Laskey was delighted for a split second, but before he could enjoy it for even a moment, angry voices were already rising from the crowd on Baterilla Island.
"No. You can't leave! You killed my wife and child. You have to pay with your lives!"
"Kill them!"
"My wife and child cannot die for nothing!!!"
Nearly a hundred men and women clenched their fists and stormed furiously toward Laskey and his men.
Under normal circumstances, Laskey would have shot them down without hesitation. But now, with Yemu watching from above, he did not dare make a reckless move.
As he watched those red-eyed islanders closing in on him step by step, Laskey began to feel afraid as well. Putting on a brave front, he shouted,
"What are you trying to do? Let me tell you this. Everything I did was under orders from the World Government. If you dare attack me, it will not just be you who suffers. Your families, and everyone on all of Baterilla Island, will be dragged down with you. If you are not afraid, then come on..."
The people who had already been driven mad with grief and rage naturally did not care. Many of them had already lost everything. But others could not ignore what he said, and quickly rushed forward to hold them back.
Struggling in fury, those people could only turn their desperate eyes toward Fes and Aming in the end.
"Fes-sama, Aming-sama, please. Please give my wife and child justice!!!"
It started with one person, then more and more people began pleading with Fes.
Seeing that, Laskey could not keep his true nature in check and burst into arrogant laughter again, roaring angrily,
"Hahaha! It is useless! You two bastards, do not even think you are getting out of this alive. You actually forced me into such a miserable state!"
Seeing Laskey acting so wildly again, Aming could not take it anymore and was about to charge forward, but Fes stopped her.
Fes shook his head, gave Laskey a cold look, then said to the people pleading with him,
"Regrettably, as he said, there is nothing we can do for you right now. I am no longer the treasurer, and Aming is no longer the sheriff..."
As soon as he said that, the eyes of everyone around them filled with despair and bitterness. Even Aming was grinding her teeth in anger.
But at that moment, Fes suddenly lifted his head and looked up into the sky, his gaze sharp.
"However, the two of us may not be able to help you. If it is someone else, that is a different matter..."
Almost instantly, everyone understood and turned to look at the boy in the sky who had been watching the whole time.
Laskey was startled too, but he was not overly flustered. Instead, he shouted with complete confidence,
"If you want to bring destruction on yourselves and drag all of Baterilla Island down with you, then go ahead. Hahaha! Do you even know who he is?"
Everyone froze, and then heard Laskey deliver a sentence that filled them all with terror, word by word.
"He is a monster from the New World. Yemu, captain of the Sky Pirates, with a bounty of 980 million Belly. A heinous villain, a brute, a criminal wanted by both the World Government and the Marines. He has destroyed a country, killed a Celestial Dragon, and taken countless World Nobles hostage. Anyone connected to him will become a target for extermination by the World Government and the Marines. If you are not afraid of death, then go ahead and try..."
After saying that, he seemed to realize he had been acting a little too arrogantly, so he looked up into the sky. But when he saw Yemu smiling down at him, he was immediately baffled.
The people of Baterilla Island, meanwhile, were all stunned by what Laskey had said.
The South Blue might be the weakest sea now, but pirates were hardly rare there. There was no way they would not understand what that meant.
"980 million Belly..."
"A heinous villain, a brute, a criminal..."
"He destroyed a country..."
"He took countless World Nobles hostage..."
That alone was enough to leave them dumbfounded, but then there was one more thing.
"A Celestial Dragon... He actually killed a Celestial Dragon... How is that possible... That is..."
At that moment, even Fes and Aming were left speechless. They had already known the man before them was unbelievably powerful, but every word Laskey spoke still shattered everything they thought they knew.
After all, the highest bounty in the South Blue right now was only 120 million Belly.
And as for killing a Celestial Dragon...
As officials of such a massive tourist island, there was no way they did not know what a Celestial Dragon was.
At that moment, under everyone's gaze, Yemu, seated on top of the fire dragon in the sky, gained another aura on top of that almost divine presence. One as terrifying as a demon.
A lot of people instinctively started avoiding his gaze, as if even the slightest connection to that boy would spell disaster.
But then, an unexpected voice rang out.
It was one of the women Aming had rescued from the assembly hall. In her arms, she tightly held her dead, lifeless infant, tears streaming down her face.
She had been so weak that she remained in a dazed, half-conscious state the whole time. She could hear some of what was being said around her, but she could not truly react to it.
Not until she heard the words pay with their lives.
"Pay with their lives... pay with their lives..."
But she was so weak she did not even have the strength to stand, let alone seek revenge. Then that godlike boy appeared, and Laskey's voice rang out.
She did not know where the strength came from, but her eyes filled with bloodshot fury for revenge as she crawled out of the crowd, held her dead child high in her arms, and cried out,
"Please... whether you are a god... or a demon, as long as you can avenge my child, you can take everything I have, including my life!"
The moment those words were spoken, everyone around her was stunned.
Her husband beside her was so shocked that he hurriedly grabbed hold of her.
"Maria, he is a pirate. Have you lost your mind...?"
"I have not lost my mind..."
The woman named Maria shrieked in fury, raising her lifeless son, still wrapped in swaddling clothes, in front of her husband.
"My child... my child is dead... What did he do wrong... Do you know what I went through in there?"
As she spoke, Maria looked toward the men in black, her eyes like those of a vengeful ghost.
"I only begged them to give my child a mouthful of water, and they refused. My child... my child... what did he do wrong... He was only three months old... Ah..."
At that moment, the woman's wail rang through the silent world.
She was clearly just a weak, frail woman with no strength to speak of, yet the rage and hatred she unleashed at that moment surpassed that of every man present.
Even Laskey, who had been arrogant the entire time, felt overwhelming fear at that moment.
That fear shook him even more than Yemu's sudden appearance had.
And under Maria's anguished cries, the true fury in countless hearts was finally awakened.
At that moment, they all looked up at Yemu in the sky, dropped to their knees, and pleaded together,
"My wife and child cannot die like this for nothing..."
"Please, Yemu-sama. Avenge us!!"
"As long as you can avenge us, you can take anything I have. Whatever it is..."
"I already have nothing left... nothing left at all..."