Stepping into the Gorosei's office, Sengoku saw all five of them scattered throughout the room.
Before Sengoku and Kong could speak, the golden-haired Gorosei nodded at them. "You're here? Have a seat."
Sengoku and Kong didn't stand on ceremony and sat directly on the sofa. Although a teapot and cups were on the coffee table, neither of them touched it.
"Take a look at this," the bald Gorosei handed a file to Sengoku and Kong.
Both of their expressions were slightly surprised. They had expected to be reprimanded, so why were they being shown a file? Is this a summary of our defeat? Why would they need to show us this? We know what happened after we lost.
Though their minds were racing, they didn't show it. Each took a file and began to read. After a long while, Sengoku looked up and glanced at Kong, who was staring back at the Gorosei.
"Since the year 1500, the world has been in a state of continuous decay. The once-stable four seas have collapsed, with only the East Blue still worthy of being called the Sea of Peace. Just a few days ago, the new year began, and it is now the year 1503. In the past three years, more than forty new pirates with bounties over 100 million Berries have appeared. After subtracting those the Marines have eliminated, there are still over twenty who are active on the seas, with more than half having already entered the New World and temporarily evaded your forces," the golden-haired Gorosei said softly.
Sengoku and Kong remained silent, not quite understanding the Gorosei's intent.
"In the year 1500, the World Government had a total of 193 member nations. But as of yesterday, the number of member nations has plummeted to 162. Thirty-one member nations have withdrawn from the World Government in these three years. Twenty-six of them were annihilated, and only five were expelled by us. Do you understand the meaning behind this?" the bearded Gorosei suddenly spoke up.
The number of World Government member nations has always fluctuated, usually staying between 170 and 200. The numbers would shift for various reasons, such as a nation failing to pay its Heavenly Tribute and being expelled, or being wiped out by pirates or another force. This was all normal.
However, in previous years, the fluctuations were not that significant, and the number never dropped below 170. Now, at the beginning of 1503, in less than three years, the number of member nations had fallen by thirty-one, dropping below the 170 mark to 162.
This was a clear sign of the price the World Government was paying to resist the chaos of the Great Pirate Era.
Kong didn't speak, but Sengoku immediately said in a low voice, "The pirates are growing stronger, and we Marines…"
However, before Sengoku could finish, the golden-haired Gorosei raised a hand to stop him. "Pirates are nothing but a common skin rash."
The Gorosei holding Shodai Kitetsu also spoke in a deep voice. "That's right. The World Government has been established for over 800 years. The Great Pirate Era is just another cycle of chaos. Sooner or later, this so-called 'era of chaos' will calm down. Over the centuries, we have experienced countless ups and downs like this, and this time will be no exception. In our eyes, pirates are nothing but a minor affliction. Their very nature prevents them from ever establishing a foothold and shaking our foundation!"
What are pirates? They're chaotic. A pirate may rule for a time, but unless they can transform their chaos into order, they can never truly shake the World Government's foundation.
After all, no matter how corrupt the World Government is, its core nature is still order. The internal oppression may be severe, but it is still more humane than pirates who kill indiscriminately, often wiping out entire cities and nations.
Therefore, the Gorosei believed that no matter how much the pirates struggled, whether this era belonged to Whitebeard, Roger, or even Charlotte Linlin and Kaido, it didn't matter. From the perspectives of both time and scale, they would never be able to outlast the World Government.
Of course, this was their view at the time. What the situation would look like twenty years later remained to be seen.
"There are only two things that could make pirates a great threat, but both have already been eliminated, so there's no need to worry for now," the bald Gorosei stated.
"The first is the Poneglyphs. There is no need to hide anything from you two now. The so-called Void Century is naturally a critique of the World Government's injustice. We won't elaborate on what happened during that time; you can probably guess a thing or two. Now that Ohara has been destroyed, it is very difficult for anyone to decipher the Poneglyphs. This way, the World Government's injustices from back then will be buried by the river of history. We don't have to worry about evildoers seizing the opportunity to find a so-called 'righteous cause'..." the golden-haired Gorosei explained.
Simply put, the Poneglyphs and the Void Century could not be used against them in the short term. This meant that evil pirates like Whitebeard, Charlotte Linlin, and Kaido could not undergo a radical shift in their positions.
For example, if they had deciphered the Poneglyphs, they might not do it, but they would have the option of changing their identities. They could use the World Government's past injustices to refute it, legally invalidating the World Government's legitimacy. Then, they could transform from what are essentially marauding bandits into a so-called 'righteous army.'
If it ever reached this point, the World Government would be in an awkward position because the pirates would have shed their chaotic nature and entered the camp of order, making them qualified to shake the World Government's foundation.
However, as stated before, this possibility had already been eliminated for the time being.
The second point was the Ancient Weapons recorded on the Poneglyphs, the legendary powers capable of destroying the world. This was the only way for a pirate group with a history of only a few decades, at most a century, to quickly and effectively gain the power to completely oppose and even destroy the World Government.
