The body of the CP agent killed by Fujitora was soon discovered by other CP agents.
Naturally, they reported the matter to Saint Saturn and Saint Nusjuro.
"How ungrateful. We even revealed our identities as Celestial Dragons, and he still refused!"
Saturn's face darkened.
In the past, the title of Celestial Dragon was an untouchable, supreme status.
But now, even when revealed, Fujitora had rejected it.
No wonder he was blind. He had no vision at all.
"So what do we do now? The Navy currently has two fleet admirals, Akainu and Kong, but only one admiral, Aramaki. This is highly unbalanced."
Saint Nusjuro frowned.
In the past, the three-admiral system had always been standard. Losing one was acceptable, but only having one left was not.
"I remember there was an admiral candidate named Chaton. He was demoted after killing a Celestial Dragon by accident. Should we pardon him and reinstate him as an admiral?"
Saturn spoke after thinking it through.
Now was a time when manpower was urgently needed. Forgiving Chaton's crime could be considered.
"No, according to CP's intelligence, that man has already defected to the Neo Navy."
Nusjuro had also considered this, but this piece of intel changed everything.
"I remember the woman that loser liked was taken by Caelan. Is he so spineless that he doesn't even have the guts to fight Caelan?"
Saturn said in disbelief. "He even defected to the enemy. What is that guy thinking?"
Logically speaking, if a man's woman was taken, he should be enraged, enough to fight to the death.
Back when his own woman was taken, he had wiped out his rival's entire family, not even sparing a chicken.
But what was this guy doing, working under the man who took his woman?
(In the Neo Navy, Chaton, unable to even see Gion, was working diligently. Although he was angry that Gion had been taken by Caelan, she had ignored him before and still ignored him now. So, as long as he didn't acknowledge Caelan, his relationship with Gion remained unchanged.)
"Forget about what Chaton thinks," Nusjuro said, bringing the topic back on track. "We need to figure out how to fill the two vacant admiral slots."
"There are two vacancies. It's not easy to find replacements," Saturn frowned, deep in thought.
Before Caelan appeared, admirals and the Yonko were the world's top combat forces.
Admirals weren't cabbages you could just pick from the ground.
But the Navy couldn't lose face. At the very least, they had to keep up appearances.
"Why don't we pull two people from the Knights of God and have them hold the fort for now?" Nusjuro suggested. "It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it should calm some people down."
"That's a workable idea," Saturn nodded. "Akainu has been acting out lately, so the two of them can also serve to keep him in check."
Recently, Keith had reported many of Akainu's disrespectful remarks.
And his increasingly casual attitude had become a growing concern.
Nusjuro added, "Those two from the Knights of God can't join directly. They'll need to disguise themselves as public recruits to boost morale."
"Alright, let's proceed with that."
Saturn finalized the decision.
"By the way, did you take care of Akainu's daughter, Hibari?"
Nusjuro turned to Saturn.
"It was easy for the Knights of God to kill a little girl with no real strength," Saturn replied coldly. "Not just Akainu's daughter. The granddaughter of Tsuru was also killed."
The two girls had departed from the North Blue, heading to join their grandmother in the Neo Navy.
But CP's intelligence wasn't for show. The information was quickly confirmed.
Then the Knights of God moved in, and both girls died easily.
"Well done. That'll show those with hidden motives the consequences of defying the World Government," Nusjuro said with satisfaction.
"Not only that, I had their corpses dumped at the Dressrosa harbor," Saturn said with a sneer. "Just in time to blame the Neo Navy, and let that Tsuru see the price of surrendering to the enemy."
"Then why not send Castellon, who is currently on assignment, along with the two Knights of God posing as admirals?"
Nusjuro smiled.
"He happens to be the user of the Logia-type Earth-Earth Fruit, making him a perfect fit for admiral."
"Having the man who killed Akainu's daughter serve directly under him... That's quite the arrangement."
Saturn fully agreed and even looked forward to the scene.
"As for the other, let's go with Urtur. I recall he's the user of the Logia-type Iron-Iron Fruit, also very fitting for the admiral position," Nusjuro added.
"Good. With Aramaki and these two, the Navy will have three Logia-type admirals. That should restore some of the Navy's lost momentum."
With three admirals in place, the Navy's strength appeared restored, and the World Government remained shrouded in mystery.
With things looking more stable, more factions were bound to fall back in line.
For a moment, the two exchanged glances and laughed together.
This was one of the rare bits of good news during this chaotic time.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)