Is this the farewell?
The Red Count felt this deep in his heart.
This was a feeling the Red Count had never experienced before.
Charlotte smiled and walked towards the place where the ship was docked.
He instantly activated his Observation Haki, covering half of Water 7.
He sensed the chaos in the city center of Water 7.
It should be the panic caused by the news from the auction house.
Charlotte smiled and didn't pay it any heed.
...
"Boss!"
"Boss!"
As soon as Charlotte approached the ship, he was noticed by the people waiting on it.
Hearing the voices of the crew, Charlotte waved his hand.
"Boss! Where did you go? Do you know how worried we were when you were gone?"
Paul slid over to Charlotte, hugged his thigh and sobbed.
"Uh?"
Looking at Paul's exaggerated expression, Charlotte was a bit speechless.
Was it really necessary to be so exaggerated?
"Alright! I met an interesting person and got delayed. Let's go!"
Charlotte wouldn't admit that he was taken away as a slave. It would be too embarrassing.
"Okay, boss! But boss, you need to wait. Since you didn't come back for a long time, we sent Isaac to look for you. I'll fire a signal flare to call them back!"
Paul stood up and said to Charlotte.
"Yeah!"
Charlotte nodded. They weren't wrong.
Then Paul took out a bamboo tube from his body.
Whoosh!
A signal arrow.
Shot into the air.
Bang!
A gorgeous firework went up into the sky.
Hearing the explosion in the sky, Isaac, who was searching for Charlotte in Water 7, suddenly looked up.
"Let's go back! The boss has returned!"
Isaac instantly recognized that the firework in the sky was their way of communication.
Isaac then rushed back with a group of people along the same way.
Charlotte sat at the bow of the ship and waited for a while.
Before long, Isaac brought the people back.
"Boss!"
Isaac stepped onto the deck and immediately came to Charlotte and called out.
"Yeah!"
Charlotte gave a faint grunt.
"Let's set sail!"
Charlotte said calmly.
Then the crew raised the sails, and the ship slowly sailed out of the port.
Sitting at the bow of the ship, Charlotte seemed to sense something and suddenly turned his head to look in a certain direction.
There stood a figure in that direction, a man in a purple-red robe standing alone there.
It was The Red Count.
The Red Count stood on a rooftop, watching Charlotte as he sailed away, seeing him off.
Seeing The Red Count seeing him off, Charlotte smiled.
Then he waved at The Red Count.
Seeing this, The Red Count also slightly raised the corner of his mouth and watched with a smile as the ship slowly disappeared from sight.
...
Bang!
"What? Charlotte massacred people in Water 7 wantonly. What's going on?"
Kong slapped the table and asked into the Den Den Mushi.
"Admiral, that Charlotte was caught by the slave - hunting team when he was drunk. When he woke up, he found himself at the Water 7 auction house. Then he got extremely angry and almost killed everyone in the auction house. Only a few people survived."
Wells held the Den Den Mushi and reported cautiously.
Bang!
"Damn it! That damned Charlotte!"
Kong slapped the table and roared angrily.
"Admiral, we've lost track of Charlotte. We can't find him. His ship is no longer at the port where he originally docked. Now we've completely lost his trace. May I ask if you have any further instructions?"
Wells continued to ask.
When Wells asked this question, several people behind him all pricked up their ears to listen to the reply from the other end of the Den Den Mushi.
They deliberately refrained from investigating because the scene at the auction house had really terrified them, and this had instilled a sense of fear of Charlotte in them.
They didn't want to track Charlotte. So these people unified their statements and slacked off, just delaying until Charlotte disappeared.
Even Wells didn't know.
The mastermind behind all this was the colonel beside Wells.
Kong was stunned after hearing what Wells said.
There was a three - second silence in the air.
Bang!
Wells could clearly hear a loud noise from the Den Den Mushi, which made him very uneasy.
Not only Wells, especially the colonel behind him and his subordinates, all had cold sweat on their backs.
"Whew!"
Wells could hear the heavy breathing on the other side.
"Call the team back, then?"
Kong's tired and helpless voice sounded, and then he hung up the phone.
After hearing the words "come back", Wells let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed that Admiral Kong didn't blame him.
And the colonel and those Navy soldiers behind him also felt the burden lifted from their hearts.
Wells carefully put away the Den Den Mushi and then looked at the people behind him.
"Call the team back!"
After saying this, Wells led the way towards the port.
More than thirty Navy soldiers behind him followed closely.
At the Navy Headquarters.
Kong knocked on the table three times, and the sound could be heard throughout the Navy Headquarters.
Sengoku and Tsuru came together.
"What happened, Admiral?"
Standing in front of Kong, Tsuru asked.
Kong massaged his temples with a tired look.
"It's Charlotte. He massacred nearly six to seven hundred people at the Water 7 auction house. This is what Wells reported. Have a look."
Kong recorded what Wells had just reported.
Sengoku and Tsuru took a look.
Then they frowned deeply.
Because they saw two words: slave.
You know, the World Government has clearly prohibited slave trading.
But Water 7 is blatantly engaged in the slave - trading business.
This made them a bit angry, but they had no way to deal with it.
You know, on the Sabaody Archipelago, which is the closest to Marineford, slave trading happens every day.
The Navy's gotta turn a blind eye to these deals.
They can't intervene, and they don't have the ability to either.
Because the forces behind these deals are incredibly powerful, being backed by the Celestial Dragons.
The Navy Headquarters doesn't know where to start.
"I remember the mayor of Water 7 is a guy named Mayor Ho. Is he an official of the World Government?"
Tsuru has a great memory and immediately thought of Mayor Ho.
Kong nodded.
"Right! Mayor Ho is an official the World Government planted in Water 7 and takes orders from them."
When Sengoku heard this, he didn't wanna get involved.
If World Government officials are openly trading slaves, then what's the point of us getting involved?
Looking at Sengoku's expression, Kong sighed inwardly.
"Now that this matter involves a World Government official, it's not appropriate for the Navy to interfere. But we can still arrest the culprit, Charlotte. However, the people monitoring her reported that she's disappeared.
This means we can't find the mastermind, Charlotte. It's too hard to find a group of people in this vast ocean. We gotta give up the search and up the bounty instead. That way, we can give the World Government an explanation."