If Nereus hadn't been there, and Dragon had followed the original timeline, he would have threatened his superiors at gunpoint, forcibly demanding that his superiors evacuate the innocent civilians on the island.
That was the real reason why, after returning to Marine Headquarters, Dragon was thrown into an underground detention cell.
No matter the reason, threatening superior officers with a gun within a military force is a serious crime.
As for ambushing a Celestial Dragon with a tranquilizer gun, and escaping with the infant Shanks and Shamrock, those were actually not the main issues.
It wasn't that the incident wasn't serious, but rather that no one noticed him at all. The Celestial Dragon who was hit by the tranquilizer was among the most useless of their kind, and couldn't even identify who had attacked him.
Maffey took Shamrock away and, because of the shockwaves from Whitebeard's attack, she was slowed down and had no time to check on Dragon's situation, nor did she pay attention to Dragon, who was still a complete nobody.
In fact, even if she had taken notice, it wouldn't be a major concern in a way; after all, Garp had attacked Saturn, as well as Imu who was possessing him.
Garp didn't know who Imu was, but Imu knew exactly who had attacked him.
Even under those circumstances, Garp was still packaged and publicized as a Marine hero.
As for Dragon now, his status was that of a Marine soldier missing in the God Valley Incident, and there were countless soldiers like that.
On a battlefield swarming with monsters, ordinary soldiers were nothing more than numbers. Being labeled as "missing" simply meant that their bodies hadn't been found yet.
"Work under you?"
"Is that strange? There are quite a few humans under me. Even though our races are different, everyone gets along just fine."
"No, what I mean is… what kind of work…"
"You've already guessed it, haven't you? You Marines constantly shout about justice, but whose justice is it, really?
In the end, that justice is just an excuse.
No thinking required—just obey orders. Individual thought only becomes an obstacle to the will of the army. If I remember correctly, that's your doctrine, isn't it?"
"Why do you know all this?"
Nereus's words felt eerily familiar to Dragon. His own squad leader had lectured him in exactly the same way back in God Valley.
It had been the same during recruit training as well. In a sense, Dragon was a highly unqualified recruit for the Marines.
"Of course, it's so that I could understand my enemy. From another perspective, that statement isn't entirely wrong. Soldiers do need to obey orders.
But a qualified army must at least know what it's fighting for, rather than hiding behind justice.
The Marines take orders from the World Government. The World Government serves the Celestial Dragons. Unless the problem called Celestial Dragons is eliminated, the Marines will never truly change.
Young Marine, one last question: how many of your Marine higher-ups do you think are completely ignorant of what just happened, and how many know everything perfectly well?"
The moment the disguise was torn away, the problems laid bare were far from just one. Nereus's questions echoed endlessly in Dragon's mind.
[Yeah… within the Marines… just how many people…]
[The higher-ups definitely know about this. The orders for this mission came directly from Headquarters. As for Admiral Kong…]
Because his father was Garp, Dragon was fairly familiar with the Marine high command. Since the Marines' founding, they had always operated under a three-Admiral system.
Adhering to the principle of quality over quantity, if someone didn't meet the required strength, the Admiral position would simply be left vacant; better that than losing and bringing disgrace.
And the most crucial factor in that evaluation was strength. Even if someone was considered "weak," they still had to be weak only in comparison to others at the Admiral level.
Of the current three Admirals, one had grown old and retired, one had been killed by Rocks, and only Kong remained as the active Admiral.
[Dad… he… no… he shouldn't…]
It wasn't that there were no suitable successors within the Marines. At present, it was widely believed that Zephyr, Sengoku, and Garp would become the next generation of three Admirals.
The three who were Vice Admirals at this time were already the backbone of the Marines. If his own father also knew about what had happened at God Valley…
Dragon shook his head, trying to shake that chilling thought out of his mind.
"The rule of the Celestial Dragons has lasted for far too long, to the point that too many people believe what they do is inherently justified. You saw those soldiers on God Valley, didn't you?
They didn't think that helping the Celestial Dragons carry out that massacre was wrong at all. If a large tree only has a few bugs, then once you catch the bugs, everything naturally returns to normal.
But if the entire foundation is rotten, hollowed out from the inside long ago, existing only to maintain a glossy exterior, then things become far more complicated."
Nereus seemed to be talking about something unrelated, yet the implication was perfectly clear.
"At the very least… the rule of the Celestial Dragons has to be broken… but their strength…"
Dragon had once believed that the Celestial Dragons were all useless trash, doing nothing but swaggering about and demanding protection from others.
But today made him realize that the Celestial Dragons also had powerful figures among them.
If not for Whitebeard's casual strike, that Celestial Dragon who could fire lasers from her mouth would have killed him outright.
"That's a World Government that's developed over hundreds of years. I'm not saying you should attack Mariejois right away. If you want to accomplish something, you need time to grow.
Even if you can't see results in the short term, doing something is still better than doing nothing. Take it slow and think it through, young man."
Social structures and class rule are never immutable. Decayed things are destined to be discarded. If people shrink back out of fear of the chaos that reform might bring, then the world ought to remain stuck in its primitive stage forever.
Because his own world had countless pioneers before him, Nereus could understand this all the better. But on these seas, the World Government's rule could truly be called deeply entrenched.
Coupled with that overwhelming military power, many people couldn't even muster the thought of resistance. For Dragon, the door to a new world was opening before him.
Moonlight descended, and night blanketed the sea. Many aboard the ship had already fallen into deep sleep. The life of fleeing had placed immense strain on both their minds and bodies.
Quite a few others simply stared blankly at the pitch-black ocean. They were the lucky ones, having escaped that island alive, yet countless others had died there, including their own friends and family.
"Barbell, go get some rest. I'll take the helm."
"Boss, I'm not tired yet."
"Go on, I'll call you later to take over."
At this level of strength, not sleeping for several days and nights was nothing. Fighting nonstop for that long wasn't difficult either.
Still, proper rest was one of the ways to maintain peak condition.
Although Nereus's ability wasn't afraid of sunlight, he can unleash even greater power under the cover of night.
On top of that, he could recover stamina by drinking blood, so whenever they were out on operations, he often took the night watch.
Late into the night, someone would occasionally jolt awake from a nightmare, only lying back down after a long while.
Watching this scene aboard the ship, Dragon stayed awake all night. Nereus's words seemed to have illuminated certain things for him ahead of time.
The word "revolution" was gradually taking shape in Dragon's mind…
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