Chapter 119: This Is a Trap!
“Let me take a look.” Ian took the invitation from Ace with a puzzled expression.
Ace, being the carefree type, handed over the invitation and immediately went back to devouring his food. Lorin and Elena watched him with smiles, finding Ian’s friend quite amusing.
Ever since Ian had become their boss, Lorin and Elena felt that this period had been the best time of their lives. Although Ian was often away from home lately, he never forgot to help them search for their families. A few days ago, news came that there were some leads, which made Lorin and Elena respect and appreciate Ian even more. Out of affection for him, they treated Ace extremely well, piling food onto his plate.
Ian, however, was frowning as he examined Ace’s invitation to become a Warlord of the Sea.
The invitation was genuine—the seals of the World Government and the Marines on it couldn’t be faked.
After studying it for a while, Ian closed the invitation and asked Ace, “Ace, did your bounty go up again?”
He had been training with Rayleigh recently and hadn’t been keeping up with the news. Hearing his question, Ace turned around, chewing his food, and said, “Yeah, it just went up not long ago. It’s 140 million Berries now!”
Lorin and Elena gasped softly, “Amazing! 140 million Berries!”
Ace grinned, feeling quite proud of himself. But then, Lorin and Elena turned to Ian with admiring eyes and said, “The young master is even more impressive, having a friend like this!”
Ace’s mood instantly soured…
The two women didn’t really understand the ins and outs of pirate bounties, and Ace didn’t look like a fierce person, so they weren’t afraid of him at all. They were extremely devoted to Ian and didn’t even think about why a bounty hunter like Ian would be friends with a pirate.
Ian didn’t notice this exchange. He tapped his fingers lightly on his leg, lost in thought.
Ace’s bounty increase was expected. Logia Devil Fruit users were usually taken seriously, and Ace was likely the only rookie with a bounty over 100 million Berries recently. From these two points, it made sense for Ace to be invited to join the Seven Warlords.
After all, the Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock, had earned an 80 million Berry bounty on her first expedition and was immediately invited to join the Seven Warlords. This showed that bounty size wasn’t the only criterion—strength and reputation mattered too.
Ace’s reputation might not be huge yet, but his potential was undeniable. He certainly had the strength to become a Warlord.
However, Ian felt something was off.
The reason was simple: the current seven Warlords were all present, with no vacancies!
Sand Crocodile Crocodile, Hawk-Eye Mihawk, Sea Knight Jinbe, Moonlight Moria, Heavenly Yaksha Doflamingo, Empress Boa Hancock, and the Tyrant Bartholomew Kuma, whom Ian knew—these seven were the current Warlords. With no vacancies, why invite Ace to join? What did that mean?
There couldn’t be an eighth Warlord—that went without saying. Otherwise, why not call them the Eight Warlords?
So, the implications were worth pondering.
The first possibility was that the World Government and Marines intended to strip a Warlord of their title and were looking for a replacement.
The second possibility was that a Warlord wanted to voluntarily step down.
The second scenario seemed unlikely. Once someone became a Warlord, few would willingly give it up. The privilege of legal plundering was hard to come by for pirates.
The first scenario was more plausible. Perhaps a Warlord’s actions had displeased the World Government and Marines, prompting them to plan a removal.
Following this line of thought, Ian began to calculate who it might be.
His first thought was Moonlight Moria. No particular reason—in the original timeline, after the Summit War, Doflamingo attacked Moria, claiming he was too weak and unworthy of being a Warlord.
But… even if Moria was weak, he should still be slightly stronger than Ace, right? Ace was a rookie who had only recently set sail. Compared to an old-timer like Moria, why would the Government and Marines choose the weaker over the stronger?
Ian’s head started to ache. He realized why Ace had come to him—Ace had probably sensed something off and wanted to discuss it.
“Ace, what do you think?” Ian turned to ask Ace.
But when he turned, he saw that Ace had fallen asleep again while eating!
A vein bulged on Ian’s forehead, and he punched Ace in the head. Damn it, I’m racking my brains over your invitation, and you’re just sleeping! Sleep, sleep, sleep—sleep your head off!
