74: Chapter 74 That bastard Dorrag... sent people looking for his son?

The warship carved two white wakes through the windless sea.

The volcanic ash of Punk Hazard had completely dissipated into the skyline behind them.

On the deck, the group of G-5 Marine Unit soldiers who had just acknowledged their "Uncle" were busily scrubbing the gun turrets and moving medical equipment and documents salvaged from Caesar's laboratory.

Since following Karl, these ruffian soldiers had been working with even more vigor than when they were at Marineford.

Smoker leaned against the ship's railing, two cigars clamped in his mouth, the smoke obscuring the new scar that stretched from the corner of his eye to his jaw.

His gaze fell on the center of the deck, his expression impossible to distinguish between pity or schadenfreude.

Beneath the mast, two desks and chairs made of solid steel were firmly welded to the deck.

Luffy and Ace were tied to the chairs with thick hemp ropes, each wearing a pair of dark silver anti-cheating bracelets on their wrists.

On the small tables in front of them lay a thick stack of handwritten test papers—the crooked characters on the cover clearly written by Karl himself: "Pirate-Specific Moral Education: Dressrosa Preview Edition (No meat if you fail)"

"Given that Doflamingo has been King of Dressrosa for ten years, while simultaneously serving as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Underworld broker 'Joker.' Question: Why has he not been arrested by the Marines to this day? A. The Marines can't beat him. B. He has leverage against the Celestial Dragons. C. The Marines can't be bothered. D. All of the above. Also, write down the full list of current Seven Warlords of the Sea members and their Devil Fruit abilities!"

Luffy chewed on his pen, his eyes bulging.

"Uncle!! I don't understand this question at all!!"

He shouted at the top of his lungs, squirming in his chair, while the anti-cheating bracelets on his wrists emitted a "buzzing" electrical warning.

"Snap!" A crisp sound of a belt striking echoed through the air.

Karl lay on a beach chair three meters away, the seven wolves belt in his hand striking the back of Luffy's head with precision, without him even having to aim.

"If you don't understand, guess! If you guess wrong, you get whipped! That's how your Uncle got through the college entrance exams back in the day!"

"But Uncle! I don't even know what that bastard Doflamingo with the pink sunglasses looks like!" Luffy protested, clutching the back of his head with teary eyes.

Beside him, Ace bit on the tip of his pen, a fine layer of cold sweat seeping from his forehead. He had written quite a bit on his paper, but most of it was just doodles of flames and stick figures fighting in the margins.

"Ace." Karl's voice suddenly drifted over from the direction of the beach chair, his tone flat.

"Yes! Uncle!" Ace reflexively straightened his back.

"On the third page of your paper, the question 'If Doflamingo traps you and Luffy simultaneously with the String-String Fruit, what should you do,' you wrote: 'Burn the strings first, then save Luffy.'"

Karl exhaled a smoke ring, a dangerous glint flashing in his half-squinted eyes.

"But the correct answer is to kick Luffy out of the string range first, then burn the strings to break out. Because that idiot is rubber; he's immune to physical attacks but vulnerable to being tied up. While you're burning the strings, he's still standing there, which means you've wasted your effort."

"Redo it."

"Snap!" Another belt strike.

Ace clutched his struck head, tears welling in his eyes, but he gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound—Uncle was right; he truly hadn't considered it thoroughly enough.

Smoker watched this scene, exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, and turned to Tashigi beside him, saying: "See that? That's called teaching according to aptitude."

Tashigi hugged her famous sword and nodded thoughtfully.

Just then, "Brrr… Brrr…" A flurry of Den Den Mushi ringing came from the lookout tower.

The G-5 Marine Unit soldier in charge of the lookout held up his binoculars, his voice tinged with tension: "Uncle! Traces of an unidentified ship have been spotted in the sea ahead! It's not a pirate ship, and it's not flying any flags! But its path is strange; it looks like… it looks like it's following us!"

Smoker's expression sharpened. He walked to the railing in a few strides and picked up his own binoculars to look at the distant sea.

Through the lenses, the endless blue sea was empty.

But having been a Marine for twenty years, his intuition told him something was wrong.

"Uncle." Smoker put down the binoculars, his voice very low: "There shouldn't be any merchant ships on this route, and it's impossible for there to be pirates. Punk Hazard just exploded; all factions within a five-hundred-nautical-mile radius should have been scared off. There is only one possibility left."

He paused. "The Revolutionary Army."

Karl lay on the beach chair, his expression unchanged. He took the cigar out of his mouth, flicked off the ash, and narrowed his deep eyes slightly.

"That bastard Dragon… sent someone to find his son?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a small, pitch-black sailboat with no markings silently glided out from the sea mist on the port side of the warship like a ghost.

The ship wasn't large, one could even say it was crude—no cannons, no armor, just a single black sail billowed by the sea breeze. But it was extremely fast, weaving through the waves.

And on the bow of that small ship, a slender figure stood steadily.

The sea breeze blew his golden curly hair, revealing a shocking old scar on his forehead. He wore a dark blue Revolutionary Army uniform, a metal pipe tucked at his waist, and a black top hat on his head.

He raised his head slightly, his clear and sharp blue eyes looking straight at the warship's deck.

"Revolutionary Army Chief of Staff, Sabo." Smoker read out the name, the cigar clamped in his mouth nearly falling out.

He had seen this person's file in the Marine intelligence system. The number two figure of the Revolutionary Army, a direct subordinate of Dragon, said to possess unfathomable strength.

Karl also saw the blond youth. He slowly sat up from the beach chair, stubbed out the cigar on the armrest, and the corners of his mouth curled into an inscrutable arc.

"Let him come up."

A few minutes later, Sabo stepped onto the warship's gangway, walking onto the deck step by step.

His movements were calm and steady, each step carrying a trained elegance. But the moment he stepped onto the deck, his gaze involuntarily swept over the two desks beneath the mast, and over the two young men tied to the chairs, chewing on their pen barrels with troubled expressions.

His footsteps paused imperceptibly. But he quickly withdrew his gaze and continued walking toward Karl on the beach chair.

"Admiral Karl." Sabo stopped three meters away from Karl, bowed slightly, his tone formal and restrained: "I am Revolutionary Army Chief of Staff Sabo. Under orders from Mr. Dragon, I have come to convey a piece of intelligence to you."

Karl didn't even stand up. He crossed his legs and squinted, sizing up the blond youth in front of him.

"Dragon sent you?" Karl raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't he come himself? Is he afraid I'll whip him too?"