The instant the Marine warship arrived at Dressrosa, Donquixote Doflamingo, the current king of Dressrosa, looked ice-cold and furious. He forced the faintest smile onto his face and walked toward the harbor.
"Fuffuffuffuffu…"
"May I ask why the great Admiral Jovian of the Marines has come to Dressrosa?"
Doflamingo stood at the harbor, staring at Jovian, who stood on the deck of the Marine battleship like a sculpture, radiating a terrifying aura.
"I go wherever the hell I want!"
"What's it got to do with you?"
Jovian smiled lightly at Doflamingo's question and answered with open disdain.
It was as if, in Jovian's eyes, Doflamingo did not matter at all.
"You…"
Doflamingo's expression changed sharply after hearing Jovian's words. He gritted his teeth in secret, but there was nothing he could do. Just as Jovian had said, the man was a Marine admiral. If he wanted to go somewhere, he had no reason to report it to a mere Warlord of the Sea.
"What do you mean, you?"
"Get out of the way."
"My people are entering your island."
Jovian gave Doflamingo an order.
"…"
Doflamingo stared at Jovian with a gloomy expression, as if thinking something over.
"Master, this bastard is way too arrogant…"
"Should we take him out for you?"
The officers under Doflamingo's command asked from beside him.
"No. This man isn't someone you can handle."
Doflamingo shook his head when he heard that. His subordinates were not weak, but sending them to deal with a Marine admiral would be no different from sending them to their deaths.
"Doflamingo, did you not hear my order?"
"Or are you afraid to let me onto your island?"
"I've heard a lot of nasty rumors about you. I heard you have ties to the underworld. I also heard…"
"I also heard you became king of this country through some shady methods."
Jovian stood on the dock and deliberately said this to Doflamingo.
"…"
Doflamingo's expression changed sharply after hearing Jovian's words. His mind raced as he wondered just how many of his secrets Jovian knew.
And more importantly, who exactly had told Jovian those secrets?
"Could it be Monet?"
"No, impossible. She would never betray me…"
"But…"
Doflamingo's mind kept turning. He began to suspect Monet, but subconsciously, he believed Monet would never betray him. Yet the matter of Rosinante still replayed before his eyes even now. Sometimes, he could only fall asleep at night by relying on alcohol. He longed to have family, but at the same time, he feared being betrayed by family all over again.
"No. Monet shouldn't have betrayed me. The one who betrayed me is probably… Caesar!"
Doflamingo's expression gradually calmed.
"Fuffuffuffuffu…"
"How could that be?"
"I'm one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. I would never collude with evil forces."
Doflamingo laughed loudly. He knew he could not show the slightest guilty conscience right now, so he used laughter to cover what he was feeling inside. In any case, he had already asked Kaido of the Beasts for help. As long as that man arrived, he would have a way out of this.
"Everyone, clear the dock. Let the admiral and the Marines disembark!"
Doflamingo shouted to the workers around him.
"Is that so?"
Just as Doflamingo dispersed the crowd, Jovian moved from the deck. In an instant, his figure vanished from the warship and appeared beside Doflamingo, one hand pressing down on Doflamingo's shoulder.
"Mm!?"
Doflamingo felt Jovian beside him, radiating an overwhelming presence. Countless beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and his body could not help trembling. For a moment, Doflamingo even thought this man beside him was about to attack.
Faced with a top-tier fighter, Doflamingo did not even have the confidence to stall him in battle.
It was like how Kaido, when first facing Luffy's Gear Fourth, had defeated him in one blow despite the fact that Gear Fourth had been powerful enough to suppress Doflamingo. In front of the truly top-tier fighters, Doflamingo's strength was nowhere near enough.
"What are you so scared of?"
"I'm not a monster. I'm not going to eat you."
"Ahahaha…"
Jovian laughed as he looked at Doflamingo, who had broken out in cold sweat from fear.
