Chapter 272: The Remarkable Kaido
Kaido got hammered.
Although he had just mocked Hana-zō for passing out after one cup like one of those women, then turned around and chugged himself into oblivion, needing his subordinates to beg and plead before he was rescued, looking utterly pathetic, he waved his hand dismissively, acting like nothing had happened, and everyone just kept playing music and dancing as if nothing—no skin, no… cough, his carefree attitude really made him look dashing.
In any case, the banquet after that proceeded smoothly without any more incidents all the way until evening, a case of host and guests both enjoying themselves fully.
As for the remaining half barrel of spirits, although Kaido tried his utmost to stop it, it was still taken outside by Ember under everyone’s unanimous decision and burned up in one go with flames.
Ember really didn’t dare just dump such a dangerous thing anywhere casually; it was still safer to simply destroy it with flames.
……
The banquet ended, and Kaido and Hana-zō, this pair of old acquaintances, naturally ended up sleeping side by side.
It wasn’t until the next day near noon, after both had sobered up considerably, that the two sides began discussing proper business.
First, Beasts Group Chairman Kaido led the people from Huazha Group on a tour of the key subsidiary under his group—Beasts Heavy Industry’s headquarters as well as several arms factories located on the island.
Huazha Group Executive Director Hana-zō expressed admiration for Beasts’ current development and stated he would fully support Beasts Heavy Industry’s future production expansion and overseas market development plans.
In addition, Hana-zō himself was particularly impressed by the cutting-edge casting craftsmanship and efficient production lines displayed at the arms factories on the island, believing this laid the most solid industrial foundation for deepening cooperation between the two sides.
Amid the warm and friendly communication between the two sides, time unknowingly arrived at noon.
After lunch in the Beasts employees’ canteen, Beasts Group’s current General Manager Mr. Wright gave the people from Huazha Group a general introduction to the dozen or so islands’ real estate under Beasts at present, as well as their local specialty agricultural and sideline products, mines, processing, and export businesses, etc.
Huazha Group Chairman Hana-zō expressed admiration for this, and after touring the Fish-Man children’s education and training experimental base, he nodded repeatedly, expressing admiration for Beasts’ farsighted vision.
……
Three days later, Fenrir’s east side dock.
“Hana-zō, really not considering joining under me directly?”
With Ember, Wright, Aoxi, and a crowd of others seeing him off behind him, Kaido stood on the shore and once again extended an invitation to Hana-zō.
“No.”
Facing Kaido’s third invitation, Hana-zō, already aboard the ship, still shook his head, which left him somewhat disappointed.
But this time Hana-zō’s headshake wasn’t refusing Kaido.
Over these three days, he had earnestly inspected the Beasts Pirate Crew from top to bottom alongside Kaido, Ember, and the others.
To be honest, it upended his imagination.
Whether it was the internal structure and system, or the external armed forces, and other aspects including talent cultivation, research investment, even disability assurance… all of this far exceeded his cognition of the term ‘pirate crew’.
Kaido was serious, and had been steadily advancing step by step toward the goal he had once spoken of to him.
In order to confront the World Government and the current order it represents head-on—to confront this massive, formidable terror monster that dominates the entire sea, this newborn cub of Beasts was constantly sharpening its fangs.
Nowadays, it had already grown in a short time to the point where it could stir up winds and clouds in one region, and even not long ago, this cub had fiercely bitten off one of the opponent’s claws.
In comparison, he was now just a small sampan, still drifting aimlessly with the waves.
He asked himself, if Kaido were swapped with him, he couldn’t achieve this level.
『Compared to me still spinning in place, you’ve already come this far, huh…』
Seeing Kaido about to speak again, Hana-zō waved his hand to interrupt:
“Compared to joining under you as a subordinate pirate crew, I can provide you more assistance from this position as one of the Seven Warlords.”
“Hana-zō, you…”
“Kaido, when I said back then that I left the kingdom because I was tired of that endless war, that actually wasn’t entirely true.”
“After all, whether it’s you or me, us guys born from the bottom seem to have been accompanied by war ever since we can remember.”
“Woka Kingdom’s wars never stop. Wars with neighboring countries, wars with non-neighboring countries, even wars with countries eight poles away… annihilation battles, blocking battles, defensive battles… always war, war, war. As if our very existence was for the sake of war.”
“We got used to war long ago, just like we’re used to spirits always mixed with the smell of gunpowder.”
“I have no dissatisfaction with a life accompanied by war.”
As Hana-zō spoke, he somehow pulled out two bottles of spirits from somewhere and tossed one to Kaido; this seemed to be a special farewell custom of their Woka Kingdom.
“Gulp gulp gulp gulp~”
After downing the entire bottle of spirits in one go, Hana-zō wiped his mouth and said in a tone laced with mockery and disdain:
“You probably couldn’t guess the real reason I left the kingdom…”
Plop~
The empty wine bottle was tossed far into the sea.
Hana-zō looked into Kaido’s eyes, grinning with that terrifying jaw as he said:
“I was actually scared into fleeing, fled overnight without even changing my clothes. Haha! Hahaha!”
Hana-zō pointed to the noble-style top hat on his head.
“Oh?”
Hearing this, Kaido also took an interest.
“Kaido, remember what I told you? After you left, the kingdom’s army fell into irreversible decline, suffering defeat after defeat in foreign wars, and eventually even got pushed all the way to the royal city’s gates.”
“That old thing the king didn’t know what conditions he promised to make the enemy retreat, but not long after, he died.”
“Then his son took the throne, and that kid, whether out of fear from being beaten or what, actually threw away noble titles like they were free, just to win over the experts in the army.”
“You know, for us army types, no matter how great our achievements, we’d at most get money and medals; noble titles were absolutely off-limits to us.”
“I never thought I’d actually become a noble master one day.”
“Heh~ Haha!”*2
Kaido and Hana-zō both let out a disdainful laugh at the same time.
“And then? You had a shot at enjoying noble life, so why’d you run off to sea instead?”
Kaido asked, somewhat knowingly.
“Simple. After really mixing with those guys, I realized those nobles had always treated war like a game.”
“They’d even bet on how many soldiers would die in the next war, then get mad because the number was less than what they bet on.”
“We guys had no choice but to kill nonstop every day just to survive, while those nobles hid behind fortress walls, treating war and lives as entertainment.”
The mockery in Hana-zō’s tone vanished, replaced by a low, serious note.
“I got scared, scared that if I kept mixing with those people, I’d turn into one of those things too.”
“I never claimed to be any good person, even casually killing when in a bad mood, but at least I can’t let myself become that kind of thing.”
“I’d rather die fighting on the battlefield than rot away slowly with those things, so I fled.”
“…”
Locking eyes with Kaido’s sharp, unclouded gaze for a moment, Hana-zō suddenly smiled again and asked:
“Kaido, by the way, what was that dream you told me about back then?”
“Hey!”
Hearing this question, Kaido grinned too, then downed the bottle of spirits in his hand in one go before loudly declaring:
“I’m gonna build a world, a world where the strong reign supreme!”
“In that world, the law of the jungle is out in the open, right there for all to see!”
“The victors have everything, the strong dominate everything! And the losers lose it all, the weak at others’ mercy!”
“No hypocritical noble fig leaves! No shameless tricks manipulating fate! Power— that’s the only truth!”
“…”
“Haha! What an amazing dream… way better than a guy like me who has nothing and just flees with tail between his legs.”
“…”
The two men made eye contact, and after a long while, Hana-zō spoke:
“So, Kaido, share a bit of your dream with me!”
