Chapter 94: Heart-to-heart Between Father And Son
After leaving Punk Hazard, there were no further delays along the way, and they returned at the fastest speed to the renowned “Coffee City” in the New World. The warships were all handed over to the Eckmond Kingdom’s own navy, while this batch of navy borrowed by Elus was sent in groups to the Navy’s G1 branch to replenish the branch’s battle losses.
G1 and G5, these two Navy bases in the New World have always had top-tier battle damage rates. Among them, the G5 branch is a waste recycling station for exiling those unruly marines who haven’t committed offenses warranting imprisonment in Impel Down, so this group of navy who followed Elus from Paradise to the New World naturally could only become living forces for the G1 branch.
Of course,
Elus didn’t care about the differences and disputes between the G1 branch and G5 branch.
The whereabouts of this group of navy would naturally be handled by the Navy. As a Seven Warlord, not using the privileges would be a waste. Anyway, as long as they regularly turned in pirates’ heads, it would suffice for official duties. Heavenly Yaksha, Empress, and those willful guys all did it this way; only the honest Jinbe was frequently summoned and ordered around by Sengoku.
Elus naturally wasn’t an honest person like Jinbe.
He had plenty of calculations in his mind!
Today, the sky was clear with a gentle breeze.
“Father, have you found the uninhabited island suitable for human survival that I wanted?”
Elus burst into His Majesty the King’s study.
“El, you didn’t say before what you wanted the uninhabited island for? And it’s one that can support long-term human habitation? Aren’t you making things difficult for people?” Berville was handling official duties when he was interrupted by his son. Irritated, he glared at Elus, who had sat down on the sofa on his own.
“None?”
Elus frowned, pinching his chin in thought. “Then we’ll have to find a way to clear out an island. It’s not a small trouble! And if it causes too much commotion, it won’t be convenient…”
The Eckmond Kingdom is a great power composed of twenty-seven islands. However, this doesn’t mean there are only these twenty-seven islands in the Eckmond Kingdom’s sea area. In fact, there are many large and small islands scattered on the sea, with ninety-nine percent being uninhabited deserted islands unsuitable for human habitation. The harsher environments are even barren without a blade of grass.
Of course, occasionally some islands restore their ecosystems due to sudden climate changes or tectonic movements, so the territory on the sea is constantly shifting. The World Government and Navy spend a considerable amount of funds every year just revising sea charts.
Elus didn’t know if the Eckmond Kingdom had uninhabited islands suitable for human habitation.
He had never paid attention to this aspect before. The Eckmond Kingdom, with its twenty-seven islands, was far from having an overpopulation problem. On the contrary, except for the relatively high land prices in the capital Arabica, the residential land prices on the other islands had never risen.
The existing territory all had issues of vast land with sparse population, so naturally, there was no effort to develop deserted islands or migrate people—such things held no meaning at all.
Intelligence and information in related fields were also a complete blank.
While still on the ship, Elus had already contacted Berville, but three days after returning, there was still no response. Losing patience, Elus came directly to urge him.
“Who said there aren’t any?”
“Then are you teasing me?”
“Who told you, you brat, not to tell me what you actually want to do? You’ve been back for three days, acting all mysterious without knowing what ghost tricks you’re up to.” Berville complained dissatisfiedly. His Majesty the King got more worked up as he spoke, glaring at his son and saying directly, “If you don’t explain clearly what you want to do, don’t think about getting an island.”
“…Weren’t you thinking of abdicating the throne? Why worry about so much?”
“Then why don’t you come sit in my seat now?”
Berville’s retort shut Elus’s mouth.
Looking at the tall stack of documents on the desk, Elus had no desire to bind himself to this royal palace and lose his freedom at this time.
Don’t think that bastard Heavenly Yaksha could run around everywhere, even going to Paradise for fun, but the problem was that Dressrosa was only so big—a single island just looking at its land area.
When the Riku Royal Family ruled Dressrosa before, the whole country had barely any money and relied on that field of flowers for some reputation. It was only after Doflamingo ascended the throne that Dressrosa became prosperous by selling weapons and serving as a transit port in the Dark World.
Setting aside the damage Doflamingo caused to Dressrosa’s residents using the Hobby Hobby Fruit, from an interests perspective, Dressrosa under the Donquixote Family’s rule had a much higher standard of living than during the Riku Royal Family’s reign.
In short,
As a great power in the New World, the Eckmond Kingdom not only had vast territory and large population, but its affairs were also ten times more than a small country like Dressrosa.
If Elus really became king, without putting in great effort to sort out the government affairs, he definitely wouldn’t have time for free action.
“I’m preparing to establish a scientific research base. You’ve heard about the Punk Hazard matter, right? I happened to pass by at the time, took advantage of the Navy not noticing, and captured a senior researcher. I also found quite a bit of technical information on the island…”
Elus honestly confessed his purpose.
Berville stared at his son in stunned disbelief.
Good grief!
He knew this excessively capable eldest son had been acting mysteriously these past few days and was definitely up to something. He never expected him to poach a scientist from the World Government and incidentally loot a batch of technical information. If the World Government and Navy found out about this…
His head began to ache again, veins throbbing at his temple, vision blurring darkly. Fortunately, he was trained, had good physical condition, and wasn’t old, so he wasn’t directly scared to death by this rebellious son.
However,
Though not scared to death, he was about to be angered to death.
Repeatedly doing such outrageous things: provoking the King of Maritime Transport Umit, directly clashing with BIG·MOM, demanding a Seven Warlord position from the World Government, and now poaching their corner without consultation.
“El!!!”
It took him a while to control his emotions. His emerald-green eyes gazed at his eldest son on the sofa. “Do you understand what you’re doing? If this gets exposed, even with your Seven Warlord title, you probably can’t escape the World Government’s sanctions.”
