Monet looked at Caelan and the others, a cold light flashing in her eyes.
Caesar was destined to become Caelan's prisoner, and the production of artificial Devil Fruits was essentially over.
And this God Slayer seemed to have his sights set on her young master as well.
Although she didn't want to admit it, her young master truly wasn't a match for Caelan.
In that case, should she clear the way for the young master here?
"Should I use that move…?"
Monet's heart wavered as she muttered to herself.
As the user of the Logia-type Snow-Snow Fruit, she still had one final trump card left.
Unleashing her full elemental power in a massive explosion.
But could such an attack really kill Caelan?
She had no confidence at all.
This was a monstrous warrior on par with the Four Emperors. His true strength was unknown and immeasurable.
If Caelan wasn't killed, he would definitely retaliate against the Donquixote Family with even greater force.
At that moment, Caelan's calm voice cut through her thoughts: "There are a few people in the Donquixote Family that I rather like. I don't want to kill too many of them."
"But if they're all like you, then wiping them out wouldn't be a loss."
Cold sweat broke out on Monet's back. All her reckless thoughts instantly vanished.
She had no doubt that Caelan meant what he said.
If he wanted to, wiping out the Donquixote Family would be easy.
That was the confidence of someone standing at the top of the world.
"That's better."
Caelan pinched Monet's pale cheek with a smile.
Monet turned her face away in humiliation and fell silent.
"Caelan, are we going to deal with Doflamingo next? Like we did with Moria?"
Vivi asked curiously.
If they could bring Doflamingo over, they would have three Warlords of the Sea under their command.
"No, I just want to take over his territory."
Caelan shook his head and replied casually.
Doflamingo was extremely ambitious. Unlike Moria, who had been crushed by Kaido and fallen into despair, Doflamingo wouldn't be so easy to subdue.
It wasn't like Caelan could just stand in front of him and make him bow.
That wasn't going to happen.
Gion was furious and full of complaints toward Doflamingo.
She blamed him for losing her bet.
Even as a Warlord of the Sea, that guy still refused to behave. He collaborated with Caesar to develop artificial Devil Fruits and even made a deal with Kaido.
There was no way Dressrosa, under his rule, was as glamorous as it appeared.
She wanted to see for herself what kind of darkness was hiding behind that seemingly beautiful country of love, passion, and toys.
Monet listened silently to their discussion, but she was so angry she could explode.
These people didn't take her young master seriously at all.
If it weren't for Caelan's presence, she would've chosen to self-destruct by now.
Just then, Tashigi and Nami rushed back, visibly upset.
"Caelan, this guy locked up a bunch of children in the base and used them in some kind of twisted gigantification experiment!"
"We questioned them. They all said they were kidnapped or tricked into coming here!"
Nami pointed at Caesar, furious.
"Those kids are only five or six years old. We don't know what he fed them, but they suddenly went berserk and started fighting!"
"If we don't intervene, they'll probably kill each other!"
Tashigi added urgently.
They didn't want to hurt the children, so they simply locked them up for now.
After hearing the two women's report, Caelan understood.
Those children had been abducted from nearby islands by Caesar to be used as test subjects in human gigantification experiments.
The same experiment Caesar used to scam Big Mom out of research funds—one with zero chance of success.
The children would die before reaching adulthood.
Worse still, Caesar had fed them addictive, harmful drugs that made them mentally unstable.
This kind of man would be on death row in the modern world. The fact that some still tried to defend him was baffling.
Though Caelan wasn't a saint, he had no tolerance for someone like this. There was no way he'd accept Caesar as a subordinate.
A good ending for Caesar would be to cripple him, sell him off, then have his buyer tear him to shreds in anger.
Caesar felt Caelan's killing intent and panicked, terrified he would be executed on the spot.
He collapsed to his knees and began kowtowing frantically.
Being auctioned off by Caelan would be painful, but it was still better than death.
"Let's go check on the kids first."
Caelan gave Caesar an indifferent glance. Now wasn't the time to kill him.
Everyone escorted Caesar and Monet as they followed Nami and Tashigi.
Before long, they arrived at a room.
As the door opened, a group of giant children, each more than ten meters tall, charged toward them like zombies.
They were only five or six years old, but their bodies were massive.
As they ran together like tanks, the ground began to tremble.
Boom!
A surge of powerful Conqueror's Haki erupted from Caelan and swept over the frenzied children.
In an instant, the rampaging children stopped in their tracks and collapsed, falling into a deep sleep.
"Caesar, can you make an antidote?"
Caelan stared coldly at Caesar, murderous intent in his gaze.
If Caesar dared to say no, he'd lose a hand.
To auction this guy off, only his brain needed to be intact.
"N-no problem! I can do it! The lab is right next door. It won't take long to make!"
Caesar nodded repeatedly in fear and didn't dare delay.
"Do it now!"
Caelan snapped.
"Yes, yes, right away!"
Caesar scrambled into the nearby lab and started working under close watch.
Soon, the antidote was ready.
Caesar tested it on himself to prove it wasn't poisonous, then Caelan administered it to the children.
"What a scumbag!"
The women kicked Caesar a few times in fury to vent their anger.
Caesar curled up on the ground and didn't dare fight back.
He knew Caelan was watching, and if he made even one wrong move, he could be killed instantly.
The children who had been knocked unconscious by Caelan's Haki soon woke up. After thanking everyone, they stood quietly in place.
"What are we going to do with these kids?"
Nami frowned at the sight of the group before her.
They clearly couldn't care for so many children themselves.
There wasn't enough space on their ship, nor did they have the resources.
"Let the Marines handle it. This mess is partly their responsibility."
Caelan said calmly.
In the original events, the giant children were rescued by the G-5 Marines. Letting them handle it now made sense.
As for the undercover Marine, Vergo, he definitely wouldn't be able to sit still once he received this news. It was the perfect chance to deal with him.
"Gion, can you contact the nearest Marine branch?"
Caelan turned to Gion and asked.
"I'll try. If the Navy hasn't changed their communication frequencies, I should be able to reach them."
Gion nodded and pulled out a tunable Den Den Mushi.
After adjusting it to the G-5 frequency, she dialed in.
Fortunately, the Navy hadn't changed their frequency since she left.
Once the call connected, Gion sent out a distress report.
…
G-5 Marine Branch.
"What? Someone's conducting human experiments on Punk Hazard and has kidnapped a bunch of kids?!"
"Hold on—we're on our way immediately!"
The comms officer was stunned when he received the report.
Nearby, Smoker and Hina, who had been waiting for their next assignment, were alarmed by the news and immediately grew serious.
All three of them understood how grave the situation was and rushed to report it to G-5 Base Commander Vergo…
(To be continued.)
***
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