Noblesse Privilege 5 (Patreon)

free chappy. New Year's Eve present!

Noblesse Privilege
Chapter 5

-VB-

Crocodile found the appearance and interference of the damnable World Noble to be a curse.

For one, if he touched a World Noble, then he would kiss his position as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea goodbye.

Two, this wasn’t a regular World Noble but one of his rivals in Paradise, Lord vel Monstrathum. That bastard and his underlings have been constantly cockblocking him whenever he tried to expand his influence. If he so much as raided one of his “allied” island kingdoms, then he nad his Baroque Works would be chased and harried for months, incurring losses far exceeding whatever they made off the raid.

Three, Lord vel Monstrathum was guarded by men and women equal to if not stronger than most of the Marine commodores. How that bastards gathered such talented people so quickly and in quality infuriated Crocodile to no end.

And fourth, the damnable “captain of the guards” of the vel Monstrathum: Luponte. That man was a direct counter to Crocodile himself. He couldn’t fight the water manipulating former marine and win.

He needed to find out why vel Monstrathum was here without risking his Baroque Works - not yet, anyway, because Baroque Works still had its uses for him.

And whatever caught vel Monstrathum’s attention needed to be immediately eliminated.

“Miss All Sunday.”

The slender and beautiful woman he could never claim for himself - for more than one reason - appeared from the shadows behind him and leaned down on the back of the couch. She ignored the naked women on the couch near Crocodile and his own nudity.

“Yes, Mr. 0?” she asked, her voice all sensual and teasing.

“I need you to find out why World Noble vel Monstrathum is here in Alabasta.”

“Hmm, that’s all?”

“That’s all. I’ll leave the aftermath to others.”

“You want this done quietly. I wonder why~?”

“You know damn why,” he spat without looking.

“Ah, yes. Mr. 5’s ill-advised assault on the Kingdom of Malmutta.”

Crocodile gritted his teeth.

Malmutta was a famous gemstone exporting kingdom. It would have been easy to just attack the shipping but the greedy bastard directly attacked the kingdom with thirty ships.

Malmutta obviously asked its ally to help, and vel Monstrathum was more than happy to help.

Because of that incident, Baroque Works lost Mr. 5, Miss Valentine, Mr. 9, and twenty-nine ships with all of their crews. If Mr. 5 had survived “The Purge of Mitriane Archipelago” which saw not just his own but also many other pirates wiped out from that region, then he would be kept alive and tortured for years to come for the shitfest he caused.

“Yes,” he gritted his teeth even more as his anger got the better of him but not enough for him to randomly lash out. Jessica, Myssa, and Tyssa were too good bitches for him to just off for a bit of anger. “That fiasco cost us our biggest slave port.”

“Oh, come off of it,” Miss All Sunday giggled. “It was barely profitable and you know it.”

“But it was mine.”

She shrugged. “Well, I’ll go and do what you asked. But don’t expect much. That World Noble has Luponte with him.”

“I know. Just … something.”

“I understand.”

And then she was gone.

Crocodile honestly didn’t like Nico Robin, the sole survivor of a Buster Call to date. However, she had a unique skill that he needed, which was why he let her be. In his view, women were only useful as minions or fucktoys, like Jessica, Myssa, and Tyssa. Giving one like Nico Robin authority second only to his made him annoyed.

The sooner he got get rid of her, the better.

-VB-

“What is our lord doing?” Luponte asked the maid in charge of serving their master. Normally, he would just go and talk to Geoffrey. However, Luponte was a little pissed about the latest sequence of events that he knew that he would more than likely become furiously nag at his master.

So he chose not to.

“He’s exercising,” the maid replied evenly.

So nothing weird or outrageous.

“He hasn’t tried to escape?”

“Once and succeeded. However, that was to check up on the pair that he had you rescue, sir.”

Lunponte scratched his head before clicking his tongue in distaste.

He looked out into the port city just in time to find a small group approaching the ship. They weren’t Baroque Works, whose operatives usually dressed as commoners. Instead, this group wore the royal colors of the Alabasta’s royal family and carried a small banner.

They were messengers.

This group of five, one herald and four guards, came to a halt ten meters from the foot of the gangway.

“Hear ye, hear ye-!”

Oh gods, that guy intended to shout everything out in public.

“Halt!” he shouted from the deck as he walked down the gangway before the herald could say anything. “You come before the Grand Galleon of the World Noble Geoffrey Goldman Achstein vel Monstrathum. State your name, position, and purpose!”

The herald froze before he cleared his throat nervous.

“I am Amazana Tomtom, Herald of the Royal House of Nefertari. I bring with me the reply of my king to World Noble Geoffrey Goldman Achstein vel Monstrathum.”

Luponte hummed. That was what he had suspected. No royalty would refuse an audience, “granted” or “requested” by a World Noble. “You are granted passage onto the ship. However, any sudden move or even a smidgen of hostile intent will not be tolerated. Is that understood?”

The herald hurriedly nodded.

He led them up the gangway and onto the deck. “Stay here.” Then he grabbed one of the sailors and told them to get their master.

The sailor hurriedly ran off to get their master, and within five minutes, Geoffrey vel Monstrathum stood before the herald and his bodyguards.

Immediately when Geoffrey came to a stop, the herald got on one knee.

“All of Alabasta Kingdom and I am honored to meet a World Noble of your standing!” the herald exclaimed. “I bring with me the reply of my king, and humbly asks you to accept his message scroll!”

Then one of the bodyguards slowly stood up, having knelt with the herald, and brought forth a box.

Geoffrey didn’t bother to have someone else check its contents first before he accepted and opened it.

He pulled out the scroll therewithin, unraveled, and read the message to himself.

“Hmm.”

Lunponte raised an eyebrow at that. Had it been a rejection? It would be ballsy of the Nefertari family if they did that.

“I will gladly go and meet King Nefertari within his capital. Luponte! Let us sail the ship up the river! Herald, you and your guards may remain with me until we reach your upriver port.”

Luponte rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses before he turned to the captain of the ship. “You heard the master! We sail upriver!”

And soon, the ship was filled with activity.

Luponte wondered how Cobra has been all these years.