Rosinante had already left.
But what he left behind was a city drowning in panic.
The entire Sleepless City was thrown into chaos over the death of a Celestial Dragon.
Many people had already begun fleeing the city overnight.
"What a bunch of people who never let anyone rest easy..." Shakky muttered the moment she heard a Celestial Dragon had been killed.
In the Sabaody Archipelago, there was really only one group with the guts to do something like that—
Rosinante and the others.
...
"Report! Urgent news from Sleepless City—Celestial Dragon Saint Charlos has been killed there!"
At that very moment, Marine Headquarters also received the report of the Celestial Dragon's death, and it was immediately delivered to Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
"What?!" Sengoku, who was already nursing a massive headache over Rosinante's reappearance, was momentarily stunned when he heard the news.
A Celestial Dragon had been killed?
How many years had it been since something like that had happened?
To be fair, Sengoku didn't personally care whether a Celestial Dragon lived or died.
The death of one or two Celestial Dragons wouldn't shake the World Government itself.
But the meaning of a Celestial Dragon's life was different.
Their safety was upheld by the prestige of the Marine Admirals.
So if someone killed a Celestial Dragon...
That meant the prestige of the Admirals had been openly challenged.
And when that happened—
An Admiral had to move.
Only then could the authority of the Admirals be preserved.
"Scary, scary indeed," Borsalino said as he stood up at once. "Since a Celestial Dragon has been killed, we obviously can't just sit back and do nothing."
He adjusted his glasses lazily.
"Sengoku-san... in that case, I suppose I'll head out."
Normally, Borsalino was never particularly proactive.
But this time?
He was shockingly quick to volunteer.
Because he knew exactly what was coming next:
The question of how to deal with Rosinante.
And in order to avoid ending up face-to-face with Rosinante again...
He had already decided it would be much safer to go find something else to do.
Handling the Celestial Dragon incident was the perfect excuse.
So the moment he heard that a Celestial Dragon had been killed, he immediately stood up and grabbed the assignment before anyone else could.
"It's good that you're going," Sengoku said. "At a time like this, we need to resolve this as quickly as possible."
"There can't be any more mistakes."
He didn't object to sending Borsalino at all.
After all—
Impel Down had just been invaded.
The Dragon King had just returned.
And now a Celestial Dragon had just been killed.
Every single one of those was a massive incident.
If even one of them was mishandled, it could trigger enormous unrest.
So this matter had to be settled as fast as possible, before the consequences spread any further.
And Borsalino—
With his speed—
Was indeed the most suitable person for the job.
"Yes, yes, understood," Borsalino replied.
Of course...
Fast speed didn't necessarily mean fast work.
Though Borsalino agreed readily enough, in his heart he had already made up his mind:
He would drag this out for as long as humanly possible.
Anything to keep himself as far away from the Dragon King mess as he could.
Sengoku had chosen the fastest man alive.
Unfortunately...
That fastest man had absolutely no intention of hurrying.
And there was nothing anyone could do about it.
So, with a thoroughly pleasant mood, Borsalino leisurely boarded a Marine warship and made his way to the Sabaody Archipelago at an almost insultingly relaxed pace.
...
By the time he arrived, the Celestial Dragons in the Sabaody Archipelago had already learned of Charlos's death.
And Charlos's younger sister, Shalulia, had also rushed to the scene.
She looked at the corpse lying in the street—
A bullet hole clean through the forehead.
His face still frozen in utter disbelief.
"Brother Charlos!" Shalulia cried as she threw herself beside the body.
Then she shot to her feet in fury.
"Why hasn't a Marine Admiral arrived yet?!"
"What the hell is the Navy doing?!"
"And who exactly killed my brother Charlos?!"
Beside her, Charlos's steward and several guards who had regained consciousness were all kneeling on the ground.
"The Marines have already responded," one of Shalulia's attendants said hurriedly. "They've dispatched Admiral Kizaru. He's already on his way."
"Useless trash!" Shalulia snapped furiously.
"By the time they get here, all us Celestial Dragons could be dead already!"
"Ten years ago it was like this, and now it's the same again!"
"The Marine Admirals are far too lazy!"
"Yes, yes... I'll call and urge them again immediately," her attendant said in a panic.
Shalulia suddenly pulled out a pistol and pointed it directly at Charlos's steward.
"Speak!"
"Who was it?!"
"Who dared—who dared kill my brother Charlos?!"
The steward nearly collapsed from fear.
"I-I don't know exactly... It was three people."
"One was very young, one was older, and one was middle-aged."
"It was the young one who killed Saint Charlos."
"And... and Saint Charlos seemed to know him!"
"Brother Charlos knew him?" Shalulia froze for a moment when she heard that.
"Ohhh... now that is a very useful piece of information."
A familiar voice suddenly rang out.
At the same time, a group of Marines poured into the area.
Borsalino arrived with his usual infuriatingly slippery expression, hands in his pockets, looking as unserious as ever.
He had come to Sabaody in an extremely good mood.
Of course, now that he was here, he still had to at least pretend to do some work.
Otherwise Sengoku would definitely yell at him later.
And if Sengoku got irritated enough to replace him with someone else to handle this matter...
That would be very bad.
So after landing on the island, Borsalino came straight to the site of Charlos's death.
After all, he had already heard that the person who killed Charlos had left the Sabaody Archipelago.
Which meant—
There were plenty of ways to drag this matter out.
And the moment he arrived, he happened to overhear Charlos's steward say that Charlos had actually recognized the person who killed him.
That made things much more interesting.
"Kizaru!" Shalulia shouted furiously. "Find out who killed my brother Charlos and drag him before me! I'll have him torn to pieces!"
"Princess Shalulia, please calm down," Borsalino said in his usual drawl.
Then he turned toward the steward.
"You. Tell me... what exactly happened?"
Borsalino often assisted in the defense of the Holy Land Mary Geoise, so naturally he knew Shalulia.
"This... this is what happened..." Charlos's steward said, then shakily recounted the entire sequence of events.
As Borsalino listened—
His expression slowly...
Very slowly...
Turned completely blank.
Then even blanker.
And then utterly stunned.
"H-how could it be...?"
Shalulia suddenly gasped as well.
"Rosinante?!"
If the killer had personally admitted that he was the one who had killed their father, Roswald, ten years ago—
Then there could be no mistake.
It had to be Rosinante.
Even after all these years, she still remembered that name with absolute clarity.
"This... this really is unexpected..." Borsalino said, looking completely dumbfounded.
Then he adjusted his glasses, his face full of disbelief.
"Well now..."
"This is troublesome."
And for once—
Even the ever-slippery Borsalino looked genuinely rattled.