Not long after the agreement was signed, three departments were established in Nightless City.
The Nightless City Operations Committee, the Nightless City Executive Committee, and the Nightless City Finance Department.
The Operations Committee was responsible for formulating Nightless City's development strategies. The Executive Committee was responsible for carrying them out. The Finance Department was responsible for auditing and disbursing funds. The three departments jointly governed Nightless City.
Above these three departments, there still needed to be a chief supervisor to oversee everything. Originally, Rosinante planned to give this position to Doflamingo. After all, Nightless City had been built largely by Doflamingo himself, and no one was more familiar with it than he was. Unfortunately, Doflamingo flatly refused.
That's right, he refused.
After everything that had happened during this period, Doflamingo had come to deeply understand the importance of strength. No matter how powerful your backing was, without sufficient personal strength, you did not even have the right to speak.
As a bearer of Conqueror's Haki, he would naturally never allow himself to remain so stifled.
And of course, the most important reason was still that old saying: stay away from Rosinante if you value your life.
After careful consideration, Doflamingo decided to return to the North Blue and continue building his power there.
That said, he did not withdraw from Gray Kingdom. There was no way he would let go of a thigh as thick as Gray Kingdom, and Gray Kingdom was not a place you could freely enter and exit at will. Even if Doflamingo was Rosinante's biological brother, the rules still applied.
The Donquixote Family would continue to serve as Gray Kingdom's Zero Division, responsible for its core intelligence operations.
Doflamingo left Nightless City, but he left Trebol and Jora behind.
The two of them set up an extremely luxurious auction house in the Sabaody Archipelago, specializing in the auction of rare treasures.
Things like Devil Fruits, famous blades and guns, and peerless treasures.
Given Nightless City's explosive growth, this place was bound to become the center of the world's economy in the future.
It was the ideal location for expanding connections and gathering intelligence. Naturally, Doflamingo would not miss the chance to plant a nail here, especially when he already had such a huge advantage.
Doflamingo left, but the BloodSworn Guard moved in in full force.
The BloodSworn Guard would be responsible for supervising the three departments and eliminating any threats that endangered Nightless City. Katakuri would be stationed in Nightless City as its guardian.
With Katakuri's strength, anyone below Admiral level could be dealt with easily.
The current Katakuri was nothing like his original counterpart, whose future sight would fail the moment his emotions wavered.
After cultivating the Mind Web, Katakuri's future-sight Observation Haki became stable, no longer an ability that worked one moment and failed the next.
Although his overall strength had not yet truly reached Admiral level, with stable future sight, he already possessed combat power sufficient to fight an Admiral head-on. Forget ordinary pirate crews, even against an Admiral, Katakuri could hold his ground for quite some time.
With Katakuri guarding Nightless City, Rosinante could finally put his mind at ease.
And even if someone tried to endanger Nightless City, with Katakuri's abilities, danger could be eliminated in advance, reducing losses to the absolute minimum.
As for what Rosinante himself was doing, naturally, he was best at delegating.
Let him stay in Nightless City long-term, staring at it day after day and guarding against every possible disturbance? Spare him.
Besides, he had "far more important" things to do.
What things?
As the head of a pirate force, his most important task was naturally to improve his own strength.
...
With the power of the Shadow Shadow Fruit, Rosinante naturally would not use it just once and then let it go to waste.
After handling all matters related to Nightless City, Rosinante handed everything over to the BloodSworn Guard and Katakuri, then entered seclusion to train together with Moria and the others.
Moria and his group were responsible for continuously supplying Rosinante with all kinds of shadows, while Rosinante used the experiences contained within those shadows to constantly refine his Devil Fruit abilities and combat techniques.
And just like that, without realizing it, three years passed.
Three full years later, a single invitation interrupted Rosinante's cultivation.
It was an invitation from the Navy.
The Navy Headquarters planned to hold a ceremony at Marineford to confer medals and officially promote Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino to Navy Headquarters Admirals, and they invited Rosinante to attend as a guest.
Three years ago, after the Nightless City Agreement was signed, Fleet Admiral Kong was promoted to Supreme Commander of the World Government's armed forces, while Sengoku was elevated to the position of Fleet Admiral of the Navy Headquarters.
Yet for reasons unknown, the positions of the three Navy Admirals had remained vacant until now.
Only now did they finally announce the promotion of Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino as the Navy's highest combat power, the three Admirals.
And what was more, they specifically invited Rosinante to attend the ceremony.
"The investiture of the three Navy Admirals? If I remember correctly, in the original timeline, Sakazuki and the others shouldn't have been promoted this early. At the very least, when Borsalino hunted down Fisher Tiger of the Sun Pirates, he was still just a Vice Admiral. Has everything been pushed forward? Still, three years have passed. It's about time I went out and showed my face again. I wonder if the people of the sea have already forgotten about me."
Rosinante muttered to himself thoughtfully.
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