and left silently, while the Five Elders seemed to agree on a certain viewpoint.
It was all the Marines' incompetence that led to today's situation. They even seemed to be hypnotizing themselves into believing it.
"Thinking about it carefully, that guy actually came to us proactively to compromise, didn't he?"
"You call this... a compromise?"
Warcury pointed at the surroundings. Even the conflict involving Rocks and Harald at Mary Geoise didn't devastate the terrain here to this extent.
Their battle that time could also be considered a misunderstanding, and they were quickly separated.
The last time Mary Geoise suffered large-scale battle damage was when that robot, Emeth, climbed up here.
Therefore, he found it very hard to understand how Saturn could say such a thing.
"After all, his goal was to reach an agreement with us. How could this not be considered a form of compromise?"
"I think we are the ones who compromised. That guy... was clearly coercing us."
"It was just that he piqued the Great One's interest. We are merely following orders. Or rather, compared to his proactive compromise, do you prefer coercion?"
The other four Five Elders didn't speak, just silently nodded. Saturn's phrasing did indeed sound much better. In that case, slightly altering the narrative of the process wasn't impossible.
"Speaking of which, the Marines seem to have forgotten exactly how many people died in the operations targeting Nereus, yet they actually still think about using this method for revenge."
"Our orders have been relayed. The Marines won't disobey us. Come to think of it... Zephyr encountered Nereus earlier, didn't he? With his abilities... how did he manage to retreat completely unscathed with his soldiers?"
The reason Zephyr gave was that Nereus had things to do and didn't want to fight him. But thinking carefully based on today's situation, the Five Elders suddenly felt something was wrong.
Zephyr was the youngest Admiral, true, but it wasn't because he had surpassed an Admiral's combat power at a young age that he became one.
It was just that at this age, he had accumulated enough military merits, his combat power had reached the baseline of an Admiral, and the Marines happened to have Admiral vacancies. Therefore, Zephyr logically became an Admiral.
With the strength of such a person, being able to preserve himself was justifiable, but protecting all the soldiers was somewhat unreasonable.
Under normal circumstances, between the ordinary soldiers and Zephyr, a portion of them should have died.
"Who knows? Maybe that guy was in a good mood. Nothing's happening now anyway, so let's ignore the Marines for now."
"That's true. Let's think about how to rebuild Mary Geoise instead. Should it be exactly the same, or should we change the style?"
Although it felt off, the Five Elders ultimately didn't overthink it, continuing to practice their philosophy of only dealing with problems after they happen.
On the other side, Kong didn't know what the Five Elders said after he left.
He simply left Mary Geoise filled with suppressed anger. On the way back to Marineford, apart from the words "fall back," he didn't say a single sentence the entire time.
The idea that "Marines only need to obey orders" was heavily promoted in the recruit camps, and no soldiers raised questions. However, the Marines who became powerhouses were mostly those who scoffed at this command.
"Notify all those with the rank of Vice Admiral currently at Headquarters to assemble in the main conference room in one hour. Tell Sengoku and Zephyr... and also Garp and Tsuru, to come to my office first."
After sitting at his desk for a long time, Kong finally relayed his orders.
The Five Elders issued their orders directly without considering anything, but Kong couldn't do that.
If even the death of a Fleet Admiral could be accepted, who would care about their own lives or deaths? Would an ordinary soldier be treated as cannon fodder, thrown onto a meaningless battlefield to die?
Kong had to consider all these potential situations.
Because the Reverie had just ended, most of the high-ranking Marine officers were currently at Headquarters and hadn't yet left to execute other missions. This made convening a meeting much more convenient.
It didn't take long for the four people Kong summoned to arrive at the Fleet Admiral's office.
However...
Garp was wearing a tropical tank top and slippers, holding a bag of rice crackers in his left hand and a pot of tea in his right, looking like he was planning to go on vacation.
Zephyr had a cigar dangling from his mouth, his facial stubble looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time, and he sported a pair of dark circles, looking as if he hadn't slept in ages.
Sengoku's face was full of exhaustion, seemingly suffering from a headache as he rubbed his temples from time to time. Only Tsuru looked like a normal person.
"What is... going on with you guys?"
These were his core team members, the absolute highest echelon of the Marines, yet right now, they looked completely problematic.
"I was just getting ready to go on vacation when you called me over."
Garp still lacked any seriousness. Ever since God Valley ended, he had been acting like this. In the past, Kong would have flown into a rage, but today he felt it didn't really matter.
"I was formulating future military movement plans, referencing some past examples. Haven't slept recently."
Zephyr's reason seemed legitimate, but it made Kong feel something was slightly off.
"Because of their two reasons, all the other military duties fell onto me..."
Sengoku, the last one to speak, looked at Zephyr and Garp with a gaze full of resentment, even glancing at Kong. For some reason, he felt like he was shouldering the responsibilities of four people right now.
"Cough cough, these aren't important. I called you over because there's a highly important matter. Up in Mary Geoise, that vampire reached an agreement with the Five Elders..."
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