"I heard the people of Dressrosa are very passionate. Let me see that for myself."
As Jovian spoke, he left Doflamingo with only his stylish back.
"That bastard…"
Doflamingo stared at Jovian's back and clenched his teeth. The veins on his forehead kept bulging, and anger burned endlessly in his chest.
As Jovian walked off, squads of Marine soldiers also disembarked from the warship. Shirahoshi sat on a small cart. A Marine vice admiral keeping watch over Caesar, several commodores, and dozens of field-grade officers all marched past Doflamingo with their heads held high.
Monet was among that advancing group. She nodded to her Master, but did not dare communicate with him any further. Simply put, she was afraid Jovian might misunderstand.
"Monet…"
Doflamingo looked at the arrogant Marines, then looked at Monet, whom he had sent to work under Jovian, only to end up unable to tell whose subordinate she truly was anymore.
Doflamingo was enraged.
"Master, Monet…"
After Jovian's group had moved on, Doflamingo's subordinate stood beside him and asked.
"Put Monet's matter aside for now."
"The factory is the most important thing. Make sure everything I told you to do is done."
"Do not let that Marine admiral discover our secret."
"Otherwise…"
The look hidden behind Doflamingo's sunglasses was incomparably sharp. He looked at Jovian's back and felt enormous pressure.
"Master, do we really need to deal with this guy so carefully?"
"Even if he is an admiral, at the end of the day, he's still just a Marine!"
"As long as he's still a Marine, I don't believe he would dare act recklessly. After all, you are one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!"
A pirate beside Doflamingo muttered quietly.
"Hehehe…"
Doflamingo only laughed after hearing his underling's words.
"The Seven Warlords of the Sea are an organization established by the World Government to give the Marines an advantage in their confrontation with the Four Emperors. Now that the Four Emperors are gone, what use are the Seven Warlords?"
Doflamingo was an extremely intelligent man. In his view, the position of the Warlords was now very delicate. Perhaps the Marines had already started preparing to deal with the Warlords.
"Besides, a man who dares to act and a man who doesn't have completely different eyes."
Doflamingo had seen many things in Jovian's eyes. He knew Jovian was absolutely not someone who only talked. The man was definitely someone who dared to strike, someone who dared to break the order of the world. That was what made Doflamingo feel troubled and afraid.
"I hope I'm overthinking it."
Doflamingo shook his head. Against a monster like Jovian, direct confrontation had no chance of victory.
"A Marine admiral?"
"At a time like this, what exactly would an admiral come here for?"
Among Doflamingo's countless subordinates, a beautiful woman in a long dress watched Jovian's figure with a hint of curiosity.
"Dressrosa, huh…"
Jovian strode forward. His eyes swept over the countless women around him, but when it came to the girl in Dressrosa who stood out most in his memory, it was undoubtedly the pink-haired Rebecca.
However, when Jovian reached the small, remote house outside town and saw Rebecca, his face immediately filled with disdain.
"Ah!"
"I completely forgot!"
"Rebecca's age..."
Jovian wore the Marine Justice coat that symbolized the Marines and looked at Rebecca, who was diligently making a fire and cooking inside the house. He spoke with a look of disgust.
"You…"
"Who are you?"
"Are you a thief? Sorry, but there's nothing here for you to steal!"
As a member of the former royal bloodline hated by this country, Rebecca rarely had visitors at the house where she lived. So when she saw Jovian arrive, she subconsciously took him for something like a thief.
"A thief?"
"Strictly speaking, I'm the person who catches thieves."
Jovian explained after hearing Rebecca's words.
"The person who catches thieves?"
Rebecca froze slightly, but she did not easily believe Jovian's words. She gripped a piece of firewood and pointed it at Jovian.
"So you're one of Doflamingo's people?"
"Then you're even less welcome here!"
As Rebecca spoke, she gripped the wooden stick and attacked Jovian.
"Huh?"