Having been king for so many years, Berville saw it clearly. The World Government’s untouchable taboos were three: first, the blank hundred years of history, an absolute forbidden topic; second, the Celestial Dragons—though the exact reason was unknown, they simply couldn’t be provoked; third, science and technology exceeding certain limits…
Doctor Vegapunk had been living well in his homeland Future Country, but his research crossed the line, attracting sanctions from the World Government and Navy. Half-forced, half-enticed, he was made to submit under the World Government.
If Doctor Vegapunk had chosen death over submission back then, there probably wouldn’t be the treasure now controlled by the World Government.
Elus plundering the World Government’s scientist to privately research science and technology was absolutely not allowed, especially given Elus’s possession of peak power in this world.
“That sea train is a good thing. We can immediately start planning and designing across the kingdom’s islands. Once preparations are done, construction can begin directly, but…”
“Father, what do you think about bringing Grandfather and the other clansmen back from the Holy Land sometime?”
Elus interrupted his father’s admonition.
Instead bringing up something completely unrelated.
Berville felt utterly baffled. He frowned and scolded, “What nonsense are you talking? We just sent your younger brother and younger sister there, why rush to bring people back? And other clansmen too, you…”
His voice grew quieter as he spoke.
An expression of incredulous shock appeared on his face.
“El, you’re not thinking…” He suddenly stood up, pointing at Elus, wanting to shout “Have you gone mad?” but years of cultivated demeanor let him suppress the urge to yell.
He took a top-quality cigar from the cigar box on the table, soon pacing back and forth in the study with it in his mouth. Only after smoking all six cigars in the box did Berville return to his chair and sit down.
During this time, Elus sat calmly on the sofa, taking dried fruits and snacks from the drawer under the coffee table to pass the time.
At this point,
It was about time to reveal some of his ambitions to his father.
He needed to prepare him mentally in advance. Otherwise, it would be too late to mention it when they truly broke with the World Government. Moreover, what he planned next couldn’t possibly be hidden from his father as king, so communicating ahead was more prudent.
“Father, rest assured, I’m not that impulsive. The World Government has dominated this world for over eight hundred years; such a behemoth can’t be toppled overnight. This is still the time for accumulation. You needn’t worry about me doing anything irrational. This is just a heads-up in advance.”
Elus smiled, comforting his startled father.
Hearing his son’s caring words, Berville felt his chronic headaches probably wouldn’t improve anytime soon—or rather, with such a bold son, preventing the symptoms from worsening was already quite an achievement.
“This old man will sooner or later be scared into a heart attack by you, you brat.”
Berville rarely swore.
He saw that his son was dead set on causing trouble; verbal persuasion was useless, and he couldn’t stop his eldest son’s actions with force.
It seemed
he could only accept his fate?
He sighed inwardly again, glaring at Elus and cursing him twice as a spendthrift. The family business built by generations of the Eckmond Kingdom might all be squandered.
Elus chuckled without refuting. With the Hogyoku as a wish-granting machine, all kinds of intractable diseases could be cured in minutes—what was a mere heart attack? If he had been born two years earlier, even the Pirate King with an incurable disease might have been saved.
“The scientist you poached is that latest wanted M·Caesar·Clown, right?”
“Exactly, that mad scientist with a three hundred million bounty.”
Borsalino searched the nearby sea areas and routes centered on Punk Hazard but found no Caesar, so the World Government and Navy issued a bounty poster for Caesar with a bounty as high as three hundred million Beli—higher than most Seven Warlord members.
“There are two uninhabited islands suitable for human survival.”
Berville didn’t ask more about Caesar. He took a rolled-up map from the cabinet, spread it flat on the desk, weighted the corners with four books, called Elus over, pointed at the map, and said,
“One of these islands is near Bikahi Island, but it’s a winter island, unsuitable for coffee planting. Plus, the people are accustomed to summer island climate, so even though over a hundred years ago it was confirmed to have survival conditions, it remains an untouched deserted island to this day.”
“A winter island?”
Elus pondered.
Scientific research wasn’t about opening coffee plantations—no need to worry about the island’s climate. A winter island… should be fine. Punk Hazard, which later became an ice-fire island, hadn’t stopped Caesar from living comfortably there.
Seeing Elus silent, Berville pointed out the other uninhabited island.
This was an autumn island.
Its location was quite remote, nearly at the kingdom’s northwest border sea area, separated from the capital by the distance of three islands. Elus quickly decided how to choose. “Father, let’s take this winter island!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. By the way, does this winter island have a name?”
“A name… Skathi. That’s what my grandfather—your great-grandfather—came up with.”
“Skathi, Skathi, I got it. Nice name.”
Elus praised it as a good name, though his words lacked sincere emotion.
Berville rolled his eyes but didn’t mind his son’s perfunctory attitude. By the time Elus was born, his grandfather had been dead for years, so he didn’t expect the boy to have much genuine feeling for a great-grandfather he’d never met.
“The place is yours. Go do whatever you want next! Just remember about the research base—don’t let it leak!”
Berville couldn’t help reminding him.
“I’ll draw a professional construction team from the military to Skadi Island. Once the project is completed, this team will stay there permanently—they won’t leave for three to five years.” Elus explained his plan. “Afterward, Kappas will return, and that lazy guy will handle Skadi Island’s defense.”
“Kappas? That personality is indeed suitable for garrisoning one side.”
Berville thought about it and nodded in agreement.
Berville knew the personalities of Elus’s four aides-de-camp. Placing Kappas, lazy to the bone, in charge of security inside and outside the research base was far more suitable than sending him running all over the New World.
