The enormous castle gate, which had been filled with noise and commotion only moments ago, suddenly fell deathly silent.
Everyone, without exception, turned toward the Nine Red Scabbards, desperately wanting to know whether they still had another card up their sleeves.
Even Ahe and the others concealed in the shadows were no exception.
Orochi’s words had certainly been unpleasant to hear, but for all their ugliness, there was some truth behind them.
The person truly pressing down on Wano Country and leaving them unable to breathe was not the puppet shogun Orochi.
It was Kaidō of the Beasts.
If they ultimately could not stop Kaidō, then everything they were doing now would be meaningless.
Worse, it might even give Kaidō another excuse to bathe Wano in blood.
Sensing the change in the atmosphere, Kozuki Hiyori and Kyoshiro’s expressions immediately tightened.
They knew very well that if they could not recover the momentum they had just managed to build, the opening of Wano they had been striving for would likely die before it ever began.
Looking across the entirety of Wano, there was probably only one person capable of turning the situation around now.
For a moment, Kozuki Hiyori and Kyoshiro rapidly scanned the crowd.
They desperately wanted to know whether an event this significant to Wano’s future would be enough to draw that person here.
"I am Yamato. I have inherited the will of Kozuki Oden, and I can fight Kaidō!"
Yamato suddenly burst out from within the crowd.
The enormous kanabō in her hand slammed heavily into the ground.
Seeing this unexpected figure, Kozuki Hiyori and Kyoshiro could not help but stiffen.
However, their gazes remained on Yamato for only a moment.
They soon shifted their attention sharply toward the place where Yamato had originally been hiding.
Seeing that figure sitting there, casually sipping shōchū, Hiyori’s breathing suddenly quickened.
"It’s him! Uncle Kyoshiro, this battle can be won!"
Kozuki Hiyori cried out in excitement.
The sudden development left Orochi momentarily stunned. He had never expected the courtesan he valued so highly to say something like that.
Yamato, who had just leaped out and originally intended to draw everyone’s attention to herself, was equally dumbfounded.
In her mind, invoking the name of Kozuki Oden should have made her the center of everyone’s attention.
She had never imagined that she would feel as though she had thrown a punch into cotton—full of strength, yet with nowhere for it to land.
Especially when she noticed the excited, fervent gazes being directed at that very person by the Nine Red Scabbards beside her.
For an instant, an utterly absurd thought emerged in Yamato’s mind.
Has Kozuki Oden lost his appeal?
Isn’t he supposed to be the faith of the Nine Red Scabbards?
In an instant, Lucas became the center of everyone’s attention.
Nekomamushi and Inuarashi exchanged a glance before, together with the other leaders, clasping their fists and shouting in unison:
"Admiral Lucas, please open Wano!"
Those simple words rang out together like thunder exploding across the heavens, striking everyone to the very soul.
Every gaze turned toward Lucas was filled with shock.
They had imagined that the gathering of the Nine Red Scabbards and the opening of Wano would be a bloody struggle in which everyone was prepared to lay down their lives.
They had never expected that, in the end, an unidentified outsider would suddenly emerge.
Kozuki Hiyori and Kyoshiro were also frozen in place.
They had never imagined that the person they had placed their hopes in from the very beginning was actually the mastermind behind this entire incident.
Yet, looking at the forces gathered here, Hiyori and Kyoshiro suddenly understood.
Someone capable of assembling such a force within Wano at a moment like this—apart from this Marine Admiral, was there really anyone else?
"Marine Admiral? This Marine Admiral is the Glutton Lucas, the one who sparked the battle involving the Four Emperors?"
Orochi’s expression changed drastically.
Without even having time to think about Komurasaki’s situation, he roared:
"Quick! Kyoshiro, order everyone to attack! Capture all these rabble in one fell swoop! I want them to understand what true despair in the face of overwhelming numbers looks like!"
Kyoshiro and Kozuki Hiyori froze for a moment.
Neither had expected Orochi, even under circumstances like these, to panic and issue such an absurd command.
Yet before they could react, Lucas had already appeared at some point in the open ground before the castle gate, as silently as a ghost.
He took another leisurely sip of shōchū before suddenly raising his head.
Nekomamushi and Inuarashi exchanged a glance before shouting urgently:
"Everyone, don’t hesitate! If you want Wano to open its borders, then run!"
The moment those words fell, Nekomamushi, Inuarashi, and the others gathered there did not hesitate for even an instant.
They turned around and fled at full speed.
The several thousand people they had brought with them hesitated slightly.
They were undoubtedly confused.
But they had clearly been warned beforehand.
At that moment, they did not slow down even half a beat before rapidly fleeing as well.
The bizarre scene left everyone present completely dumbfounded.
In their eyes, the four or five thousand samurai gathered here under the leadership of the Nine Red Scabbards had come to fight for the opening of Wano, prepared to shed blood and sacrifice their lives.
So how had they started running before the battle had even begun?
Their confusion lingered in their minds for only a moment.
Although nobody present could understand why the Nine Red Scabbards had made such a move, those who had originally intended to participate in the battle and open Wano followed them out of trust and began fleeing as well.
In an instant, the entire open ground descended into chaos.
The twelve thousand samurai gathered behind the castle gate were no exception.
Among them, seven or eight thousand were new samurai personally trained by Orochi. They remained where they were, staring intently at the young man before them—the very person who had single-handedly thrown the entire battlefield into turmoil.
At their head, Budo tightened his grip around his katana, preparing to lead everyone in a surprise attack.
However, the instant this thought arose, Lucas suddenly raised his head.
He uttered two simple words:
"How boring."
BOOM!
The Conqueror’s Haki lying dormant within his body erupted without the slightest restraint.
An invisible shockwave of force swept outward like a Level Twelve hurricane!
In an instant, the Haki centered around Lucas crashed outward like a raging tidal wave.
Every samurai within several thousand meters felt as though an invisible mountain had descended upon them.
Countless people felt their very souls tremble, as if an invisible hammer had smashed directly into the depths of their spirits.
In an instant, those who were weaker or possessed insufficient mental fortitude began foaming at the mouth, their eyes rolling back as they collapsed unconscious to the ground.
There were so many of them that the scene resembled autumn leaves being swept away by a fierce wind.
Yet this was clearly only the beginning.
When everyone finally saw what came next, their expressions changed.
Following the initial shockwave, a visible tide of Conqueror’s Haki came surging back, crashing down upon them head-on.
Wherever it passed, everything was torn apart as easily as paper.
Only then did they finally understand why the Nine Red Scabbards had fled the instant they encountered Lucas.
Because if they were even slightly careless and ran a little too slowly...
their lives might genuinely be hanging by a thread.
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