Silvery sword light wove through the crowd like a ribbon of silver silk.
When this ribbon of silk completely pierced through the crowd, its true form was revealed—York, holding the sword!
With a single-handed flourish of the blade and a forceful flick, the blood droplets inevitably left from killing so many people were all flung off, leaving the silvery blade spotless.
York slowly sheathed his sword. Only when the blade was completely in the scabbard did the heads of the Galzburg Kingdom soldiers behind him fall off belatedly.
Like ripe fruit falling from a tree.
Immediately after, blood spurted out like fountains, raining down a crimson drizzle on the battlefield.
York turned to look elsewhere.
Bullet had also dealt with his direct superior, the supreme commander responsible for this war—Douglas Gray!
This Gray was not that Gray.
He was just a pampered old-era noble.
He did possess some talent for battlefield command, but apart from that, he was nothing.
The reason he could become the commander was purely due to his family background, not talent.
So, despite being the supreme commander and theoretically the strongest in this army in this world, he couldn't even defeat the eight-year-old Bullet and died miserably under Bullet's blade.
"Is this the last of them?"
Panting heavily, Bullet asked York.
York smiled and asked back, "Don't you know how many of you came? You have to ask me?"
Bullet: "..."
"Alright, no more joking. The invaders from the Galzburg Kingdom have indeed been wiped out by us. Now let's see how much wealth they plundered!"
It was laughable, really.
The people who annihilated the invaders turned out to be someone from the original invader team and a passing pirate.
The local Clawdia Kingdom army truly hadn't helped at all.
Back to the topic.
The Galzburg army's collection of wealth from Yuzu Port was basically complete. All York and Bullet needed to do was pile the already mostly-transported treasures together and assess their value.
"This... should be about 3 billion Berries."
Having plundered an entire kingdom, York judged the value of this batch of treasures with just a glance.
Bullet sat nearby, wiping the blood from his blade with a piece of tattered clothing, indifferent to the number York mentioned.
Seeing this, York smiled and said, "Half of this treasure belongs to you!"
Bullet looked up in astonishment.
"You're giving me that much?!"
"What's so strange about that? We are comrades!!"
Bullet shut his mouth, his eyes fluctuating slightly, whispering inwardly: "Comrades... we are comrades..."
Afterward, York showed Bullet even more wonders.
For instance, he contacted a woman through a mirror.
Then, a large group of people in uniform walked out of the mirror, transporting all the spoils he and York had seized into the mirror.
Of course, York didn't forget to emphasize to the transporters that half of these treasures were his.
Hearing this, the transporters showed no jealousy, only pure envy.
"What a lucky kid!"
"Reckon he'll become an apprentice too. Must be nice~ I want to be an apprentice too!"
"The requirements for becoming an apprentice are very high! Aside from Miss Olga, Kumachi and Miss Ginny are both ability users, okay! If you want to be an apprentice, eat a Devil Fruit first!"
...
Listening to the chatter of these transporters, Bullet realized that York wasn't the lone wolf pirate he had imagined.
He was probably a... captain out on a solo trip?
Having doubts in his heart, Bullet didn't like to hide things, so he asked York directly.
"Do I count as an apprentice under your command now?"
York smiled and answered: "Of course!"
"Based on what? I'm asking based on what did I become an apprentice under your command?"
"Based on your strength and potential!"
York raised his hand and pointed to the previous battlefield.
"Ordinary kids can't achieve your battle record on this kind of battlefield!"
Bullet opened his mouth, but in the end, he couldn't think of a point to refute.
He truly hadn't met an opponent among his peers.
Even the vast majority of adult soldiers actually couldn't beat him.
They just had better equipment due to their status as main forces, so their battle records were better than his most of the time.
When all the treasures were transported away, only York and Bullet remained alive at the scene.
Looking at the mirror surface that had returned to calm, Bullet asked York curiously.
"Aren't we going back to your territory together?"
"Of course not!"
York put the mirror used to contact Stussy into the storage box of the motorboat, then pointed to the second motorboat Stussy had brought over while transporting the treasures.
"Try it out. Once you learn to ride it, we'll go to the next island."
Bullet tentatively mounted the second purple motorboat.
York simply taught him how to start and operate it. As a result, Bullet twisted the throttle, and the motorboat shot forward more than ten meters instantly, startling him into shouting on the spot.
York couldn't help laughing out loud.
Bullet blushed, suppressing the urge to continue shouting, and buried his head in learning to drive the motorboat.
An hour later.
He successfully mastered the driving technique of the motorboat, dashing left and right in the coastal waters of the Clawdia Kingdom.
Excited, he shouted again, but this time York didn't laugh at him.
"Got it? If you got it, we head for the next island!!"
"Okay!!"
Bullet responded loudly.
Watching York drive the red motorboat out first, he turned his head and followed closely behind.
Gazing at York's back, neither far nor near, he suddenly felt that being betrayed by his fellow child soldiers today might not necessarily be a bad thing.
...
The news of the Galzburg Kingdom army being annihilated by York unsurprisingly appeared on Fleet Admiral Kong's desk very quickly.
Seeing not only York's photo but also a young child soldier's photo in the intelligence report, Kong couldn't help but sigh deeply.
He didn't care about what secrets this child soldier held; he was just a brat who gained York's favor by chance.
It was mainly York, acting with increasingly fewer scruples.
But the Marines dared not do anything to him.
The lesson of Water 7 still gave him lingering fears.
It wasn't the worry about the tragedy of 10,000 Marines being wiped out reoccurring, but the near-death of Sengoku and Garp had genuinely scared him.
"What to do? We can't really do nothing, can we?"
Just as Kong was distressed about this, the Den Den Mushi on his desk responsible for contacting Mary Geoise suddenly rang.
Kong connected the call, listening to new orders from the World Government's higher-ups.
When the call ended, Kong's tightly knitted brows relaxed slightly.
He whispered a few words: "Seven Warlords of the Sea Project..." (Shichibukai)