After finishing his story about the Twenty Kings, Ortoren reached out and ran a hand over the throne.
Seeing that, Imu smiled. "If you like it, why not sit down and see how it feels?"
"Then I won't be shy." Ortoren laughed and, right in front of Imu, dropped into the seat. He shifted left and right, testing it for a moment.
Imu showed no resistance at all. He simply stood to the side, smiling as he watched Ortoren fidget around.
After a while, Imu asked, "Well? How is it?"
"The material's awful," Ortoren said as he stood back up, wearing a disgusted look. "It's way too hard. It's digging into my ass."
The moment he said it, Imu burst out laughing and slapped Ortoren on the shoulder.
"Hahahaha! You're absolutely right. The material is terrible. Every time I sit here waiting for the Five Elders to come report, I have to endure this damn throne while keeping up appearances and listening to their nonsense. Later I couldn't take it anymore, so I made them kneel and wait first, and only then would I come out and sit down…"
For centuries, Imu had never had anyone he could share complaints like this with. Now Ortoren had sat in the seat, and the two of them were seriously discussing its "comfort." The sheer absurdity of it brought Imu a kind of freshness he hadn't felt in ages.
From there, they picked apart every detail of the throne, its structure, materials, workmanship, design, even its "aesthetic," tearing apart this so-called supreme seat until it sounded like nothing more than a shabby little stool.
When they finally finished, Ortoren sighed.
"Still… this is the seat that symbolizes the King of the World. How many people would give anything for it…"
"The King of the World…" Imu echoed softly, then shook his head. "It's not all that interesting.
"Two hundred years ago, I was still obsessed with that power. I enjoyed being the hidden king of the world, pulling the strings and toying with the entire sea. But anything gets dull if you hold onto it long enough. Around five hundred years ago, I more or less stopped managing the World Government's affairs and left it to each generation of the Five Elders. Only once in a while, when the mood struck me, I'd listen to their reports, see whether anything interesting had shown up on the seas, any intriguing people, any events worth watching.
"And by about two hundred years ago, I had basically let go of control entirely. From that point on, the Five Elders held the authority to decide every major matter for the World Government. So in a sense, the later Five Elders really did deserve the title of 'supreme authority.'"
Ortoren listened, then asked with a hint of confusion, "You just let go of that much power, and you weren't worried the Five Elders would bite back? And over these past centuries, the World Government has only gotten worse and worse. You didn't care at all? Also, I've heard you extinguish certain 'lights of history' to maintain your rule."
"As I said earlier, strength is the only standard that matters," Imu replied indifferently. "No matter how many times the Five Elders change, their strength remains what it is. All I need is to maintain absolute power and to control the ancient weapon that could threaten me, Uranus. That's enough. Once I have those, even if I loosen the reins completely, no one can turn on me."
That indifference was, in itself, absolute confidence.
After a brief pause, Imu continued, "As for the World Government getting worse… ever since I let go of that authority, I simply don't care what it becomes. Extinguishing those so-called lights is nothing more than an amusing observation. It's like building a magnificent castle on the beach. You enjoy the process, but once you're bored, you knock it down with a single shove. That's about it."
A moment later, he added, "And there are some people who are genuinely interesting, but I still hate them, so I extinguish them too. It has little to do with maintaining my rule. To be more accurate, it's just indulgence… recklessness… arrogance."
"For example?" Ortoren raised an eyebrow.
"Pirates," Imu answered without hesitation. "The thing I hate most is pirates. You know Dragon from the Revolutionary Army, don't you? You two are on pretty good terms. But you probably don't know that I once secretly joined the Revolutionary Army and even took part in two revolutions in the South Blue. That was quite interesting. Lights like that, I usually don't extinguish. Maybe I'd wait until I got bored, until it stopped being fun, and only then consider it.
"But back then, the Rocks Pirates were a group I truly despised. So I chose to destroy the Rocks Pirates."
"Why do you hate pirates?" Ortoren asked again.
At the question, disgust flickered through Imu's eyes.
