Chapter 165: The True Appearance
A kingdom carving out lawless zones within its own territory, with the lawless areas even larger than its actual homeland—this sounded incredibly bizarre.
Yet, on this sea, this was considered a model of "frugality" in the eyes of royalty.
The reason was simple: the quota for the Heavenly Tribute was calculated based on a poll tax. The larger a nation's population, the higher the amount they had to pay.
If a portion of the territory was designated as a lawless zone, the population there wouldn't be counted in the statistics, heavily reducing the Heavenly Tribute required.
And this also meant that the residents living on this land were stripped of their member nation citizenship, no longer protected by the World Government and the Marines.
Whether they were killed or sold as slaves, it all became perfectly legal.
People of member nations might not even be treated as human beings, let alone people from non-member nations, whom absolutely no one cared about. This was the cruel reality of the sea.
Furthermore, this division didn't mean the land was left to be plundered freely by outsiders; fundamentally, it was still ruled by the kingdom.
"The Doel Kingdom possesses a strict racial and class hierarchy: royalty and nobility, commoners and slaves. The ordinary citizens living here are merely slaves with a bit more freedom, liable to be downgraded at any moment.
"Our targets are those high-and-mighty slave owners, those villains who arbitrarily strip others of their freedom and enslave human lives.
"Killing them is justice!
"This is the beginning, but not the end! What we oppose is not just discrimination against Fish-man Island, but all discrimination! We oppose slavery!
"This war will initiate Fish-man Island's first revolutionary step!"
An army must know what it is fighting for. These were the words Nereus had spoken to them even before restructuring the Neptune Army.
In the past, they fought to defend Fish-man Island, to guard their homeland. But now, they were fighting to eradicate the root of certain sins.
Compared to those dark operations that couldn't be spoken of openly and required silencing witnesses if exposed, the objective of Fish-man Island's operation this time was far better at boosting morale.
Whether it was considered righteous or wicked, following one's heart to accomplish a goal was far easier than shouting about justice while committing the darkest of deeds.
Before a ship from Fish-man Island even left for the North Blue, a warship had already departed from Marine Headquarters, heading toward the Doel Kingdom ahead of time.
The Marine branches in the North Blue had also assembled several warships, preparing to rendezvous with the Headquarters' reinforcements before heading to the Doel Kingdom together.
However, these people could only be considered as making up the numbers.
Despite both being Marine branches, the gap between the Four Blues branches and the Grand Line branches was massive.
The G-series branches in the Grand Line were on the same level as Marine Headquarters, whereas the ranks in the Four Blues branches were essentially three grades lower than their Headquarters and G-series counterparts. The disparity in strength was evident.
Traveling from Fish-man Island to the North Blue was a rather long journey; it wasn't something that could be completed in an instant. As for how Nereus could grasp the Doel Kingdom's situation so quickly despite the vast distance...
If the Doel Kingdom were a proper nation without such frequent slave trading, Nereus would indeed have had to spend a considerable amount of time investigating it.
But precisely because the Doel Kingdom was so deeply connected to the slave trade, people in the underworld knew this country inside out. Consequently, acquiring such information was not complicated for Nereus at all.
When Chaplin returned to the Doel Kingdom, what greeted him were patrolling warships.
For several days after that, he didn't see a single trace of the Ryugu Kingdom, nor did he hear any news of them.
The patrols of the surrounding Marines seemed to give him a sliver of reassurance, causing him to toss the events of the Levely to the back of his mind.
Initially, he had ordered his domestic army to prepare for war and guard strictly against enemy attacks, but now, they had slacked off.
But it was exactly at this time that ships belonging to the Ryugu Kingdom had already arrived in the nearby waters.
"Reporting to Admiral Zephyr! Nereus's trail has been discovered!"
"I know."
Zephyr sighed. It wasn't for any other reason, but because Nereus had already arrived on his deck.
From the patrolling soldiers spotting the enemy ship to reporting the situation, practically no time had passed. If it had been an attack, his ship would probably have already been sunk.
Because he had long known the situation here from Kong, Zephyr didn't bring many soldiers on his warship. There were only a little over a hundred Marines responsible for the daily operation of the vessel.
And these people were also Zephyr's most trusted unit, essentially his personal guards.
Waving them away to leave, Zephyr looked at Nereus with deep conflict.
"Didn't you already reach an agreement with the World Government? Then just go and do it. These Marines are just here to 'mediate.' Do you really need to care about this?"
"Of course. The Ryugu Kingdom is peace-loving. Why would we do such a thing?
"How about this? Let's play a game. You come with me to take a look at the Doel Kingdom.
"If, by the time you leave the Doel Kingdom, you still feel that the existence of this nation is right and just, I can consider calling off this war. How about it?
"That way, you'll have truly mediated the war."
Nereus's words didn't make Zephyr relax; instead, they gave him an incredibly bizarre feeling.
Based on the intelligence from Kong, Zephyr was certain that Nereus's war was supported by the World Government.
In a sense, the outcome the World Government needed was for Nereus to win. Yet Nereus was saying this to him right now...
Either he had guessed wrong, or... Nereus knew things he didn't. Just like at God Valley, Nereus was confident that once Zephyr learned the truth, his mindset would change.
This feeling made Zephyr feel very uneasy. Ever since that encounter, he felt as though he was being led by the nose by Nereus.
But Zephyr didn't refuse the proposal. Not because of the mediation issue, but because he genuinely wanted to see exactly what this country, a member nation of the World Government, was truly like.
Even without being a Devil Fruit user, crossing a stretch of sea wasn't a complex task for Zephyr. Furthermore, when not in a rush, he could also infiltrate silently.
Nereus didn't take Zephyr through the regular port. Instead, he took a slight detour, landing in the Doel Kingdom via a cliffside.
What greeted their eyes were not clean, orderly streets, but crowds of numb, dead-eyed people.
These people didn't look like the typical slaves collared on an ordinary day, but they wore uniform clothes resembling prison garb. They walked in drainage ditches clearly lower than the road surface, not even daring to raise their heads to look at the people walking on the main path in the middle.
And beside the people walking on the main central path, there was no shortage of slaves crawling on their knees. Everything here was like a microcosm of Mary Geoise.
Compared to the magnificent splendor of the front, this world hidden in the shadows was the true appearance of the Doel Kingdom.
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