Chapter 276: The Three Of Us
“In short, we should take this opportunity, using that Seven Warlord named Hana-zō as leverage, to weave together our weapon production sales network as much as possible.”
After conducting a detailed, exhaustive, and highly professional analysis of the specific situations of various factions and the current overall environment on the sea, Miss La habitually summarized her speech at the end.
Through her observation, this step was quite necessary.
Because whenever it involved speeches in such formal occasions, she always subconsciously liked to speak at length, and her excellent thinking always made her analysis seem comprehensive, which inevitably caused the content to be lengthy.
This kind of speech style suitable for academic conferences might feel very familiar to Wright, who was once a scholar, but for the remaining group of pirates who dropped out of literacy class, it was truly a torment.
Of course, because Miss La’s voice was so pleasant, many people ended up treating it as a lullaby while listening.
Fortunately, no one dared to sleep openly in such an occasion yet, but the vast majority were just pretending to listen seriously while nodding along, while their true thoughts had long flown to the clouds.
Take Aoxi and Obei for example—these two were now one thinking about what to eat for late night snack later, while the other was pondering how to make a “keep out Aoxi” armament to drive this boundary-less Red Hair annoying pest out of her laboratory.
Even Kaido was still thinking about that barrel of “alcohol” burned by Jhin; he always felt that thing was somewhat similar to the “Water of Life” from legends in his hometown… unfortunately, Jhin and Wright refused to tell him where that alcohol came from.
And it was precisely based on this situation that Miss La developed the habit of making a small summary at the end of her speeches.
……
Of course, not everyone was like those academic posers; there were also people who tried hard from beginning to end to keep up with Miss La.
“Hmm…”
“Miss La, your meaning is… using Boss Kaido’s Seven Warlord acquaintance as an intermediary to sell our weapons all over the world, right?”
Taolong frowned and thought for a long while before finally digesting the strange terms in Miss La’s words and stating his understanding.
This pirate crew’s once-recognized “Number One Person under the executives” seemed to be reborn after taking the executive position, not only making rapid progress in strength, but also successfully completing the literacy class degree in just one year.
Recently, there were even rumors that he had developed an interest in courtly literature and started studying courtly grammar.
In any case, regardless of the rumors, this former “ignoramus” had grown into one of the few talents truly capable of participating in discussions of core matters within the organization, and even the former Boss Burufaruto had to look at him with new eyes.
“Yes, that’s roughly the meaning.”
“Factories, technology, personnel, channels, and stable territory… now all the preliminary preparations have been completed.”
“Although there may be many unexpected changes in between, selling our weapons all over the world will be the Beasts Pirates’ main goal for the next few years, decades, or even dozens of years.”
“Manipulate wars with weapons, then leverage the world with wars.”
Decades of time were enough to witness the change of a generation or even an era, but Miss La’s tone was calm, as if she hadn’t noticed the excited yet melancholic expressions of some older executives including Burufaruto.
……
This Beasts Pirates general executive congress, suddenly initiated by Boss Kaido on a whim and lasting a full three hours, finally ended at nine o’clock in the evening.
The Den Den Mushi on the conference long table almost immediately closed its eyes and started snoring loudly the moment it was hung up… As creatures, they were exhausted after several hours of high-intensity work.
“Ah ha~ Aaaah~”
Letting out a deep yawn, Aoxi lightly elbowed Obei.
“How about it, want to go to the canteen for some late night snack?”
“No need, not hungry.”
“Eh? Alright then… here, this is for you.”
Seeing her own sister still sulking with her over ruining her laboratory, Aoxi didn’t force her and instead handed the pocky in her hand to the other.
“…”
There was still more than half of the pocky left in the box, seemingly deliberately saved for her.
Obei knew her sister’s personality well; normally in such an occasion, any snacks she could hold for three minutes would already be a miracle, yet this small box of pocky she actually took a full three hours to eat without finishing…
『Chocolate sticks… she knew I like eating sweets at night and deliberately left them for me~』
『Aoxi this guy…』
『Well~ maybe just forgive her.』
After a slight internal struggle, Obei still took a small first step toward active reconciliation.
“…Thanks.”
Saying a soft thank you, Obei also took out a pocky and put the chocolate-coated end into her mouth.
Narrowing her eyes, the sweet and cloying taste slowly melted on her tongue tip; that sticky texture made Obei enjoy it immensely, and her mood became pleasant as well.
Hmm~ perfect flavor.
……
“?”
“Ah?”
Meanwhile, Aoxi was a bit puzzled hearing the sudden thanks from the other, but then immediately understood something.
“Oh, you mean this box of pocky~”
“No need to thank me; this box was originally bought for you by Sister La anyway. I thought you didn’t like sweets so I never gave it to you.”
“!”
Obei’s originally narrowed eyes suddenly opened wide, then she stared at Aoxi’s side face.
But Aoxi was completely oblivious and continued lamenting there:
“Aww~ you should have said so earlier; if I’d known you liked chocolate, I’d have saved that other box for you too. Eating three boxes in one go was honestly so sweet it made me a bit sick of it.”
“…”
Crunch!
The stick-shaped biscuit was viciously bitten into pieces, and because of the excessive force, the sound of teeth colliding could faintly be heard.
If Obei had ears on top of her head, that pair of ears would probably have flattened back by now, sticking tightly to her hair~
Obei—absolutely not in tune!
……
Splash~
The chair was pushed back, Kaido stood up and stretched his body, then felt a bit hungry in his stomach.
“Uro-ro-ro! Perfect, I’m feeling a bit hungry too.”
“Burufaruto, you’ve been away for a while lately; now that you’re back, come drink a cup with me!”
“And Taolong and Skipgate, you two come too.”
Without any self-awareness, Kaido, who had just messed up due to drunkenness, couldn’t hold back again.
Perhaps because Miss La’s gentle letting go of him earlier gave him the illusion that she had given up on managing him, or maybe he wanted to try his luck again to see if he could get another barrel of “Water of Life,” in any case, Boss Kaido openly led the group to start another small banquet.
“Captain Kaido, could you stay for a moment please?”
Sure enough, Miss La spoke up.
The instant her voice came out, almost everyone immediately stopped in their tracks.
“Uro-ro-ro! La, you’re coming too—”
“Jhin and Burufaruto, you two stay as well.”
“As for the others, you can go first now.”
Miss La interrupted Kaido’s words once again.
