"Did you hear that?" Makuro sat in the chairman's office of the company, his legs crossed. One hand was placed by his ear in a listening gesture, and from a great distance, faint sounds of shouting and killing could be heard coming from the direction of the Marine warship.
The chairman of this company, who was a well-known slave trader in the underworld, held his breath and turned his ear toward the direction Makuro indicated.
Indeed, there were shouts, faintly passing through half the city. Although it was difficult to hear clearly from the company at Coral Hill, when combined with the intelligence Makuro had delivered earlier, the situation became crystal clear.
This heartless businessman, who made an enormous fortune selling slaves to the Celestial Dragons, let out a long breath of relief. The pressure of the past few days seemed to have been swept away.
Makuro, that fish-brained fool, didn't understand the true danger he was facing, and neither did those idiotic pirates who were attacking the Marine ship.
But as someone who had dealings with the World Government, the businessman knew all too well just how terrifying their forces could be.
He once had dinner with a high-ranking official from the World Government's intelligence agency—a man whose authority, in his eyes, was so great that a single word from him could determine life and death.
That man was Spandine.
After drinking a little too much, Spandine began boasting about his accomplishments to the table.
One of the things he talked about at length was the Buster Call on Ohara.
"You all know about the Buster Call, right? Back then, I was the one who confirmed the intelligence for that operation."
The guests at the table, though aware of what a Buster Call was, had no idea that this seemingly unremarkable middle-aged man was the one who had confirmed the intelligence for it.
Immediately, they raised their glasses in a toast to this "big shot," but Spandine waved his hand grandly:
"Sit down, sit down. That was just standard procedure!"
"What I'm about to tell you next is what will really make your eyes pop out!"
Spandine, the CP division official, struck a flamboyant pose.
"You all know Sakazuki, right? During that Buster Call operation, I was chatting and laughing with none other than Admiral Candidate 'Akainu' Sakazuki from Marine Headquarters!"
"My God!! Director Spandine, are you serious!?" The corrupt businessman had also heard of this fearsome Vice Admiral from Marine Headquarters and couldn't help but ask for confirmation.
"Of course I am!" Spandine nodded. "When the Buster Call was initiated, I was still on the island. Vice Admiral Sakazuki personally came to check on me and even arranged for our evacuation."
"Incredible!"
"Unbelievable! Director Spandine, you really are something else—you've been keeping this connection hidden all along."
"Your network is beyond imagination!"
A female guest, however, was puzzled. "He arranged for you to evacuate? But didn't that Vice Admiral leave as well?"
For the first time, Spandine revealed a look of unease.
"To be honest, if you gave him a little more time, there wouldn't have been any need for those ten warships to bombard the island for so long."
"?"
"What do you mean?"
Seeing the confusion on the guests' faces, the CP division officer lowered his voice and explained:
"The World Government's internal assessment of Sakazuki is that he alone could have destroyed all of Ohara!"
The businessman remembered that banquet well.
Before, they had always believed that no matter how powerful an individual was, there was always a limit. That no single person could match the force of an entire army.
But now, hearing this information confirmed by a high-ranking official of the World Government, even these merchants—who were always heavily guarded—began seeking out stronger bodyguards.
His current bodyguard, 'The Debt Collector' Bobin, was one of the best among them. Yet even this pirate, who was already quite strong in the businessman's eyes, had clearly stated that he was still far from the level of those true monsters.
The businessman glanced at the smug-looking fish-man, then bent down and took out two exquisite wine glasses from a wooden box. He also pulled out a bottle of high-end red wine from a drawer.
First, he handed a glass to his bodyguard, Bobin. The pirate captain wasn't the type to be overly polite—he raised the glass and downed it in one go.
Then, the businessman picked up another glass, filled it with wine, and stood up, personally walking over to Makuro.
The massive gulper eel fish-man stood up arrogantly, placing his hands behind his back, raising his chin, and waiting for his human ally to toast him in person.
"Makuro, you've done a great service this time! Come, come, allow me to toast you," the businessman said with a beaming smile, raising his glass toward Makuro. "To your eternal glory!"
Makuro had yet to fully grasp the meaning of those words when he saw his human ally flip his wrist, spilling all the red wine onto the carpet right in front of him.
"You—!"
Makuro barely had time to utter a single word before a pair of powerful hands suddenly wrapped around his neck from behind, tightening their grip.
"You idiot. If it weren't for your fish-brained stupidity, the Marines never would have caught wind of our whereabouts. Now that Arlong's crew is taking the fall, your final value is spent!"
The slave trader's smile turned sinister.
Watching the struggling fish-man, his bodyguard Bobin deliberately refrained from snapping the gulper eel fish-man's neck, choosing instead to slowly increase the pressure.
"Cunning… humans!" Makuro managed to choke out a few words, but the effort only made his breathing more difficult.
Admiring the sight of his traitorous pawn turning red in the face, the businessman elegantly adjusted his attire.
"That's right, humans are cunning. You should take your banana and go back to the jungle—oh, wait, I almost forgot. You're a fish-man. Then, I suppose it's time for you to take your fish food and get in the tank!"
The sounds of shouting and killing rang out once more, finally becoming clear enough to make out the words:
"Kill the pirates! Execute the slavers!"
This time, the voices seemed unusually close.
"Could it be that the fish-man pirates and the Marines have fought their way into this area?" The businessman frowned in confusion.
But his bodyguard, 'The Debt Collector' Bobin, suddenly released his grip on the nearly suffocating Makuro and rushed to the blinds to look outside.
"No! That shouting is coming from right outside our company building!"
"We need to go! The Marines never fought the fish-man pirates—they came straight for us!" Bobin caught sight of the Neptune Army going door to door, clearing out every building.
"!?"
"What's going on!?" The businessman turned sharply, glaring at the coughing fish-man. "Did he tip them off!? Or did the fish-man pirates deceive us!?"
But now was not the time to investigate. The businessman quickly rushed to the left side of his office, pressing hard on the third shelf of a bookcase.
A cunning rabbit needs three burrows.
Doing this kind of business required extreme caution, and this major slave trader clearly understood that well.
When the company was first built, he had secretly constructed an escape tunnel beneath his office.
This tunnel led directly to a large mailbox on the streets of Coral Hill.
"Move!" Bobin urged his boss into the tunnel. Makuro tried to follow, but the bodyguard kicked him square in the chest.
The tunnel door slammed shut.
Their faces were no longer filled with the calm confidence they had just moments ago.
They had thought they had erased all suspicion, yet they still couldn't escape that hunting dog's nose.