Ars was split, on one side he really wanted to help the refugees and obtain new talents for his kingdom, on the other side, it was a world government ship, he wasn't sure who would be on that ship. He knew there was a very low probability of an admiral being there, but there was a higher chance of one of the vice- admirals or one of the rear admirals.
If they went to get them, they needed to make sure to kill all people from the world government side, but in case they couldn't it could become very troublesome.
The next day, Ars still couldn't reach a decision, so he called Rook to try and reach a decision before the opportunity left.
Rook arrived after a few minutes, and Ars signaled him to sit and started explaining to him the situation.
"I can't decide if we should go help them or not…"
Rook opened his mouth to interrupt, but Ars interrupted him before Rook had the chance.
"Wait let me finish… Normally I would accept, but there is a chance of someone strong being there, and if it's someone with strength above a certain threshold, we would most likely, all die in that case and that would be the best case scenario… Worst case, someone gets captured and they manage to discover this island, in that case everyone here will die too or be captured as slaves. And honestly, I'm not too inclined to risk everyone's lives, including my own with just this information, if we wanted to execute this operation we would need the name of the present enemy fighters on that ship…"
Rook thought about it 'Yeah, if there is someone strong on that ship, even if they didn't all die, many would, and depending on the enemy strength it could lead to total annihilation…'and finally nodded. Since everything was going well, Rook had forgotten the consequences of failing.
Rook realized things weren't so simple, so he suggested.
"I could go to a nearby kingdom to seek information…"
Ars before he could even finish stopped him.
"No, you can't. If we attack the ship, the world government will definitely investigate, and we can't let anyone connect us to the incident, not now or in the future, no loose ends allowed, do you understand? After all, I don't want them to find us and much less give them a reason to attack us, especially while we are still weak."
Rook was surprised, but when he thought about it, it made sense to him, but then a question appeared in his head.
"Is the world government that strong?"
Ars nodded, explained calmly and looked a bit depressed.
"Even a vice admiral could kill everyone on this island quite easily, and the admirals could actually destroy not only the people but the whole island."
Rook for the first time realized how dangerous the world government really was, in his head he had realized that if the 3 strongest fighters in the marines were that strong, and they worked for the world government, then how many more at that level were under the world government command.
Ars knew that Rook might misunderstand a few things, but Rook had understood the general scenario and that was what was important, understanding they couldn't risk being associated with the attack.
Rook decided to leave the questions he had about the world government for later and concentrate on the task at hand, then looked at Ars eyes and suggested.
"Instead of a kingdom we could mask ourselves, and seek information, on a lawless island. I doubt that even if they connected the people making questions there with the attack, it would be hard to directly associate us with it, since we wouldn't have anything that could identify us at the time of acquiring the information. Besides probably some of the information brokers there, should be aware of who has come. And it wouldn't be a stretch for some pirates to want to know how dangerous it would be to set sail and risk accidentally finding that ship."
Ars thought about it and realized that Rook's idea was decent, so he looked at Rook, then ordered him.
"We will do as you suggested but we need to hurry, we still need to change the appearance of our ship, you can go directly to Tom and Oak and ask for their help, we also need cloaks and masks. And then get ready to depart."
Ars then remembered and added.
"Ask Tom to come along with us, and to bring a few extra helping hands, after the incident we will change the ship to its original appearance as fast as we can in a nearby island."
Ars then went to gather the men who would come along. The last few days, the number of their soldiers had increased by a large margin, now over 100 men strong, and they all had been training hard since they arrived on the island.
Ars decided to take 40 men with him for soldiers, with the addition of a medical apprentice and the building crew.
He looked at the men gathered, picked 40 and ordered.
"You 40 will come along on this mission, i will brief you guys in more detail later, meet us in 2 hours at the docks. The ones who will stay will guard the kingdom, and keep training."
"Yes, Sir!"
When Ars arrived at the dock, everyone was ready to depart, and the ship now looked completely different, with only the size of the ship being the same.
Ars looked at Oak and Tom and praised them.
"Good work, I barely recognize it."
Then he looked at one of the guards and ordered.
"Climb to one of the cliffs in front, to make sure there is no one around."
The guard nodded and started climbing while Ars and the people who would go on the trip, started embarking the ship.