Faced with Rebecca's sudden attack, Jovian dodged with a flash of movement, then reached out and grabbed her wrist. As he lifted her arm high, he twisted the hand holding the stick behind her back.
"Ah…"
The sudden pain made Rebecca drop the wooden stick. A few tears welled from her eyes as she groaned in pain, and the stick in her hand fell to the floor.
"Rebecca!"
As if hearing Rebecca's pained cry, a one-legged toy soldier carrying a bundle of firewood in his arms ran toward Jovian and Rebecca.
When the toy soldier reached Jovian, he looked at the man before him, who radiated an enormous pressure, and his mind trembled.
The toy soldier knew the moment he saw Jovian that this man was absolutely not one of Doflamingo's subordinates. He swore he had never seen such a powerful existence in his life. Jovian was practically a monster.
"Mr. Soldier?"
"Let me go! Let me go right now, you lackey of Doflamingo!"
Rebecca also noticed the toy soldier. She softly called out his name, then struggled even harder.
"I already told you, I'm not that idiot Doflamingo's subordinate…"
Jovian looked helplessly at Rebecca, whom he had caught. If this girl weren't a beauty in the making...
"Wait, Rebecca! You must have misunderstood something…"
"This gentleman doesn't look like one of that bastard Doflamingo's subordinates!"
At that moment, the toy soldier spoke. He walked up to Rebecca and tried to persuade her.
"Mm?"
Rebecca froze after hearing the toy soldier's words. At the same time, her body stopped struggling.
"Really?"
Rebecca asked Jovian behind her.
"Who do you think I am?"
"I'm one of the World Government's greatest military powers, an admiral of Marine Headquarters. How could I possibly become the subordinate of some mere Warlord of the Sea? Use your head!"
Jovian answered in irritation.
"Ah, this…"
"I, I'm sorry…"
Rebecca apologized cautiously. In the end, she was still a kindhearted young girl. After realizing she had misunderstood Jovian, she immediately apologized.
"I don't accept your apology."
After hearing Rebecca's words, Jovian spoke coldly.
"What?"
The toy soldier and Rebecca both seemed completely surprised that Jovian had rejected Rebecca's apology so bluntly. They stared at Jovian in disbelief.
"You're a Marine admiral!"
"Shouldn't you be less petty than this?"
The toy soldier and Rebecca spoke to Jovian in unison.
"That's just moral blackmail. I'm a petty person."
Unfortunately, Jovian did not fall for that at all. Flattery and putting him on a pedestal were useless.
"Then what must I do for you to forgive my rudeness today?"
Rebecca asked Jovian humbly.
"You seem pretty decent. Why don't you become my wife in four years?"
Jovian did not bother being polite and directly stated his idea for Rebecca.
"That's too direct…"
"You're way too direct from the start!"
"At least give me some time to process this."
"And we only met today. Isn't this a little inappropriate?"
Rebecca's face turned red. She took Jovian's words as an unusually blunt proposal for the future.
"No! Absolutely not…"
The toy soldier immediately shielded Rebecca behind him. Was this a joke? Rebecca was his daughter!
"Speaking of which, how many wives can one person have in this world?"
"If one person can only have one wife, then this might be a little troublesome."
Jovian muttered to himself while thinking about an important question.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Isn't it common sense that one person only has one wife?"
The toy soldier angrily shouted at the Marine admiral before him.
"Oh, right!"
Jovian ignored the toy soldier's words. After thinking for a while, he finally seemed to remember something.
"Rebecca, just like you said, we're not sure whether you and I would be suited for anything like that, so I have a good idea!"
Jovian thought of a brilliant plan.
"What idea?"
Rebecca looked at Jovian and asked in confusion.
"We Can Start by Being "Friends with some Benefits"! "
Jovian showed a bright smile and raised his thumb.
"Is that something a Marine admiral should say?"
The toy soldier looked at Jovian with the corner of his eye twitching. He was now questioning the Marines' recruitment standards.
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