August, Year 1507 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
Since righteous Spandine's public live broadcast speech a week earlier, the already chaotic situation around the world had only spread further.
The very next day, former Admiral Benn Ortoren publicly announced in the newspapers that he would return to the post of Admiral at Marine Headquarters. In accordance with the Fleet Admiral's order, he would, effective immediately, act in the capacity of Fleet Admiral and assume overall command of the entire Navy.
Ortoren also ordered Marine forces everywhere to stay calm and not act rashly. The most urgent priority remained the same: keep the seas within each jurisdiction safe. Under no circumstances could they allow ambitious schemers, pirates, and other troublemakers to exploit this crisis and wreak havoc on civilians.
The moment Ortoren's orders went out, the Marines in the North Blue and the New World immediately declared their compliance.
In the East Blue, however, the Marine commander had already been bought and secured by Aramaki. He issued a public statement saying that unless the Fleet Admiral personally appeared, the so-called Fleet Admiral's order Ortoren had received had no credibility whatsoever. He refused to recognize Ortoren's acting role as Fleet Admiral.
In the South Blue, the Marines split into two factions. One side was willing to follow Ortoren's orders, while the other, like the East Blue, remained loyal to the World Government and refused to obey Ortoren.
Ironically, it was the South Blue Revolutionary Army that spoke up first. Dragon-san came forward and declared that the Revolutionary Army was willing to fully cooperate with Admiral Benn.
As for the West Blue, they only followed Ortoren's orders on the surface. At the very least, they showed no unusual movement. They continued doing what they always did, day to day, but they also made no statement declaring support for anyone.
At Headquarters and in the first half of the Grand Line, Sakazuki and Kuzan stayed silent, offering no response at all.
After that, Nefertari Cobra, speaking as a descendant of the Twenty Kings, publicly voiced his support for Ortoren. He denounced the World Government and the World Nobles of Mary Geoise as muddled and unjust, cruel and violent, stating that they had already violated the rules the Twenty Kings once established, stripping the Twenty Kings of their glory and dragging that legacy into disgrace.
As a descendant of the Twenty Kings, he declared that he would uphold their honor, support acting Fleet Admiral Admiral Benn Ortoren, and demand that Admiral Benn, starting immediately, spare no price in setting the World Government right and setting Mary Geoise right.
Ortoren, of course, responded at once. He stated that he would never betray the trust and expectations of the Nefertari clan, and that he would lead the Marines in carrying out the justice of the former kings and the Marines alike.
As Ortoren's orders were relayed, the Marine officers stationed near the New World's gateway waters hurried back to G-1 one after another to take part in the planning conference for "uphold Heaven's mandate, suppress the rebellion, and march on the capital to defend the king."
At this moment, the conference room was packed with rising stars.
Yamakaji sat at the table with a cigar clenched between his teeth. He glanced around at several fellow officers and raised an eyebrow. "Vice Admiral Gion isn't here?"
Momonga was holding a fruit platter, casually plucking grapes as he ate. "Your information is way too out of date. Yesterday morning, Gion had a baby on Totto Land, Whole Cake Island. She's recuperating now, so how could she possibly come?"
"The Admiral has another child?" Rear Admiral Maynard asked excitedly.
"Yeah, another boy," Momonga said with a sighing nod. "But with the situation so urgent, the Admiral hasn't even given the kid a name yet. He's busy beyond belief…"
"That's a good sign!" Maynard burst out laughing. "Just hearing that the Admiral's family is flourishing makes me feel like I've got strength pouring out of me…"
A number of the Rear Admirals and Commodores nearby couldn't help smiling as well.
For these New World Marine faction officers, by this point their fortunes were practically tied to Admiral Benn alone. The more prosperous the Admiral's household became, the more settled they felt.
Besides, Totto Land already occupied nearly half of the New World's sea territory. Its lands were vast beyond measure, but a large portion of it had only been incorporated recently. Those new territories could be said to have inherited the New World's usual problem: they were still desolate and underdeveloped.
