"Charge, men! With me!"
"Kill him! Tear Bai Ye to pieces!"
A large group of pirates ran through the streets of the capital. Seeing this, the civilians in the royal city screamed and fled in panic.
As the pirates charged toward the palace, the more ruthless among them set fires along the way.
Flames roared outside the city, and soon the smoke inside began to billow as well.
Su Xiao moved through the night and quickly overtook the pirates, arriving at the palace ahead of them.
In the world of pirates, the Goa Kingdom was just a small nation, so its royal palace was merely a small castle in size.
Hiding near the palace, Su Xiao waited for the Krieg Pirate crew to arrive.
The capital was divided into three areas: the outermost was the civilian district, followed by the central street, and at the very center was the royal palace.
There was a wall outside the palace, but it wasn't very tall. The Krieg Pirates would soon break through it and storm the palace.
The royal guard in the palace district had already been fully deployed, and before long, the sounds of battle reached Su Xiao's ears.
Still, he waited. Based on his understanding, the royal guard was nothing more than an empty display. Those guards, who had barely seen real combat, were no match for the pirates.
Indeed, within half an hour, the guards in the palace district were pushed back, retreating to the front of the palace.
The guards were in a disheveled state, their faces frantic, with heavy casualties. Some couldn't hold on any longer and fled on the spot.
"Men, the palace is right in front of us! We'll take it!"
Krieg had gone mad. First, he was deceived by Su Xiao, and after fighting his way here, the pirate captain was now completely unhinged.
"Kill them all! Leave no one alive!"
At Krieg's command, the hundreds of pirates behind him charged toward the palace, yelling and shouting as they clashed with the guards.
A brutal melee ensued, with gunfire popping off sporadically, blood splattering, and limbs flying everywhere.
Inside the palace, the king, who had been resting, was startled awake by the noise outside.
The king of Goa Kingdom, Philip Herbert, was a man nearing sixty, with a full head of black hair and a thick beard.
"What's going on out there? Why is it suddenly so noisy?"
King Philip rose in frustration, and the queen beside him also sat up in confusion.
"Your Majesty, it sounds like gunfire outside. What could be happening?"
The queen, a young woman, clung to the king in fear.
"Someone, come here!"
The bedroom door burst open, and a burly man charged in. A deep scar ran across his face, making him look particularly terrifying.
"Hausen, what's happening outside?"
The man, Hausen, was the king's personal guard. But on his neck was a metal collar—an iron-black slave collar with intricate mechanisms at the clasp.
If Su Xiao were there, he would immediately recognize it as a slave collar from the One Piece world. Hausen, it turned out, was a slave, his life controlled by the king. No wonder the king trusted him to be his personal guard.
Hausen didn't speak. He only made a few hand gestures.
Hausen had lost the ability to speak; his tongue had been cut out by slave traders. If not for his exceptional strength, they would have killed him long ago.
"Pirates? How could there be pirates inside the palace? Right Minister, send someone to deal with them."
Though the king sensed that something was wrong, he wasn't too worried, seemingly very confident in the palace's guard strength.
Hausen stood silently in the room. The slave collar around his neck restricted his freedom. The collar could be triggered to explode, killing him instantly.
Outside the palace, Su Xiao continued waiting for the right moment.
Now wasn't the time. Although the battle inside the palace was intense, it hadn't yet reached its peak.
About an hour later, the king could no longer remain calm. He could clearly hear that the shouting and fighting were getting closer.
At that moment, the king realized how dire the situation was.
With a crash, the door burst open, and the bloodied Right Minister rushed into the bedroom.
"Your Majesty, it's bad. The pirates have broken through! They've already reached the third floor!"
The king's face turned pale.
"Impossible! What about my guards? They were all handpicked! How could they have been pushed back so easily?"
The Right Minister, kneeling on the ground, curled up in fear and dared not respond.
The palace guards were not elite warriors. They were just a group of young men hired for a high price.
"Hausen, you go. Wait…"
The king's face showed hesitation. Hausen was indeed powerful, but if he sent him out, the king himself would be left unprotected.
However, if Hausen didn't go, the pirates would soon be at his doorstep, and bullets didn't discriminate.
"Deal with those pirates as quickly as possible, and then come back immediately. Even if you're injured, I don't care. Do you understand? If I die, you'll die with me."
Hausen's eyes remained emotionless. He nodded stiffly before leaving the room.
Outside the palace, Su Xiao soon heard a loud crash from inside. Poisonous purple gas began to spread on the third floor.
"Finally, the moment has arrived."
Su Xiao leaped up and clung to the outer wall of the castle like a lizard.
He climbed nimbly, bypassing the third floor entirely.
The battle was taking place on the third floor, so the king wouldn't be there.
Reaching the third-floor level, Su Xiao peeked through a window and saw two figures fighting—Krieg and a massive man.
What surprised Su Xiao was that Krieg was being severely beaten. One of his arms hung limply, and it seemed like he wouldn't last much longer.
The hulking man was like a human tank, smashing through walls with every charge. If Su Xiao had to fight such a monster, he wouldn't last two minutes.
His decision not to go straight for the king was the right one. Facing an opponent like this would have been suicidal.
That brute's strength was likely over 20 points.
Krieg couldn't hold on much longer, which meant Su Xiao had to act fast.
There were many rooms in the palace. Su Xiao quickly checked through the windows.
He found no sign of the king on the fourth floor, then moved to the fifth, the sixth…
After searching quickly, Su Xiao finally spotted the king through a window.
The king wasn't in a room but fleeing down a hallway, trying to escape to a higher floor where he would be less likely to be found by the pirates.
The constant rumbling from below had unsettled the king completely.
Moonlight shone through the windows as the king ran frantically down the corridor.
"Your Majesty, huff… I… I can't run anymore. Can we rest for a moment?"
The queen, who had been fleeing with the king, sat down on the floor, gasping for breath.
The king's face showed a mix of emotions. He still had some fondness for the queen, as she was new to him, but compared to his own life, she meant little.
"Then rest here, my dear."
With that, the king turned to leave, abandoning the queen, who sat dumbfounded on the floor.
At that moment, the glass window beside them shattered with a crash, and a figure holding a sharp blade burst through.
(End of Chapter)
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Translator's Note :- I am Not that familiar with a lot of the fictional worlds mentioned in the story. So if I make a mistake naming something please correct me by writing a paragraph comment on the mistake. Thank you.
I have decided to change the name of main character ,for the One Piece world citizens in this arc, to Bai Ye.