Dressrosa Royal Palace, main hall.
A tense atmosphere hung heavy. King Riku Dold III paced near the window, his hands clasped behind his back, occasionally glancing into the distance, his face filled with anxiety and restlessness.
Scarlett and Violet also stood near the window, accompanying King Riku. Violet, the black-haired girl, closed her eyes, channeling her Giro Giro no Mi ability, and provided live commentary in a soft voice.
"Amazing! As soon as Sephiroth engaged, he wounded the dinosaur-man, Nock, in the eye. However, the man with the twin swords, Viktor, suddenly got involved..."
Although the scenes of war and killing flashing in her mind made Violet uncomfortable, it wasn't the first time she had witnessed death in battle with her Giro Giro no Mi ability. Therefore, she wasn't afraid of the bloody occurrences; instead, so that her Father and sister could understand the true situation, she conveyed and described the circumstances as much as possible through words, in a neutral yet informative tone.
"Huh!?... Wait, what's happening? Why are so many civilians coming to the Royal Palace? Those... are pirates!!" The black-haired girl suddenly gasped. She was about to shift her focus to the East Coast to see how the situation was with Zephyr, but she was utterly shocked to find hundreds of Kingdom civilians being herded and led towards the Royal Palace by over a hundred pirates carrying firearms.
"How did they get from the outskirts of the Kingdom to the central area...?" Scarlett hissed, astonished.
Hearing this, King Riku's brows immediately furrowed, and he quickly asked: "What? Pirates have gotten in? From which direction?"
"This way!" Violet pointed outside the main hall, and filled with worry, King Riku immediately rushed out quickly and utilized the height of the Royal Palace building to look outside. Soon after, he saw a crowd of civilians gathered at the entrance of the square in front of the Royal Palace, pushed together by pirates holding weapons, clearly held hostage.
A young man in coarse linen clothing, dressed like a civilian, holding a standard sword, and with short blue hair, stood in front of the crowd, shouting loudly: "King Riku! Do you see? Your people are in my hands..."
"Now, if you don't want them all killed by me, then show yourself and negotiate with me! I'll give you two minutes. If I don't see you in person by then, I'll kill all these civilians!" The threat echoed, shaking the atmosphere.
Following closely behind King Riku, the captain of the Royal Army guards who had emerged from the main hall, upon seeing the blue-haired man's face clearly, said with a shocked expression: "That's Dylan Yerrick, with a bounty of 170 million Berries...!? How did he get into the central territory of the Kingdom? And he's leading over a hundred pirates..."
King Riku clenched his fists, his expression looking somewhat grim: "Now is not the time to discuss this. I will negotiate with that man!" After speaking, he turned and immediately walked towards the main entrance of the Royal Palace, determination radiating from his face.
"No! Your Majesty the King, this is too dangerous, you cannot yield to the other party's coercion! Now we have only ten men fewer... they have over a hundred. If they start shooting at you..." The guard captain tried to restrain him.
"Silence! Do you want me to abandon my own people?" King Riku retorted angrily, stopping the guard captain from continuing. He, who had always practiced "benevolent rule," absolutely could not tolerate innocent civilians in the Kingdom dying tragically before his eyes—a deeply held principle. He knew that such soft-heartedness was clearly not a capacity a King should possess, but... Knowing was one thing, but doing it was another!
Soon after, King Riku, accompanied by ten armed guards, stood on the wall at the main entrance of the Royal Palace, appearing before Dylan Yerrick, directly confronting the threat. Scarlett and Violet, on the other hand, cautiously followed behind, hiding at the corner of the wall, quietly observing everything outside the square, their hearts pounding.
King Riku, protected by the ten guards behind him, wore a serious expression and shouted loudly: "Dylan Yerrick, what do you want for me to release my people?"
Hearing this, the blue-haired man burst into laughter, a hint of disdain in his tone: "Hahaha! This progress... turned out to be so easy! I didn't expect King Riku, you would be so easily fooled..."
"You actually..." King Riku frowned slightly, a bad premonition haunting him, but his words were not yet finished...
The next moment. Whish! Dylan Yerrick, who had just been standing below in the square, suddenly disappeared! Immediately after, King Riku felt a chill on his neck, and a sword was placed at his throat—too fast to react.
"Nobody move! Otherwise, I'll kill him!" The blue-haired man sneered and seized King Riku, while the guards, slow to react, immediately raised their firearms and pointed their muzzles at him, yet were powerless.
"Father!" "Father!"
Scarlett and Violet, filled with anxiety, immediately emerged from the corner, staring at their Father with tense expressions, horror radiating from their eyes. After Yerrick glanced at the guards on the wall and the two girls, the smile on his lips became even more pronounced, a victorious grin.
Whish! Once again, under the shocked gazes of the guards on the wall, the blue-haired man completely disappeared from the wall with King Riku, reappearing in the square, as if blinking.
"This... Devil Fruit ability?" King Riku's eyes widened in surprise as he surveyed the square and the wall at the Royal Palace entrance, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"Hahaha! That's right, I'm the user of the Wapu Wapu no Mi, Paramecia-type! I can accurately teleport anywhere within my line of sight!" Yerrick's face beamed with a wild, arrogant smile. He waved his hand, telling his subordinates to fetch ropes to tie up King Riku, cementing his capture.
After the princess kidnapping incident in Dressrosa, martial law was imposed, prohibiting foreign ships from entering, and soldiers patrolled and guarded the ports and main streets everywhere to prevent pirates from sneaking in. Those carrying weapons would be specially inspected and monitored.
However... All of this became futile when faced with Dylan Yerrick's Wapu Wapu no Mi ability. He easily entered Dressrosa from the sea and disguised himself, secretly investigating information about the Royal Family. The Riku Royal Family currently consisted of only four people: King Riku Dold III, his Queen, and their two daughters. His youngest daughter was a Giro Giro no Mi user and could observe the country from above. Recently, the Queen had gone to visit another country, so currently there were only three Royal Family members in the country—an opportunity Yerrick exploited.
Because the Riku Royal Family had always practiced "benevolent rule" and the current King was diligent and loved his people, the Royal Family enjoyed extremely high prestige and credibility. As a result, a direct and effective plan formed in Dylan Yerrick's mind... After the remaining six Super Rookie pirates launched attacks from various directions, drawing the attention of most of the Royal Army and Marines, he then began to infiltrate when their defenses were weak. As for the hundreds of civilians, he had captured them along the way to lure King Riku out! Forcing the other party not to rely on his youngest daughter's Giro Giro no Mi ability to evade their pursuit!
As long as they held the King of this country hostage, even the Marines wouldn't dare act rashly and could only obediently retreat, abandoning Dressrosa, and negotiate with them. At that time, after imprisoning the country's Royal Family, even if they couldn't claim Dressrosa as their territory, they could still extort a large sum of money!