Chapter 166: Exercise
"To make an old man walk all the way here... how rude."
A calm, aged voice drifted in from outside the door.
It was not loud, yet it carried clearly into the room, as if the speaker had made sure Axel could hear every word.
Axel recognized the voice at once.
The Chief Judge.
He had not even entered yet, but his displeasure had arrived first. Clearly, the old man was unhappy that Axel had not personally gone to the port to greet him.
Axel did not care much.
He was not deliberately targeting the Chief Judge. More importantly, if his guess was correct, the man had come here today to cause trouble. Even if the Chief Judge was not the true mastermind behind it, Axel saw no reason to be overly accommodating.
Strictly speaking, the Chief Judge was not an evil man.
When Tom had been framed, Spandam had wanted to drag Franky and Iceburg down with him. It was this old man's last shred of compassion that gave them a chance to live.
But the same man had also presided over Enies Lobby's trials for years.
For the sake of the World Government's "justice," he had never defended a prisoner, even when that prisoner was innocent.
That was why Enies Lobby was known as a place of no return.
Those who went there were not necessarily criminals.
But once they arrived, they would become criminals.
Because every verdict ended the same way.
Guilty.
So Axel neither hated the old man nor liked him.
The door opened.
The Chief Judge entered the office, then raised a hand to stop the others from following. In the end, he only brought one person inside.
A familiar figure.
Rob Lucci.
His expression was as cold and arrogant as ever, dressed in his usual dark clothing, with that same indifferent air that made him seem less like a person and more like a weapon waiting to be drawn.
"Captain Axel," the Chief Judge said, "we meet again. I suppose we'll be troubling your base this time."
He placed emphasis on the words "your base."
The meaning was clear.
He was mocking Axel for refusing formal contact earlier, as though the Marine base were some precious private property too important to receive visitors from Enies Lobby.
Axel naturally caught the implication.
He nodded calmly and smiled.
"Last night, two thieving kittens were chased away by me. Now they've come again today. How shameless."
The Chief Judge's aged face stiffened.
Axel's words were aimed at both him and Lucci, but calling them "thieving kittens" sounded a bit too strange. For a moment, even the old man felt a surge of embarrassment and irritation.
Still, he did not linger on it.
They had indeed come after being refused. On that point, they were not exactly standing on firm ground.
"We came to properly discuss the previous matter."
The Chief Judge went straight to the point.
Lucci stood beside him, silently observing Axel's face. He seemed to be studying the smallest changes in Axel's expression, trying to draw some conclusion.
But he found nothing useful.
Axel looked perfectly natural. There was even a slight smile on his face.
Was it mockery? Was it amusement? Or the satisfaction of someone who had already tricked them once?
Lucci could not tell.
Axel spread his hands helplessly.
"I already told you. That thing was burned, and there are no backups. What else do you want me to do?"
Anyone unaware of the truth might have thought Axel was the one being wronged.
In reality, they were the ones who had suffered.
The Chief Judge had been forced by Axel's threat to release Tom. Lucci, meanwhile, had been injured during that brief clash disguised as a handshake.
"Since it has already been burned and there are no backups," the Chief Judge said patiently, "then a search should not be a problem. Consider it a formality. There is no need to be so guarded."
His tone was calm, steady, and convincing.
Most people would have found it reasonable.
Axel only smiled.
If things were really that simple, letting them search would not matter. The blueprints no longer existed in the world as physical documents.
But a search conducted by CP9 would never be simple.
Their methods and habits were obvious. They had been raised on blood, violence, coercion, and absolute obedience. When dealing with something as important as Pluton, how could their investigation possibly remain polite?
Put another way, if their positions were reversed...
If Axel were the World Government, and someone had once held the Pluton blueprints, then burned them and claimed there were no copies, would he believe it?
Of course not.
Even if the search turned up nothing, suspicion would not disappear. It would only become sharper.
If they found nothing, they might conclude the blueprints had been hidden somewhere else. If they found any trace at all, they might assume more backups existed. Either way, allowing the search meant giving them room to escalate.
By refusing, however, Axel could maintain uncertainty.
The World Government would suspect he might still possess something, but as long as he remained a Marine, they could comfort themselves with the thought that the possibility was still within their own camp.
The higher a person's position, the easier it was for them to overthink.
That was exactly what Axel needed.
He glanced at Tom, who sat on the sofa nearby, and let out a faint sigh.
If Tom had listened to him back then and burned the blueprints sooner, none of this would have happened. The Government would have searched and found nothing. They might have assumed their own intelligence was wrong and concluded the Pluton blueprints had vanished into history long ago.
But now, the blueprints had been confirmed.
And confirmation always invited trouble.
"Sorry," Axel said. "I refuse. I have a bad habit. I don't like people searching through my things. Even if what you're looking for doesn't exist, the answer is still no."
It was a clean rejection.
The Chief Judge frowned.
Even Lucci, who rarely showed emotion, narrowed his eyes slightly.
They had expected Axel to refuse.
They had not expected him to refuse so thoroughly.
But they had not come all this way just to retreat after one sentence.
The Chief Judge looked at Axel and said in a solemn voice, "The Marines stationed at Enies Lobby and the Marines of your base wish to conduct a joint exercise."
"An exercise?"
Axel was genuinely surprised.
The purpose of military exercises was usually to familiarize soldiers with combat. But in the current Great Pirate Era, Marines in most regions did not lack combat experience.
They could barely handle the pirates already roaming the seas.
Why would they suddenly need an exercise?
Wasn't this just looking for trouble?
Still, there had been precedents for such things before the Great Pirate Era. If Axel refused outright, it would be harder to justify.
His eyes shifted toward Lucci.
So that was their angle.
If they could not force a search directly, they would use a joint exercise to create contact, confusion, and perhaps even an "accident."
Axel's smile deepened.
"If you insist on holding an exercise," he said, "then I'll participate too."
It sounded like a warning.
The Chief Judge did not react.
Lucci did.
"Accidents can happen during exercises," Lucci said flatly.
Rob Lucci did not fear threats.
His justice did not bend. In his eyes, weak justice had no reason to exist. Weakness itself was a sin, and that applied to others as much as it applied to him.
He would not retreat from a challenge.
Axel looked at him for a moment.
Then the long-dormant heat in his blood stirred faintly.
The situation had taken an unexpected turn, but it was not a boring one.
"Then," Axel said with interest, "we'll see."
.....
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