As Buano John fell, gunshots and the sound of blades slicing into flesh imdiately rang out all around, accompanied by a wave of screams.
"Mr. Cody, be careful!"
Bucks and Sherwin shielded Cody right away, and Sherwin even protected Sanji ow behind him. Klee ow, anwhile, clung to his shoulder, sticking her little head out without a trace of fear, curiously looking around.
The guards of the other rchants reacted similarly, all quickly protecting their respective employers.
But they soon realized that the attack wasn’t targeting the rchants at all—the ones falling were all from the Buano family...
The rchants who had just reached an agreent with the Buano family suddenly looked quite uneasy.
The situation couldn’t be clearer: the Simont and Capone families had joined forces to strike against the Buano family.
"Relax, relax, everyone." The second son of the Simont family stepped forward and took the microphone from the now stone-cold John. "You might not know . I’m Lane—Simont Lane."
Watching Lane actions, Sherwin couldn’t help but shake his head. Soone just died on that stage, and he still dared to get up there—wasn’t he afraid of ending up like Buano John?
But this second son didn’t seem worried at all. Smiling, he tried to soothe everyone, "That was just a small internal disagreent. It been resolved now, and it won’t affect our transactions.
For those of you who just negotiated with the Buano family, soone will co speak with you again soon. Don’t worry—we’ll do our best to preserve the terms Buano promised."
Under his reassurance, the rchants quickly cald down. Being based in the West Blue, they were already used to gang warfare. They had seen plenty of scenes like this. This one was just... slightly larger in scale.
At the sa ti, they understood now why, during the earlier contest for recruits, the Simont and Capone families had yielded so easily.
But while the rchants had quieted down, the Buano family—suddenly betrayed by their allies—couldn’t stay calm. A high-ranking mber of the Buano family who had been shot in the lung and wasn’t dead yet spat out blood and roared in rage,
"Why?! Why are you doing this to us?!"
Betrayals between gangs were nothing new, but among the three families, Buano and Simont had actually been closer.
Their philosophies and styles were more aligned, and they had always looked down on the reckless, unapologetic Capone family.
"Because if we didn’t move against you, Gures would’ve fallen entirely into the Buano family hands..." Lane still wore that sa smile, but the look in his eyes turned vicious as he stared at the high-ranking Buano mber.
"Becoming a mber nation to receive protection from the World Governnt, and then openly collecting taxes from the people—that was the collaboration plan you proposed back then.
But you never said anything about wanting to secretly ditch us and let only the Buano family beco royalty... You nearly got away with it."
Gradually, Lane smile faded completely. He clenched his teeth as he spoke, but in the next mont, the smile returned to his face—this ti even more cheerful.
"But now... the ones who will beco royalty will be us—Simont and Capone."
The high-ranking mber turned pale, then lowered his head in despair. Now that the sche had been exposed, it was only natural that the other two families would join forces to eliminate them.
He wasn’t the only one—those Buano mbers who had still been cursing monts ago also fell silent. Maybe they hadn’t known about their family plan, but they certainly understood what happened to gangs that lost power in these kinds of struggles.
"What, all settled?"
Capone Bege, dressed in his signature pinstripe suit and chewing on a cigar, returned to the scene at this point. However, his two distinctive subordinates weren’t with him this ti.
"Of course. What about your side?" Simont Lane kept his smile as he shot the question back.
"No idea." Capone Bege took the cigar from his mouth, seemingly oblivious to the way Lane face suddenly darkened. He slowly exhaled a puff of smoke and continued in his usual unhurried tone:
"But I have faith in my n. I imagine in a few more minutes, we’ll be hearing so good news."
Only then did Lane expression ease up a bit. He forced out a smile and warned, "Don’t underestimate the Buano family. If your n don’t handle them in ti, the opening we fought so hard for in this deal could all go to waste."
Just then, the high-ranking Buano mber, who had slumped in defeat monts ago, suddenly raised his voice and shouted: "The World Governnt would never allow a country to have two royal families!"
