Although he remained deeply uncertain and doubtful about Pons’s true capabilities in the back of his mind, Nos nevertheless maintained a hearty and generous demeanor on the surface.
He walked over to Pons, smiled, and said to him: “My, my, Pons…
you are truly remarkable!
Holt is considered one of the finest fighters among all the sailors at our branch, and yet you defeated him with such ease.
As expected of someone who took down two great pirates!” Pons returned Nos’s smile and replied: “Lieutenant Commander, you flatter me far too much.” In truth, Pons himself felt a bit puzzled.
During his spar with Holt, he had caught a glimpse of Nos standing at the edge of the training ground, watching their exchange.
It was certainly not unusual for Nos, as the branch commander, to observe a bout between one of his men and a guest.
Nevertheless, Pons could not shake a faint, nagging feeling that something was off.
Yet he could not quite put his finger on exactly what felt wrong, so he could only attribute it to the possibility that he was being overly suspicious and paranoid.
In the days that followed, Pons continued to stay at the Marine base.
During the times Nos had permitted, he trained in the training ground.
When he had nothing else to do, he chatted and exchanged banter with some of the sailors.
Over the course of several days, he managed to become somewhat familiar with a few of them.
Through these conversations, Pons also gathered information about how the sailors viewed Nos.
The general consensus was that Nos was a good leader and possessed a decent level of strength, though he could sometimes come across as excessively shrewd or calculating in his dealings.
A Marine lieutenant commander with decent strength but a shrewd and utilitarian-oriented disposition… On the night of his seventh day at the N-6 Branch, Pons lay on his bed, rubbing his brow as he pondered silently.
He had been here for a full week now.
That morning, he had gone to see Nos to ask when the bounty funds would arrive, only to receive the answer: “It should be here in another two or three days.” Pons felt somewhat uneasy.
A doubt even crept into his mind: Was the base truly unable to disburse the bounty, or did Nos have some other agenda?
Logically, he was probably overthinking it.
After all, he had been here for quite a while now, and if Nos had any intention of harming him, he would have acted long ago.
Still, over the past few days, Pons had been training consistently in the training ground.
Holt would sometimes come over and strike up conversations, even teaching him some of the Marines’ training methods.
It seemed that his physical condition had improved by a small margin, and his proficiency with Shadow Punch and Shadow Claw had also grown.
If he stayed longer, he might even become stronger…
after all, once he collected his bounty and returned home, he would not have such convenient training facilities available.
With that thought, Pons found himself less anxious about when exactly he would receive the bounty.
However, no sooner had he adopted this more relaxed attitude than things took an unexpected turn.
At ten o’clock the following morning, Nos sent someone to find Pons, saying there was an urgent matter that required immediate discussion.
Filled with apprehension, Pons followed the sailor to Nos’s office.
Upon entering, he found Nos looking extremely serious.
Nos said to him: “This is terrible… The bounty funds meant for you were originally scheduled to arrive here this evening.
However, Robert…
the captain of the Glide Pirates…
somehow got wind of this information.
He has already taken his pirate crew to intercept the shipment, intending to steal the money.” “The…
the Glide Pirates?” Pons was completely baffled, ‘Where had this other pirate crew come from all of a sudden?
And they were bold enough to rob the Marines directly?’ Nos continued, explaining to Pons: “Robert is a great pirate with a bounty of fifty-five million Berry.
He is an extremely brutal and ruthless man.
If he has his eyes set on that money, the transport convoy will likely find it very difficult to defend it.” A bounty of fifty-five million Berry might be utterly insignificant in the New World, but in a place like this, it was indeed quite substantial.
The local Marines would probably struggle to deal with such a threat.
Pons could not help but feel a surge of panic, ‘Was my bounty truly going to be stolen?’ Though Pons was by no means obsessed with money, that was still over fifty million Berry…
and a portion of it was earmarked for the reconstruction of Riman Town.
Nos then said to Pons: “But rest assured, now that we have intercepted this intelligence, we will certainly take action to stop Robert.
I will lead a force out shortly to locate the Glide Pirates and launch an intercepting strike.” Pons could not stop himself from silently wondering, ‘If you say you are going to intercept them, can you actually defeat this so-called Glide Pirates?
If you cannot beat them, does that mean my bounty is as good as gone?’ ‘Even if the Marine higher-ups later said they would replenish the funds, how long would I have to wait?’ After a moment of thought, Pons said to Nos: “Lieutenant Commander, why not let me come along?
Perhaps I could be of some assistance to your operation.” If he went personally, he should be able to defeat this Robert.
