One Piece: Under the Throne

Tap, tap. Alfred stopped in front of the Jon family's manor, took a deep breath, and then stepped in.

The gangster guarding the gate was not afraid of Alfred's arrival. Instead, he greeted him arrogantly: "Hey! Isn't this the kingdom's number one master, the great Knight Commander? How come you have time to visit us today?" After saying this, he looked at him with amusement.

Alfred said nothing and looked at the other person calmly until the gangster guarding the door broke out in a cold sweat. Then he spoke again.

"Bah, you're waiting here, what are you doing so proud of?" The gangster spat and turned around and ran into the villa. Half an hour later, the door of the villa slowly opened to welcome Alfred.

Alfred was led to the restaurant by the gangsters. The atmosphere in the restaurant was very lively. The smell of sweat and alcohol was intertwined in the air. The table was piled with food. It turned out that the mafia of the Jon family was having a banquet. The big boss Fusman sat at the top. He shook the wine glass with one hand and tasted the red wine in the glass with half-closed eyes.

In the corner to the left of the restaurant entrance, several mafia members were beating a young man, cursing as they beat him: "You owe money and still dare to run away, you are tired of living."

"No... I don't owe you money. I clearly only borrowed 20,000 Baileys, not the 100,000 as you said." The young man was already dying, but he still tried to explain to the other party.

In an instant, Alfred clenched the sword in his hand and stared at the mafia thug, as if he was going to kill him in the next second. However, the mafia thug did not seem to be afraid, but instead attacked more fiercely.

Just as Alfred was about to draw his sword, he heard a voice from above: "Hey! Why didn't anyone tell me when the Knight Commander arrived? I have admired you for a long time. Come on, let's have a drink together. After drinking this glass of wine, we can clear up the misunderstanding before. Go and bring up the thank-you gift I prepared for His Excellency the Knight Commander."

The younger brother standing next to Fusman placed two heavy boxes on the table. Fusman opened the boxes generously, and golden light flashed in an instant.

"It's just a small gift and I hope Lord Alfred won't refuse it."

After saying that, Fusman smiled and waited for Alfred's answer. Whether he would become a friend or an enemy of the Jon family depended on his choice.

However, Alfred didn't even look at Huang Jin. With a flash of sword, the mafia thug's forearm was chopped off. The sword was so fast that the person who was hit by the sword didn't even feel pain. The mafia thug directly used half of his forearm to hit the young man.

Ah! My hand, my hand, you bastard, how dare you...

The sudden change made the noisy restaurant quiet in an instant, and the few mafia gang members closest to Alfred were so scared that they sat on the ground.

Fusman's smile froze on his face. He had never expected Alfred to be so ungrateful. After a brief moment of shock, Fusman sneered again: "Show me away."

Alfred carried the injured young man and turned to leave the Jon family headquarters.

……

Inside the palace, all the waiters stood aside with their heads bowed and nodded cautiously. Even the closed palace door could not stop the roar of Grid III. Alfred knelt on one knee under the throne, and there was a bloodstained golden wine cup beside him.

"How dare you, a bastard, disobey my orders? How dare you disobey my orders for the sake of a pariah?" Grid III did not care whether Alfred had reconciled with the Jon family. What made him angry was that his own knight chief, Alfred, who had been loyal to him, dared to disobey his will for the life of a pariah. This made the greedy King feel deeply humiliated.

Alfred knelt down without saying a word, his forehead broken by the golden cup still bleeding.

After venting for a long time, Grid III seemed to be tired. He sat on the throne and panted heavily: "Come, confiscate his weapons and put Alfred in jail."

Soon several knights confiscated Alfred's sword and took him away.

In the dungeon, Alfred's hands were chained to the wall. He had been imprisoned for seven days. During this period, Grid III did not allow anyone to bring him water or food. Grid wanted to torture Alfred's will and wait for him to kneel in front of him like a dead dog and beg for mercy.

At this time, Alfred's lips were chapped, and his originally neatly trimmed beard had grown all over his chin. He no longer had the heroic image of the past.

Tap, tap, a sound of footsteps was heard, coming from far away and gradually getting closer until it stopped in front of the Knight Commander.

Alfred slowly raised his eyelids and first saw a pair of gorgeous boots. As his eyes moved upward, they passed over a gorgeous robe and finally stopped on the face of the person who came. It was Prince Pride.

Prince Pride said with an arrogant look: "Good day, Sir Alfred."

Without waiting for Alfred to speak, Pride continued, "Look at what my stupid father did. He tortured the kingdom's top fighter like this for a mere Mafia. But you actually disobeyed your father's orders for the life of a pariah. Should I praise you or say that you are reckless and ignorant?"

