【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 267 Anger

Soon the navy's footsteps disappeared in the corridor. Ace came out from the corner, his steps light and he approached the door silently. The door was not closed tightly, and a rich aroma of coffee wafted to his face.

"Wow!"

He was startled by the sound of vomiting and quickly leaned against the wall, listening to the noise coming from the room.

“This coffee is just as disgusting as always!”

"Sir, there's some candy here!"

"Will it work?" another voice complained.

"It can't get any worse than it is now."

"Try it."

Ace heard a gurgling sound, followed by a rapid retching sound, Ace looked down at the pot of hot coffee on the cart, it smelled delicious, could it really be that unpalatable?

He noticed that there were several spare cups on the bottom rack of the cart. Ace carefully poured himself a cup. There would definitely not be anything more disgusting than a devil fruit. It must be that the naval officers would not enjoy it. Ace smiled gently, then picked up the cup and took a big sip of coffee... Almost instantly, he spat out the coffee in his mouth. He always thought that the navy was exaggerating, but he didn't expect that there would be something more disgusting than a devil fruit.

Ace put the coffee in his hand back on the cart with disgust and wiped his mouth with his arm. He had never eaten anything so bitter in his life. Even Luffy, who ate all kinds of food, would never drink such a thing.

"Hey, come over here and help me!"

Hearing the sound, Ace became nervous and prepared to run away, but... Ace touched the letter in his pocket. Behind him was the meeting room of naval officers. This was a good opportunity.

Before he could figure out anything, the navy officer who had shouted at him had already walked up to him. He was a little short, and the documents in his hands almost blocked his face, but there were no other navy officers behind him, and it seemed that he didn't know what had happened in the restaurant.

Ace breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Do you have time to help me move some files?" The navy man poked his head over the files. The files in front of him almost blocked his entire vision. "The archives room needs people to help organize the materials."

Ace raised his eyebrows. Asking a pirate to help organize the information?

The door next to him suddenly made a loud noise, and someone pushed the door open heavily from the inside. A tall naval officer in a cloak walked out. His brows were tightly furrowed and his expression looked very impatient, which made the naval soldier next to him tremble all over. Ace even doubted whether the document in his hand would fall down in the next second.

"We're trying to hold a meeting and you two are wandering in the hallway!?" the Marine officer snapped.

"I'm sorry, Commander Cormier!" The Marine soldier explained incoherently, holding the documents. "We just..."

"I don't care!" Cormier interrupted the man, his eyes fell on the cart next to Ace, and ordered angrily, "Whatever you are doing, now, immediately, get rid of this damn thing! Don't let me see it again, we don't want any more refills!"

Ace realized that the man in front of him was Cormier, and hurriedly stepped forward. "Sir, I have a..." Before Ace could finish his words, the door in front of him was slammed shut. Ace blinked, a little confused, and his voice fell. "...a letter for you."

The Marine standing next to him breathed a sigh of relief, handed the document in his hand to the confused Ace, then pushed the cart and pulled Ace's sleeve towards the archives room, "Let's go, so as not to really make him angry."

"I have a letter for him," Ace explained, trying to free himself from the arm that was pulling at his sleeve.

"Believe me, if you give it to him after he finishes his coffee, he'll tear it up," the Marine spat.

Ace glanced at the door behind him in frustration and complained, "Coffee does have the potential to have bad effects."

"But this coffee is our only choice. Although it is bitter, we have to use it to refresh ourselves." The navy sighed, "Can you help me return the documents in your hand to the archives? I will push the tea cart back to the restaurant and enjoy lunch by the way."

"Are these wanted warrants?" Ace followed the navy's steps and looked at the documents in his hand in confusion. These papers seemed to be wanted warrants.

"These are some wanted posters that we issued 10 years ago. However, the wanted persons have been captured or died." The navy explained, "They are no longer useful."

Ace raised an eyebrow, no wonder it was put into his hand so easily "Then it really is useless."

"Yes, so we need to sort it out and process it uniformly or store it in a centralized location." The navy shrugged and said with a smile, "After all, the reconnaissance ship will be docking soon, and we need to sort out the location and save the latest information."

"Scouting ship?" Ace smiled. That's it. They are the ones who know the most about pirate activities. Maybe they have news about Blackbeard on board. He has to find a way to sneak on board. He pretended to ask casually, "Which port will the scout ship dock at?"

"As usual, they will be on C deck." The Marine frowned. "Why do you ask?" He said a little skeptically.

Ace blinked. Was his acting so bad? At this moment, the screams of the Den Den Mushi burst out in unison, and a burst of rapid and noisy footsteps suddenly sounded. The navy suddenly rushed towards them quickly. Ace was a little caught off guard. The documents in his hand were scattered all over the floor because of their crowding. Only a small part of them were still in his hand.

"What's going on?" the marine with Ace shouted in confusion.

"Rescue! The reconnaissance ship is on fire!" shouted the navy who had already run some distance.

"Oh, that's bad!" The Navy looked at Ace in panic, "We have to go to rescue... Hey, what's wrong with you!?" The Navy looked at Ace's pale face in confusion. He was staring at the paper in his hand motionlessly.

Ace ignored the confused looks from the Marines and stared at the wanted poster in his hand. The boy in the photo had familiar blond hair and a face that he and Luffy would never forget.

The photo was clear enough for him to clearly know the boy's identity, but it also clearly showed the pain on the boy's face and the countless scars on his body. What distressed Ace the most was the boy's eyes, which were filled with hatred and sadness.

"Oh, this? I heard that it was issued by the World Government 10 years ago, but I remember that it was revoked not long after it was issued. It seems that the World Government has arranged a demon-killing order, and our base also arranged warships at that time. The boy could not survive under that level of bombardment." The navy said jokingly, and teased, "Why do you look like you have seen a ghost? Although this is indeed shocking, he is the son of the leader of the Revolutionary Army."

Flames rose up under Ace's feet, burned on his shoulders, and waved around to destroy everything. Ace glared at the Marine angrily and punched hard, knocking the Marine's body into the air and smashing the wall at the end of the corridor.

They hurt him!

He felt the anger surging in his chest, hot and fierce. The thought of sinking this base kept popping up in Ace's mind. Ace clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and tried to calm down.

Damn it! Ace opened his eyes, clenched his fist and smashed it hard against the hard stone wall without any protection. The pain in his hand brought him back to his senses, and he turned and ran towards the location that caused the chaos in the navy.

After the anger, the familiar guilt returned.

……