Chapter 264: Vague Wish
“Mm… small fry.”
“This one is small fry too.”
“Defeated foe… small fry.”
“And this name I’ve never heard of… super small fry.”
His gaze swept one by one over the list of Seven Warlords on the newspaper, looking at these faces he either knew or had fought against, and Kaido’s expression grew increasingly contemptuous.
These were basically all small fry he could deal with in a few club swings; honestly, Kaido felt there was no need to stoop to pulling in these guys.
A bunch of weaklings without even the power to protect themselves probably had no way to stay in the Seven Warlords position for too long; there was no point in contacting them now.
Splash~
The newspaper was flipped further, and Kaido looked at the remaining few Seven Warlords candidates with some lack of interest…
Suddenly, a familiar face entered Kaido’s eyes.
“Eh?!”
“It’s actually this guy. I didn’t expect him to agree to become a Seven Warlord.”
Looking at the familiar face with the vicious chin printed on the newspaper, the corner of Kaido’s mouth finally curved up.
It seemed he didn’t need to waste time waiting anymore; the most suitable cooperation candidate could be settled on right now.
Excellent execution is often an important indicator of whether a person has the potential to accomplish great things… Having made up his mind, Kaido immediately pulled out the Den Den Mushi from his pocket and dialed a certain number.
“Puru~ puru~”
“Hey, it’s me, Kaido.”
“How about it, you got time lately?”
“Nothing much… Just that old man robbed a bunch of good booze from the World Government a while back, and now there’s too much to drink alone, so I want you to come over and help out.”
“Uro-ro-ro-ro! It’s settled then! Old man will be waiting for you on the island!”
Click~
Hanging up the Den Den Mushi, thinking of his two-birds-with-one-stone plan, the smile on Kaido’s face grew even more, and then he dialed another person’s Den Den Mushi.
“Puru~ pu—Hello, Governor Kaido.”
The Den Den Mushi connected quickly, but the voice from the other end was clearly noisy, obviously the other party was busy right now.
But Kaido wouldn’t considerately wait for the other to finish; he said immediately:
“Wright, write a note now to requisition wine from the island’s wine cellar, then hand it to Miss La.”
As the Governor-General of the Beasts Pirates, the nominal team boss, Kaido naturally had his own privileges.
For example, if he wanted to apply for something, he didn’t have to handwrite an application form like others and submit it to the internal affairs department for layers of approval…
Kaido could just make a phone call and have the Executive Secretary—namely Wright—write the application form for him, approve it, and then pass it to the Executive Secretary for final approval.
This way, a lot of time could be saved.
As for why not bypass Miss La and go get it himself…
Cough~ This… For a system of rules to run, leaders must lead by example, setting the tone from the top… Anyway, everything must follow the rules, or the organization will be chaotic.
……
“Ah? Requisition wine?”
“Uh… I don’t know which kind you want to requisition? For personal use or for a banquet?”
Wright on the other end of the phone, hearing that Kaido specifically wanted wine from the island’s wine cellar, consciously asked in more detail.
“Don’t worry about which kind, just write ‘wine.’ The reason is… uh, because of pulling in the new Seven Warlord. Yeah, write that.”
“…Got it.”
Wright paused slightly, glanced at the person standing beside him, then continued to confirm:
“So, Governor, how much quantity do you want to take out?”
“…”
“This, quantity for now, don’t write it.”
“Anyway, after you write the note, hand it directly to Miss La. Whatever questions there are, I’ll tell her myself.”
“Phew…”
“Okay, I understand, Governor Kaido.”
Click~
“Banquet for a Seven Warlord… That’s good news.”
“If we can cooperate with a Seven Warlord, we can use their special status to expand our business a bit bigger.”
“Do you have any ideas, President Willy?”
“Just call me Willy, Lord Wright.”
The current president of the Arms Manufacturers Association under the Beasts, Willy, was polite first, then humbly said while lowering his posture:
“The Seven Warlords have special status, backed by both the World Government and pirates, allowing them to flexibly operate between the black and white worlds as perfect middlemen.”
“Mm~”
Wright nodded, signaling the other to continue, while taking out paper and pen, and skillfully wrote up Kaido’s application form with a splash splash.
