Chapter 109: On This Day, Zephyr Suddenly Understood Garp
"Zephyr?! How are you?"
Sengoku and Zephyr were Marines of the same generation after all. Having fought alongside each other until now, they were comrades with a good relationship.
Seeing the situation, he didn't even pay attention to the ordinary soldiers on the ground and came to Zephyr's side first.
In Sengoku's subconscious, these ordinary soldiers had already been sentenced to death.
Although there was no blood on the ground, the person Zephyr encountered was Nereus. It was widely known across the sea that he customarily used blood-draining methods in battle.
"I... I'm fine... Did any medics come with you? My soldiers are still alive, but for some reason, they can't wake up."
Hearing Zephyr say this, Sengoku finally noticed the condition of those soldiers. Compared to Zephyr, Sengoku could accept the casualties of soldiers more easily.
In the original timeline, even when T-Bone, who had been promoted to Vice Admiral, died in battle, Sengoku was still just picking out different flavors of rice crackers.
But it was exactly this personality that allowed him to become the successor to the Fleet Admiral; a general commanding all Marines didn't need excessive mercy.
"Report to Admiral Sengoku! These soldiers have fallen into a deep sleep due to some unknown means. Their pulses are very slow, like they're in hibernation...
But there is no danger to their lives. They should wake up in a few days."
"That guy Nereus did this?"
Compared to all these soldiers dying in battle, all of them being unconscious puzzled Sengoku more; it was too abnormal.
The total number of soldiers who survived this time exceeded the sum of the past few years combined.
"Zephyr, what exactly happened?"
"I don't know. I was just normally taking the soldiers to resupply fresh water on this island, but suddenly encountered that guy. However, he seemed to have something to do and didn't linger for a fight. He used an ability on us and then left."
Zephyr didn't speak of Nereus's words. Although he still suspected the other party, Nereus's words had indeed planted a seed of doubt in his heart.
Investigate and find out the truth—this was Zephyr's thought right now.
"That guy is a madman... But this is fine too. Being unharmed is better than anything."
Zephyr being safe and sound relieved Kong. At least he didn't have to worry about the news of a newly appointed Marine Admiral dying at the hands of pirates causing the Marines' prestige to plummet.
Moreover, the current situation could even be advantageous for the Marines' internal propaganda.
There were many newspapers on the sea. Besides Morgans's World Economy News Paper, which relied on News Coos for worldwide distribution, some countries had their own tabloids, and the Marines also had their own internal military newspaper.
The next day, the content of the Marine internal newspaper reported that the newly appointed Marine Headquarters Admiral, Black Arm Zephyr, led a team, encountered Nereus, fought him desperately, and the soldiers under his command suffered zero casualties.
If it weren't for the fact that a Marine encountering a pirate and only managing to retreat intact wasn't something boast-worthy enough for external propaganda, this news wouldn't have just stayed in the internal military newspaper, but would have been spread on Morgans's paper.
Because of Nereus's style, many Marines actually held a sense of fear towards him. When executing missions related to him, dissenting voices would occasionally arise from the lower ranks.
With this incident involving Zephyr, the Marine higher-ups found an opportunity to boost morale.
However, the person involved had now arrived at Garp's residence.
In the living room of Garp's house, on a recently replaced table, two cups of green tea were steaming.
In the slightly empty room, there was only the sound of crunching rice crackers.
Riiip...
"I didn't come here to watch you eat rice crackers."
"Do you want a bag too?"
"I'm here to talk business. You've read this thing too, right?"
Zephyr threw the newly issued military newspaper in front of Garp. In the past, he heard that Garp often tore up newspapers and always yelled about settling scores with Morgans.
He didn't understand Garp's behavior then, but now he knew.
Probably the fictional elements in the newspapers reporting on Garp were equally severe.
"I saw it. You're pretty strong."
"Enough! I'm not here to banter with you! What exactly happened during that West Blue operation two years ago?!"
Seeing Garp's constant unserious demeanor, Zephyr couldn't hold back anymore. He skipped the small talk and cut straight to the chase.
Him, strong?
Being able to become a Marine Admiral, he certainly wasn't weak, but coming from Garp's mouth, these words felt somewhat off.
"West Blue? What could have happened? Haven't you read the report? It's just as it says. The Rocks Pirates were annihilated. Yeah, Roger and I defeated Rocks."
Garp still maintained his joking manner. He felt there was no point in telling Zephyr the truth. Just as Kong said, spreading this matter wouldn't change anything and would only implicate those who knew about it.
"You guy... Then let me ask another question. Where did your son run off to? Thinking about it carefully, I haven't seen him in a long time."
"Who knows? That brat stopped listening to me after he grew up. You have to be careful when raising a son in the future, Zephyr, otherwise, it will give the father a big headache when he grows up."
"Fine, I understand. In other words, that massacre game actually existed."
Garp's completely ignorant-sounding answers instead made Zephyr realize that Nereus's words were probably all true.
If it were fake, Garp wouldn't need to answer him like this at all.
"How did you know about this?"
When Zephyr uttered the words "massacre game," Garp finally ended his lazy state, sat up straight, and his expression turned serious.
"I remember Tsuru and Sengoku both telling you: you really don't know how to lie."
"That bastard Nereus... He told you?"
Garp's brain wasn't completely inflexible either.
Connecting it to Zephyr's previous experience of retreating intact against common sense, with zero casualties among subordinates...
Combined with what Zephyr knew now, everything made sense.
"That guy's ambition... just how big is it..."
A pirate saying such things to a Marine Admiral—was he trying to dismantle the Marines?
He didn't believe Nereus would tell Zephyr such things just out of boredom; he clearly had ulterior motives.
"Wait, where are you going?"
Garp hadn't figured out what Nereus wanted to do yet when he saw Zephyr stand up to leave, so he quickly called out to him.
"Don't worry, I'm not an impulsive person like you. I just want to investigate what exactly happened.
I figure with Fleet Admiral Kong's personality, even if you were involved in this matter, he wouldn't explain the whole story to you."
"I feel like you're insulting me..."
"Don't misunderstand, I didn't mean it that way. Oh, right, tear up that newspaper for me on your way out."
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