After casually dealing with Sanjuan Wolf, Ortoren continued reading.
Third item.
Within the jurisdiction of the New World G-12 Marine Base, a rebellion had broken out in the Kingdom of Romerick.
The former commander of the national army, Avalo Pizarro, launched an armed coup, personally beheaded the king, and publicly declared himself the ruler of the Kingdom of Romerick.
At this point, everything was still fairly normal. Romerick was not a member nation of the World Government, so the World Government had no obligation to protect its royal family. If something went wrong, no one would step in.
Rebellions like this were common in such countries.
However, after Pizarro seized power, he rolled out a series of brutal and oppressive policies. The country's situation worsened by the day, people were pushed to the brink, and he soon earned the title "Tyrant King" among the populace.
Up to this stage, the matter still had nothing to do with the World Government or the Marines, including Ortoren's faction.
That changed when a G-12 Marine fleet docked in the Kingdom of Romerick for a routine resupply.
For reasons unknown, Pizarro seemed to lose his mind and ordered the entire G-12 fleet detained in port, claiming he suspected the Marines of secretly helping former members of the royal family escape the country.
When Ortoren read this, even he found it astonishing.
How did this guy dare?
Back when Ortoren had been a base commander, every kingdom within G-5's jurisdiction treated the G-5 Marines like ancestors, terrified of offending them and inviting trouble.
And this Pizarro actually dared to detain a fleet from the G-12 Marine Base?
At the same time, it indirectly proved something else.
Aside from G-5, the Marines had never truly held much deterrent power over the people of the New World.
G-12 was no different.
In the past, an incident like this might have been handled through talks. The G-12 base commander would negotiate, exchange terms, and eventually smooth things over.
But times had changed.
This was Ortoren's Marine era in the New World.
And the commander of G-12 was Vice Admiral Momonga.
Momonga had come straight out of G-5. He had followed Ortoren from nothing, helping build G-5 into what it was today. During his entire posting in the New World, he had always been the one bullying others. Who would dare bully him?
So when Momonga learned that someone had detained his fleet, he was utterly stunned.
Who did this?
Who had the nerve?
Did they not know that Admiral Benn was governing the New World now?
Did they not know that he, Momonga, was Admiral Benn's trusted right-hand man?
They dared provoke him?
The moment he received the report, Momonga immediately mobilized his forces, assembled the main fleet of the G-12 Marine Base, and set off for the Kingdom of Romerick.
Momonga had no intention of negotiating with this so-called Avalo Pizarro. As soon as the fleet arrived, he directly wiped out the entire national navy of Romerick.
After that, the G-12 Marines surrounded the kingdom and reclaimed both the detained fleet and the captured Marines.
And Momonga did not stop there.
Following public sentiment, he openly declared that the ruling class led by the Tyrant King Avalo Pizarro was illegitimate, announcing that Avalo Pizarro was nothing but a false king.
Pizarro himself proved stubborn to the end, choosing to fight Momonga head-on. After two days and one night of fierce battle, Vice Admiral Momonga, employing multiple abilities, finally suppressed and captured him.
At present, Avalo Pizarro was imprisoned in the G-12 Marine Base's detention facility. Momonga was even considering sending him to the Calm Belt to work in the mines.
Meanwhile, the G-12 Marines had taken over the Kingdom of Romerick entirely. From the remnants of the former royal family, they located the sixteenth-in-line successor and reinstated him as the new king.
Taking advantage of the situation, Momonga also began promoting the old "Marine Reserve" policy within Romerick, planning to shape the G-12 jurisdiction into something closer to G-5.
This was a system he knew inside and out.
He picked it up effortlessly.
The new king of Romerick had ascended the throne entirely with Momonga's backing, so there was no chance he would oppose Momonga's arrangements.
On top of that, the severity of the incident had drawn the attention of neighboring countries. After learning about the former king's tragic beheading, many of them began seeking Marine protection as well. Momonga was more than willing to take advantage of the situation and expand the policy's reach.
