Conquest, conquest, and still fucking conquest!
Rule, rule, and it's still the same fucking rule!
With people dying at the World Conference, the Revolutionary Army encircling Mary Geoise and cutting off the Heavenly Celestial Dragons' supplies, and allied nations cutting off their tributes, the world was in chaos—by comparison, the first half of the New World looked much more monotonous.
The Navy had neither the spare strength nor the will to confront Sage, and Sage was only thinking about continuing to expand, seizing islands' rich resources and their populations and converting them into productivity.
As for overproduction... that's nothing to worry about at all.
Because there really weren't enough people. A normal island without even a formal Kingdom structure—if it had ten thousand people, you'd thank the heavens. Most of them were only around three to five thousand.
With that few people, they weren't even enough to fully develop the island's local resources, never mind massively ramp up Sage's productive capacity.
But overall, it was still better than the turbulent rest of the world.
"How's the contact with the people in Alabasta going?"
Inside the huge bathhouse in the Royal Palace.
Sage was still soaking in the bath, leaning against the edge as always, but this time he didn't even look back. In the swirling steam he directly stood up, let the maids wrap a bath towel around him, walked out of the bath, and looked at the approaching Lily.
"Still haven't reached them, but there's something that needs your personal decision."
Lily was holding a notebook. Unlike before when she always wore some dress or battle armor skirt, this time she was in a black secretary outfit. The hip-hugging skirt only reached the tops of her thighs, showing off her full, jade-like thighs that reflected a sheen even in the mist.
Her upper body, with those peaks wrapped in a tight shirt and supported by the business jacket outside, looked very perky, but not so much that they were wobbling around.
Sage brushed past her and walked to the lounge outside the bathhouse, reclining on a luxurious, gold-trimmed sofa.
Lily crossed her thighs as she walked over, heading first to the wine cabinet. She picked up a bottle of red wine. "Musini okay?"
With Sage's nod, she opened this bottle whose normal price was already five hundred thousand Belly, and this ten-year vintage one went for two million Belly on the market. She then picked up a wine glass, poured Sage a full one, and said at the same time:
"Pearl found a Navy force getting ready to use violence on an island. They've already been captured. Are we going to negotiate with the Navy, or execute them on the spot?"
She reported in detail about those Navy men heading to a land without human rights, planning a raid.
These Navymen involved a colonel; that's different from the usual beating them or killing them on the spot. Since they'd been captured, you had to make use of them.
They themselves were no longer ordinary Pirates.
"Oh? We've got something this nice?"
Sage chuckled. "This is easy as hell. Start a live broadcast, print newspapers—every non–member nation island, every last one of them, have the Underworld distribute it all. Report everything in detail, then execute them publicly."
"Be sure to spell out the stakes so those people understand that the World Government not only doesn't protect them, it'll even harm them. But my place is different. I don't care who they are or what they've done—so long as they don't violate my rules, I'll take them in, and I'll have a job for them to do."
"Those folks who hate chaos, who hate Pirate raids..."
Sage raised the glass and downed it in one go. "Let them choose for themselves. If they can't beat any side anyway, they might as well pick one to join."
"Understood, I'll go arrange it right away." Lily nodded.
"Loop in Cross Guild on this. They'll definitely be up for it."
Even though their channels weren't that numerous, they did have their own printing industry, and with Cross Guild's pretty decent influence in the world now, plus the channels old Crocodile and the others controlled, you couldn't say it would spread across the entire world, but it would at least affect a huge swath of it.
Aside from contacting the population of Alabasta, he could also make people yearn for his territory. If they could set sail and reach it, all the better.
Anyone who could make it to the New World, no matter how you looked at it, would definitely not be weak.
...
First half of the Grand Line, Kuja Island.
"I'm getting old."
Rayleigh, with a head full of White Hair, stood amid some ruins and shook his head. "Blackbeard did pull back because of my threat, but if it were just me alone, I really might not be able to beat him."
Beside him, Boa Hancock, in a high-slit cheongsam with the slit going all the way up to the tops of her thighs, was biting her thumb, her face dark.
Once the decision to abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea came down, someone immediately came to hunt them. Hancock herself didn't really care. She didn't know about the others, but the ones she knew, including herself, hadn't become Seven Warlords because of fame—it was purely because they were strong.
But she hadn't expected Blackbeard to launch a sneak attack. She didn't even have time to activate her powers before she was sucked over and grabbed by the throat. If Rayleigh hadn't rushed over in time, who knew how it would've ended.
In the end, though, that guy still took a Navy colonel away. That colonel was pretty tough, traded himself for the remaining captured navy, and went off with Blackbeard.
"The problem now is... Hancock, what should we do?"
Granny Nyon leaned on her cane, walked to Hancock's side, and looked at the ruined, devastated area with a sigh. "The world has undergone a huge upheaval. The official position that protected our nation's legitimacy has already disappeared. We have to make a choice now, or we'll just be attacked from three sides."
"The Navy, the Pirates, and those hunters who covet Kuja Island..." Granny Nyon's voice was low.
"Oh? Your assessment's spot on." Rayleigh laughed. "Long time no see, Gloriosa."
"Roger's already dead, why aren't you down there keeping him company yet! And I'm called Granny Nyon now!"