Higuma drew a deep breath. He rehearsed the "stomachache" routine in his head, and his expression immediately twisted a little.
He already had a naturally vicious-looking face. With KING's "strongest man" aura layered on top, that sudden distortion made him look even more savage and frightening.
Sitting across from him, Dragon's heart jolted.
"Mr. Higuma's complexion looks pretty bad… Is he angry?"
Dragon's expression shifted slightly, and he quickly spoke up.
"Mr. Higuma, I apologize for our earlier recklessness."
"But this time, we truly came with goodwill."
As he finished, Dragon pulled a paper document from his coat and spread it on the table.
"This is a confidential report our Revolutionary Army intelligence network received in the Goa Kingdom's capital…"
Higuma scanned it a few times, and his eyes widened.
His "Bandit King Higuma" title had actually alarmed the Goa Kingdom?
And it didn't stop there—apparently even the Navy had been stirred, planning a suppression campaign against the Higuma Bandit Crew.
Dragon explained at the same time.
"Normally, bandits within the island are an internal matter for the Goa Kingdom, and it's inconvenient for the Navy to interfere."
"But the timing of your actions, Mr. Higuma, was… unusually perfect."
"You happened to move right when the Celestial Dragons are about to visit. Because of that, the Goa Kingdom had no choice but to take it seriously."
"According to our intel, the Goa Kingdom proactively submitted a request to the World Government, asking the Navy to dispatch forces to assist…"
After saying all that, Dragon stared straight at Higuma, carefully watching for any change in expression.
This matter concerned the Revolutionary Army as well.
Some suspected Higuma had been too impulsive and high-profile, drawing the Navy down on himself.
But Dragon personally believed Higuma was deep and calculating—that he had some other scheme, deliberately provoking the Goa Kingdom and the Navy into paying attention.
Which was the truth? Dragon intended to judge it with his own eyes.
Yet the man before him remained completely composed, his face showing no clear ripple of emotion.
"The Navy… and a Celestial Dragon visit?"
Higuma murmured.
And he suddenly remembered that, in the original story, there really had been a plotline like this.
"Yeah. That tracks…"
Higuma spoke in a flat tone. "The Celestial Dragons arrive, so they decide to make a move on me—the so-called Bandit King—then burn down Gray Terminal as well, huh? A full-on purification plan."
"That way, the most beautiful nation in the East Blue will have no blemishes left. No trash mountain. No bandits."
Thinking of the inferno from the original plot, Higuma let out a soft sigh.
"Wait… burn down Gray Terminal? Mr. Higuma—are you sure about that?"
Dragon and the others' faces shifted, and they pressed him at once.
"You didn't know?"
Higuma didn't think too hard about it. He just pulled from his memory of the original plot and spoke.
"The Goa Kingdom's royals are in bed with the Bluesjam Pirates out of the pirate harbor. They promised Bluesjam he'd be granted noble status and allowed into the capital, and they convinced him to act—planning to burn down Gray Terminal…"
"That way, the Goa Kingdom can pin the cause of the fire on pirates and keep its own hands clean…"
"But those arrogant nobles—how could they actually let some pirates become nobles and stand beside them? Afterward they'll definitely turn on them, slam the gates in their faces, and ideally make sure they die in the fire too."
Higuma ran through the plot roughly as he remembered it.
Across from him, Dragon and the others grew steadily more solemn.
Not only because of the Goa Kingdom nobles' cruelty, but because of the man sitting in front of them.
The Revolutionary Army prided itself on intelligence capabilities, with an astonishing network across the Four Blues.
And yet they had known nothing about this Goa Kingdom conspiracy.
In fact, that was what made sense.
Gray Terminal wasn't just a dump—it was also a slum packed with people.
If a massive fire broke out, it would be a catastrophe big enough to shock the world.
If news leaked that the Goa Kingdom royals had colluded with pirates, the kingdom's reputation would collapse. A popular uprising wouldn't even be impossible.
A matter this huge—if Bluesjam had any brains, he'd never broadcast it everywhere.
So the question was—
If both sides were being careful and wouldn't casually leak the plan…
How did Higuma know?
From how Higuma described it, it wasn't just "knowing." It was complete mastery.
The cause, the specifics of both sides' plan, even the part about the nobles reneging afterward—he laid it all out smoothly, point by point.
It was coherent, convincing, and backed by logic.
It didn't look like fabricated intel at all.
Dragon exchanged a look with Ivankov and the others, feeling a little rattled.
This was major intelligence—yet the Revolutionary Army's vaunted intelligence system had been completely blind to it.
As that sank in, their gaze toward Higuma gained a new weight.
"So this is the result of Bandit King Higuma hiding in the Goa Kingdom for years… quietly training."
"Maybe, in these lawless mountains, Higuma has already woven an enormous intelligence web. Other regions aside—in the Goa Kingdom, his intel network may be even stronger than ours."
"Most frightening of all—he even considered that the Goa Kingdom nobles would deceive the pirates afterward and refuse them entry."
"Higuma's understanding of the Goa Kingdom's nobles and royal family is far deeper than we imagined."
"He doesn't just have an insider in the Navy. He probably has someone close to the Goa Kingdom's upper ranks too. Otherwise, there's no way he'd get something this secret."
Thinking that far, Dragon took Higuma even more seriously—while also feeling a trace of awkwardness.
They'd come to make contact with Higuma, and to offer intel on the Goa Kingdom's movements as a gesture of goodwill, laying groundwork for potential cooperation later.
But now…
Had they done something unnecessary?
If Higuma truly had an intelligence network this terrifying, he likely already knew about "the Goa Kingdom and Navy planning to suppress the Higuma Bandit Crew."
The Revolutionary Army had come in goodwill to deliver important intel…
Only for him to possibly already have it—and then turn around and hand them even more important intel in return.
The cabin fell quiet again, the atmosphere growing heavy.
Dragon and the others sank into thought, while Higuma slid into a gloomy silence, saying nothing.
Hearing that the Navy was coming to suppress him, Higuma felt like his whole world had gone gray.
His original plan had been simple: while Garp was in Foosha Village, he'd keep his head down, live quietly, and be an unremarkable shut-in.
But now that the Navy had noticed him, "keeping it low-key" clearly wasn't an option anymore.
Maybe it wouldn't be long before the title "Bandit King"—the Goa Kingdom's number one wanted man—made its way to Garp's ears.
"Wait… the Navy… Garp?"
At that moment, a terrifying suspicion crawled into Higuma's mind…
(End of Chapter)
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