Vice Admiral Doberman ultimately failed to extract any information from William and had no choice but to leave the cell with his two subordinates.
Since the pirate assembly at Arlong Park, the pirates of the East Blue had launched widespread attacks. The larger groups numbered over a hundred, while the smaller ones had only a few dozen members. Each ship carried several Buggy Balls and M.H.5 poison gas bombs. Upon encountering Marine bases, they would first bombard the fortifications with Buggy Balls, then release M.H.5 to incapacitate personnel. If the results were favorable, they would launch a full assault; otherwise, they would retreat immediately. This strategy of surprise attacks initially inflicted significant damage on Marine bases across the East Blue, causing heavy casualties among officers and soldiers.
In Kalmar City, where the temporary Marine Headquarters command center was located, Den Den Mushi never stopped ringing, and pleas for reinforcements piled up like snowflakes.
Led by Monkey D. Garp, the four Vice Admirals dispatched from Marine Headquarters found themselves overwhelmed.
Though individually formidable, the current situation left them feeling as though they were punching cotton—their immense strength finding no effective outlet against such elusive targets.
The pirate crews rampaging across the East Blue behaved like scurrying rats. Individually weak enough to be crushed with ease, when faced with Headquarters elites like Garp, they stood no chance of survival. However, even rats know to avoid stronger predators—a survival instinct these pirates had mastered.
The threat of rats lies in their ability to spread disease, and similarly, these pirates who destroyed Marine bases before vanishing into the vast sea were spreading a different kind of contagion: panic.
Although Sherlock and the others had strictly forbidden these pirates from harming civilians and insisted that supplies be purchased fairly under William's banner, the mere news of their continuous assaults on Marine bases was enough to unsettle any ruler. Officials from various kingdoms, aware that Headquarters elites were stationed in Kalmar City, directed their desperate pleas there as well.
It seemed that overnight, the East Blue, once hailed by the Marines as a "model of peace," had torn away its facade of tranquility.
One particular aspect deeply troubled Garp and his fellow Vice Admirals. While their apparent victory at Kalmar City Port had resulted in William's imprisonment and the subsequent dismantling of his "criminal enterprises"—weapons laboratories, the National Security Bureau, Royal Guard Headquarters, shipyards, and the Four Seas Trading Company—they recognized their success was largely superficial.
The ease of their operations stemmed from the fact that key personnel, along with significant weaponry, resources, and documents, had been evacuated beforehand. Most of those captured were merely inconsequential figures.
While Garp and his colleagues dismissed these minor players, the disappearance of a substantial armed force, particularly the Royal Guard, remained deeply concerning. Despite extensive searches throughout the kingdom and investigations by Marine branches across the East Blue, no trace of these armed forces or their resources had been found.
It was as if this conspicuous military presence had simply vanished into thin air. The situation even led Headquarters commanders to suspect that Marine officers in the East Blue were more deeply entangled with William than initially thought—perhaps to the point of deliberately sabotaging their own efforts out of loyalty to him.
This suspicion began to ease only after the recent wave of attacks, during which many local Marine officers lost their lives in combat.
Vice Admiral Strawberry had long suspected that Morgan Group's remaining operatives had adopted a strategy of fragmentation, dispersing into smaller, less noticeable units to avoid detection. The recent events seemed to confirm his theory: these operatives had likely scattered to coordinate with pirate crews, compelling them to harass strategic targets at critical moments.
This explanation appeared to fit the current situation.
Neither Garp, Doberman, Strawberry, nor Vice Admiral Dalmatian believed William could have inspired such loyalty among East Blue pirates after only a few years of operation. Pirates, notorious for their self-preservation and avarice, would only risk their lives for substantial profit or under extreme duress.
In this assessment, Garp and the others were correct. However, they mistakenly assumed the pirates' unprecedented boldness in attacking Marine bases stemmed from coercion—someone metaphorically holding a gun to their heads. In reality, these pirates were simply driven by desperation to reclaim their hard-earned wealth, which had been effectively seized by a ruthless financial manipulator.
The attacks that so vexed Garp and his colleagues were, in essence, the blood-soaked struggle of pirates trying to recover their stolen savings.
Garp and Dalmatian gradually came to accept Strawberry's theory, but Doberman sensed something still amiss. Headquarters personnel were practically blind in the East Blue, with minimal understanding of the region's complexities. Apart from their initial decapitation strike to capture William, most of their actions had been reactive, leaving them frustrated by their inability to effectively deploy their strength. The heavy casualties among local Marines only intensified Doberman's anger, prompting his earlier confrontation with William.
The temporary Marine Headquarters in Kalmar City occupied William's former estate. Upon returning, Doberman was immediately informed by a Marine soldier that his presence was required in the conference room.
When Doberman entered, he found the other three Vice Admirals already seated, their expressions uniformly grave. Even the typically jovial Garp appeared uncharacteristically somber.
"We've just received news," Dalmatian announced in a leaden voice. "The capital of the Faraise Kingdom has been attacked by pirates. The royal palace was looted and burned to the ground, the royal family slaughtered, and even King Robert has been killed."
Doberman's face darkened. "Who's responsible? Morgan William's men?"
"The remnants of the Buggy Pirates and Arlong Pirates, working in concert," Dalmatian replied. "Whether Morgan William orchestrated this from behind the scenes remains unclear."
"A kingdom's capital attacked, its palace reduced to ashes, and we're only hearing about it now?" Doberman snapped, though he immediately recognized the futility of his outburst.
As expected, the other Vice Admirals responded with resigned expressions.
Even Headquarters commanders had been thrown into disarray by the East Blue pirates' guerrilla tactics. How could frontline base commanders, under constant assault themselves, be expected to fulfill their broader duties? After all, both the Buggy Pirates and Arlong Pirates had once ranked among the most notorious criminal organizations in the East Blue.
"If this were William's doing, it would almost be a relief," Strawberry ventured hesitantly. "But if it wasn't, it could mean..."
"That the situation in the East Blue has deteriorated beyond repair," Garp concluded calmly, leaning back in his chair with a cup of hot tea in hand. His blunt assessment left no room for doubt.
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