Patrol of the sea, and an encounter with pirates.

Looking at the scientists who were being led away by the soldiers, all of whom had no fear of death, John repeatedly shook his head at them.

　　This group of people fully displayed two traits.

　　The first is that if you don't die, you won't die, and the second is that if you die for your ideals and goals, you won't regret it.

　　It wasn't a matter of contempt or respect, John just couldn't approve of their ideas.

　　In his opinion, while you do not have strength, you should live quietly, and when you have enough strength, then you can talk about ideals, goals, and so on.

　　But people are arranged like this: everyone has different ideas and different paths.

　　He thought they were making a fool of themselves, and perhaps they thought he was pathetic. Standing at a different angle, everything is seen differently.

　　John sighed slightly, feeling more emotional today than he's had in all the past years combined.

　　Peberton took the people and left to hand them over to CP9, John didn't go with them, he already knew what would happen to these people and although he didn't feel guilty, he still didn't want to see them executed with his own eyes.

　　When he returned, having taken care of all this, Peberton sullenly said to John: "John, it looks like we will be on this island for two days."

　　"What's happened?" asked John, surprised.

　　"Archaeologists, some of them escaped in boats, and Vice Admiral Norville went after them with a large force, and those who remained told us that the nearby branches were informed and that warships would be sent here when the time came we ourselves would return to Marineford.

P/n: They were given freedom for a while. They can hunt pirates, they can rest on the island, they can travel, etc.

　　"So that's it."

　　John wasn't surprised, many of these scientists were smart and it was normal for some of them to escape, it was just that Vice Admiral Norville immediately went in pursuit without waiting for them (John's team, etc.), it seemed like it should have be an urgent request from that guy, Spandine.

　　But it's not scary, it's easier to wait two days until the warship arrives, and they themselves will sail back.

　　"Then let's wait."

　　There was a three-day wait, and John, with nothing else to do, followed Peberton as he roamed the towns of the island.

　　Despite the fact that the fleet took part in the operations to capture the archaeologists, this apparently did not affect the inhabitants of the island, who continued to live as usual.

　　On the evening of the third day, John and the others finally reached the warship from Squad G6.

P / n: Let me remind you that in the Grant Line all the bases of the Marines are called G.

　　Oddly enough, five teams were involved in the pursuit of the archaeologists, and the only one who caught them was John's team, while the rest of the archeologist teams escaped.

　　In the end, it turned out that only one of the team remained on the island, and the rest pursued them (archaeologists) either on a warship or on other ships.

　　"Second Lieutenant John, hello, this is Lieutenant Commander Matt of G6 Squad, we were on patrol and had orders from HQ to take you to Marineford."

　　It was the G6 squad cruiser that had been sent to transport John and their group because it was closest to them.

　　"Lieutenant Commander Matt."

　　John and the others saluted, the Grant Line Naval Branch, which began with the letter G, had a rank on par with Headquarters, Lieutenant Commander Matt was several ranks above them, and the salute was a matter of course.

　　"Second Lieutenant John, this is not necessary, I understand your situation, if you leave from here, you will reach the headquarters no sooner than in four days; however, Vice Admiral Norville said that it is not necessary for you to return to headquarters immediately, it just so happens that our ships will take a few more days to complete the patrol, are you interested?

　　Matt was not arrogant just because of his high rank; his intuition was not weak.

　　He was in his thirties and had only risen to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, but this Sub-Lieutenant John had already been a Marineford Sub-Lieutenant at a young age and was on the staff.

　　Under those circumstances, Matt certainly wouldn't quarrel and tell a promising Marine what to do.

　　"No problem Lieutenant Commander Matt, you're too kind, we're the ones making trouble for you, of course your mission is paramount, we'll just follow you through the mission and return to Marineford after that."

　　To keep the peace, Grant Line Marineford and Squad G must send ships to patrol the sea.

　　Both to protect the various islands and their inhabitants, and to eradicate pirates, as well as to increase the reputation of the watch.

　　After all, the Grant Line is so big that if you sit in your base all the time, no one will know about you.

　　Only by regularly appearing in the field of view of the people, and even in a righteous form, fighting with pirates and so on, you will be able to establish yourself more among the people and increase the prestige and authority of the watch.

　　"We would be very grateful to you, Second Lieutenant John, please come aboard."

　　There were more than fifty of them in all, and the ship no longer seemed to be such a large warship as it used to be, but this did not affect the movement and no one really cared about it.

　　In a matter of days, John had already won the respect of fifty men under his command, this time they didn't even put in much effort, and John had accomplished this great feat on his own, and for that, these rank and file Marines First Class could be promoted upon their return.

　　Under such circumstances, they were naturally grateful to John, many of them even secretly approached him, hoping to follow him and become his personal soldiers or something like that.

　In this regard, John chuckled bitterly: "If you want to have a personal team, you must reach the rank of Rear Admiral. I'm just a second lieutenant now, and these people really think highly of me."

　　However, John, of course, did not say anything definite. Although it is not forbidden to form teams in the Navy, he is now only a second lieutenant. It's best to be discreet now.

　　John also noticed that Lieutenant Commander Matt and his men were sailing in certain directions, recording readings from the island, sailing one island after another in an organized manner to scout them, and after nothing was found, they left, which was quite effective.

　　A few days later, when they approached another island, they received bad news from its inhabitants.

　　Shortly before this, a group of pirates appeared on this island, who had been robbing the island for several days and still they have not left.

　　Seeing the appearance of the Marines, the inhabitants of the island asked the Marines to destroy the group of pirates and restore peace to the island.

　　The Marines, whose duty it is to not stand by when this happens.

　　Lieutenant Commander Matt immediately made the decision to take his men to the island to find the group and destroy them.

　　John, who had been sailing for several days, on hearing of this, graciously offered to Major Matt to take them with him.

　　"All right, then I'll disturb Second Lieutenant John."

　　Of course, Matt did not refuse, for a few days of living together he already knew about the history of this second lieutenant John.

　　Admiral Zephyr's apprentice, fruit grower, new to Marineford, although his rank was still relatively low, I'm afraid John's powers have surpassed him.

　　The help of such a lookout Matt gladly accepted, after all, now he did not know what kind of pirate group there was on the island, and with the help of John and the others, he had more confidence.

　　A group of sentinels, numbering more than a hundred people, quickly landed on the island and headed in the direction indicated by civilians.