Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
Within the "God's Domain," the territory of the Jaygarcia Family.
In a rare occurrence, one of the Five Elders, Saint Saturn, had actually left Pangaea Castle today and returned to his private residence.
This made all the Celestial Dragons within the God's Domain restrain themselves. For example, Saint Sheperd, who usually liked to casually shoot his slaves to death with a golden pistol, didn't even dare step outside today—let alone fire any shots—afraid of disturbing Saint Saturn.
Near the territory of the Jaygarcia Family, a group was walking along the street.
At the front was Saint Figarland Garling of the Holy Knights. At his side were Saint Maffey and Saint Sommers.
Behind the three of them followed two CP agents dressed in black suits.
"Still no news?" Garling's expression was extremely cold. There was a trace of impatience between his brows, and his tone was icy—like he might kill someone the very next second.
Maffey and Sommers didn't care about his attitude, but the CP agents behind them were terrified.
In fact, they felt that if not for Saint Saturn summoning them, Garling would have already cut their heads off by now!
"My deepest apologies, Saint Garling. Based on our investigations over the past two years, we have essentially ruled out the Whitebeard Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates. We also failed to find anything suspicious within the Flying Pirates…" CP-9 Commander Bazar said, his voice slightly tense.
Back during the God Valley Incident, Garling had arranged for Maffey to help retrieve his son. However, due to a series of accidents, Maffey hadn't fully completed the mission. He had twin sons—she only managed to bring one back.
This incident left Garling somewhat dissatisfied.
But given the chaos at God Valley—where powerful figures were everywhere and they themselves were little more than speed bumps—Maffey managing to bring one child back at all was already extremely fortunate.
Moreover, Maffey wasn't someone to be trifled with. If Garling wanted to solidify his position as the leader of the Holy Knights, he still needed to unite his "knights." Naturally, he wouldn't fall out with her over something like this.
However, in private, he still arranged for intelligence agencies to search for the child he had lost.
At the time, he assigned this task to CP-9. Two years had passed, and they still couldn't give him a definite answer—his urge to kill them wasn't without reason.
"I don't need your useless explanations. Do you have any valuable information?" Garling said in a low voice.
That tone was already extremely harsh. It scared Bazar so much his legs nearly gave out, and he quickly said, "We do, we do."
After a brief pause, Bazar continued, "It may be the Roger Pirates…"
"The Roger Pirates!?" Garling's expression changed sharply. He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and stared at Bazar. "Do you have any evidence?"
The Roger Pirates were something of a taboo existence in Mary Geoise.
It wasn't because they were overwhelmingly powerful or posed any great pressure.
On the contrary, over the past two years, the New World had been thrown into chaos by fierce battles among various monsters. Yet the Roger Pirates hadn't caused any earth-shattering incidents at all—they had remained unusually low-profile.
The reason they were taboo in Mary Geoise was mainly because Valthior was mixed in with them.
A young master of a Five Elders' family joining a pirate crew—how could that not be a disgrace to Mary Geoise?
And yet, Saint Saturn seemed overly fond of this descendant of his. Not only was there no punishment, he even issued a gag order to those in the know: "This matter ends here."
It was downright absurd.
"There's no concrete evidence, but we investigated some of the Roger Pirates' movements and confidential intelligence, and found a very unusual pattern. At times, they restock supplies for infants at ports—things like milk powder. But on the surface, the Roger Pirates shouldn't have any need for such items, right?" Bazar explained.
He didn't need to say the rest.
Considering that Saint Garling had lost one of his children at God Valley, and that most of the other pirates present at the time had already been ruled out, this discovery regarding the Roger Pirates—wasn't it enough to serve as evidence?
There was a very high possibility that Garling's bloodline was in the hands of the Roger Pirates!
This answer calmed Garling's previously agitated mood.
The Roger Pirates stocking infant supplies… Could it be that my child is really on their ship?
Truthfully, Garling didn't care much about his child. He didn't have any deep emotional attachment to the lost Shanks.
He was a beast—where would he get so many human emotions?
What truly mattered to him was ambition. He wanted to seize greater power. To do that, he needed to minimize any stains on his record or anything that could become leverage for his enemies.
Without a doubt, a child of his bloodline wandering out in the world was a dangerous liability.
If, in the future, his political enemies used this matter—or Shanks himself—against him, it would be troublesome. Therefore, it was necessary to retrieve that lost bloodline.
That was Garling's logic.
Just as he was considering whether Shanks might truly be aboard the Roger Pirates, Saint Sommers suddenly spoke without restraint:
"You're right to say there's no concrete evidence. Otherwise, I'd seriously start questioning CP-9's competence."
"Huh? And this doesn't count as evidence?" Maffey said from the side. "Haven't they already confirmed the Roger Pirates are stocking infant supplies?"
"Idiot, did you forget?" Sommers said carelessly. "Back then, Shakky was taken by them too. That bastard Rayleigh even cut me in half. It's been over two years. You know how lonely life at sea can be, right? Those two shameless dogs messing around on the Roger Pirates' ship and ending up with a kid—it's not impossible, is it? In fact, I think that's even more likely! Garling, don't jump to conclusions because of this!"
On the surface, it sounded like Sommers was trying to comfort Garling, but Maffey, standing nearby, could only feel sympathy for him.
What was this situation?
Not only had his Devil Fruit ability and child been taken, but even his originally "intended" woman was gone. And now, that woman had likely been sailing the seas with another man for over two and a half years.
Think about how boring life at sea could get—seeing the same scenery day after day. To relieve that boredom, Rayleigh and Shakky had probably already explored every possible position, right? Wait? Garling, why did you dye your hair green?
Oh, it's because they have a kid together!?
Sure enough, after Sommers finished speaking, Garling's face, which had just begun to relax, twisted completely, turning as dark as the bottom of a shoe.
"Enough!!!" Garling roared.
The solid stone pavement beneath his feet cracked under the force.
Sommers clicked his tongue and said nothing more. As the young master of a Five Elders family, even if he wasn't as favored by his own elder, he wasn't afraid of Garling.
Maffey, on the other hand, was trying hard to suppress her laughter, but her trembling shoulders betrayed her.
Fortunately, Garling was currently staring at Bazar and didn't notice her.
"I'll give you two more months. If you still can't provide the definite answer I want, then I see no reason for you to continue wasting air," Garling said coldly.
Terrified, Bazar immediately dropped to his knees. "Yes, Saint Garling!"
Ignoring Bazar, who remained kneeling on the ground, Garling instead turned his gaze to another CP member and asked, "What's your name?"
The agent immediately knelt as well. "It is my honor to be addressed by you, Saint Garling. My name is Spandine, Deputy Commander of CP-9!"
Garling gave no particular response—he merely nodded casually, then turned and continued walking toward the Jaygarcia Family's territory.