Chapter 167: Gains and Costs
A strange piece of news spread through the base at astonishing speed.
The Marines stationed at San Faldo were going to hold a combat exercise with the Marines from Enies Lobby.
At first, most people thought it was a rumor.
An exercise? In this era?
What was the point?
If they wanted to compare strength, they could simply count which side had captured pirates with higher bounties. That would be faster, cleaner, and far less troublesome. Holding a formal exercise now sounded less like military training and more like an excuse to waste time.
But as the base began mobilizing and the Marines from Enies Lobby arrived one after another, the rumor stopped being a rumor.
It was real.
The entire base immediately became restless.
The Marines on both sides had never been particularly friendly. San Faldo's troops had long been looked down on by Enies Lobby's soldiers, and resentment had built up over time. Now that an "exercise" had been announced, everyone understood what it really meant.
Officially, it was training.
In practice, it was a fight.
Since it was still called an exercise, steel blades were replaced with wooden weapons, and live ammunition was swapped out for rubber bullets. Casualties were to be avoided as much as possible.
At least, that was the excuse on paper.
Inside the office, Tom looked at Axel and asked, "Is this really fine?"
Axel paused for a moment, swallowed the food in his mouth, and looked at him blankly.
"What else can we do? There's no better choice than agreeing."
"You can't tell they have another motive?"
"I can." Axel's tone was calm. "The exercise is just an excuse. This is their first proper attempt to search the Marine base legally."
That was exactly what it was.
By setting the exercise location at the base, CP9 would gain an official reason to move around freely. Once inside, they could search, probe, attack, or create chaos without immediately drawing suspicion.
"And you still agreed?" Tom asked.
Based on Axel's earlier behavior, he should have refused any kind of search completely. Yet now, even if indirectly, he had allowed it.
"Yes," Axel said naturally. "What's coming will come. Constantly guarding against it doesn't help much."
"It's impressive that you can stay so calm."
Tom could not help saying it.
They were about to face a dangerous test, perhaps even a life-or-death one. Even he, someone who could laugh with his head held high in most situations, found it difficult to remain completely relaxed.
But Axel was sitting there as if nothing had happened, processing documents with one hand while secretly stuffing food into his mouth with the other.
Tom's eyes drifted toward the food stains on the papers.
He could only imagine what the officers would look like if they saw that.
Axel wiped his fingers and said, "Borrowing your words, a real man should stand tall. There's nothing that can't be crossed."
"Yahahaha! That's right. A real man should stand tall!" Tom laughed heartily, then pointed at the food on Axel's desk. "In that case, share some of that with me."
"Ugly rejection."
Tom blinked. "What does ugly rejection mean?"
He had heard of polite refusals, firm refusals, excuses, evasions, and every other sort of refusal.
This was the first time he had heard of an ugly one.
"It means you're ugly, so I refuse."
"..."
Tom froze.
By human standards, his appearance probably was ugly. He knew that much. But what did that have to do with food?
In the end, he decided not to ask.
This kid often said things that made no sense. Asking only made him more confused.
A moment later, the office door was pushed open.
A group of Marines entered together. Judging by their uniforms, they were the officers of the base.
"Captain Axel," one of them said, "please explain what is going on with this exercise. Why did this suddenly happen? Also, after those pirates were dealt with, there should have been bodies, right? Otherwise, how are we supposed to account for our fallen comrades?"
They had wanted to ask these questions for the past two days.
But Axel's usual methods were too forceful, and no one had dared come alone. Only after gathering most of the officers did they finally find the courage to confront him together.
The law did not punish the crowd.
At least, that was what they hoped.
Tom silently watched the scene unfold from the side. His expression made it obvious he was enjoying the show. He even took a few steps back, drawing a clear line between himself and the officers.
Axel gave him a meaningful look.
Traitor.
Then he turned back to his subordinates.
"The Marine warship was attacked by pirates," Axel said. "After that, the pirates were destroyed by an organization under the World Government. Their bodies were thrown into the sea."
That was the explanation he gave them.
He could not say the truth outright.
He could not tell them the Marines had actually been killed by people from the World Government.
Harsh as it was, that was reality.
And even if Axel forced himself to say it, very few of his subordinates would believe him. Instead, it would drag the matter into the open. With his current strength, he could not handle the consequences of that.
To cover up the truth, the World Government might even go so far as to wipe out the entire base and blame the destruction on pirates.
It would not be the first time such a thing had happened in this world.
His explanation did not fully satisfy everyone, but another matter was just as important.
"Then what about the exercise?" another officer asked. "What is that about?"
"We had a small conflict with the people from Enies Lobby," Axel said. "Who knew they'd bring people right to our door?"
With that, Axel confirmed the rumors spreading through the base.
The officers thought back to Axel's usual unruly behavior.
It made sense.
If not for his rank and background, someone with his personality would offend people everywhere he went. And since San Faldo and Enies Lobby had never been on good terms, this exercise suddenly happening was not hard to understand.
"When is the exercise?"
"The agreed time was two days from now."
"You mean..."
Everyone froze.
Then they remembered that the Judicial Ship had visited two days ago.
An answer formed in their minds.
"That's right," Axel said with an expression that practically said congratulations, you guessed correctly. "It's today."
Those words snapped the room awake like a lit fuse.
The officers who had been ready to continue questioning him no longer cared about explanations. They immediately turned and rushed back the way they came, moving like ghosts racing toward reincarnation. Not one of them remembered basic etiquette.
Once they were gone, the office quieted down again.
Axel let out a slow breath.
"It's not your fault," Tom said from the side.
Axel looked up.
Tom had walked over at some point.
"In this world," Axel asked softly, almost as if speaking to the air, "are gains and costs always proportional?"
He had saved Tom.
But because of that, others had died.
The Marines aboard that patrol ship had been dragged into disaster because of him. Under normal circumstances, why would CP9 attack them?
In a way, he had caused it.
That reality sat heavy in his chest.
It was far from the justice he had always believed in, yet he had still chosen this path.
Tom fell silent.
Axel's words made him think too.
Originally, he had kept the Pluton blueprints because he believed they were necessary. If Pluton ever appeared, only another Pluton could restrain it. The blueprints were also the life's work of countless shipwrights.
But if he had listened to Axel from the start and burned them, none of this would have happened.
So many people would not have died because of him.
"This is my fault," Tom said quietly. "If I had died..."
Axel cut him off.
"I already saved you. Thinking about that now won't change anything."
He leaned back in his chair.
"I've arranged double compensation for the families of the fallen Marines. For now, that's all we can do."
There was another sentence Axel did not say.
Strength was the principle that ruled this world.
Every gain and every cost was built on it.
If he had enough strength, why would he need to worry about the World Government holding him accountable?
He could hold them accountable instead.
That thought settled in him, quiet and firm.
His resolve to become stronger hardened once more.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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