No matter the time or place, age is the thing women care about most.
All the more so for someone like Rona — the ultimate old bachelorette.
She'd spent half her life thinking of nothing else, training every single day just to capture Magnus. And now, after finally letting go of that obsession, she hears this?
Was Magnus even speaking human words?
"Haha, sorry, sorry — I just saw you getting too worked up and made a joke. But if you're truly willing to free those enslaved by the Celestial Dragons, I'll help you no matter how dangerous it gets!"
Seeing Rona's blade about to rest on his neck again, Magnus quickly steered the conversation elsewhere.
"But, Admiral Scarlet Snake, you must already have a plan for this, right?"
"Alright, Miss Rona."
Magnus raised his hands in surrender, suddenly wondering if she was hitting menopause. Women her age… But when he noticed her sharp gaze, he immediately stopped his train of thought.
"Rona, I've agreed to help you free the Celestial Dragons' slaves, but first — how much do you actually know about them?"
"Arrogant, conceited, wasteful, useless…"
Rona rattled off every insulting term she could think of, all of which, in her mind, were simply facts.
"But such useless Celestial Dragons have still ruled the world for eight hundred years, haven't they?"
After a moment's thought, Rona revealed what she knew.
"They're called the Holy Knights. They have the authority to judge even Celestial Dragons and are, apart from CP0, the strongest defensive force the Dragons have."
"Ordinary Holy Knight members aren't overwhelmingly strong — any major pirate could handle them — but their Devil Fruit abilities are extremely troublesome, and they have an 'immortality' ability."
"For your White Wolf Pirates, aside from you, no one could walk away alive from a fight with them."
When she said "White Wolf Pirates," she meant not just the newer members like Rocks, but the veterans like Roya as well.
In other words, even Roya, at his prime bounty of 190 million Beli, couldn't defeat a standard Holy Knight.
"Additionally, the Holy Knights have a captain and vice-captain."
"They both also possess 'immortality.'"
"Their strength is on par with ours — not beneath us."
This was something only very few knew — only those who had become admirals, like Rona, were privy to it. Many vice admirals didn't even know the Holy Knights existed, thinking the Celestial Dragons were nothing but overfed parasites.
But when she looked at Magnus' face, she saw no surprise at all.
"Don't look at me like that. I've fought your Marines plenty of times. If I didn't know exactly how strong my enemies were, I'd have been dead a hundred times over."
"But these are just enemies we might encounter, right? If they're as dangerous as you say, then this mission isn't to rescue slaves — it's to make ourselves into slaves."
Two admiral-level opponents who can't be killed — how terrifying is that?
To put it simply: Magnus' strength currently exceeded Rona's. In a one-on-one, he could suppress her completely — victory would just be a matter of time.
But if Rona had "immortality"?
Unless Magnus found a way to break that immortality, his chances of winning would drop to near zero.
Still, Magnus knew there was no such thing as true immortality. Almost always, "immortality" came from a Devil Fruit ability.
And any Devil Fruit ability could be countered with Haki — the difference was just finding the right method.
Seeing that Magnus wasn't the least bit fazed by the thought of two immortal admiral-level enemies, Rona laughed loudly.
"Haha! As expected of the man I've set my sights on — you wouldn't be intimidated by the likes of them."
"Relax. The Holy Knights are lazier than you think. Without direct orders, they won't move. We're freeing a group of slaves, not attacking Mary Geoise itself."
"If we time it right, we may not even cross paths with them."
Magnus wasn't surprised by her answer.
After all, decades from now, a certain fishman climbed the Red Line and freed slaves from the Celestial Dragons — and how much backup did he have?
Destruction was always easier than defense.
At Sphinx and Elbaf, Magnus had fought to protect.
This time, the roles would be reversed.
Magnus and Rona's glasses touched.
"We'll set the time for right after the World Conference. That's when the Marines will be escorting the kings of allied nations home — headquarters will be stretched thin."
"Good. I'll wait for your word."
With Rona as an inside informant, Magnus could see straight through the Marines' movements. If he still didn't dare storm Mary Geoise, he'd be a coward.
Of course, he didn't completely trust her.
Could this all be a carefully laid trap by the Marines?
No way would Fleet Admiral Xiangshan risk the Celestial Dragons' safety just to bait Magnus into causing chaos in Mary Geoise.
Magnus was simply a bit amused. He'd thought that men of justice like Kong would be easier to sway — yet here was Rona, whom he'd always thought of as a crazed woman, choosing to defect instead.
As he mused, a shadow suddenly fell over him.
"Magnus, do you know what I'd most like to do if I ever caught you?"
"Of course… test your stamina!"
Rona licked her lips, grabbed Magnus by the collar, and dragged him toward a nearby inn.
Around them, onlookers gave Magnus envious looks. They'd thought at first that Magnus and Rona were enemies — but after chatting for a bit, she was hauling him into an inn.
What else could that mean?
Even with sunglasses on, Rona's figure and the glimpse of her profile marked her as a great beauty.
And Magnus, wearing a hat that shadowed his face, was clearly handsome as well.
Another pair of shameless lovers, it seemed.
Far away, Newgate — who was out with Rocks searching for signs of giant slaves — suddenly froze as he peered through his telescope.
"Bad news, Rocks-nii! I saw that female Marine admiral — she's forcing the captain to his knees!"
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
Rocks snatched the telescope and looked — but there was no one there anymore.
"That admiral isn't the captain's match. No way she forced him to his knees — you must have seen wrong!"
And besides, if Magnus had really been fighting an enemy…
Wouldn't there have been some noise?
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