Simply put, Momonga was also building a new G-12 Marine force.
"One after another… they're all starting to show up, huh?"
As Ortoren read the internal bulletin, he muttered with a hint of emotion.
Maybe it was because the timing had come, or maybe for some other reason. Either way, over the past while, he kept seeing familiar faces and names from his memories through all kinds of channels.
People like the so-called Tyrant King Avalo Pizarro, and the earlier Sanjuan Wolf.
And it wasn't just them.
The next piece of news in the bulletin was about this year's Supernova, Heavy Drinker Vasco Shot, whose bounty stood at 246 million Belly.
The bulletin even included his wanted poster. As Ortoren looked it over, he felt the man appeared unusually young. When he checked the age listed below, he realized the kid was only twenty-one.
Only then did it hit him. In the original story, when this guy first appeared, he had been just thirty-eight.
As one of this year's Supernovas, Heavy Drinker was undeniably fierce. After entering the New World, he immediately clashed with the G-1 Marines. Strawberry was completely unable to deal with him. Not only did he fail to capture Heavy Drinker, he even lost two warships in the process.
After that, Heavy Drinker entered the territory of the Shichibukai, Crush-Strike Slekemind, openly declaring his intent to challenge him.
This kind of thing was hardly unusual. In fact, newcomers who entered the New World every year loved to challenge powerful figures.
Some chose legendary pirates like Whitebeard, Big Mom, or Kaidou. Others set their sights on the Shichibukai.
There were even those who preferred challenging G-5, challenging Ortoren himself.
But in all the years Ortoren had served as the G-5 base commander, and now after rising to the rank of Admiral, he had never actually seen a rookie pirate manage to challenge him face-to-face.
Usually, anyone who tried to challenge G-5 would be filtered out long before that, by people like Momonga, Isshō, or Tokikake.
Heavy Drinker had loudly announced his challenge against Shichibukai, Crush-Strike Slekemind.
Then, on the sixth day after entering Slekemind's territory, he was tracked down by the notoriously short-tempered Slekemind. The battle between them didn't even last a full night.
Heavy Drinker was nearly beaten into scrap by Slekemind. It was only thanks to his subordinates risking their lives to save him that he managed to escape.
At present, Strawberry at the G-1 base had already learned of the situation. He had formed a pursuit fleet and was hunting Heavy Drinker down, planning to capture him while he was still heavily wounded from his fight with Slekemind.
And Heavy Drinker wasn't the only one.
Two weeks earlier, the independent captain under the Whitebeard Pirates, the Ice Witch Whadybe, had also been challenged.
To be precise, she had been ambushed.
Unlike Heavy Drinker's high-profile declaration of war, the former Supernova from two years ago, Katarina Dippon, who had been lurking in the New World for two and a half years, chose a far quieter approach.
After hiding for so long, she launched a sneak attack on the Whitebeard Pirates' independent captain, the Ice Witch Whadybe.
But the attempt ended in failure.
Whadybe had once been a frontline combat officer aboard the Whitebeard Pirates before gradually forming her own crew. Her strength was formidable. She had followed the young Whitebeard through countless peak battles, including fierce clashes with the Roger Pirates.
Her combat experience was exceptionally rich. Even after being ambushed by the Crescent Moon Hunter, Katarina Dippon, on a certain island, she still managed to turn the tables, defeating and suppressing Dippon.
Whadybe imprisoned Dippon aboard her ship, originally planning to present her as a gift to her old man, Whitebeard, to see whether he would be willing to take in such a fairly capable new member.
However, midway through the journey, Katarina Dippon broke free of her restraints and disappeared without a trace.
As Ortoren continued reading the internal bulletin, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
It wasn't that things like this never happened in previous years, nor was it that this year's New World was especially chaotic.
In truth, the New World had always been like this.
It was just that, back then, Ortoren had no impression of people like these troublemakers. Now, reading about them felt strangely like seeing familiar faces in the newspaper.
That realization left Ortoren feeling quietly reflective.
...
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