"Because the person I once hated most was a pirate. You could even say he was… the first pirate in this world."
Perhaps it had been too long since Imu had spoken to anyone like this. When they first met, he had felt "rotted," stagnant. But after talking with Ortoren for so long, his tone and expression had grown noticeably more lively, as though that decaying soul had been stirred back to life.
"Joy Boy?" Ortoren raised an eyebrow and said quietly.
Just hearing the name seemed to irritate Imu. He nodded with undisguised disgust. "Yes. Him. A man even more reckless, even more lawless than I am. He claimed the ones who would ultimately change the world were people like him. That disgusted me even more. Even listening to those words felt arrogant. So whenever I find someone like that, I usually destroy them."
Imu clearly had no interest in talking about the man any further, and Ortoren didn't press.
Instead, he changed the subject. "About that blank hundred years of history… it's said there was once a massive kingdom, and that you twenty kings founded the World Government by defeating them. What really happened back then?"
"That…" Imu rubbed his chin. "That part is true. That country was powerful, free, and advanced. They possessed technology that looked like miracles to us at the time, and they also held terrifying power. For example, one of the three ancient weapons, Uranus, was their creation…"
"Only Uranus was their creation?" Ortoren asked, intrigued.
"Of course. The ancient weapon Pluton was built in Water 7 only after we exhausted every method we could to steal some of their technology. It was made specifically to counter Uranus. You could say they share the same origin, but in every other function, Pluton isn't as advanced as Uranus, and it can't fly either.
"As for Poseidon, that is an even older power. Ever since the first intelligent merfolk emerged from the deep sea, the power of Poseidon has been passed down through the oldest merfolk bloodlines.
"In other words, Pluton and Poseidon both originated in our world. Only Uranus was an outside power," Imu explained.
"Outside power?" Ortoren immediately caught that phrasing.
"Yes. Outside power. Why do you think the blank history is only a hundred years? Do you really believe a mere hundred years would be enough to build that kingdom from nothing, to develop technology that absurd, to create power vast enough to cover and reshape the entire world?" Imu patted Ortoren on the shoulder, paused, then said, "That great kingdom wasn't from this world. They came from the sky… from a planet even farther away."
Ortoren's surprise was obvious, and Imu continued, "Looking back, perhaps their system really was more advanced, more effective. But to us back then, they were trying to destroy the foundations of our rule. They wanted to remake this world into the shape those outsiders wanted. They were invaders.
"So slave owners and nobles all over the world joined hands, all determined to wipe out that so-called nation. In the end, the best of the best were chosen, and we twenty kings became the leaders of that coalition. We defeated them, erased that history, and established the World Government."
"And really, you can feel it yourself. When the World Government was founded, it also absorbed parts of that kingdom's civilization and systems…"
It wasn't uncommon for barbarism to smash civilization to pieces.
And just as Imu said, the World Government did end up taking in many elements of that nation's "civilization." For example, afterward, the systems of various countries gradually shifted from slavery toward feudalism, forming a large unified structure with the World Government as its central core.
Many later technologies and ideas also spread outward from within the World Government itself.
In a sense, before the World Government existed, the world was savage, ignorant, and fragmented. After its founding, the world entered a new stage. So the claim that the Twenty Kings were "Creators," praised in history as pioneers who "created" the world, did have a certain foundation to it.
Because it was only after the World Government was established that a civilization capable of spanning the entire sea truly appeared.
"As for what came afterward, I don't want to talk about it," Imu said, his tone calm. "Who was right and who was wrong no longer matters. The only thing that is certain is that the winner was us. And so justice and victory also belonged to us.
"Perhaps when the World Government collapses, a new winner will appear, rewrite that history, and redefine justice all over again."
As he spoke, Imu looked at Ortoren with a meaning-laden gaze.
"Like right now," Ortoren said, his expression turning a shade more serious. "Like you and me?"
"Exactly," Imu replied. "After all, only the one sitting on the throne has the right to define everything in this world."
As he spoke, he slowly ran his fingers along the throne's armrest.
"And now, it's time we discussed who that throne belongs to."