Carved

Sabaody Archipelago

While the rest of my men are staying in HQ, me and Eric decided to take a stroll around the island. I heard there's a lot of rookie pirates alike Trafalgar and Eustass Kidd roaming around this island.

The supernovas, huh?

I chuckled at the nickname the media gave them. Apparently Luffy and Zoro is a part of them. Those with bounty surpassed 100 million that caused much trouble to the government as of late.

Right off the bat, I saw a sight that bring a smile to my face. A recognizable face.

"Drake!"
I smiled, rushing off and laid a hug on his torso.

"Medeia!"
He gleamed with a smile as he realized it was me.

"I haven't seen you for so long!"
I let out a small laugh as I let go of the hug.

"Now that we're on a different side, isn't that expected? It would be weird if we meet each other."
He chuckled.

Drake was one of my subordinate during the time I rampaged and executed 400 pirates. He decided to betray the Marines and turned to a pirate since their ideals doesn't match. But we don't have any resentments towards each other. To say it better, we're still friends even though it is clearly unethical to befriend a pirate.

This interaction between us caught some people's attention, but mostly from his crew. Of course, their captain is talking to a Vice Admiral with a carefree attitude in a place near Marines HQ.

"Don't worry, the fact that she approached me like this means that there was no order from above to capture us."
Drake told his crew.

"You know me so well."
I smiled, wrapping my arm around his shoulder.

"Of course I do."
He smiled.

Then we started to chat as we walked around the area. Mostly talking about Drake's life after he quit being a Marine officer.

"It is the best time to come here. Marines are too focused on something else at the moment since the HQ is really empty."
He reasoned.

"Well, true. It's just the HQ officers and my fleet on this island at the moment. The others are focused on... Something else."
I said, not wanting to mention anything related to Ace at the moment.

Drake just stared at me before sighing.

"You really can't fake your real emotions, Medeia."
He said.

"Sorry, I was trying to ease my mind by walking around this island. You saw through me as usual."
I smiled.

"That's hard to do when those things are around."
Drake's face hardened before he kneeled.

I turned to where he was looking and saw a tenryuubito passing by while riding a human slave. Without much of a choice, I followed Drake's movements and kneeled, hiding my face.

Those things, huh?

The last time a tenryuubito saw my face, I was having a lot of trouble in denying a marriage offer. But because of me being a Vice Admiral, the tenryuubito cut off the engagement due to his preference in 'weak' 'submissive' woman.

I was lucky back then.

If he didn't mind me being a vice admiral, I'm sure I would have been married by now. Or probably turned into a fugitive and betrayed the Marines.

As the tenryuubito finally walked past, we continued our way. Seems like we're walking to the lawless area as it is getting quiet and less crowded as we went further.

Then we stumbled upon a gamble-bar and head inside.

The looks I received are needless to say a lot. It's weird for a Marine officer to go in a place like this in the first place. Not to mention I came with a pirate captain whose name is in the list of the supernovas.