While the Navy's cold buffet on the warship was bustling with noise, the welcoming banquet held far away on Minion Island in the North Blue was by no means inferior.
Minion Island, constantly swept by wind and snow throughout the year, always exuded a sense of desolation. Thick ice and snow covered the entire island; stepping down, the accumulated snow could easily reach the knee height of an ordinary person.
The closer to the island's center, the steeper the terrain became. Towering mountain rocks, adorned by snowflakes, concealed their own sheer cliffs, instead draping themselves in a layer of snow-white velvet gauze.
On this sparsely populated island, several exquisite and beautiful villas were still standing. Taking advantage of the hilly terrain that was easy to defend and hard to attack, Navy officer Lindeman, under the alias [Kil'jaeden], had constructed strong defensive lines in the mountaintop area.
Out of safety considerations, the silver-haired fox deliberately set up this secluded island as the main base for the underground merchant guild. Doflamingo was not like the ill-informed Fish-Man slave traders on Fish-Man Island, nor was he Jack the Drought, who possessed only brute force and was tricked by him into running circles.
This underground black market intermediary, whose tentacles extended into the New World seas, handled arms dealing, smuggling, slave trading, and many other black and gray industries.
And what Lindeman worried about was precisely that this Heavenly Yaksha, who undoubtedly had extensive connections and information channels, could see through his fake identity. The bounty poster for [The Deceiver] was still hanging on the New World black market lists. The Donquixote family, well-known in the dark world, could very likely discern Vice Admiral Sakazuki's strategic layout through his identity.
Lindeman, posing as an arms dealer, relied on the ability of the Clear-Clear Fruit to appear and disappear unpredictably among various scattered neutral arms dealers and underworld forces. Even in situations requiring negotiation and leadership encouragement, the fox tried his best to wrap himself up like a mummy.
Even though the name of the arms dealer [Kil'jaeden] was already known to everyone in the North Blue's underworld, no one had ever seen his true face.
"Boss, should I go get a few more boxes of ingredients from the warehouse?" A gangster wearing a suit and sunglasses leaned close to Lindeman's ear and asked in a low voice.
The Navy spy, wrapped up like a bandage monster, turned his head slightly, glanced at the gradually diminishing food beside him, and nodded to the subordinate who proposed this: "Of course, bring up a few dozen more drinks while you're at it. We absolutely must not neglect our distinguished guest."
Watching his subordinate walk away, he maintained his signature smile, softly seeking the opinion of this guest who had come from afar: "Do you need any other dishes? Your Excellency Vice-Warden Shiliew."
"General Lindeman, are all your subordinates this kind of ragtag bunch?" Shiliew, having received orders from his new boss and rushed from Impel Down to the North Blue to assist, was relatively satisfied with this smiling person in charge before him.
This fellow before him was said to be Sakazuki's trusted favorite general, but after a brief introduction of a few minutes, Shiliew frowned—Lindeman's forces were a bit too motley.
Besides the gang member who came over to ask just now, there were small arms dealers who actively pledged allegiance to [Kil'jaeden], and some pirate hunters who made a living hunting pirates were also attracted by the merchant guild's generous employment fees and became guards.
Lindeman could only smile bitterly at this. Although Shiliew's words weren't pleasant to hear, in just one year, the limit of his ability was to scrape together a merchant guild that could occupy one-third of the North Blue arms market.
Development that pursued speed too excessively always left behind many underlying problems. The internal resource allocation ratio of the merchant guild, the influx of motley members... But even more troublesome were the original North Blue Navy personnel—Diez Barrels and his group's handling.
This group of North Blue stationed Navy personnel, whose resolve was originally weak, upon seeing the rapid growth of arms dealer [Kil'jaeden]'s power and his ability to grasp the lifeline of weapons behind the backs of various North Blue nations, the leading Navy base commissioned officer Diez Barrels came knocking.
Hoping to cooperate with him, this "bold" arms dealer. Not only that, this bastard commissioned officer from the North Blue directly used the ultra-rare Devil Fruit—the Ope Ope Fruit—which he somehow obtained, as an entry fee, conveniently listing it under this intermediary platform to engage in transactions with the World Government.
Although the fox wore the skin of an arms dealer, in reality, he was merely executing a classified mission with authorization and record.
But the actions of Diez Barrels and his group of Navy traitors nearly threw the Deceiver off balance.
Originally intending to contact Onigumo stationed at the base to lead a fleet over and clean house, the master spy, fearing exposure, could only feign civility with Diez Barrels. For the sake of the Ope Ope Fruit, he temporarily accepted them into the merchant guild.
"Not only a ragtag army, but also former Navy personnel..." The fox, caught between laughter and tears, recounted this massive misunderstanding to Shiliew.
How to characterize this group of North Blue rebels became an incredibly tangled problem for the fox. If you say they betrayed the Navy, yet in these few months, they energetically helped this merchant guild rope in more neutral members.
Put this way, they were actually following him, a Headquarters general, in executing a classified mission.
But if you say they didn't betray, this kind of turncoat behavior made Lindeman grind his teeth in hatred.
Just as he wanted to hear the esteemed opinion of the former Impel Down Vice-Warden, before the other could speak, a panicked voice transmitted from far to near.
"Boss! Something's wrong!" The gangster who had just gone to the warehouse to move food and drinks came running towards them, stumbling and crawling. "There's a huge net covering the sky above the island we're on!"
"A huge net?" Kil'jaeden, wrapped in bandages, sounded somewhat puzzled. "What huge net?"
When his gaze turned towards the window, his eyes suddenly focused sharply. Through the glass window, he clearly saw a group of figures of various sizes slowly approaching his defensive works.
The person leading them, he couldn't be more familiar with. Although they had never met face-to-face, Lindeman had engaged in numerous open and hidden clashes with the other party over the past year. The leader of the Donquixote family—Donquixote Doflamingo!
Subsequently, miserable howls and roars mixed with terror from outside the window echoed through the center of the island.
"Enemy attack!!!"
Lindeman's face turned extremely ugly. He never expected that before their Burning Legion could cooperate with the Vinsmoke family to close the net, the opponent would preemptively net him instead.
Shiliew beside him, however, looked calm as usual. But for some reason, this seemingly mature and steady Vice-Warden's body trembled slightly.
He had waited for so long in that gloomy prison; how could those small fry satisfy his bloodthirsty appetite? And having been in the North Blue for less than a day, he unexpectedly stumbled upon a "delicacy" that looked mouth-watering just waiting for him.
"Hahahaha, General Lindeman, thank you! This is truly an unparalleled welcoming feast!" Laughing wildly, Shiliew crashed straight through the wall in the next instant.
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