Not only could he secure his original bounty, but he might also earn Robert’s fifty-five-million-berry bounty as well.
Why not?
Upon hearing this, Nos shook his head and said: “Capturing pirates is the Marines’ duty.
How could we keep troubling you?” Pons immediately responded: “Lieutenant Commander, I beg to differ.
Pirates commit all manner of evil deeds.
Anyone with the strength to do so has the right to eliminate them.
If I can contribute even a little to the fight against pirates, it would be my honor…
how could that be considered a bother?” Nos considered this for a moment, then nodded and said: “Very well, since you insist, I will rely on your help.
Robert is indeed a great menace…
if we can remove him, it will bring peace to this region… However, let me caution you: besides Robert, the Glide Pirates also have two first mates, named Fogg and Winnie, both of whom are formidable fighters.
Fogg has a bounty of thirty-two million Berry, and Winnie has a bounty of twenty-seven million Berry.” ‘In addition to Robert, there were two other powerful fighters…’ Pons pondered this, ‘If I had to fight all three of them at once, could I win?
That seemed quite difficult…
likely impossible.’ Though Pons’s combat capabilities in his Gengar form were fairly respectable, he was confident yet self-aware enough to know that taking on multiple skilled opponents simultaneously would be extremely challenging.
However, with his intangibility, even if he could not win, he should at least avoid taking serious damage.
Moreover, he was not going into battle alone…
the Marines would also be fighting the pirates.
He should not end up in a situation where he had to fight three opponents by himself.
So Pons spoke again: “No matter how powerful the enemy, I am still willing to contribute whatever small effort I can.” Nos nodded and said approvingly: “Your willingness to fight for justice moves me deeply.
When it is time for us to depart, I will send someone to notify you.
I will certainly need to rely on your strength then.” After a few more casual exchanges, Pons took his leave from Nos’s office.
After Pons had left, an officer sitting on the other side of the office said to Nos: “Lieutenant Commander, you have laid out quite a clever scheme.” This man was named Fox.
He appeared to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old and served as Nos’s adjutant, holding the rank of lieutenant.
During the conversation between Nos and Pons, he had remained silent the entire time, simply observing their exchange quietly.
“Don’t make me sound like some kind of master conspirator,” Nos said with an awkward laugh.
“It’s all just for the sake of eliminating evil pirates.” Fox neither agreed nor disagreed with Nos’s statement.
He simply continued: “You deliberately spread the rumor that a large sum of money was about to be delivered to the N-6 Branch…
specifically to lure Robert into trying to steal it, so that Pons would help you deal with the Glide Pirates.
Isn’t that right?” “As expected, Fox…
you understand me best.” Nos chuckled lightly.
“We’ve worked together for five years now.
I suppose my thoughts are still not hidden from your eyes.” “But there’s one thing I don’t quite understand,” Fox said.
“Since you wanted Pons’s help, why not simply ask him directly?
Why go through all this trouble?
From what I can see of his character, if you had invited him to join you in dealing with the Glide Pirates, he probably would have agreed.” “Perhaps,” Nos replied.
“But ‘probably would have agreed’ is still just that…
only a possibility.
If he had refused my request, that would have been quite awkward, and it would have been inconvenient for me to ask a second time… People, you see, only give their full effort when their own interests are threatened.” “Now that the Glide Pirates are going to plunder the bounty money that belongs to Pons, once he heard about it, he grew anxious.
Without my needing to invite him, he volunteered to help deal with the Glide Pirates.
Moreover, if I had proactively invited him before, even if he agreed, we would still owe him a favor.” “If he later tried to use that favor to demand something from us, it could cause complications.
But since he is the one who volunteered, and we simply accepted, there is no issue of indebtedness.
If we manage to eliminate the Glide Pirates, he gets more bounty, I get renown and merit, and no other messy problems arise…
isn’t that wonderful?” “All of that, however, is predicated on Pons actually having considerable strength,” Fox remarked.
“Indeed…
that is precisely my concern.” Nos tapped his forehead with his thumb.
“Based on Pons’s spar with Holt, it is really hard to see him as someone capable of defeating Zodyl and Narut.
For now, I can only hope that he was holding back during that fight.
If he truly is not that strong, then not long after we engage the Glide Pirates, I will have to pull the troops back and retreat.
I just hope Pons does not let all my careful planning go to waste.” “You really are far too calculating,” Fox sighed in resignation.
“If it were Reg, he would have just made the request directly.
No need for all these complicated maneuvers.” “Is being a little more calculating such a bad thing?
In a world like this, a bit of shrewdness never hurts.
The more you think ahead, the longer you tend to live.”