"Alright. Humphrey, you don't have any objections, do you?"
Rosse stepped out of the carriage and stepped onto Humphrey's fat back.
Humphrey's body was quite stout, stepping on his back didn't feel much different from stepping on the ground.
"I don't dare."
Despair was written on Humphrey's face; Rosse's words didn't sound like he was asking for permission at all. How would he dare utter a single word of refusal?
He had long heard of the Celestial Dragons acting with wanton disregard, now he had finally seen it for himself.
"If you don't dare, then keep moving forward," Rosse lifted his foot and stepped on Humphrey's back, signaling him to move forward.
He didn't care whether Humphrey had any complaints in his heart.
To him, Humphrey was no different from ordinary civilians. The only difference might be that civilians could become his assets in the future, while Humphrey could only hinder him from acquiring more assets.
If Humphrey truly had the hearts of the people, he certainly wouldn't do this.
The method of verification was simple. Humphrey had been crawling for so long, yet not a single person nearby expressed pity for this king.
With his Observation Haki, Rosse could hear all sounds within 200 meters around him.
There was no shortage of onlookers, and the whispered discussions were all gloating, clearly reflecting this king's reputation.
"Yes, Your Highness!", Humphrey dared not disobey and could only crawl forward continuously, like a giant zombie crawling along the street.
Previously, Humphrey had always lived in luxury and had never done anything like this, so his crawling lacked any care for those behind. His whole body twisted awkwardly.
Yet Rosse stood steadily on his back, as if standing on unmoving ground, completely unaffected by Humphrey's crawling.
With his strength, maintaining balance wasn't difficult. It just consumed slightly more energy than walking on his own.
But it was exactly this way that achieved the effect he wanted.
In this world, there were benevolent kings, but without strength, they would only become fat meat that everyone wanted to take a bite of.
If one had strength, whether a benevolent king or a tyrant, no one would dare resist.
And after occupying a piece of land, a tyrant's policies always showed results faster than those of a benevolent king.
Because those who dared resist would truly die.
The port district was already one of the areas where news spread fastest, and the fact that Humphrey was being ridden by Rosse was spreading at an unbelievable speed.
Before Humphrey had even crawled through a single street, this news had already spread through the port district and was now spreading toward the royal capital and even other cities on the island.
Some people were joyful, some were afraid, some were scared, some were excited, some were gloating, some were discussing heatedly.
The full spectrum of human emotions played out in every corner of Jaygarcia Island.
The crowd gathered around Rosse was also growing.
Especially when they noticed that Rosse didn't mind their presence. Occasionally even nodding and greeting them, the number of civilians gathering increased even more.
Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of a Celestial Dragon's demeanor. Especially this one who had recently livestreamed a buster call.
And someone had just spread the word that this Celestial Dragon's surname was Jaygarcia.
That was the name of their island, and the noble surname that the Lanka Kingdom always claimed when asserting legitimacy.
Today, they had seen the man himself, and he was riding their king.
"Your Highness...", As the crowd grew denser, the despair on Humphrey's face deepened.
Now he had only one hope left, that the crowd would grow too large and displease Rosse, prompting him to order the onlookers all be killed.
Humphrey still remembered, Rosse had previously said he didn't like crowds.
At this moment, Humphrey was also secretly glad that he had notified everyone at the royal palace in advance that rewards and punishments would be decided based on their behavior after the Celestial Dragon's arrival.
It was precisely because these commoners knew that he would settle scores later that they didn't go too far. At most, when he crawled clumsily, some couldn't hold back quiet laughter.
If they had shown open malice and stirred up trouble, and if Rosse had gotten excited, he might really have been executed on the spot.
If he had to be a mount, so be it. Being a Celestial Dragon's mount wasn't necessarily shameful.
'This kind of task is usually only done by special slaves... slaves... slaves...'
In that moment, Humphrey's thoughts grew increasingly bleak.
His hands suddenly failed to support him, and with a "plop," he collapsed to the ground.
Rosse, who was standing on his back, also staggered slightly due to the unexpected fall, causing the nearby civilians to cry out in alarm and call out in warning.
If the Celestial Dragon fell here, they might all die.
Not daring to get too close, the civilians were watching from a distance. Even if they wanted to rush over to serve as a cushion, it was already too late.
Thud...
Under everyone's gaze, Rosse stumbled twice and ultimately failed to stabilize himself, falling from Humphrey's back.
While Rosse was still midair, Zannie instantly appeared beside him, kicking Humphrey aside, sending him crashing heavily into a stone house nearby.
Then, Zannie swiftly caught Rosse, landing steadily on the ground.
In truth, with Rosse's strength, he wouldn't have been harmed at all.
But to kill a member-nation king, one still had to come up with some kind of excuse.
The audience was already in place, some acting was necessary.
After thinking it over, Rosse decided to use his identity as leverage.
The social context was different, and so the excuse needed to change.
In a world led by the World Government, bullying commoners wasn't even considered an excuse. Everyone did it.
On the contrary, startling or endangering a Celestial Dragon was a capital offense.
A Celestial Dragon was startled, and CP0 instinctively acted to protect him. King Humphrey was accidentally caught in the crossfire and died unexpectedly.
The drama had reached its climax, now it was time for Rosse to bring it to a close.
"Humphrey!", Rosse landed on the ground and cast a deliberately cold gaze toward the fallen Humphrey.
With his Observation Haki, he had already sensed that Humphrey was now a corpse.
Zannie's strength exceeded even his. A light kick was more than enough to take Humphrey's life.
The nearby civilians, hearing Rosse's icy voice, instinctively backed away a few steps, afraid of being caught up in the incident.
A mishap involving a Celestial Dragon could bring an admiral. They didn't want to end up like Ohara, burned to death by magma.
At this moment, the royal guards who had silently followed behind could no longer pretend not to see, rushing in front of Humphrey in a hurry to check the situation.
The guard captain who reached Humphrey's body first squatted down and immediately widened his pupils in shock.
'His Majesty Humphrey, is dead?'
"His Majesty... has passed away," The captain's dazed voice instantly caused an uproar among the civilians.
No one had expected that Zannie's seemingly urgent kick had just now wiped out the king of the Lanka Kingdom.
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