Marlo ate calmly, while his most trusted aide carefully filled his cup halfway with blood, before filling it up again to the brim with rum.

The aide then stirred it, aced it on the table and stood by his side like a loyal butler would.

Marlo picked it up and slowly drank its contents emotionlessly.

"Ratcliffe.

What do you make of the situation?"

"My lord.

All this time, Nopline hasn't sent the regular batch to the slave auction island which is indeed bizarre.

The last batch of slaves arrived on the Island last year during the month of April.

And now, a new year has already begun and still, no slaves have been sent yet.

In fact, rather than saying that a new year has begun, it would be more accurate to say that the new year was about to end seeing that we are currently in the last week of August.

So for the past 16 months, nothing has been sent yet.

Following the last order we received, the next one should've arrived sometime this January.

But it's August now, and no new slaves are in sight.

So my lord, if I may... Either sir Nopline was delayed by something or he betrayed us.

The latter is very unlikely seeing that we have been doing business with him for over 17 years, and also have some bargaining chips against him to keep him loyal.

So it's more likely that he was delayed instead." Ratcliffe said while pouring more blood into his master's cup very professionally.

Ratcliffe was an all-rounded butler.

He was a high-ranking assassin, an amazing cook, a good cleaner, a good tailor and everything else.

Since his master lived in the shadows, they typically travelled and stayed by themselves and he had learnt to do everything for the master.

But dressing him up in the mornings, fetching his water and whatnot.

No one could poison the master's food or even put something in the master's clothes or bathwater because he personally tested and did all those things for the master.

His entire purpose and reason for living was to serve his master.

He was just an impeccable butler.

.

Ratcliffe gently patted Marlo's mouth with a handkerchief.

"My lord, I believe that your guesses are correct.

From what I know, no one, not even the rulers would dare to openly do something against Nopline.

So it must be the temple of Dragmus.

But from what I see, their initial target didn't seem to be sir Nopline, but you.

And this begs the question, who knows about your existence other than the top pirates and superiors?

Master, only those you directly work with like sir Nopline, as well as the enemy, the temple of Dragmus know of your existence.

Again, narrowing it down, no one knows your schedule, not even people like sir Nopline.

Master, was it really a coincidence that they attacked one of sir Nopline's bases while we there?

They probably got information from their spies and wasted no time in eliminating us.

So only a spy close to us would be able to leak out the information and plan an ambush attack on us.

Luckily, they attacked when we left the base and headed into the nearby city 14 hours away to gather information about sir Nopline's state.

Master, I think that the temple might've indirectly delayed Nopline from sending the slaves as planned.

They might've done this just to draw us here and ambush us." Ratcliffe said expressionlessly.

All fingers pointed towards the temple, and Marlo couldn't agree more.

The fact that he had personally caught Higoro, only made him suspect the temple even more.

All this, what can he expect from a scheming backstabbing group who had betrayed his pirate ancestors hundreds of years ago?

They liked planning in the early and making incidental moves so as not to alert their prey.

This was their style, and he believed that they were now out to get him.

Luckily, he had noticed their move.

And now, he could better prepare and protect himself against them.

Of course, he would give them a little gift to thank them for their kindness.

.

Just like that, Marlo had blamed the temple for Baymard's attack on one of Nopline's bases.

He didn't even know that Nopline had been executed.

But funny enough, the person that he thought wouldn't leak out his information, switched his life away in a blink of an eye.

The moment Nopline was told that he would be executed, he brought out his trump cards by talking about the pirate organization and even threatening them with the baker and several other hidden powers in the organization.

Even though Nopline had never seen Marlo's face and only knew a little about the baker's identity, he still snitched in hopes of making Micheal fearful of him.

No one wanted to die, especially when they had so much wealth and power.

So he was willing to say nothing he could if it meant that he would stay alive.

He even spoke of this pirate island that he had visited before when he was summoned by the baker.

To him, this was one of the baker's hideout locations.

And he wasn't wrong, as coincidentally, Marlo was here now.

Anyway, after all that stitching, he still got executed.

And just like so, the Baymardians now knew about the baker's deeds.

As for Marlo who knew nothing about the matters at hand, he had divided to lay low for a bit before swiftly sending a message to Nopline about the slave matter.

.

One should know that apart from the organization's demands, Marlo had his own demands as well.

Nopline was Marlo's personal food (human) deliverer who was in charge of delivering at least 2000 people per batch to the islands.

And from there, he would send his men to pick the slaves up and bring them to his base.

Since April of last month, he had been living off the supplies he got.

And just a few months ago, everything was finished, as his closest men were also cannibals as well.

Now, they needed more food fast.

He couldn't very well keep sending his own men to kidnap people because it was too risky.

For one, doing so could potentially reveal his location if a powerful force was around.

Staying hidden in the shadows was the life that he and his men lived.

Even those on this island didn't know that they were here.

They just thought that they were ordinary guards.

But now, if they went out and pretended to blend in while capturing prey, the risks were endless.

Marlo couldn't help but appreciate Nopline's services even more.

Sigh... He missed the days of constant food delivery.

As for why he just couldn't bring himself to eat other types of meat, that was because nothing else could compare to human flesh in his mouth.

And it tasted even greater after watching his victims scream, struggle and beg for mercy.

Children, babies, adults, all of them had ended up in his belly for decades.

He enjoyed stripping everything off their bodies with everything intact.

He was someone who craved for human flesh as if it were his everything.

He personally loved killing his prey right before his meal like a ritual.

Even drinking their blood gave him ecstasy.

He was a cannibal through and through, and an intelligent one at that who has taken care of more enemies than many in this world.

Of course, Ratcliffe was also a cannibal as well.

.

Both discussed for a bit about sending a thank-you gift to the temple.

Because just as Marlo had promised, he would never let this matter go.

But unbeknownst to them, an unknown enemy was making its way towards their location.

An unlikely enemy was coming!