Chapter 97: Danger, Assistance and Mistake
_________ POV Narration_________
Saint Jonathan didn't waste any time gathering his posse of guards and random battle slaves.
He was a fool, but not stupid enough to go outside without proper protection.
Although he had that same feeling of invulnerability that all Celestial Dragons had, he still wanted to make sure nothing bad would happen.
After all, there had been brazen pirates attacking a Celestial Dragon before, one such incident had happened quite recently in fact, during a slave auction.
He didn't inform Momonga of his departure, disregarding the marine's presence as he didn't think he'd need a dog's protection when visiting nothing more than a remote village.
And so, Saint Jonathan proceeded to be carried by his slaves as he surveyed the surroundings of his new temporary home.
Meanwhile, the village was unaware of the disaster approaching their small village.
Most of the residents didn't really bother to think all that much about the movements of the Government and the new buildings that seemed to spur up near their village.
The Mayor was a bit different though, he was keeping a close eye on the situation.
Woop Slap was quite concerned about how things were unfolding at a large scale. He had been keeping up with everything.
He, as well as a few others in the village, were quite shocked to hear of Ace's execution and Luffy's involvement. At the very least the two of them were safe.
The same couldn't be said about Garp... At least from Woop Slap's perspective.
'Retired to a tropical island my ass...'
Garp's retirement had been already announced to the entire world. And most of the people that knew Garp on any level could tell that it was complete bullshit.
'Whatever happened to Garp... It's probably related to the failed execution. And his disappearance might also be the reason for that strange marine base and mansion appearing nearby...'
Woop Slap didn't like the situation one bit. Old he was, but he was not a fool.
The picture became clearer and clearer the more he thought about the situation.
'I guess the entire family is one of outlaws now...' Wood Slap rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration.
When that thought reached his mind, he also realised that their entire village was most likely being held hostage.
It wasn't exactly a difficult conclusion to reach, it was rather obvious and 'in-your-face'. It wasn't that hard to understand a game when knowing the pieces on the board.
Unfortunately for Woop Slap, knowing the game didn't mean anything, as there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it...
Things were about to get worse though, a messenger came to the village, someone announcing to the villagers loudly that a World Noble would be visiting them...
Woop Slap instantly became even more stressed, not that many people knew just how deplorable said 'World Nobles' were, but the Mayor had been paying attention to worldly affairs, so he had some idea.
The rest of the villagers were merely proceeding as usual, going to the tavern, having fun and drinking after a good day of work in the fields.
The arrival of the World Noble wasn't given much attention. And Saint Jonathan wasn't impressed when seeing the way he was received by the villagers.
'Why are they not here bowing their heads obediently?!' He was looking at the entrance of the village with anger in his gaze.
No one had been there expecting him despite the fact that he had sent a messenger to inform them of his arrival!
To him, the villagers were now nothing more than uncivilized swine... Not that his opinion of them was any greater beforehand.
Veins would've been visibly popping up on his forehead were he not overweight...
He whipped the slave he was riding to move faster as he and his guards started looking around the village randomly.
He was disgusted by what he was seeing.
Peasants were all around, laughing in the dirt and working in the fields, walking around drunk and not even bowing to him as he rode his slave around.
It angered him greatly.
It wasn't as if no one was paying attention to him, he was rather hard to miss, riding on a half-giant slave while whipping it with guards all around him.
Plenty of people observed him from a distance, warily. Many entered their homes when seeing him, bringing their children inside as they didn't want to get involved with such a despicable person.
Unfortunately, not everyone managed to get away from him.
"YOU!" Saint Jonathan shouted as he pointed his hand to a nearby drunkard. The man looked at the World Noble with a shocked gaze.
"Who're youz??~" The man's slurred speech made some of the guards sweat a bit, as they knew the man would suffer the consequences of addressing a Celestial Dragon informally.
The Celestial Dragon didn't even say anything, merely taking out his gun and shooting the drunkard in the stomach.
The man collapsed to the ground, clutching at his wound as he screamed out in pain.
"Useless peasant! Hmph..." Saint Jonathan then proceeded to get down from his slave's back and start walking towards the place that had the most people gathered, the tavern in the middle of the city.
The people that had witnessed that scene all looked on in fear, cowering and hiding in their homes.
That gunshot had been heard everywhere in the village, so most people were already aware of the situation, at least to some extent.
Woop Slap grit his teeth when he observed what was happening from a distance, he gulped a bit when seeing the World Noble approaching Makino's Bar.
'Nothing good will come out of this...'
The old man walked forward with steady steps, stepping in front of the Celestial Dragon and the guards, looking at them coldly.
He bowed to the fat man, and in a calm tone he spoke out.
"Sir World Noble, to what do we owe the pleasure?" He decided not to bring up the man he had injured, for now, he didn't think further angering the World Noble was a good idea.
"Huh? Did this ant just speak to me?! Did I hear that right?" The Celestial Dragon took out his golden gun once more, pointing it toward the old Mayor.
