In the banquet hall, the curvy dancers had just finished their routine.
Tenryū Yuto sat at the head seat. The pastry chef, hands trembling, carefully placed a slice of strawberry cake in front of him.
Any strawberry cake offered to a Celestial Dragon had to be precise down to every individual seed on every strawberry. Every seed had to face upward to satisfy the Celestial Dragons' appreciation for the beauty of order.
The previous pastry chef had lost a finger on the spot because the angle of the seeds had been off by fifteen degrees. The supervising officer had cut it cleanly.
Sitting at Yuto's side, Stella used a ruby inlaid silver knife to cut the cake and raised a piece to his lips.
In the two months since she had been bought, Stella had gradually adapted to her role as a maid. The anxious panic in her heart was slowly fading.
Yuto ate the cake and waved to the boy from earlier.
"What is your name?"
"Your Highness, my name is Aramaki."
…
There were plenty of strong people on the sea with names and reputations. There were not many that Yuto could easily recruit.
The members of Rocks's crew were all older, every one of them arrogant and difficult to handle, and they all had old grudges with the Celestial Dragons.
Back then, Rocks had been able to command them easily because they had joined his crew not long after going out to sea. Their strength had not yet fully matured and they had not seen much of the world.
By the time of God Valley, the Rocks Pirates were anything but united.
Now, even if another monster appeared who could overpower all of them at once, those emperors of the sea would not meekly submit.
Among the people around Yuto's age, most of the future Seven Warlords fell into that group.
Those silver medalists were not actually that powerful compared to the Yonko, but they were much harder to negotiate with. They all acted like they were invincible.
Even the Yonko weighed pros and cons most of the time. The Warlords, on the other hand, liked to draw their swords and swing first.
Their heads were particularly hard. Even after getting beaten to the ground, they still liked to put on the pose of "do what you want with me, kill me if you dare," making any real conversation completely impossible.
The only one with half a brain, Doflamingo, had deep, irreconcilable conflict with the Celestial Dragons.
That left only the crew Shanks would recruit in the future.
But if someone could get along well with Shanks and fit in on his ship, that alone proved they would never really get along with Yuto.
When he thought it through, there was only one future powerhouse that he could recruit easily at this point in time.
The future admiral Ryokugyu, Aramaki.
Ryokugyu Aramaki was the same age as Doflamingo and just one year older than Yuto. Right now, he was still a young tough guy whose chest had not yet been tattooed with the four characters for "Death to Evil."
Rumor said that his tattoos were connected to a certain woman and his later imprisonment, but that would not happen for another twenty years.
Judging from his hairstyle, though, Yuto guessed Aramaki had already eaten the Logia type Mori Mori no Mi at this point.
What Yuto appreciated most about Aramaki, however, was his worldview.
To Aramaki, humanity survived by stepping on life forms lower than themselves. Any nation that was not a World Government affiliate was the same as a lesser species. Only by trampling those non member nations underfoot could people truly live in peace.
So he zealously protected the World Government and the Celestial Dragons and showed zero mercy to their enemies.
And for Yuto, recruiting Aramaki at this particular time came with an extra benefit.
The World Government and the Five Elders were unfathomably arrogant. No matter how obvious someone's talent and potential might be, as long as they were born below, they would not be taken seriously.
If Yuto quietly put Aramaki under his banner ahead of time, then even if Aramaki revealed overwhelming power later, the Five Elders would simply feel that Yuto had gotten lucky and just happened to pick up a strong slave during his random wandering.
They would not increase their surveillance or pressure on Yuto because of that, nor would they ever think of transferring Yuto's personal property into the World Government's system.
"This is exactly the kind of talent a transmigrated Celestial Dragon should be recruiting."
Yuto felt more than a little pleased with himself.
"All those transmigrators thinking about recruiting Zephyr, Moria, Kuma… I have no idea how they talked those guys around. Their fundamental personalities were never going to align with the Celestial Dragons."
"Even if you talk so prettily the heavens cry, act like a saint, and do everything flawlessly, they will only think you are scheming something. This is the impression the Celestial Dragons have left on the world for the past eight hundred years."
"That is what you call a reputation."
Besides, Yuto was not the kind of transmigrator who wanted to save the world. He simply wanted to change who sat on top of it.
With that thought in mind, Yuto stood and walked over to the kneeling Aramaki. He patted the boy lightly on the shoulder.
"Stand. As my retainer from now on, you do not need to kneel all the time. By the way, are you a Devil Fruit user?"
Aramaki scrambled to his feet, his whole body trembling with excitement.
"Your Highness, I am a Logia type Mori Mori no Mi user."
Yuto nodded.
"Starting tomorrow, these two CP agents will train you. I have high expectations for your growth."
"Yes, Saint Yuto-sama. I will never disappoint your expectations."
Seeing Aramaki look as if someone had injected pure adrenaline into his veins, Yuto was very satisfied.
In the original story, Zephyr had once criticized Kizaru for relying too much on his Devil Fruit.
In truth, Kizaru's swordsmanship and physical combat were both world class.
If anything, Yuto felt Kizaru still chose head on clashes too often. His Devil Fruit had much more potential for tricky, technical play.
Ryokugyu Aramaki, on the other hand, was the one admiral who relied the most on his Devil Fruit out of everyone who had appeared. He was probably also the weakest.
Whether in Mary Geoise or on Onigashima, Aramaki's fighting style centered almost entirely on the bizarre abilities of his Fruit. He barely even used basic physical combat.
He was basically a supersized Smoker.
If Yuto put Aramaki under CP style training and forbade him from using his Fruit, his strength would improve by a noticeable margin.
…
Yuto stayed in the Taya Kingdom for three days and enjoyed the king's "specialty" queens and "specialty" princesses.
In the end, before leaving, he decided to pack them up and take them with him.
Truly eating and taking everything.
The Sanctum continued drifting across the South Blue. Thanks to Yuto's identity and the Marine warship shadowing him nearby, no suicidal pirate had tried to cause trouble.
Yuto lay under a parasol. On the deck beside him, Aramaki was sparring with the two CP agents.
His raw physique was not weak. The problem was that his Devil Fruit power was too strong and had made him neglect his physical combat and Haki.
At seventeen, Aramaki was in the upward curve of his growth. With Yuto monitoring and pushing him, the heights he could reach would definitely surpass his original path.
Over the past few days, Yuto's own growth had slowed down a bit.
Maybe he had spent too much luck in how smoothly he had picked up Aramaki, because his last draw had given him some no name pirate who got one shotted. That forced Yuto to grind Haki through his own efforts.
Even so, that sort of improvement was still better than nothing.
If he wanted to push his two colors of Haki to the second stage, he either needed to defeat a large number of Haki using nobodies or wait for his luck to explode and pull a real monster.
Lately, Yuto had been challenging the young version of Borsalino once a day.
Young Kizaru was not overwhelmingly strong, and with the Iron Balloon talent, Yuto was not actually weaker than him.
The problem was that even as a young man, Borsalino already showed all the slippery traits of a seasoned old fox. It was incredibly hard for Yuto to catch a clean opening.
Right now, it was not difficult for Yuto to seize the advantage in their fights.
Actually defeating Borsalino completely, however, was still very far out of reach.