Lafitte's guess was spot on.
"Keep it down, don't wake them up."
At the designated location, aboard a pirate ship belonging to someone else, Dante whispered as he removed his clothes and shoes. Leading the group of soldiers, they quietly made their way to the stern of the ship, slid down the ropes, and swam directly into the sea.
Splash!
"Asshole, was this Teach's plan?!"
Before long, a group of people indeed heard Burgess's maniacal laughter and the frustrated roar of the pirate captain.
"Tsk tsk, feels like I'm picking up some bad habits too..."
Dante silently shook his head.
In the past, he would never have thought of drugging and incapacitating an entire ship's crew in advance, setting up such a treacherous scheme of leading them into disaster. But having spent time with Rowen, undergoing "training," he found himself naturally plotting this elaborate scheme.
Aside from the unexpected incident with "Big Shark" Coffey, the process went smoothly, surprising even himself.
"That's right, it's all that asshole's fault!"
Listening to Burgess and the captain starting to fight, Dante silently praised himself and "dived" toward his own pirate ship.
The next day, due to the explosions last night, fear gripped the hearts of those aboard The Drifter, and pirates were on edge, ready to draw their swords at the slightest provocation.
The explosions from the previous night could not be concealed at all. Before dawn broke, the news had spread throughout the entire ship.
Including "Big Shark" Ried Coffey, three pirate captains had died.
Coffey was considered lucky, killed head-on by the assailant. The other two never even anticipated someone setting explosives beneath the thin wooden planks, without any precautions, and were blown to pieces in their sleep.
Now, let's talk about The Drifter's design.
This was a wooden sailboat resembling a floating dock, with a main body no different from a normal ship. However, the sides of the hull could be detached and pulled outward to be used as land, resembling an enlarged version of the sea-going restaurant Baratie.
After deciding to settle at the G-5 site, in order to accommodate more guests, apart from merchant ships and pirate ships voluntarily docking together, there were more floating bridge-like structures. Supported by wooden stakes driven into the original foundation of the G-5 branch, wooden boards were laid on top to create a water-based town.
Due to its simple and flimsy construction, such a water-based town naturally couldn't let wooden boards float on the sea surface. With every large wave, they would be crushed by the sea, so there was a gap of several tens of centimeters between the stakes and the wooden boards, serving as a buffer zone.
This gave the enemy an opportunity!
They calculated the sea currents, threw the barrels of explosives into the sea, and floated them in through the gaps.
Due to the simplicity of the method and the likelihood of errors, many speculated that the enemy's goal might not have been specific individuals, but rather to create chaos indiscriminately, and those two unfortunate guys just happened to stumble into it.
But this didn't change the gloomy faces of the pirates today. The League conference had only been held for a day, and three captains had already died, including the famous sea pirate Coffey. What about tomorrow? How many more would die?
In this situation, the League conference was forced to be suspended. Lafitte stated that he would catch the culprit as soon as possible and then, together with Edie, clean up Burgess's mess.
Yesterday, Burgess found the pirate ship by following the footprints and jumped aboard without hesitation. The awakened captain and his crew faced with the discovered clothes could hardly defend themselves and were nearly beaten to death by Burgess.
In the end, Lafitte had to step in to prevent any loss of life.
However, despite this, rumors and gossip still spread rapidly aboard The Drifter.
Leaving Lafitte feeling overwhelmed.
"Well, the plan went quite well!"
Receiving the news of today's suspension of the League conference, Dante sat on the deck, squinting his eyes, leisurely drinking from a jug of wine.
Originally intended to imitate the actions of "Sword Ghost" Whird without raising suspicion, he now found himself enjoying this feeling.
Seeing the terrified and cautious looks in the eyes of those outside, even the feared pirates with bounties exceeding billions, as the mastermind behind the scenes, naturally gave him a sense of accomplishment.
...
New World, Unknown Sea.
"Blackbeard" Teach's expression was grim as he pondered, "Are you saying that those guys want to leave now?"
"It seems so, Captain."
Lafitte sighed, feeling exhausted. "It's my fault. If I had gone with Burgess yesterday to pursue them, we wouldn't have caused this mess."
Just blowing up a few pirates wouldn't naturally prompt them to talk about leaving, but Burgess, this reckless guy, thought he had found the culprit and started hitting people at random, giving the scouts on the ship an opportunity.
They took advantage of this to start spreading rumors, saying that everything was actually a conspiracy by Blackbeard's pirate crew. It was alleged that they orchestrated the whole thing to eliminate captains and consolidate their power to confront the Yonko.
This kind of conspiracy theory had a strong appeal among pirates, especially since Burgess's assault was a fact.
Now many people suspected that last night's events were staged by them, preferring to continue solo rather than getting involved in the dangerous League.
"No, this isn't your fault, I underestimated them!"
Teach was adept at rallying people's spirits. Even though he wished he could kill Burgess for ruining his plans, he maintained a dignified demeanor.
Taking a deep breath, Teach slowly said, "Continue with the League conference! The more they suspect us, the more we mustn't lose our composure."
"Understood!"
Afterward, Teach hung up the phone.
"Very familiar style, isn't it?"
Blackbeard's sniper, Van Augur, said coldly as he approached carrying his beloved gun, Maxim.
"Jihahahaha, do you think so too, Augur?" Teach smirked as he spoke.
He could see very well whose handiwork this familiar tactic was.
The Marines, under Tsuru's command!
Only the Marines would be so proactive in this matter.
Only Tsuru would have such intimate knowledge of The Drifter.
Even if Rowen wasn't personally present, the perpetrators definitely had intricate connections with Rowen, perhaps even operating under his direction from behind the scenes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to pull off such a brilliant strategy of sowing discord.
Teach was more wary of Rowen than he was of Whitebeard.
Because Whitebeard had weaknesses, but Rowen didn't.
"Well... Captain... Since it's come to this, why not just give up on those guys?"
Doc Q, looking like he was at death's door, leaned against his equally feeble horse, raising his hand and speaking laboriously.
"They've already attracted enough attention for us... cough cough... continuing on will only make things more chaotic."
"This is a fork in the road of fate!"
At these words, Van Augur, with a demeanor as if reciting poetry, approached Teach and whispered softly.
"Captain Teach, what choice will you make?"
"Naturally, I will..."
Teach grinned maliciously.
"Take it all!"
...
That night, aboard The Drifter.
"Captain, are we really going to continue? Those guys are already on guard, it's too dangerous, isn't it? Moreover, Vice Admiral Tsuru from the Marines will be coming tomorrow!"
In a small cabin, a Marine soldier expressed his concerns anxiously.
"Don't worry, with them being in the light and us in the dark, we have a great advantage!"
Dante was getting addicted to this. In just one day, with only three invited participants, the hearts of the Pirate League were filled with anxiety. It only needed one excuse for the whole thing to collapse completely.
He felt he could give it a try, even without waiting for Rowen to come, and directly resolve the pirate League.
Even if he were discovered, he had the trump card that Rowen had given him.
"Alright, we'll follow your lead..."
The others exchanged glances, knowing that with an official of First Grade rank present, there wasn't much they could do.
(End of this chapter)
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