Once all inside, the guard signaled them that the coast was clear and they departed.
Once on the open sea, he gathered everyone, and briefed them of the mission.
"As you probably expected by all the unusual circumstances, this mission will be risky if we proceed with it to the end, this mission is a secret mission, so no speaking about it, after we acquire more information we will decide if continue the mission or not, if all goes well and we proceed with it, expect a hard fight and we need to make sure in that case that other than the prisoners everyone else dies."
After Ars explained he nodded at Rook, who then started distributing masks and cloaks. When everyone had the items, Ars ordered them once more.
"From now to the end of the mission, these will always be on you, to make sure nobody recognizes you, and if someone asks for your identities either you refuse to give it, or make up a new one."
A day later they arrived at a nearby island filled with pirates and outlaws, Ars left to search for an information broker, and Rook stayed on the ship with the men to make sure no one dared to attack it.
Ars, after beating some sense in some idiots, got himself a guided tour of the island, and before long he arrived at the most well known information broker on the island. He let the idiots go and entered.
Inside, an attractive woman, smoking and reading a newspaper, ignored him until he sat across her table and poked her arm with a finger. She looked at him, unpleased by the interruption, almost snarling at him, before asking with an angry face.
"What do you want? If what you're seeking is the way to the masked ball in hell, I can help you reach it for free and fast!"
He looked at her and sighed, finally he replied with a question.
"Are you always so lovely to all your clients?"
That calmed her down, and she replied curiously.
"Hooo… A client you say, don't get many of those around here, my usual visits are idiots trying to buy liquor before I politely kick them out."
Ars smiled and teased her back a bit.
"Politely!? Must be a different birth place, and here is a free tip, maybe if you were a bit kinder you would have more clients."
She smiled and politely replied.
"You don't survive here by being kind, the best politeness I can offer is a kick to the middle of the street."
Then he looked at her in the eyes and got to business.
"How much is information about the world government ship currently sailing toward the nearest kingdom, to take the captured rebels and their families back to impel down or to be sold as slaves?"
She dropped her newspaper on the table and replied calmly.
"You need to be more specific, what do you really want to know?"
He nodded and clarified.
"I want the names of the highest command on the ship. To be precise, I want to know, if we meet that ship and they attack us, what are the chances of us escaping??"
She managed to understand what Ars wanted and looked at him and answered.
"That is gonna cost you a bit, 2.000.000 berries for the info, after all it's risky to spread information on the world government."
Ars nodded, took two bags of money from a larger bag he had brought along, and gave her one, paying half up front, she looked at him and questioned.
"There is only half of it here?"
Ars replied.
"Half before and another half after I get the information."
She nodded, and gave the information Ars wanted.
"The commander of this mission is a Captain nicknamed Bury, there shouldn't be anyone else strong on the ship, and even that captain is not that strong, he just gets things done quickly and doesn't hesitate to get his hands dirty for the world government… Well he also buries a lot of gold into his own pockets… But because he gives a cut to them, they ignore it. "
Ars nodded, sounded like the usual corrupt official, then asked.
"Are you sure, that's all of them?"
She nodded but didn't explain why, that wasn't part of the deal.
He thought it was strange and asked to himself, 'Is she trying to deceive me?'.
He gave her the rest of the money, and left the cabin, but hid himself nearby, he thought she would follow, to get more information on him, but she didn't. So he approached her cabin as quietly as possible, and tried to find out if she was trying to use a den den mushi to cause him trouble.
When he approached, she was indeed talking on den den mushi, but not to who he expected.
She was calling the revolutionaries, informing them of a new pirate crew asking questions. After listening to the conversation he understood why there was only a captain on the ship, the revolutionaries had caused a problem nearby and the world government agents left to try to catch them, and left the mission to the corrupt captain that had previously worked with them.
He left towards his ship, and the moment he got there they departed to the predicted target path, to ambush it later. He looked at Rook and explained what he had discovered.
"Apparently the revolutionaries caused trouble for the world government nearby, and the agents left the mission of escorting the prisoners to a corrupt marine officer. So, if everything goes well, the mission should be easier than expected."
They arrived at their intended location a while later, and anchored on a nearby large rock formation, since there was no ship in sight, they rested and prepared for battle.