Early spring of the year 1509 of the Marine Calendar.
After a four-month-long expedition, Hancock led the Kuja Pirates back to Amazon Lily. Along the way, Sandersonia looked at the four newly expanded pirate ships and chuckled softly. "We really gained a lot from this trip."
Apart from the money and resources they acquired, they had only set out from Amazon Lily with around four hundred crew members and a single ship. Upon their return, the crew had grown to 1,500 people, forcing them to add new ships, expanding their fleet from one to four. The new additions included a few female pirates they defeated, as well as female refugees and poor women. As always, the Kuja only recruited women, making them a unique and prominent crew under Alucard.
"Sandersonia-sama, can you teach me how to fight again?" nine-year-old Koala tugged on Sandersonia's hand.
Sandersonia smiled and nodded. "Of course. We'll start when we land on the next island." "Yes!" Koala said with a bright smile.
Click.
The door opened, and Marigold, having finished her report to Hancock, came out of the room. "How did it go?" Sandersonia asked, turning her head.
"Onee-sama can't wait to go back and see Alucard-sama."
Marigold answered, and Sandersonia and the others all had a look on their faces that said, "Of course."
On another Kuja ship, the sisters Scarlett and Viola were leading the crew. Viola, the user of the Glare-Glare Fruit with her "all-seeing eyes," suddenly said, "The news birds are here."
The sky was completely silent, with no other creatures in sight, only an occasional passing seagull. But no one doubted Viola's words.
About half an hour later, a large flock of news birds flew over the Kuja's pirate ships, dropping stacks of newspapers. Scarlett picked one up. The front page was completely covered in four pictures. From left to right, they were Whitebeard, Alucard, Kaido, and Big Mom.
The content of the headline was just two words: Four Emperors.
After the great wars four months ago between Alucard and Whitebeard and between Kaido and Big Mom, the power of the four had increasingly influenced the state of the New World. The battle between Alucard and Whitebeard, in particular, where Whitebeard had pulled an island next to another, was a god-like feat that changed the map, and Alucard was put on a pedestal for clashing with him.
More and more pirates began to group the four main figures of that battle together, and after so much time had passed, they started calling them the "Four Emperors who rule the New World," or simply the Yonko.
The name started in pirate circles, but gradually, the Marines also adopted it. When they mentioned the four, they would add the prefix "one of the Yonko." The Three Monsters were now officially on the same level as Whitebeard.
"The Four Emperors? That's a cool name." Viola leaned over to her sister with a look of admiration. "It's so much more glamorous than Father's title of 'King.'"
"Viola, you can't say that," Scarlett chided her sister, but a smile she couldn't hide was visible in the corner of her eyes.
In the room, Hancock sat on Salome, looking at the newspaper. Beside her was five-year-old Shirahoshi, whose body was already the size of Gecko Moria's. Her smooth, egg-like face and delicate appearance easily made people want to protect her. She had a very high aptitude; under Hancock's influence, she had already touched upon the threshold of Haki at just five years old. She was now tilting her head, looking at the newspaper with Hancock.
"Ah just thinking about seeing Master soon makes me... me~" Hancock sighed with a self- satisfied expression, covering her face as she looked at Alucard's photo in the paper.
Shirahoshi blinked, already used to this behavior.
Soon, Marigold entered Hancock's room again, holding a newspaper with a joyful expression. "Onee-sama, it's good news, great news!"
"Of course," Hancock said, rising from her snake throne. She ordered Marigold, "Tonight, we will host a banquet to celebrate Master!"
"Yes!" Marigold replied excitedly.
Thousands of nautical miles away, on Alucard's island, Arderay, Matthew, Stragus, and the others held the same newspaper Hancock had. They walked toward the interior of the island, muttering to themselves, "Whitebeard, who was once on the same level as Shiki and the Pirate King Roger, now shares a title with three newcomers. What does it matter if he's called the 'head of the Four Emperors'? It just proves that his era is over."
"But either way, this is good news for us. We need to tell Alucard-sama immediately," Urdaha said, walking beside him.
Wolf scratched his chin as he followed, like a walking mountain. He said in a dumbfounded voice, "If we take out Whitebeard, won't we be the 'head of the Four Emperors'? I'm so excited~~"
"Don't be ridiculous. Last time, more than twenty of his fleets hadn't even arrived yet. If they had, we would have been in a much worse position!" Matthew snapped.
Last time, apart from Whitebeard's main crew, only four fleets, led by Squard, had shown up. Whitebeard's crew had a total of twenty-eight fleets. If they had all shown up... well, the outcome was hard to say.
"Enough chitchat. Just report the news to Alucard-sama immediately." Stragus narrowed his eyes, and his purple ponytail was gently lifted by the breeze. He yelled toward the city, "Alucard-sama! Where are you?"
"There's big news in today's paper!"
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