“Ahem~”
Clearing his throat slightly, Willy continued:
“If we can pull in a Seven Warlord, then our arms business can completely reach inside the World Government.”
“Doing business with the World Government…”
Wright’s pen paused slightly, he looked up at Willy, then said:
“I remember you said before that the kid from the Mediya Family seems to be doing this behind our backs already?”
“Mm. Caspar seems to have some connection with an official named Spandine in the World Government. The other side has connections in the military, and Caspar has been secretly diverting some factory production capacity to trade with them recently.”
Saying “secretly” isn’t accurate; Caspar himself wasn’t hiding it at all, just openly pocketing for himself.
He seemed to think that with the World Government backing him, the Beasts wouldn’t dare do anything to him.
And those family heads who disliked him had privately contacted the Beasts to report it, wanting the Beasts to take him out.
But stacks of complaint letters sent up ultimately sank like stones into the sea, with no response.
“I remember your stance at the time was to hold steady first, wait until this line is fully stabilized and those officials are completely locked in, then replace that kid.”
“Mm, that’s right.”
“After all, it’s business with the sea… uh, Beasts; those feather-precious officials definitely have concerns, and at the slightest wind, they’ll immediately cut ties.”
“So we can only use Caspar, the guy they know inside out, to lock them in first, and once the interest chain is stable, uh… make arrangements.”
Willy originally wanted to use the term “unload the donkey after grinding,” but considering his position, he switched to a vaguer phrasing.
“And now, if we cooperate with a Seven Warlord and use him as the middleman, the other side won’t have any concerns.”
A big shot endorsed by the World Government is surely a million times more reliable than the sensitive-status Caspar.
“By the way, how’s your Arms Manufacturers Association now?”
“Basically fully integrated; all kinds of raw materials, factories, and production equipment are now standardized, centrally allocated, and uniformly produced.”
“The various families have also given up some unrealistic ideas.”
“Mm.”
“In that case, that kid from the Mediya Family is no longer useful.”
“You’ve long been dissatisfied with him, right?”
Saying this, Wright looked at Willy’s eyes with a half-smile, while the latter remained silent.
Years of scheming experience told Willy that at this time, it was best not to state his position, even if the other already clearly knew.
“Once Governor Kaido’s cooperation with the Seven Warlord is reached, that kid is yours to dispose of.”
“Whether to kill or scrape him, whatever; let those arms manufacturing families vent this anger properly, then focus on cooperating with the Beasts.”
“…”
“I understand.”
Splash—
With the final stroke done, Wright took his seal from the drawer, stamped it, folded the application form, and prepared to go find Miss La.
“I’ll mention it to Miss La; this banquet for the Seven Warlord will give you a seat too, so get to know the crew members well then.”
“Lord Wright…”
Patting Willy’s shoulder, Wright passed by him and headed out the door.
……
“Behold my Comet Magic Light!”
“Whoosh— whoosh whoosh!”
“Ah! I’m dead! Chirp~”
“Eh? Chirp, you okay?”
“Hmph hmph! My Comet Magic Light is invincible. You’re next, Hachi!”
“Th-then I’ll counter with Halo Wheel, Boss Arlong.”
“No use. Though your Halo Wheel is extremely fast, it won’t hit me.”
“Eh?! I-is that so?”
“Boss Arlong is so awesome!”
“Hmph hmph~”
On the training ground, during rest time, the Fish-Man children were holding robot toys produced in the West Sea, role-playing games based on the stories Aoxi told them.
And Aoxi sitting beside them, watching this scene, couldn’t help but recall her elementary school recess times in her previous life, the corner of her mouth curving up.
This is boys’ “playing house”~
“Ha!”
“Ha!”
“Ha!”
Suddenly, bursts of punching sounds interrupted this beautiful recess rest…
Who?
Who is it?
Searching for the “traitor” committing the shameful act of “secretly doing homework during class break,” Aoxi dropped her left hand propping her face and turned her head toward the sound.
“Tch~”
“It’s you after all, little fatty.”
“So young and not learning the good stuff, secretly involuting here?”
“As president of the Anti-Involution Association, how can I tolerate you!”
With a big leap to Jinbe’s side, Aoxi began pointing and lecturing.
