Chapter 448: I Would Like to Call You the Strongest!

As soon as Dragon finished speaking, Stussy, who had been lounging on the sofa in silence, suddenly chuckled.

"It seems my skills are quite impressive," she said with a smile.

"Fufurfurfur... No, it should be my acting skills that are impressive," Claudius—who was currently disguised as Doflamingo—laughed.

Nia also laughed, leaving Dragon somewhat confused.

Dragon frowned slightly and asked, "What are you all laughing at? What do you mean by 'acting'?"

"Hahahaha! Dragon, you really didn't see it coming, did you?" Claudius suddenly switched back to his own voice and laughed.

Dragon's expression changed instantly. He stared at 'Doflamingo' in shock and blurted out, "Claudius?!"

"It's me! Hahaha! Well? How do I look?" Claudius grinned.

Then, with a cocky air, he mimicked Doflamingo's signature swagger, walking forward with exaggerated confidence.

Dragon was dumbfounded. If not for the voice change, he would have mistaken Claudius for Doflamingo without question.

Regaining his composure, Dragon turned his head to look at 'Claudius'—who was still seated at the desk. Sure enough, 'Claudius' had also reverted to his original voice, smiling as he said, "Fufurfur... Mr. Dragon, I didn't mean to trick you on purpose."

"Doflamingo?" Dragon asked hesitantly before realization dawned on him. "So that's it! No wonder I felt something was off for so long. You guys are seriously good... Even I was fooled."

"That's a good thing, isn't it? If even you were deceived, then the others won't suspect a thing. When the time comes, it'll be a real surprise," Claudius said with a smirk.

However, hearing these words from someone who looked exactly like Doflamingo made Dragon feel even weirder.

After thinking it over for a moment, Dragon nodded. "So, you two have swapped identities. Doflamingo will stay in Mariejois to make it seem like you haven't left, lowering the pirates' guard... Meanwhile, you'll appear at the Pirate Expo as Doflamingo. If this works, it'll definitely be unexpected."

Then, Dragon glanced at Claudius with a look of mild disdain. "Still, you really do love playing dirty, don't you? Don't you feel even a little ashamed?"

"Ashamed? Why would I be?" Claudius looked genuinely confused. "Why should I, Claudius, ever feel ashamed when dealing with pirates? If anything, I'm quite proud of it."

"I've fought many top-tier pirates and have countless victories to my name—never lost once! But, funny enough, I've never actually won a fair one-on-one fight."

"Gion's spars with me don't count—they were just training. As for Shiki... That one was half a win at best. The guy was already in bad shape after fighting Roger, and then he got a ship's rudder lodged in his head..."

Dragon was speechless. Was this really something to be proud of? Didn't this just make him seem even more underhanded?

After a moment, Dragon sighed and patted Claudius on the shoulder. "Honestly, you really shouldn't be proud of this. There's nothing admirable about it."

"What? This isn't something to be proud of? Doesn't it prove my intelligence?" Claudius asked in mock surprise.

"No, it just proves you're shameless, cunning, and downright unscrupulous," Dragon said seriously.

Claudius sighed theatrically. "You're too rigid, Dragon. And you're supposed to be the leader of a revolutionary army? Let me teach you something valuable, when facing an enemy, there's no such thing as fairness. If you can kill them outright, do it. If you can poison them, do it. If you can sneak attack them from behind, do it."

"That's the law of the strong," Claudius said, patting Dragon's shoulder with an air of wisdom.

Dragon nodded thoughtfully, then looked Claudius in the eyes and said, "You know, sometimes I think if you had become a pirate, you'd probably be even more terrifying than you are now."

Claudius laughed and patted Dragon on the shoulder. "You've got a good eye! Back in the day, that bastard Roger actually invited me to become a pirate and join his crew. But I turned him down. Otherwise, do you think the title of 'Pirate King' would've belonged to him?"

Dragon let out a long sigh, massaging his temples as if dealing with a headache. "I've met all kinds of people in my life, but when it comes to sheer shamelessness, Claudius... I'd like to call you the strongest."

"Hahahaha! Right back at you," Claudius replied, completely unbothered.

Meanwhile, in the Calm Belt...

At this moment, the Red-Haired Pirates were sailing through the Calm Belt. The ship's external paddles rotated steadily, compensating for the lack of wind and propelling them forward.

Not far from the Red Force, a massive Sea King floated lifelessly, its head cleanly severed. The blood from the wound stained a large area of the sea, drawing countless carnivorous sea creatures that hungrily tore into its corpse.

The wound was perfectly smooth—clearly the work of a master swordsman, someone who had killed the giant Sea King in a single stroke.

Despite its dangers, the Calm Belt wasn't much of a threat if there were powerful individuals on board. Rayleigh once swam all the way from Sabaody Archipelago to Amazon Lily. Shanks himself could probably freestyle his way across it if he wanted.

Because of this, most sightings of Red-Haired Pirates in the Calm Belt weren't widely reported. Unlike the Fish-Men, who frequently traveled in and out of their island via the Calm Belt, Shanks and his crew simply passed through unnoticed.

Up on the Red Force's lookout, Yasopp stood with a spyglass in hand, scanning the horizon. Lowering it slightly, he sighed, "The Calm Belt sure is getting busy."

Below him, Benn Beckman sat under the mast, casually flipping through a newspaper with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Hearing Yasopp, he smirked and said, "Yeah, things sure are lively these days. We used to only see the occasional big shot daring to sail through here... But now? There are mining operations all over the place."

"That guy Claudius is really something else. The World Government was falling apart, and yet he's almost completely fixed it?" Yasopp chuckled.

Beckman nodded. "Yeah, he really is something..."

Not far away, Shanks was speaking into a Den Den Mushi, his expression somewhat serious. After a while, he hung up and turned toward Beckman.

Beckman glanced up and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shanks exhaled and said, "While we were away, something happened in the New World. Douglas Bullet is organizing a Pirate Expo."

"A Pirate Expo?" Beckman raised an eyebrow before chuckling. "Really? With the Marines breathing down everyone's necks, someone actually wants to pull this off? No way it gets any traction, right?"

Shanks shook his head. "No, on the contrary... I think Kaido, Shiki, and even that old hag will be there."

Beckman was genuinely surprised this time. "Why?"

"Because rumors are spreading that the expo will feature a legendary treasure once owned by Captain Roger. Supposedly, it includes an Eternal Pose to Laugh Tale, Road Poneglyphs, and even scholars who can decipher the ancient text," Shanks said grimly.

Beckman's gaze darkened. "That reeks of a setup."

"Yeah," Shanks nodded.

Yasopp, still watching from the lookout, asked, "Shanks, did the Roger Pirates really have an Eternal Pose to Laugh Tale?"

Shanks scoffed. "Of course not. If we had one, we wouldn't have needed to steal the Poneglyphs or rely on Oden."

Beckman exhaled smoke and asked, "So... do we check it out?"

Shanks hesitated for a moment, then smirked. "Well, we've got nothing better to do. Why not?"

(To be continued.)

***

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