Currently, with the exception of Newgate, who possessed the power to destroy the world and was therefore taken seriously by the World Government, someone like Kaido was a non-issue.
The World Government was well aware of Whitebeard's style and ambition and knew he wasn't a pirate who would commit such a crazy act, so they weren't very worried.
As for those beneath him, like Charlotte Linlin and Kaido, they might have the ambition to destroy the World Government and rule the world, but to put it bluntly, they weren't worthy. Only Shiki, in his time, who had the idea of creating a power similar to 'Poseidon,' had the right to contend with the World Government.
No matter how much Kaido and Charlotte Linlin developed, they could never compare to the foundation accumulated by the World Government over eight hundred years. The World Government could simply outlast them.
These pirates were all minor afflictions unless they obtained an Ancient Weapon and truly had the power to go all out against the World Government... then they would be worth taking seriously.
But we come back to the same point: Ohara is gone, and the Ancient Weapons are now a non-issue. The World Government no longer needs to worry about pirates. That's why, even now, in the so-called 'Great Pirate Era,' the Gorosei could confidently call pirates a 'minor affliction.'
After explaining these two points, the golden-haired Gorosei continued, "Therefore, we are not concerned about the Marines' great defeat at St. Poplar, nor about the arrogance of the Whitebeard Pirates. We did not call you here today to reprimand you, as you might think."
Thinking about it, it made sense.
For the Marines, who were full of a sense of justice, it was natural for them to feel ashamed that the incident at St. Poplar had caused such widespread disaster and that they had failed to protect the people.
Furthermore, with over 20,000 comrades having died in that battle, it was only natural for Sengoku and Kong to view this as an extremely serious issue. The Marines' subsequent actions were also quite severe, with a veteran like Tsuru being directly demoted, which showed how seriously the Marines took this defeat.
But in the eyes of the Gorosei... it was no big deal.
More than 20,000 Marines dying? What did that even mean?
The destruction of St. Poplar? It wasn't even a member nation, just one of the countless autonomous islands under the World Government. If it was destroyed, so be it.
A great victory for the Whitebeard Pirates?
They won, so what? Whitebeard is that strong; it was normal for him to win. You could even say that they hadn't truly lost in many years. Besides, they were just a group of rude, lowly pirates. How long could they be arrogant? Ten years? Twenty years? Thirty years at most?
All things considered, in the eyes of the Gorosei, the St. Poplar incident was not a big deal at all!
Sengoku and Kong exchanged glances. Then, Kong officially asked, "So, what are your intentions, my Lords?"
"You may not have noticed, but in the past three years, most of the annihilated member nations were indeed impacted by the Great Pirate Era, but there are two more important reasons.
"The first reason is us. There's no need to be polite here, do you honestly believe that we five do not see how serious the World Government's corruption is? But governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish; such things must be handled slowly. We also happen to be in this era of chaos, so we can't be too aggressive, lest we trigger a chain reaction that leads to a complete collapse...
"Therefore, we have concluded that the chaos caused by the Great Pirate Era has dealt a heavy blow to the livelihood and economy of various nations. Coupled with our World Government's layered exploitation, this ultimately leads to the collapse of these nations. This is one of the main reasons," the bald Gorosei said solemnly.
Sengoku and Kong were slightly surprised. They hadn't expected the five of them to be so candid today. Could they really speak about such matters so openly?
"The second important factor is the so-called Revolutionary Army..." the golden-haired Gorosei suddenly stated.
Sengoku and Kong inwardly thought, 'Oh, no.' They had recently found out that the Revolutionary Army was founded by that scoundrel, Dragon.
But before they could speak, the bald Gorosei continued. "So far, the Revolutionary Army has only launched three military operations in the name of revolution, which were, in reality, rebellions. Of course, all three failed. But upon closer investigation, we discovered that they are spreading so-called 'revolutionary embers' all over the world. As a result, a large number of the member nations that have fallen in recent years did so after being hit by the pirate wave, making their domestic situation unstable, and then being incited by the Revolutionary Army... They are spreading this evil ideology, which has triggered large-scale upheaval and ultimately led to the demise of these nations."
Simply put, the Revolutionary Army's military actions had failed, and they were now trying a new method, evolving from military revolution to ideological revolution.
"While it's still just a spark, if we don't extinguish it soon, it could start a wildfire!" the Gorosei with the sword said in a deep voice.
This was them officially defining the Revolutionary Army's nature. In the original story, one year later, in the year 1504 of the Marine calendar, the World Government officially began preparing a series of countermeasures against the Revolutionary Army at the Reverie. It was from that year on that the World Government and the Revolutionary Army officially started their conflict.
The Gorosei and other World Government higher-ups viewed the Revolutionary Army as the only organization capable of shaking the World Government's foundation at this stage.
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