"Very well done."
Vane fixed his gaze on the fake king. Behind him, Marine reinforcements were rushing over. Judging by the other party's rank, it should be a Rear Admiral personally leading the team—it was just unclear whether this Rear Admiral was from Headquarters or from the West Blue branch.
Headquarters or branch—just one word apart, yet the difference is huge.
Vane let Meowth climb onto his shoulder and looked at the fake king with icy eyes.
"How I wish I could be a good person… forget it, with my temperament getting a bounty is only a matter of time. Since you've made me this annoyed, I'll use your head as the foundation for my bounty poster."
As he spoke, Vane tightened his grip on the sword hilt, and the sharp spikes on the hilt immediately stabbed into his palm.
This was the cross sword Bonez had taken out of the treasury. Ordinary people would be afraid of this thing stabbing into their palm. Vane wasn't afraid—his pain sense was much lower than most people's and he could heal himself; a mere minor wound.
But after those sharp spikes really pierced his palm, Vane noticed something was off. It seemed to be like a living thing, feeding on his blood.
The two blades that were originally cold and dim were actually stained with a deep crimson.
Could this be a cursed sword?
In the pirate world, the strongest blades are divided into three tiers: Skillful Grade, Great Grade, and Supreme Grade.
Hawk Eyes Mihawk's black blade Yoru and Whitebeard Newgate's Murakumogiri both belong to the Supreme Grade.
But outside these three tiers, there is another kind of blade called a cursed blade. Cursed blades also exist among the graded blades—the Kitetsu series, for example—but Kitetsu is only rumored to bring misfortune to its wielder.
A cursed sword is the real deal, truly bizarre. I remember in a movie, Zoro's friend was controlled by a cursed sword.
Vane felt that the one in his hand was also a cursed sword. It might not control a person's mind, but it really does drink blood.
If it fell into the hands of an ordinary person, even if that person could endure the pain and forcibly grip the hilt to fight, they'd probably be drained by this cursed sword before long and end up weak all over.
Only someone like me can handle it.
"Pirate, put down your weapon. This is the king of a World Government affiliated nation. Don't resist anymore. If you surrender, you…"
The Marines were still trying to persuade him, but Vane swung his sword.
This time, the flying slash he cut out was dyed red, and its power was about thirty percent stronger than usual.
The fake king's face was full of terror, but he was too slow to do anything, let alone dodge.
Pshhk!
The flying slash went in from between his legs and came out from the top of his head. A layer of blood-ice formed over his body. If this blood-ice hadn't frozen his body and left him whole, he would have been split in two and died very ugly.
"Feels good!"
After killing this fake king, Vane immediately felt much more refreshed. Without caring how the people present reacted, he stepped into the air with Geppo, performed an aerial Soru in midair, and vanished from everyone's sight.
"The pirate killed the king, the pirate killed the king!"
"What's going on? You Marines are useless! You let those pirates kill the king!"
"It's fine if the king is dead. This country still has a prince who can represent the kingdom in joining the World Government."
The Rose Princess was not the king's only child. With the king dead, naturally the prince would take the throne. Originally, there had been debate at home about whether the Rose Princess or the prince should become king.
Now it was settled—the princess had even been saddled with the charge of treason, so only the prince could step up.
...
East of Rose Island, at the underworld docks, bursts of chaos broke out. Many civilians poured out from the underworld warehouses.
From the sky, stepping on Geppo, Vane saw the Black Panther, and also saw the underworld territory on fire.
"Why did you come here?"
According to the plan, the Black Panther's position should have been a bit further up.
Very soon, Vane saw Bonez and the others run out of a rather lavish building, carrying a whole lot of stuff.
"What's going on with you guys?"
While carrying their loads and hurrying along, Bonez and the others told Vane what had happened.
The Black Panther wasn't far from here. Along the way, Martha suggested using a Den Den Mushi to contact the Black Panther to sail over here, and they would take the opportunity to loot the underworld boss's vault to build up funds for going to sea.
Vane shook his head. "You were used by the princess as a gun… forget it, you did indeed grab quite a lot of money."
The princess's goal definitely wasn't to grab money; it was to free a group of citizens who might have been imprisoned at the underworld docks and were about to be sold as slaves.
She guessed right. There really was a batch of citizens at the docks about to be sold as slaves. The people Vane had just seen fleeing from above were exactly them.
Vane helped them hoist those black bundles that were even bigger than a person and ran toward the Black Panther. On the way, he saw Martha and Lena returning after freeing the citizens.
"Va—"
Martha wanted to say something, but Vane was faster than her. He dashed forward with Soru and, like shouldering luggage, hoisted Martha onto his other shoulder. In just a few moves, he flew a long distance through the air and landed steadily on the Black Panther.
"I've already killed the fake king, but the World Government has determined that you colluded with me, this pirate, to overthrow this country's regime. It won't be long before both your and my names and portraits appear on bounty posters."
"You lured my companions to the underworld and indirectly helped yourself save the citizens you care about. As payment, from now on you'll work on my ship to pay off your debt."
Martha hadn't expected things to turn out like this. Originally, the hero of the Thorn Rose Kingdom would become a wanted criminal on a world scale, and she herself—the princess who had a good reputation in the Thorn Rose Kingdom—had become someone who colluded with pirates.
And now she was forcibly brought onto the ship by Vane. Life really is unpredictable.
When Lena, Tant, and Bonez got on board, the Black Panther quickly raised its sails, lit up the Meowth emblem, and left Rose Island.
The Marines were still chasing pirates in the city and suppressing the unrest. They were quite powerless to pursue Vane and the others.
...
On the Black Panther, everyone already knew they were about to become wanted criminals. But they weren't panicked. In their view, no matter how bad things got, it would be no worse than being pirates like before.
Vane was far stronger than their previous captain, and he was also more generous as a person. Apart from training every day, life would only be better than before.
The Black Panther, in the captain's cabin.
Vane obtained an Articuno feather from a Devil Fruit. Obviously, this was a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit.
"Just in time, the energy in this feather of mine is about to be used up."
Vane made another pendant and hung the feather on his chest. The other feather, whose energy was almost exhausted, was also taken off and kept as a decoration.
Then he flipped through the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, wanting to find the introduction for this fruit.
His luck wasn't bad. He soon found the introduction to this fruit in the Paramecia section.
"Castle-Castle Fruit! So it's this one. No wonder that fat guy next to the fake king looked so familiar—it was Capone Bege."