After all, they had once been the territory of pirates like Kaidou and Whitebeard. Naturally, they couldn't compare to the New World Marine jurisdiction.
But none of that was important.
What mattered was that the land was truly enormous. It was said that Admiral Benn had previously considered granting noble status to those in the New World Marines who had distinguished themselves with outstanding merit.
That was right. No other Marine, whether Fleet Admiral or any other Admiral, possessed the advantage Ortoren held.
Because they were simply Marines, not members of the noble class.
But now, Ortoren was not only a man of the Marines. He was also one of the legitimate heirs of a former World Government member nation, Totto Land, ranked as the Fifth Prince.
Even if his place in the line of succession was fifth, who didn't know by now that the entire New World ran according to Admiral Benn's word? Totto Land was no exception.
So for the New World direct-line Marine officers loyal to Ortoren, a new opportunity had appeared: those with outstanding merits could, at discretion, be granted noble titles in Totto Land.
At the highest level, they could even be made a duke.
Originally, the people of the New World Navy had already tied their lifelong interests to Ortoren. Now, it could be said that bond was completely sealed.
Serving as a Marine under the Admiral not only meant excellent待遇 and the chance to carry out justice, but also the possibility of rising from the common class into the nobility through outstanding merit.
Who could possibly resist something like that? After all, naval ranks can't be passed down, but noble honor can.
Once you had noble status, even if you died on the front lines, your children could still inherit the family estate and live without constant fear and uncertainty.
And this was only the massive share of benefits that came from the Admiral sweeping through the entire New World.
If, later on, they followed the Admiral again and smashed the World Government just as he said, truly pacifying the four seas, wouldn't that be soaring straight into the heavens?
The North Blue didn't even need to be mentioned. That was already their own side. There was no way the Admiral would ever clean house there.
But those hardliners in the South Blue, the Mary Geoise loyalists in the East Blue, and the fence-sitters in the West Blue? Every last one of them would have to be listed as hostile targets. When the time came and they were swept away, wouldn't all the vacated positions and benefits naturally fall into the hands of the New World Navy faction?
In truth, Ortoren did indeed plan, after this, to use the New World Navy faction as the core to forge an entire ruling class of military merit nobles.
There were two main reasons for this.
First, he had built his foundation within the Navy. These people were the ones he trusted the most. They had followed him for many years and accumulated countless achievements. No matter how you looked at it, they deserved to be rewarded. And placing this group into grassroots governance also suited his needs perfectly. At the very least, the new order and ruling class he intended to establish would remain rock-solid for a hundred years.
As for what came after that… what really lasts forever? Ortoren never believed he was creating some eternal, unchanging dynasty. How the era developed after that wouldn't be his concern, nor did he have the interest to manage it.
The second reason was that people within the Navy had an extremely high literacy rate. Their overall level of education far exceeded that of ordinary civilians, which genuinely made them suitable to become nobles.
Ordinary enlisted soldiers were one thing. There wasn't much to say about common troopers. But the moment someone held even the smallest rank and entered the officer class, cultural education and training became mandatory. This was a massive advantage formed by centuries of naval tradition. Back when Ortoren joined the Navy to build his power base, he benefited greatly from these systems. It was essentially a matter of using the World Government's centuries-old institutional foundations to cultivate his own people.
After all, if someone had already become an officer but couldn't even recognize basic words or understand orders from above, it would deal a devastating blow to the Navy's combat effectiveness.
So as long as someone was an officer, they were guaranteed to have a certain level of education. And to become a noble, one had to be an officer at minimum. That meant they naturally possessed a cultural foundation and were inherently suited for grassroots governance.
By the same logic, only because Ortoren had brought the New World Navy to this point could it truly step into the ranks of a legitimate ruling class.
It was a mutually reinforcing process.
Just as these commanders were discussing Admiral Benn's offspring and the internal rumors about entering the noble system—
The doors to the conference room opened.
Ortoren, clad in his mantle of justice, strode in with long, decisive steps.
The instant he entered, the entire conference room fell completely silent.