Chapter 36: An Excellent Newsman
Whether Elus was plotting meticulously and had long been scheming, Doflamingo didn’t know. He only needed to confirm that Elus harbored no hostility toward him. There were seven Seven Warlords, after all. As long as no one touched the chair under his butt, he didn’t care who got kicked out.
On the contrary,
he was very eager to get involved in such an interesting and lively matter.
However, he still couldn’t let his guard down, especially regarding Violet······ Her active approaching Elus seemed normal, but he still needed to keep a watchful eye. He wasn’t going to delve into what motives drove Violet’s actions. As long as he strictly guarded against her subsequent moves, that would be enough.
The banquet was still continuing,
The people of this world—whether it was their nature or a common trait—had an indescribable enthusiasm for banquets. Once a banquet started, unless something unavoidable interrupted it or conditions didn’t allow it to continue, it would last for quite a long time.
“Monet.”
Doflamingo came to the side of the green-haired woman who was sitting under a parasol eating shaved ice.
“Young Master? Is something the matter?”
The woman, eating her shaved ice with gusto, asked vaguely. Her grass-green wavy long hair draped down her back. The thick milk bottle glasses on her face covered most of it, also hiding her beautiful features. Under the glasses, she gave off a plain, bookish impression.
She was Monet.
A member of the Donquixote Family, she was Doflamingo’s secretary.
She firmly believed Doflamingo would be the one and only Pirate King. For Doflamingo, she wouldn’t hesitate to offer her own life.
“Monet, I’m assigning you a mission. Go keep an eye on Violet.”
“Violet? What’s wrong with her?”
“Uncertain. Probably having some thoughts she shouldn’t.”
“Ah! Is Princess still delusionally dreaming of restoring her country?” Monet set down her spoon, stuck out her tongue to lick the syrup from the corner of her mouth. Her golden eyes under the thick lenses turned, her sharp gaze piercing through the milk bottle glasses as she searched for Violet’s figure in the noisy crowd.
“Fufufu! Just keep an eye on her. Before our guest leaves, don’t let her do anything strange. I don’t want to see the family reduced for some inexplicable reason. So, Monet, Violet is temporarily yours to handle.”
“Leave it to me! Young Master, I’ll make our princess understand that family members shouldn’t scheme against each other.” Monet agreed with a smile.
————
New World,
In this world of chaos mixed with order, order containing chaos, every day and night, every hour and moment, every minute and second, people were dying—dying of illness, starvation, old age, murder······ The result of death was consistent, but the paths to that single outcome were countless.
Of course, in this world that divides humans into hierarchies.
Different people dying naturally brought different impacts. Yeah, this sort of thing probably existed in any human world!
A certain island with no fame—this was the headquarters of the World Economic Newspaper Company.
While the fervent banquet was still ongoing in the Dressrosa Royal Palace,
“President!!!”
“Special express confidential letter.”
The employee took two steps at a time. If he had wings, he’d hate not flying straight into Morgans’s office. Unable to fly, he ran all the way, shoving aside everyone in his path, and burst into Morgans’s office without knocking.
This was allowed,
As long as you held intelligence that was important and urgent enough, not only bursting into the office—no problem even dragging Morgans out of the toilet mid-business.
“Express······ Hmm.”
Morgans, who was drinking tea, set down his teacup and took the sealed envelope from the employee’s hand.
After carefully checking it over to confirm no one had opened the envelope before, he used a paper knife to open it and took out the letter inside and······ photos. They were photos of Umit, the murdered Umit lying face-up in a pit, with incredibly clear detail that was almost unbelievable.
Besides that, there were photos of Elus and his subordinates’ aides-de-camp, and from the background, they seemed to be in the same area as Umit.
“······ Umit, as expected, you’re the first sacrifice!”
After reading the letter, Morgans remained calmly seated in his chair without moving. Seeing this, the employee who knew a big news scoop was off the table dejectedly took his leave from Morgans and quietly exited the office, carefully closing the door behind him.
Ignoring his subordinate’s thoughts, his attention was now fully on the letter and photos in his hand.
Or rather, he’d been waiting for this news these past two days.
As a newsman, passively waiting for events to happen before gathering intelligence was unqualified. Only by predicting events in advance could you get first-hand exclusive intelligence and maintain the status of an excellent newsman without falling.
“Too bad, this news can’t make the newspaper.”
Morgans sighed with some regret.
He and Umit had little friendship—in fact, quite the opposite. Umit, who followed a secrecy strategy, hated most having his wealth intelligence exposed, even if just gossip news, and firmly resisted it. They’d once had a huge argument over some minor news; if not for someone mediating, they might have come to blows.
If not for Umit’s status as a Dark World magnate, Morgans would very much want to splash the news of Umit being smashed dead on the beach by the waves, but alas, such things could only be thought of, not openly published. At most, tomorrow’s newspaper would have an obituary in a corner: “So-and-so company president passed away for certain reasons,” etc.
The old chapter was turned; Morgans unceremoniously cast Umit aside entirely from his mind. Replacing him was [Black Prince] Sokachio Elus. This name completely occupied the space Umit had vacated.
He pinched the photo in his hand,
His sharp gaze fixed on Elus in the photo, who had a pair of pitch-black wings spread open.
“Prince Elus······ Not a shooting star that flashes by, but a star destined to illuminate the sky?”
“Someone!”
“Someone!”
He slapped the table, and a bunch of people surged in with a whoosh—seeming chaotic but utterly silent. Everyone stood quietly in the office, waiting for the president to speak.
“Latest intelligence: Umit is dead.”
“Killed by [Black Prince] Sokachio Elus. This won’t make the newspaper easily, so······ Spread it through private channels. Those who should know, those who need to know—I want them all to know about this. And don’t forget to promote our newspaper company’s strength.”
So-called news!
Wasn’t limited to just newspapers as a means of dissemination. Newspapers were merely the most convenient and practical channel. There were many other ways to spread news besides that.