Alfred closed his eyes again and remained silent. Pride gradually lost his patience. He put away his smile and shouted, "Do you still think you are the high and mighty Knight Commander? You must understand that you are just a servant of the Grid family. You should be loyal to the royal family wholeheartedly."

"It's a pity that you disobeyed the king's order. From what I know about my father, he would either completely forget about you or order you to be executed when he gets angry one day. However, the great Prince Pride decided to give you a chance. Pledge your loyalty to me, obey me and become my sword. Help me overthrow that foolish king, and you will still be the knight commander respected by everyone."

Alfred's dry lips slowly opened, and Pride's defense was broken as soon as he spoke: "You are usurping the throne. The king didn't give it to you, so you can't take it yourself."

Pride's face was distorted, and he punched Alfred in the face again and again: "Even after all this, you are still devoted to that guy? I am the future of this country. You have already disobeyed the order of one king, do you want to disobey the order of another king? Obeying me is your only way to survive."

Pride's fists were stained with blood, and Alfred's handsome face with sharp edges was also a little deformed by the beating.

“Ahem…hahaha…ahem…you are not…the future of this country.”

Seeing that Alfred was still stubborn, Pride completely gave up the idea of ​​recruiting him: "What a pity! I admired you very much, but I didn't expect you to be such a brainless idiot. Goodbye Paladin, you will be executed in three days, right in the Royal Square, in front of those untouchables." After saying that, Pride turned and left without even looking at Alfred.

In a windowless room in the Jon family's villa, Fusman and the second prince Enwei sat opposite each other.

"Lord Fusman, what do you think of my proposal?" Enwei looked at Fusman with a relaxed expression.

"What's the difference between cooperating with you and the current king? Why should I help you rebel? If I fail, I will have to bear the wrath of King Grid."

"Because my father is dying."

"Stop lying. King Grid is obviously healthy."

"But my brother wants to kill him."

Fusman sneered at Enwei and said, "Haha! Then why should I support you, the second prince? I think supporting your eldest brother to take the throne is the right choice. I can even kill you right here and then send your head to the eldest prince. I believe he will be happy to become a partner of the Jon family."

"No, no, no, my eldest brother is too proud. He won't cooperate with you. In fact, the first thing he will do after ascending the throne is to get rid of you."

As if afraid that Fusman would not believe him, Envy added: "You are the first target my eldest brother wants to eliminate, and I am the second. That's why I have to cooperate with you, because this is my only way to survive." Although Envy said words to survive, his face showed an indifferent expression.

"Hahahaha, if your eldest brother takes the throne, you will be the one who will die, and the worst that can happen to us is that we will withdraw from the Kingdom of Gorud, so what do you want to give, Your Highness, in exchange for the help of the Jon Family?"

Enwei smiled and said, "What do you think of the Prime Minister? Your family's development will be smoother with this position. I am weak and you don't have to worry about me saying something wrong."

Fusman thought about it seriously for a while, and after repeatedly estimating the risks, he finally agreed to the cooperation plan of the second prince. Fusman was not afraid that Enwei would deceive him. A prince with little power would have no control over the situation after the coup was successful. However, in order to reduce the risk, Fusman still put forward a condition.

"I can promise to help you, but you have to help me kill Alfred. I dare not do it with a great swordsman like him around." Fortunately, Fusman was not deceived by greed. He knew very well that if he wanted the coup to succeed, he must not keep Alfred. And letting the second prince take action completely cut off his connection with the nobles.

Fusman was very smart and could test the second prince's determination with just one condition. If he didn't agree, Fusman would not help him.

"Hahaha, no problem. Although I really want to agree to your request, I don't have to do it myself. My father, the greedy King Grid, has already ordered the execution of Lord Alfred in three days. You see, I'm telling you such important news directly. It's enough to prove my sincerity."

"Impossible. Why would King Grid have Alfred executed?"

"It's all because of the Knight Commander that he messed up. In fact, he was executed because of your family."

Envy's words reminded Fusman of the feud between Alfred and his family: "Ah? Is the king crazy? Just because of such a small matter?"

"Don't take yourself too seriously. Alfred was killed because he disobeyed his father's orders."

Fusman understood, and then he looked at Enwei as if he was a fool. The incompetent king and the rebellious prince, this family would sooner or later lose their throne. But what did this have to do with Fusman?

Fusman and Envy shook hands and agreed that the day the holy sword broke in three days would be the day to launch the coup.