But his attempt to sow discord had no effect. Capone Bege, still biting down on his cigar, sneered and replied, "So what? I couldn’t care less about becoming royalty. If your Buano family had co to us Capones to cooperate in the first place, maybe none of this would’ve happened today."
What a load of bullshit!
Sherwin, who knew Capone Bege personality like the back of his hand, silently cursed in his heart.
That part about having no interest in royal status might actually be true. Because for Capone Bege, war was like bombs to Klee ow—just a personal hobby. His favorite things to do were chopping off fellow gangsters heads and betraying alliances. Status and territory ca second.
Precisely because of that, whether or not the Buono family sought Capone Bege cooperation, he would’ve made a move anyway...
Looks like the Simuent family days are numbered too.
"Y-Young master Ryan! Sothing terrible happened!"
Sherwin might just have the gift of prophecy—or maybe he just a jinx. He was just thinking about how the Simuent family didn’t have many good days left, when a blood-soaked gangster stumbled in from outside.
"What the hell happened?! Weren’t you guys working with the Capone family to wipe out the Buono family forces on the island?!" Ryan asked urgently.
Bang!
Another gunshot rang out. The gangster didn’t get a chance to answer—his head exploded.
"Sorry, Godfather. Let the punk slip through and he ended up here, lick."
Weird Gun Vito strolled over to Capone Bege, casually apologizing as he twirled his massive revolvers, clearly not taking the situation seriously.
"It fine. The result the sa anyway."
Capone Bege clearly agreed, waving dismissively without a care.
"Capone!"
Ryan eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Bege, unable to fathom where the bastard got the nerve to declare war on both families at once.
What more, most of the Capone family had gone off to deal with the Buono family—inside the palace, the Simuent family had the numbers advantage.
"I’ll kill you!"
Ryan whipped out a handgun from his coat and aid it at Capone Bege head.
At the sa ti, the Simuent family n in the hall all pointed their weapons at Capone Bege and Weird Gun Vito.
But Capone Bege acted like he didn’t see a thing. He flicked the ash from his cigar, then casually made a grabbing motion toward Vito beside him—and just like that, whoosh, Vito vanished.
"Open fire!"
Ryan didn’t understand what was going on, but he didn’t hesitate—he pulled the trigger instantly.
In an instant, the hall erupted with gunfire. The entire Simuent family, including Ryan, collapsed in pools of blood. As for their target, Capone Bege—his appearance had drastically changed. His body had transford into a brick-like structure, effortlessly blocking all the incoming attacks.
Then, several door-like openings appeared on his brick body. One by one, mbers of the Capone family, including Weird Gun Vito, charged out from within.
"D-Devil Fruit!"
Lying on the ground, riddled with bullets, Ryan instantly realized where Capone Bege confidence ca from.
Beyond the power granted by the fruit itself, Capone Bege had always kept an entire force hidden inside his body. That ant the Capone family actual strength was far greater than it appeared on the surface.
Capone Bege ignored Ryan completely. Instead, he casually strolled over to Sherwin.
"Told you, didn’t I? Once the trade fair over, Gules wouldn’t be so safe."
"So that what you ant..."
Sherwin nodded in understanding, then praised him, "Pretty impressive."
"Hmhmhm... Hahahahaha!!!"
Bege chuckled at first, then burst into full-blown laughter. "Interesting, brat. I’ll give you a chance..."
He tapped his cigar against Vito, who was flicking his long tongue in and out. "Beat my subordinate, and I won’t pursue what happened earlier."
After saying that, Bege even glanced at Uncle Cody. It was subtle, but Sherwin still caught it.
So it because of Uncle Cody mysterious identity again?
Tch... Still underestimating , huh...
Sherwin clicked his tongue in irritation, then gripped the hilt of his longsword, ready to step up and give Capone Bege a lesson he wouldn’t forget.
And then his face was suddenly grabbed and turned by a pair of tiny paws reaching out from the side.
"Klee wants to fight the bad guys too, ow!"
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