After taking the hit, Ace finally woke up, looking at Ian with a dazed expression.
“I’m asking for your opinion!” Ian tapped Ace’s head with the invitation. “What are you planning to do about this invitation?”
Ace grinned and said, “I don’t really have any thoughts. I heard that Warlords have to respond to Marine summons when needed, so I’m not too keen on accepting it. But Jimmy and the others said there are a lot of benefits to joining, so they’ve been persuading me. I couldn’t make up my mind, so after arriving at Sabaody Archipelago, I heard you’d started a family here to catch pirates, so I came looking for you.”
“Jimmy and the others are right! You’re a pirate, and the Warlord status would benefit you!” Ian said. “But I still feel there’s something suspicious about this invitation.”
As he said this, a flash of inspiration hit Ian, and he thought of a third possibility.
Could this invitation be a trap!?
Simple enough—if Ace agreed to join the Seven Warlords, one of the current Warlords would inevitably be pushed out. If the World Government and Marines didn’t reveal who would be stripped of their title in advance, it would cause all the Warlords to target Ace!
At that point, Ace would have to face the wrath of seven major pirates!
The thought made Ian break out in a cold sweat. Damn, this was a classic case of using a borrowed knife to kill! The World Government and Marines might think that Ace’s Flame-Flame Fruit ability would pose a threat to them in the future, so they planned to use the Warlords to eliminate him!
But there was still something Ian didn’t understand. If they wanted to eliminate Ace, why not have the Marines do it themselves? With Ace’s current strength, sending a Vice Admiral should be enough to capture him. Couldn’t the Marines spare a single Vice Admiral?
Information! Ian felt he had too little information. Thinking this, he immediately thought of Shakky.
“Follow me!” Ian grabbed Ace and dragged him out the door.
It was dinner time, so Shakky should still be awake. Ian led Ace to the 13th Red Tree and found Shakky at the Shakky’s Rip-off Bar.
Shakky’s place was usually quiet, making it convenient for discussions. She wasn’t surprised to see Ian bringing someone along and smiled, “Ian, what’s the matter?”
“Shakky, I want to ask you something,” Ian said. “Has anything happened with the Marines recently?”
Shakky looked curious and asked, “Why are you asking about that?”
“Aren’t you in the information business?” Ian smiled. “My guys are decent at gathering info on Sabaody, but they can’t handle Marine matters. That’s why I came to you.”
“There have been quite a few things happening with the Marines,” Shakky said, holding a cigarette under her chin. “I don’t mind telling you…”
She then briefed Ian on the recent Marine situation.
After hearing the information from Shakky, Ian finally understood the connection.
It turned out that the World Conference, held every four years, was about to convene!
Over 170 member nations of the World Government from around the world would arrive at Holy Land Mary Geoise in about three months to hold the conference.
For each World Conference, to ensure the safety of the participating kings, the Marines would dispatch warships to escort them. Although the conference was still over three months away, the Marines had already entered the preparatory phase, as sending ships to various countries and back took time.
A large number of warships and Marine soldiers had been deployed, leaving Marine Headquarters in a period of vulnerability with severe manpower shortages.
To prevent pirates from taking advantage of the situation, Marine Headquarters could only leave Admirals and Vice Admirals as combat forces to guard the base.
But that wasn’t all. Not long ago, a major accident occurred at a Marine research facility in the New World, Punk Hazard. The research facility exploded, spreading toxic gas across the entire island. The Marines had to divert more personnel to handle the incident.
And in the midst of all this, coincidentally, a rookie pirate with a bounty over 100 million Berries like Ace had emerged!
Connecting all this information, it wasn’t hard to understand why Ace had received the Warlord invitation. The Marines couldn’t spare the resources to deal with Ace but couldn’t ignore him either. So, they came up with this method to stir up hostility among the Warlords toward Ace, hoping the Warlords would take him out.
Once he understood the connections, Ian immediately said to Ace seriously, “Ace, if you don’t want to die, absolutely do not accept this invitation!”
Ian didn’t go into the details with Ace, but Ace had one good quality—he trusted his friends. So, he nodded and grinned, “Yeah, Ian, I’ll listen to you.”