The sound of news birds flapping their wings echoed in the sky. One of them landed on the armrest of Alucard’s chair. Alucard dropped a few Berries into the pouch hanging around its neck, then pulled out a newspaper. The news bird flapped its wings again and flew off with its flock.
Alucard unfolded the newspaper. The front page displayed his face and his new bounty poster.
"The Rulusas Massacre’s Perpetrator — Dracula D. Alucard, Slaughterer of 30,000 Soldiers from Two Nations!"
Bounty: 500,000,000 Berries
In just about a month, his bounty had risen from 400 million to 500 million. In this era, besides a young Roger and Whitebeard years ago, no one else had achieved such speed, had they?
"Has that female soldier arrived?"
Through the perception of the Vampire Mark, Alucard could accurately know Alessia’s location. He was currently tracking her from behind. Once she stopped, he would be able to fully confirm the location of the Concordia Kingdom ruins. After all, Alucard had no idea how to get to the Concordia ruins; he merely knew of its existence from casually reading books and newspapers.
Currently, Alessia was still moving, meaning she hadn’t reached her destination. Since that was the case, he didn’t need to rush to catch up; he could just follow her slowly.
If the Marines or the Government found out about his cooperation with her, the matter of obtaining the stone tablet would likely fall through.
Meanwhile, Sengoku had concluded his investigation in Exeter and returned to Headquarters to report the incident, proposing his idea that Aliya, or rather Alessia, might possess some secret related to Alucard. He argued that finding and questioning her was absolutely necessary.
Following the Rulusas Massacre, Alucard had been classified as a pirate whose danger level rivaled that of Kaido of the Beasts and Charlotte Linlin. Deploying such resources for him was entirely justified.
This matter was quickly approved, and Marine Vice Admiral Tsuru, the Chief of Staff, led a contingent of female soldiers to investigate.
However, a few days later, while sailing along the route Borsalino had investigated, they reached the next island. Their investigation revealed that Alessia had bought a small boat there and left alone, heading in an unknown direction, thus severing the trail.
After some thought, Tsuru decided to patrol the nearby seas for a while, hoping to get lucky, before returning to Headquarters to report.
Two days later, another piece of breaking news arrived: The Roger Pirates and the Golden Lion Pirates’ negotiations had collapsed, and both sides had re-entered conflict. However, the Roger Pirates seized the opportunity to escape in time, not giving Shiki the Golden Lion a chance.
Although the captains of both crews had clashed once, the battle was temporarily halted due to the intervention of a third party, Whitebeard.
The Roger Pirates and the Golden Lion Pirates’ fleet left Whitebeard’s territory, but it was only a matter of time before they would clash again.
With the immediate threat from Roger and Shiki gone, Whitebeard was now determined to seek revenge for his son, Drew, the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates’ Second Division, against Alucard.
He had seen the recent news as well.
After the Rulusas Massacre, Alucard’s bounty had soared to 500 million, and none of his own division commanders or units could face him alone.
Whitebeard knew he had to go himself.
Although the Whitebeard Pirates’ intelligence gathering was top-tier among pirates, it was nowhere near the level of the World Government, which had connections everywhere.
The New World’s environment was also incredibly complex, making it difficult to find a single person like Alucard.
Whitebeard wasn’t foolish enough to cast a wide net and send all his men searching. Instead, he concentrated his forces, gathering over forty ships and more than thirty affiliated pirate crews in the nearby sea areas, temporarily forming a force no less formidable than Shiki the Golden Lion’s fleet, the world’s greatest pirate fleet.
He used this formidable, ironclad formation to sweep through the seas, sending out only a small portion of his forces as a search party.
It had to be said, Whitebeard was truly smart. If he had cast a wide net, he wouldn’t have been the first to get information on Alucard; instead, he would have received news of more of his men being killed by Alucard. Concentrating most of his power and using a small portion for scouting was indeed the correct approach.
After a week, through the Vampire Mark left on Alessia’s hand, Alucard sensed that Alessia had remained in one place for over three days. Without a doubt, she had reached the ruins of the Concordia Kingdom.
"You certainly made me wait, soldier."
Alucard lifted the wine glass from the armrest of his chair and drained it in one gulp, then commanded his ship to accelerate.
It was truly exciting, incredibly exciting.
Something that even the World Government desired so much they would destroy a nation to obtain it.
It was like the Buster Call that destroyed Ohara to protect the Government’s secrets. How interesting! How could he miss something so intriguing?!
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my ——— (.)com/JuanFiction [remove the parentheses ( )]
There are over 100 advance Chapters available for you!