Fleet Admiral Kong looked helplessly at the remaining Vice-Admirals in the room.
These proud, fierce officers—who fought bravely on the bloodiest battlefields and never retreated from a pirate—suddenly transformed into elderly, weak, sick, or disabled men.
They either loudly complained that old injuries had mysteriously flared up, or suddenly remembered urgent missions they had to attend to.
Only Tsuru remained professional, pulling the documents over to review them.
Suddenly, she spoke up. "Wait, this location looks familiar to me. If I remember correctly, Raleigh and Gion are patrolling a sector not too far from here."
Hearing this, the Vice-Admirals who were awkwardly inching toward the conference room doors paused their steps.
Given the current situation, since Raleigh was the closest available powerhouse to Crocodile, they naturally wanted to hear Kong's decision.
At the mention of Raleigh's name, Kong's face twisted into a troubled expression.
He unconsciously rubbed his temples. "Are there any other options?"
He looked at Sengoku with hopeful eyes.
Sengoku's expression remained perfectly blank, while Tsuru simply pretended not to notice Kong's silent plea.
Seeing their reactions, Kong understood he had no other choice.
"Alright, it is settled then. Vice-Admiral Raleigh will take the lead in contacting Crocodile to offer him a seat among the Seven Warlords of the Sea."
After leaving the conference room, Kong immediately sent an urgent encrypted message to Raleigh.
...
On the Grand Line, a Marine warship that had been moving rapidly suddenly reduced its speed.
Inside the ship's reinforced training room, Raleigh's face was slightly flushed, while Bullet, standing opposite him, was completely drenched in sweat.
According to Bullet's warrior logic, sparring like this would lead to faster improvement.
Of course, the pirate did not know that Raleigh's true strength did not actually come from rigorous, sweaty training.
Bang, bang, bang!
Suddenly, loud, urgent knocking echoed from outside the heavy training room doors.
"Come in."
Raleigh and Bullet promptly stopped their sparring match, both deciding to see what was happening outside first.
When the door opened, Gion stepped in, waving a sealed document in her hand.
"Vice-Admiral Raleigh, this is a classified letter sent personally by Fleet Admiral Kong."
Judging by the serious look on Gion's face, this had to be an important matter.
"Okay, let's go to my office." Raleigh casually grabbed a clean white towel to wipe the sweat from his neck.
Shortly after, sitting at his desk, Raleigh sipped hot tea while reviewing the intelligence packet sent from Headquarters.
'Crocodile? This guy became famous this early? He has already caught the World Government's attention!'
In fact, before Raleigh had initially decided to join the Navy, he had heavily considered this issue.
If he revealed his full strength too early, there would be no way to avoid the World Government's watchful eyes
. But he eventually realized a simple truth: being a pirate could never be as comfortable and enjoyable as being a high-ranking Marine officer.
All of his living expenses—food, clothing, housing—were comfortably covered by the Navy's massive budget.
Reading the Warlord proposal, Raleigh could only conclude that the current World Government and Navy fundamentally did not understand the true importance and danger of the Seven Warlords of the Sea system.
It was precisely their arrogance that would allow the Warlords' influence to continuously expand across the globe.
However, Raleigh was exactly the kind of person who knew what kind of massive changes this system would bring to the world's power structure.
As for the tasks pushed onto him by Headquarters, Raleigh never refused them.
After all, he already had several secret subordinates and adding a Warlord to his pocket sounded perfect.
"I am already getting partially corrupted by this decaying world..." Raleigh muttered to himself with a smirk.
He waved the intelligence report in his hand.
"It is nothing to worry about, Gion. It is just that Headquarters has selected the first candidate for their Warlord proposal."
"Who is it?"
"His name is Crocodile. A Logia Devil Fruit user. He is exactly our kind of target." Raleigh raised his voice.
"Messenger!"
At Raleigh's command, the Marine guard standing outside responded so loudly it startled Raleigh, nearly making him drop the pencil in his hand.
"Damn, you scared me," Raleigh sighed. "I have a marked nautical chart here. Give it to the helmsman. We need to reach this destination as soon as possible to prevent Crocodile from leaving the island."
After Gion and the messenger left the office, Raleigh quietly locked the door.
He reached into his coat and pulled out a specialized White Den Den Mushi—a rare snail used specifically to prevent wiretapping.
He dialed a secure line to Momonga.
"Hey, Momonga. Our plans can be moved up," Raleigh said quietly. "Those soldiers who have been training in secret for a long time should go carry out their assigned missions."
"Yes, sir!" Momonga's voice on the other end was unusually terse and professional.
Raleigh knew Momonga's character well.
Whenever the man had something highly important to attend to, he wouldn't waste time on idle chatter.
The only reason Raleigh could still chat with him so casually was purely because of their deep trust and their shared determination to advance toward the same ultimate ideal.
It had been a long time since Raleigh left the North Blue.
Even he did not know exactly how many secretly reformed Marines were in their ranks now. Currently, Raleigh was focusing on two massive, long-term goals.
First, he was waiting until his own strength grew sufficient to directly overthrow the Celestial Dragons and the secret King of the World, Imu.
Second, he planned to hide his true allegiance and wait for the perfect moment.
When the fated Joy Boy and Imu finally locked into fierce, world-shaking combat, Raleigh would be there to launch a fatal surprise attack on Imu from behind.
After another day and night of sailing, the distinctive Marine warship docked at the port of Lanro Island.
Because they arrived in the dead of night, most people did not notice that Raleigh had already brought his elite soldiers to the small island where Crocodile was reportedly hiding.
...
Early the next morning, just as Raleigh's group was moving from the ship toward the inland town, a strangely dressed person approached them.
Judging by his distinct black suit, Raleigh vaguely recognized the style of the World Government's Cipher Pol organization.
"Marine, I am here waiting for you under the direct arrangements of the Five Elders," the CP agent said, his tone dripping with arrogance.
However, another, much older CP member—who clearly understood the terror of the man standing before them—quickly rushed forward and clamped his hand over his rookie companion's mouth.
Smiling nervously, the veteran agent bowed respectfully to Raleigh.
"Vice-Admiral, sir! He has a terrible fever and is talking absolute nonsense! Please be magnanimous and overlook his offense this one time."
Raleigh looked at the arrogant greenhorn CP agent with a complex, icy gaze.
He couldn't help but sigh.
"If we were not technically all working for the World Government... you would already be a corpse."
Raleigh did not care whose lackeys the CP organization were.
If they pushed him too far, he would kill anyone in his way and just run off to become a pirate.
However, there were more important matters at hand right now.
"Crocodile's location?" Raleigh demanded.
The experienced CP member quickly pulled a prepared intelligence dossier from his pocket and handed it over.
---------
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