But Jinbe seemed unaffected, continuing his basic punching motions, explaining during the gaps in action:
“Miss Aoxi, I don’t know what involution means; I just don’t want to waste time in vain.”
“And I’m not fat; as a Whale Shark Fish-Man, this is just my natural build.”
“Roar~ Still talking back?!”
Aoxi put hands on hips, slightly tilting her face up to stare straight at the blue fatty two heads taller than her.
“Clearly still just a child, yet acting every day like bearing some heavy burden.”
“I don’t see anyone chasing you from behind~ Why push yourself so hard?”
Basically every time Aoxi saw Jinbe, he was either training or on the way to train; she’d never seen him relax.
He shouldn’t have a bitter past like King, so why push himself so hard?
“I’m just not used to idling; this is a habit from Fish-Man District.”
“And Miss La said before—’Skills honed by diligence, wasted by play.’ I believe the sweat from such diligent training won’t betray me no matter what.”
Finishing a set of punches, Jinbe finally rested a bit, sitting cross-legged on the ground and wiping forehead sweat with his obviously more worn training clothes than others.
“Roar roar~ Good kid, bringing out Sister La to pressure me, huh?”
“You think that way this young master will—?!”
Halfway through, Aoxi suddenly slammed on the brakes!
Because at some point, a golden figure had sat in her previous spot, also watching the frolicking Fish-Man children like her.
Miss La’s arrival startled almost no one, as if she’d been there from the start, and others took it as default fact.
Only Aoxi was truly scared by Miss La’s sudden arrival, nearly having her core stop abruptly.
“S-Sister La, why are you here?”
“To check on these children.”
Miss La spoke flatly, her tone without the reproach Aoxi feared.
『Also, Sister La wouldn’t get mad over something trivial like people gossiping behind her back… No, I remember Sister La used to be petty?』
Scratching her head, Aoxi realized not just her, even Miss La was subtly changing.
Just whether this change was good or bad was unknown.
As for Miss La coming here, it really was just to see these children.
Ever since completing that 【Winged Dragon Sphere】 knitted bag last time, Miss La had lost interest in knitting yarn.
She thought as usual, after a while a new whim would come, immersing her in something again…
But this wait was a bit long.
So Miss La chose to be more proactive, increasing external stimuli… that is, contacting different people to see if it could trigger a flash of inspiration.
This was also why she actively talked so much with Kaido and others before, analyzing relations between World Government and Navy, pirates.
And the result was undoubtedly a failure.
So today, Miss La planned to try her luck with these children, hoping their pure child emotions could touch her.
“By the way, Jinbe. Do you have any dreams?”
Miss La started proactively chatting.
And Jinbe was clearly thrown off by Miss La’s sudden topic, somewhat at a loss.
“Dr-dreams…”
“Haha~ Honestly, I think I have one; I feel it, but right now I don’t know what it is… Ha~ Saying it like that is weird, right?”
The little blue fatty scratched his hair somewhat embarrassedly.
“No, nothing strange. It’s just your current experience isn’t enough to pierce the fog around it.”
Miss La looked at the somewhat awkward Jinbe and continued in a gentle tone:
“You’ve already thought about setting out to sea, right? In adulthood… that is, three or four years?”
“So you’re seizing time now to train hard.”
?!
“Uh, Miss La, I…”
This was a plan he’d always kept hidden in his heart, never told to anyone.
Now exposed, Jinbe panicked momentarily; in his view, this behavior clearly went against righteousness and shouldn’t be done.
He had received great favor from the Beasts, saved from Fish-Man District, taught Fish-Man Karate, Rokushiki, Haki—skills ordinary people couldn’t touch…
There’s no free lunch in the world; compared to Arlong and others complaining daily about training being too tiring, Jinbe clearly knew how rare such hand-holding chance to grow stronger was—en like rebirth.
But the confusion in his heart urgently drove him to sea to find an answer.
“No problem, I don’t oppose it, and the Beasts won’t stop you.”
“In their words—nothing can stop a person from heading to the sea.”
“…”
“…”
“Thank you.”
After a silence, Jinbe’s heartfelt thanks sounded.
“Thank you all.”
