Sengoku felt utterly helpless.
But in the end, he complied with the woman standing before him. After all, Kaos had made his intentions crystal clear before he left:
Any request from Esdeath must be fulfilled without question.
Since Kaos had handed her this authority, Sengoku didn't dare go against it.
Now, though, he couldn't help regretting that decision.
Agreeing to this woman's demands had been nothing but trouble.
She was like a ticking time bomb—unpredictable and dangerous.
The bodies of the eighteen women in front of them were frozen solid, with only their heads left exposed. In the bitter cold, several of them couldn't help but grit their teeth.
Esdeath looked at the women who had been so arrogant just moments ago, now trembling in humiliation. A cold satisfaction filled her heart—a kind of victory, a cruel sense of profit.
"Now I give you a choice," she said coldly. "Submit to me—or perish."
Her icy gaze swept across the group. At this point, the women were so frozen they were on the verge of losing consciousness.
Most of them were technical experts, with no combat ability at all. In this condition, they wouldn't survive more than ten minutes before succumbing to the cold.
Faced with death, they immediately gave in. They nodded frantically and, with trembling voices, agreed to serve as her subordinates.
Seeing their submission, a satisfied smile touched Esdeath's lips. She gently waved her hand.
The freezing aura that surrounded them instantly disappeared.
Crack!—The ice shattered around them.
The women collapsed to the ground, and without hesitation, clung to one another tightly for warmth.
They were simply too cold to do anything else.
Sengoku sighed helplessly and signaled his subordinates to bring coats and cover them up.
Esdeath then looked down at the trembling women and said firmly, "From now on, you are no longer Marines. You are spies of the World Government. I will disguise myself as a pirate and lead you into the New World."
When she first spoke, everyone assumed she was merely treating the warship as her personal toy.
But to their surprise, Esdeath declared that the ship would be used as a pirate vessel, and they would infiltrate the New World while disguised as pirates.
Upon hearing this, Sengoku immediately dismissed all the resentment he'd held toward Esdeath's earlier behavior.
If only she'd said it was a spy mission from the beginning…
If he had known that, he would've agreed to anything without hesitation.
There wouldn't have been any of the tension or embarrassment they had experienced last night.
Sengoku sighed again.
The other high-ranking Marines, like Vice Admiral Momonga, looked just as exasperated.
This woman was completely beyond understanding.
There had to be a limit to how outrageous a person could be—who turned a mission like this into a game?
Even the previously proud and resistant female soldiers looked stunned when they realized what Esdeath was asking of them.
They were being promoted in disguise.
Originally, they were just low-ranking communication officers. They had joined the Marines with dreams of wiping out pirates. But as women without the advantage of a Devil Fruit, they had all been relegated to support roles.
Now, they were being told they'd infiltrate the New World as pirates—a critical mission of utmost importance.
All at once, the resentment they had felt toward Esdeath began to melt away.
In its place, a spark of passion and purpose was ignited in their hearts.
"Captain, we are honored to follow you!"
The female soldiers spoke in unison, addressing Esdeath with newfound respect and loyalty—forgetting the freezing pain just moments ago.
But Vice Admiral Momonga couldn't hold back. He frowned and said, "These soldiers are too weak. Shouldn't we replace them with stronger ones…?"
Sengoku immediately nodded. He'd been thinking the same.
These women had no real combat capability. Sending them into the New World would be like throwing sheep to the wolves.
After all, these were simply basic Marine personnel. Sengoku had assumed that Esdeath only needed a group of women to serve under her—or even to serve Kaos himself.
So he'd selected low-level female officers, none of whom had any actual fighting strength. Any common pirate could wipe them out.
And the pirates in the New World weren't your average criminals.
They were battle-hardened maniacs—veterans of brutal warfare.
Even an ordinary pirate ship in the New World had skilled fighters. The average bounty for a crew member was over 300,000,000 berries.
That level of strength, if transferred to the Four Seas, would be enough to crush most naval units.
Sending these powerless women into the New World was essentially sending them to die.
"I'll call for a new team," Sengoku said decisively. "Since you're going into such a dangerous region, we need stronger personnel."
He was well aware of how deadly the New World could be. Replacing the current squad seemed only logical.
But as soon as he spoke, the faces of the female soldiers turned pale.
They had just been given the opportunity of a lifetime…
And now it was about to be ripped away. A few of them cried out on the spot.
"No! Admiral Sengoku, we can fight! We'll prove ourselves—please don't send us away!"
"That's right! We may be weak, but we won't drag anyone down!"
"Please, Admiral Sengoku, let us stay! We beg you!"
All the women pleaded in unison, desperate to hold onto the mission.