As the war drums echoed through the camp again and again, soldiers came running out from barracks in every direction.
By the time the drums finally fell silent...
More than ten thousand men stood assembled before Rosinante.
Looking at the sea of soldiers in front of him, Commander Uchida and the others were secretly quite pleased.
They were simply waiting to see Rosinante embarrass himself in front of ten thousand troops.
But after seeing these soldiers...
To be honest, Rosinante was disappointed.
Yes, these were men who had been on the battlefield before.
There was a murderous edge to them, the lingering aura of men who had killed.
But one glance was enough to see the problem.
They stood in loose, crooked clusters, slouching, uneven, and utterly lacking in discipline.
There was no order.
No structure.
No sense of military bearing.
To be honest...
They might not even compare to the pirates of the Gray Kingdom.
The only redeeming quality was in their eyes.
In those eyes, there was a cold indifference toward life and death.
These were indeed veterans.
Men who had seen blood.
Men who had grown used to corpses and killing.
Only those who had truly gone to war and personally taken lives could carry such a look.
If they were properly trained...
Then perhaps they could become a truly battle-hardened army.
"Please, General, address the troops," one of the commanders said as he stepped onto the command platform.
After speaking, he deliberately moved aside and gave up the central position on the platform, then stood off to one side with the expression of someone waiting to watch a good show.
But who was Rosinante?
He was an emperor of the seas.
A man who had once stood as the strongest in the One Piece world.
A man who had commanded hundreds of thousands of Gray Kingdom pirates.
Did they really think something as small as this could make a fool of him?
For Rosinante...
This was barely even worth calling a scene.
He slowly stepped onto the command platform.
And after he stood at its center...
He did not speak.
Not a single word.
He simply looked down at the soldiers below.
The commanders began to smirk.
In their minds, Rosinante had clearly been intimidated by the momentum of ten thousand soldiers and was too overwhelmed to even open his mouth.
But then...
They suddenly realized something was changing among the troops below.
Under Rosinante's silent gaze, the soldiers who had originally been standing loosely and lazily began, one by one, to straighten their backs.
Their expressions gradually grew serious.
Because under Rosinante's gaze...
His presence had begun to slowly overwhelm the collective aura formed by more than ten thousand soldiers.
Under the pressure of Rosinante's spirit, every soldier was forced to stand properly.
No one dared remain as carefree and undisciplined as before.
"Do you know why I didn't speak just now?" Rosinante finally said.
The soldiers below frowned in confusion.
"Because I'm disappointed in you."
His voice was calm.
But every word struck like a hammer.
"As soldiers of the Saito household, men tasked with protecting this residence, you should stand proud and imposing. But what do I see? Slackness. Carelessness. No discipline whatsoever. Not even the slightest appearance of an army. To be honest... even a pack of bandits might look better than you."
The moment those words landed, anger exploded across the faces of the soldiers.
Yet not one of them dared to speak back.
They had been thoroughly suppressed by Rosinante's presence.
Although his Conqueror's Haki no longer had the power to knock people unconscious, its spiritual intimidation still remained.
And that terrifying mental pressure was not something ordinary soldiers could resist.
Under the suppression of that overwhelming aura, coupled with Rosinante's status as the General of the Saito household...
None of them dared openly defy him.
But even so...
After hearing his words, each and every one of them looked furious.
Because they were soldiers.
They were men.
And they had their own pride.
To be told that they were worse than bandits...
That was a humiliation they found hard to swallow.
"Originally, since this is our first meeting, I should have said something pleasant," Rosinante continued. "But after seeing all of you, I no longer dare say those pleasant things."
He paused.
"Because I'm afraid of dying."