Chapter 298: Kneel Down
Les and the others had never expected the boy who seemed frozen by fear moments earlier to suddenly speak.
Nisibi frowned.
"Kid, trying to play the hero at a time like this usually ends badly."
Les said nothing, but his grip tightened around his rifle.
The others did the same.
Axel merely smiled and shook his head.
"Play the hero?"
He sounded genuinely puzzled.
"No. I just think your plan is terrible."
Nisibi raised an eyebrow.
"Terrible?"
"Completely."
Axel looked toward Vivi.
"If you're going to make someone look ridiculous, at least put some effort into it. A ridiculous costume, cat ears, ribbons, maybe paint her face. Something memorable."
The room went silent.
Vivi's expression slowly darkened.
So much for thinking he had finally decided to help.
This idiot really was impossible.
Les's face twisted.
"Are you mocking us?"
The others looked equally displeased.
Axel's suggestion sounded so absurd in the middle of such a tense situation that none of them could take it as anything but ridicule.
"I was being completely serious."
Axel sighed with what almost sounded like genuine disappointment.
"Though your room really is unusually lively tonight."
Vivi frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Before she could finish, two figures appeared in the broken doorway.
They blocked the only easy exit.
Les and his companions noticed them immediately.
Nobody raised a weapon.
Nobody even dared move.
One was an otter wearing sunglasses, armed with metal claws.
The other was a vulture carrying firearms.
The Unluckies.
Baroque Works' messengers.
Orders from Mr. 0 were frequently delivered through them, and those orders were often assassination assignments. Their appearances rarely brought good news, which was how they had earned their infamous name.
Attacking the Unluckies was no different from openly defying Baroque Works.
Les and the others possessed neither the strength nor the courage to do that.
The two animals entered the room.
Les, Nisibi, and their companions immediately stepped aside.
Then something happened that left almost everyone staring.
The Unluckies approached the bed.
And bowed respectfully to Axel.
Les's face went pale.
Someone with the standing of Baroque Works' personal messengers was bowing to the young man they had just threatened.
Vivi's surprise came from somewhere else entirely.
Did Axel have some connection to Baroque Works?
Axel looked at the pair.
"The Unluckies?"
The otter stepped forward.
"Lord Axel, we have received a message from the Boss."
"He wishes to invite you to join Baroque Works."
The moment Axel's name was spoken, Les, Nisibi, and the others stopped breathing.
Axel.
They knew that name.
Of course they did.
They had spent years investigating it.
Combined with the Unluckies' respectful attitude, there was only one conclusion.
This was the criminal with a bounty of four hundred million Berries.
And they had just barged into his room with guns.
Les felt cold sweat run down his back.
They had practically walked into their own graves.
Axel seemed far less interested in their panic.
"How did you know it was me?"
The Unluckies answered without hesitation.
"Someone of your status cannot completely conceal their presence, no matter where they go."
Axel stared at them.
Then he laughed.
"If that were true, wouldn't the Marines find me every day?"
He glanced toward Vivi.
"So I was right."
"It wasn't only this foolish woman who figured out who I was."
Vivi's eyebrow twitched.
In a place like Whiskey Peak, it would have been strange if she were the only one to notice.
Some people might have dismissed the resemblance because Axel had changed so much over three years, but there were hundreds of bounty hunters here.
At least a few were bound to be observant enough to make the connection.
And with the enormous reward Baroque Works had offered for information about him, there would always be people willing to risk making a report.
While Axel was thinking, the Unluckies turned toward Vivi.
"Miss Wednesday."
"Why did you fail to report this?"
Vivi's thoughts raced.
She could not afford to expose herself now.
If Crocodile realized that she had infiltrated Baroque Works for reasons of her own, someone as calculating as him would never allow her to continue operating freely.
She answered immediately.
"I wanted the credit for myself."
The Unluckies remained silent.
Vivi continued.
"And I wasn't certain his identity was genuine."
That explanation fit Baroque Works perfectly.
Self-interest was practically expected here.
Agents advanced by outperforming or replacing those above them.
Keeping valuable information secret until one could personally profit from it was hardly unusual.
And her second excuse was true as well.
Before Axel had demonstrated his strength, Vivi herself had wondered whether he might simply be an injured young man who happened to resemble the person in the reports.
Axel looked toward Les and the others.
"These people are Baroque Works members too, aren't they?"
The Unluckies nodded.
"They threatened me earlier."
Axel spoke with complete seriousness.
"If I join your organization, am I supposed to worry about being threatened every day?"
Everyone knew the complaint was absurd.
A man with a four-hundred-million-Berry bounty claiming to fear a handful of ordinary Whiskey Peak bounty hunters was ridiculous.
But nobody laughed.
The Unluckies turned toward Les's group.
Their response was immediate.
The otter raised its claws.
The vulture aimed its weapons.
Gunfire erupted.
Les barely had time to widen his eyes.
The difference in strength was overwhelming.
There was no battle.
No escape.
Within moments, Les, Nisibi, and the rest of their group lay motionless across the floor.
The room became quiet again.
The Unluckies lowered their weapons.
"Now you no longer need to worry about them."
Axel looked at the bodies.
"So this is how Baroque Works handles sincerity."
His lips curved slightly.
"Well, since you've gone this far..."
Vivi stared at him.
Her heart sank.
Was the person she had desperately hoped could help Alabasta really about to join Crocodile's organization instead?
Axel paused.
"I refuse."
The Unluckies froze.
Even Vivi blinked.
They had clearly expected many possible answers.
That was not one of them.
A normal person rejecting an invitation from Baroque Works would probably choose their words carefully.
Axel had done the opposite.
He had deliberately sounded as though he was about to agree, only to reject them without the slightest hesitation.
"I don't enjoy being under someone else's control."
Axel rested one arm against the bed.
"Though perhaps your invitation simply lacked sincerity."
The Unluckies watched him carefully.
"Next time, bring me a Log Pose pointing to Drum Island."
"Then perhaps we'll have something worth discussing."
The air changed.
Pressure descended over the room.
The Unluckies immediately tensed.
Their bodies were far stronger than their appearances suggested.
Years of training had hardened them enough to tear apart ordinary people with ease and withstand the violent recoil of heavy firearms.
None of that mattered.
Their legs buckled.
Both were forced downward.
Their knees struck the floor.
They tried to resist.
They could not.
The pressure vanished only after they were kneeling.
Axel looked down at them.
It was obvious he had placed them there deliberately.
"When you speak to me..."
His voice was calm.
"Kneeling is enough."
The relaxed, mischievous youth from moments earlier was gone.
Vivi felt the difference immediately.
There was no joking in his expression now.
No laziness.
Only overwhelming arrogance and authority, the presence of someone who treated submission as the natural order of things.
For the first time, the Unluckies experienced the same sensation they had inflicted on countless others.
Fear.
And beneath that fear was something even worse.
The realization that the person before them stood somewhere they could not reach.
....
https://discord.gg/KvMN2CFsMR
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03].