On the 79th island of the Sabaody Archipelago, on the hotel street.
Under the colorful lights of the night, the pedestrians on the street leaned towards both sides of the street. They knelt on their knees, their heads hanging low.
In the very center of the street, a group of people were walking leisurely. The man leading the group was a fat young man wearing a white coat similar to a spacesuit, a square hood on his head, and a rectangular vertical topknot. He was sitting not on a horse or a cow... but on a burly human strongman!
The slave man being sat on by Saint Charlmack, a member of the Celestial Dragons, wore a slave collar around his neck. His eyes were full of numbness, and he was completely despondent. He just mechanically crawled on the ground on all fours.
He was originally Captain Ada Arthur of the Ada Pirates, with a bounty of 60 million berries. After being captured by the Navy, as he only committed the crime of looting and no other extremely serious crimes, he was sentenced to a lifetime of being demoted to a slave. After several transfers, he became a slave of the Celestial Dragons.
Behind the two of them, there were also two men wearing white suits and masks on their faces.
Waaaaaaah! (The baby's wail)
Suddenly, the silence of the street was broken by a loud wail of a baby.
Saint Charlmack frowned. He looked in the direction of the sound and found that the source was a baby still in swaddling clothes, being held in the arms of a young woman and crying continuously.
Startled by the sudden outburst, the woman quickly clapped her hand over the baby's mouth. She was trembling all over.
"So damned noisy!"
Saint Charlmack snorted coldly, took out his pistol, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
This shot missed. It didn't hit the baby in the woman's arms but pierced through her forehead, causing the woman to immediately fall to the ground.
In a private room on the fourth floor of a high - class restaurant.
Smoker, who was also sitting by the window with Sephiroth, stood up abruptly from his seat after witnessing this scene and was about to rush out of the window to kill the Celestial Dragon who had fired the shot.
However...
Bang!
Sephiroth beside Smoker suddenly pounced on him, knocked him to the ground, and pressed his right hand firmly on the back of his neck.
Smoker instinctively turned intangible to break free from the restraint, but he found that he just couldn't break free...
"What are you doing? Don't be impulsive!"
Sephiroth quickly hissed. In his excitement, he didn't even notice that the Armament Haki, which he had been pondering for a long time, had unexpectedly awakened and was being used by him.
Smoker glared angrily, with full of rage in his tone. He gritted his teeth and said:
"I'm going to kill that bastard!!!"
"Calm down! Doing this is just seeking your own death..."
Before Sephiroth could finish his words, two more gunshots rang out in succession outside the window.
Bang! Bang!
After the gunshots, the baby's wail stopped, and the whole world fell silent.
Smoker, who was pressed to the ground, clenched his fists and his eyes widened suddenly. The anger in his heart was like a volcano erupting with magma. He wanted to beat that despicable Celestial Dragon to death with his bare hands.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the private room was extremely oppressive. The others, though not as impulsive as Smoker, subconsciously clenched their fists, desperately suppressing their anger.
"Why'd you stop me from killing that bastard..." Smoker roared angrily.
Sephiroth forcibly suppressed the inexplicable irritability rising in his heart and said in a calm, even somewhat cold tone:
"You'd just be throwing your life away if you went there. See those two guys in white suits following that guy?
They're the Celestial Dragons' strongest shield, which is the CP0, an organization responsible for protecting the safety of the Celestial Dragons.
Almost everyone in it is a master. At the very least, they can rival an Admirals - level officer.
Before you even get close to that Celestial Dragon, they'll kill you instantly."
The silver - haired boy's words finally calmed Smoker down, and he stopped struggling.
As Sephiroth let go of Smoker, he said calmly:
"This world is just that damn cruel... The Celestial Dragons stand above all, possessing supreme power...
Even the Fleet Admiral or the Admirals can't offend them.
You have to learn to face reality and do what you're capable of, instead of acting recklessly out of blind passion..."
These words were not only a warning to Smoker but also to himself.
Right now, he had no background and no influence. His strength wasn't top - notch in this world either. He couldn't act rashly and needed to think things through.
If you want to right wrongs, you have to first weigh your own situation...
Smoker got up dejectedly from the ground. He glanced out of the window at the woman lying on the street and the baby who would never cry again.
He brushed the dust off his body, sat back down on the chair, took out a cigar, put it in his mouth and lit it. He took a deep puff, held it in for a long time, and then coughed as he exhaled the smoke.
As if choked by the smoke, Smoker's eyes were red, with a hint of tears in his eyes. His voice was hoarse as he said:
"Sephiroth... Isn't the Navy supposed to uphold justice?
Was that Celestial Dragon just now acting justly?
Or was that woman and her baby evil?"
These questions silenced everyone in the private room.
At this moment, they felt a mixture of emotions in their hearts - anger, sorrow, doubt... All sorts of emotions were present, and even their belief in the so - called justice of the Navy was shaken.
"Justice and evil are things that only the victors have the right to define...
Eight hundred years ago, the Celestial Dragons established the World Government, the largest and most powerful organization in the world. So they have the right to decide everything, to determine what is justice and what is evil."
Safiros remained expressionless as he picked up a soup spoon and sipped the soup one spoonful at a time. However, a kind of ambition was germinating in his heart.
In this turbulent era when heroes were rising everywhere, if the World Government could no longer maintain its rule, the status and power of the Celestial Dragons would vanish like a dream bubble in an instant.
Before this, besides seeking revenge, Safiros was actually quite confused about his future. He just wanted to live freely and make his life wonderful and comfortable.
It didn't matter whether they were the Navy or the pirates. He just followed his heart.
However, after this incident, his desire for strength and influence reached an unprecedented height!
To live freely without absolute strength and influence was just an illusion. The Navy was just a tool in the hands of the World Government after all. He needed to have his own influence...
During this meal, everyone ate in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
After dinner, at Kaji's suggestion, everyone checked into a hot spring hotel. Safiros, citing other matters, temporarily bid farewell to the group and headed to Island 20, which was the closest to Island 79.
He was going to the lawless area of Islands 20 - 29 to inquire about the whereabouts of the Devil Fruit Illustrated Book.
The Devil Fruit Illustrated Book wasn't a very rare book, but it wasn't common either. At least, he hadn't found it in Water 7 or Marineford.
The Sabaody Archipelago was a gathering place for pirates from the four seas. Logically, since these pirates had already sailed halfway through the Grand Line, they must have seen Devil Fruits to some extent and couldn't help being curious about this sea treasure.
Where there was a demand, there was a market. In the Sabaody Archipelago, where Devil Fruits flowed in and out, how could there not be a single Devil Fruit Illustrated Book?