Woop Slap trembled a bit when seeing that, not sure what to do. He had heard rumours about the World Nobles, but it was a lot worse in person by the looks of it.
"S-sir, please don't harm any more of our villagers..." Woop Slap quickly got to his knees, hoping to somehow appease the Celestial Dragon...
Unfortunately for Woop Slap, Celestial Dragons weren't the type to care about the lives of those underneath them.
"Heh, that's better! Ants should crawl on the ground!" Saint Jonathan said as he pointed his gun at the old Mayor's head.
Without any remorse or hesitation, the celestial Dragon pulled the trigger as a shot rang out in the village once more...
This time though, instead of screams, a loud clang was heard, as a tall figure appeared in front of the old Mayor that instant.
A tall figure wearing a white and violet striped suit, alongside a marine coat with blue epaulettes. It was none other than Vice Admiral Momonga.
His sword was raised, blocking the bullet with the hilt of the blade without much issue. Although stopping the bullet was easy, Momonga was still sweating a bit, as he knew the situation was a bit problematic...
'I should've followed him from the beginning...'
Momonga had rushed out of the mansion as soon as he heard the first shot ring out. He saw the injured person on his way, being tended to by a few other civilians.
It helped somewhat remind Momonga why the reputation of Celestial Dragons was so bad among the public...
What ashamed him the most was that he had failed in his mission...
He was tasked by the World Government to look after the Celestial Dragon, sure.
But he also received a secret mission from former Fleet Admiral Sengoku...
And that was to look after the Foosha Village and make sure no harm came to its residents.
He was informed that this was The Marine Hero's hometown, and he was honoured when given the duty of protecting it.
Now, to Momonga the mission given directly by Sengoku was quite a bit more important than the one given by the World Government, so he felt like a fool for failing the way he did.
'How could I think that this pig would walk around without causing trouble?!'
The guards gulped a bit when seeing that Vice Admiral Momonga was blocking the bullet of a Celestial Dragon...
"What's the meaning of this?! How dare you stop me, Marine Dog!?" Saint Jonathan glared at Momonga with fire in his eyes.
At this point, the guards sighed, knowing that there was no way for them to escape a beating from a Vice Admiral at that point...
"Saint Jonathan... I am under direct orders to look after your physical health... I am under the impression that attacking these villagers will directly affect it. I apologize, but I am merely doing this for your safety." Momonga bowed his head as he spoke.
Woop Slap behind him finally recovered from the shock, but he didn't move, knowing that it was probably safest for him to stand behind Momonga in that situation.
The guards of the celestial dragon were hopeful when hearing Momonga's words, as the Vice Admiral had managed to spin the situation around a bit, somehow.
But logic was not a factor in that situation, unfortunately... Especially not when a Celestial Dragon was involved.
"You all! I order you to bring me his head! NOW!" Saint Jonathan waved his gun around as the guards looked at each other and jumped into action.
At that point, it was either they fought Momonga or got killed by the Celestial Dragon commanding them.
"Vice Admiral Momonga, please do not resist! These are direct orders from a World Noble!"
'What?! Am I supposed to just kneel and wait to die?'
Momonga seemed to tremble in rage when seeing the way things were developing. There simply was no arguing with a celestial dragon...
The guards all took their weapons out, but Momonga flashed around them using Soru, knocking all of them out instantly.
"Saint Jonathan, please refrain from such actions! Even as a joke, this is taking things too far..." Momonga still tried his best to appease the Celestial Dragon, although he was hating every single second of it.
The Celestial Dragon was basically filing his teeth together at that point, Momonga had already put his sword back on his waist, and his palms were raised forward, as he tried to calm down the man in front of him.
"That's it! I'm not having this!" The celestial dragon seemed to be searching his pockets for something, then he quickly took out a golden snail...
Momonga immediately recognized it as a buster call. And when he did, he remembered Sengoku's words.
'Under any circumstances, stop a Buster Call from occurring! It doesn't matter what you have to do... Just make sure that doesn't happen!'
It was the thing that Sengoku had emphasised on the most. So it had remained ingrained in Momonga's mind...
So, without even thinking, just as the Saint's finger was about to touch the snail's button and call in the Buster Call, Momonga swung his sword, swiftly cutting off the Saint's entire arm.
The Celestial Dragon blinked a few times, the pain not setting in instantly. But it didn't take long for him to realize what had happened as the pain dropped him to the floor the second his adrenaline died down.
Momonga stood there, petrified, as he realized what he had just done...
'This... I may have made a mistake...'
The Celestial Dragon squirmed on the ground, the golden snail had also been dropped somewhat close to him, still clutched into his severed hand.
But the fat man was paying it no attention, as he was too busy clutching at his bleeding stump.
Woop Slap was also pale when seeing that situation, he knew enough from rumours to understand what happened when a celestial dragon was injured...
"We're dead..." Woop Slap muttered as he looked at the ground with despair in his gaze.
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