To Roy's surprise.
After carrying his precious "Source of Life" back to his quarters, he actually did receive a message just as Hina had said—Vice Admiral Bilos wanted to see him.
When Roy curiously arrived at Vice Admiral Bilos's office, he saw that the usually irreverent old Vice Admiral was, for once, wearing a rare expression of seriousness as he stared at something on his desk.
"Kid Roy, you're back."
"Yes. I haven't had the chance to report in yet."
Roy nodded. "Sorry—I wasn't able to find any trace of the attacker at Master Port."
He spoke these words as a matter of course—after all, he himself had led the search for "Rooster" at Master Port. If he had found anything, that would have been truly strange.
"That's fine. Not finding anything might actually be a good thing."
Vice Admiral Bilos waved his hand. "This incident turned out to be far more complicated than we originally estimated."
"Oh?"
Roy pretended to be curious. "What happened?"
"Sit down first. This is also one of the reasons I called you here."
Bilos said seriously, "You and your subordinates were directly involved in this matter, so I must tell you some of the information we've uncovered so far."
"Oh?"
Roy looked even more curious. "Go on."
"First, about the attacker who seized the Celestial Tribute."
As he spoke, Vice Admiral Bilos picked up the item on his desk and showed it to Roy.
And then Roy saw it.
"A bounty poster?"
It was a wanted poster.
Unusually, there was no photograph in the center, only a drawn portrait: a tall figure with dragon scales around the neck, wearing a rooster mask.
And written boldly on the poster were the words:
WANTED
DEAD OR ALIVE
ROOSTER
Bounty: 170,000,000 Berries
"One hundred and seventy million Berries?"
The number genuinely shocked Roy.
After all, this was a first bounty.
Even among the current Four Emperors, two of them—Big Mom and Kaido—had only had initial bounties of 50 million and 70 million Berries respectively.
One hundred and seventy million was truly astonishing.
"There's no helping it."
Vice Admiral Bilos shook his head. "This man stole an enormous amount of Celestial Tribute. The pressure from the World Government and the Kingdom of Nismael is tremendous."
He sighed. "Moreover, according to Lanley—who has already regained consciousness—the opponent possessed overwhelmingly superior strength and exhibited traits of a Zoan-type Devil Fruit, capable of transforming into an extremely large ancient Quetzalcoatlus."
"Additionally, he believes the opponent may be a Mythical Zoan user—because during the battle, the opponent displayed abilities similar to elemental transformation."
"Fortunately, the attacker seemed to underestimate him. Although he pierced Lanley's abdomen with a powerful attack, he failed to kill him. That's how we were able to obtain so much information, including the opponent's name—''Yǒu Jī' (Rooster).'"
He pronounced the two somewhat awkward characters aloud.
"Headquarters is currently investigating, but we haven't yet found any Devil Fruit matching these characteristics."
"But if Lanley's assessment is correct, and this man truly possesses a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, then this bounty is well deserved based on the fruit alone."
Hearing this, Roy found the figure much more reasonable.
But then he hesitated slightly and asked, "A Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit? Isn't that the rarest and most powerful type? And 'Rooster'—that doesn't sound like a real name."
"That's because it isn't a real name!"
Vice Admiral Bilos's expression grew even heavier after hearing this.
"This is also the second piece of information I wanted to tell you."
"The prisoner you brought back from Master Port—after being interrogated by Headquarters—confessed to many astonishing things."
"Among them was an organization."
At this, a look of surprise flashed across Roy's eyes.
"An organization?"
"Yes. According to his account, he belongs to an organization—only as a peripheral member."
"So he doesn't know the full details. All he knows is that the organization is called—'The Twelve Zodiac Signs.'"
Vice Admiral Bilos pronounced those four words slowly and deliberately.
"According to him, this organization has twelve high-ranking executives and one supreme leader."
"And 'Rooster' is the codename of one of those twelve executives."
Roy sprang to his feet in shock, shouting, "What!? Something like that actually exists!?"
Yet even as he put on an Oscar-worthy performance, Roy was thinking to himself:
Alan really is reliable.
That's right.
Everything Vice Admiral Bilos was saying came as no surprise to Roy at all.
The reason was simple.
All of this had been arranged by Roy himself.
The two things he had previously instructed Alan to do were:
First—to have a clone sail the Nismael Kingdom's royal merchant ship out of the harbor at G-51 Branch.
Second—to tell the Marines exactly the "intelligence" Vice Admiral Bilos was now relaying.
As for why, the reason was equally simple.
Roy understood very clearly: in order to obtain enough Berries, he would inevitably have to rely on the power of the "Slice-Slice Fruit" to continuously create clone fragments and earn money through various means.
This Celestial Tribute heist was only the first time—it would definitely not be the last.
And wherever something exists, it leaves traces.
So, in order to ensure that his true self would not be discovered,
what Roy needed to do was muddy the waters.
The murkier the water, the easier it would be for him to hide and fish unnoticed.
Thus, he had already formed a plan.
He would fabricate an organization—one that did not truly exist, yet was destined to rise to prominence in the future: a "powerful organization."
He would divert the attention of the Marines—and even the World Government—entirely onto this organization, thereby concealing his own existence.
Compared to powerful, nameless individuals popping up one after another,
a "mysterious organization" that had supposedly existed in secret for a long time and was plotting some unknown scheme was far more likely to keep the World Government fully occupied.
This Celestial Tribute robbery was his first experiment.
Allowing that Lieutenant Commander to escape on Arasite Island—and sparing Commodore Lanley—were both deliberate actions meant to pass this information on to the Marines.
Judging from the size of the bounty and Vice Admiral Bilos's attitude at this moment, his plan had clearly been a great success.
And at this point, Vice Admiral Bilos continued speaking.
"The Criminal Investigation Division is currently gathering intelligence related to that organization, but so far they've found nothing."
He spoke in a grave tone.
"So they want you to submit a detailed report on your search operations at Master Port. At the same time, I've been instructed to remind you—"
He looked at Roy seriously.
"The man named Alan will be imprisoned on the fifth level of Impel Down. From now on, you are not to mention anything related to him."
"Until the existence of the organization known as 'The Twelve Zodiac Signs' is confirmed, all intelligence related to this matter will be classified."
"Yes, sir!"
Naturally, Roy had no objections.
He wasn't surprised by the Marines' judgment.
Relying on 'Rooster' alone was obviously not enough to truly convince the Marines that the organization known as The Twelve Zodiac Signs existed.
And for that, he had already prepared his next move.
However, what Roy hadn't expected was this—
Just when he thought everything had settled, Vice Admiral Bilos suddenly changed the subject.
"Besides that, there are two more things I need to tell you."
"The first concerns your mission this time—I've already reported your merits to Fleet Admiral Sengoku on your behalf."
As he spoke, he took an item out from his pocket.
Roy recognized it at once.
Roy immediately recognized it as the epaulet reserved for officer ranks.
"Headquarters believes that your decision to voluntarily serve as temporary commander at Master Port was exceptionally brave. The intelligence provided by the criminal you escorted back was also extremely important—so, effective today…"
"You are now—Lieutenant Commander Roy."