Sea Circle Calendar, Year 1498.
A major event took place that year.
The Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, turned himself in to the Marines.
Under orders from the World Government, Roger was escorted to Loguetown for a public execution, meant to intimidate the countless pirates roaming the seas.
Of course, none of that had anything to do with Hilbert Blake.
Because he was one of the noble, exalted, untouchable descendants of the gods.
In other words, a Celestial Dragon.
After sixteen years in this world, Blake could already feel himself being gradually assimilated by the Celestial Dragons' lawless way of life.
He had only just woken up when a long-legged maid with fair skin and a beautiful face stepped forward, knelt, and bowed.
"Saint Blake, please allow me to wash your face."
Blake gave a soft grunt in response. He was still half asleep and not in the mood to talk.
The maid bowed again, then took up a piece of disposable silk trimmed with gold thread and gently wiped his face clean.
Her movements were extremely careful, as if she were afraid of provoking his temper first thing in the morning.
Blake was not one of the especially cruel Celestial Dragons, but aside from outright brutality, he lacked none of their usual habits.
The maids serving in the Holy Land had seen more than enough coworkers executed over trivial matters. Naturally, all of them had learned to tread carefully.
After his face was washed, Blake felt much more awake. With the maid's help, he climbed out of bed, and three more maids immediately came forward to dress him.
Even after more than a decade, Blake still felt as if he were being raised into uselessness.
Well, if I'm being raised into a waste, then so be it. Plenty of people out on the sea would kill for the chance.
After giving himself that little pep talk, Blake accepted the maids' service with a clear conscience.
Once he was fully dressed, he stretched a little and said to the maid beside him, "The weather's nice. I'm going down below for a while. Go call a few Cipher Pol agents to accompany me."
"Yes, Saint Blake!"
The maid bowed and hurried off.
Cipher Pol served as the Celestial Dragons' protective force, but in truth, no agents remained at their side while they stayed in Mary Geoise.
Mary Geoise was secure enough on its own, and there were nowhere near enough CP agents to assign personal guards to every Celestial Dragon.
Normally, they only accompanied one when a Celestial Dragon planned to descend to the lower world, especially for sea travel.
Sometimes, if the destination was only the Sabaody Archipelago, a Celestial Dragon would not even bother calling for CP.
Those idiots believed that no one on the seas would dare lay a hand on them.
Blake was only planning to go to Sabaody today, but he had no intention of traveling with nothing but a ship full of maids and slaves.
What a joke. Kuro of a Hundred Plans came up with a plan so braindead it could barely stand on its own, and Oda still called him the second smartest man on the seas after Benn Beckman.
Sengoku merely used a basic strategy of luring the enemy into striking reinforcements, nearly turned the whole board over in the process, and got praised as some kind of master strategist.
In a world where the average IQ seemed to die before birth, there were plenty of people even dumber than Celestial Dragons.
Who knew when some hot-blooded fool like Luffy might jump out of nowhere? Taking a few hits would not be a big problem. But if Blake exposed too much of his strength and got selected by the Holy Knights, that would be real trouble.
Ever since the God Valley Incident, the Celestial Dragons' so-called hunting competitions had not been held for many years.
These days, the Holy Knights could only recruit directly from among those Celestial Dragons who showed obvious combat talent.
Hilbert Blake intended to become the final boss one day. If he joined the Holy Knights, wouldn't that mean getting shoved onto the front lines?
Breakfast was a lavish spread of one hundred dishes. Blake sampled a little from each while the maids wiped away the traces of soup from the corners of his mouth.
Afterward, he changed into his spacesuit-like outfit, put on the bubble helmet that made his head look as though it were sitting inside an aquarium, and headed outside.
Two masked CP agents were already waiting for him. Beside them crouched a small giant nearly eight meters tall, lying flat on the ground with a golden chair strapped across its back.
It was Blake's personal ride.
"Let's go."
Seated in the golden chair, Blake gave the order, and the slave beneath him began crawling forward with extreme care, heading first toward the Red Port.
As a transmigrator who had once lived in modern society, Blake had not adapted well to the Celestial Dragons' way of life at first.
Even now, he still could not slaughter slaves without any psychological burden.
But he understood one thing even more clearly: if he wanted to keep a low profile, the best choice was to blend in.
Whether it was Homing and Mjosgard from the original story or some of his fellow transmigrator predecessors, they all loved acting special.
Those Donquixote family lunatics loved betraying their class.
And transmigrators were even worse.
Some trained like mad. Some fell out with other Celestial Dragons over slaves. Some fought tooth and nail to join the Holy Knights. Some refused to wear the spacesuit and bubble helmet. Some were so brutal that even other Celestial Dragons found them excessive...
People like that usually attracted the attention of the Five Elders or even Imu before they had even reached adulthood, followed by a long chain of hardships.
Would it kill them to keep a lower profile?
A few harmless sarcastic remarks and they could not take it anymore. Blake seriously doubted whether those people had even been adults before transmigrating.
Ever since coming to this world, Blake had always been a practical man. If he truly had a grudge against someone, he would find a way to kill them. Petty face-slapping was meaningless.
Mary Geoise covered an enormous area. Even at the speed of the slave carrying him, it still took more than an hour to get from Blake's residence to the Red Port.
Blake yawned.
"No wonder those idiots are always looking for entertainment. I'm so bored I could fall asleep."
No one dared answer him, and Blake had not expected a response anyway.
By the time they reached the World Government's private dock, guards in full-body armor with their faces completely hidden were already kneeling in two lines.
Blake passed between them on the back of his slave and boarded the bubble gondola.
Descending slowly from ten thousand meters above sea level down to the ocean's surface, he found a giant luxury liner already waiting below.
Not Thanos's spaceship, of course, but a vessel Blake had specially commissioned the first time he set sail.
He would not be going out to sea only once. Without a dedicated luxury liner, how was he supposed to display the exalted status of a Celestial Dragon?
Several hours later, the Sanctuary docked at the Sabaody Archipelago.
Area 16. Slave auction house.
"Two hundred million Berries."
The voice was not loud, yet the entire auction hall fell silent.
The auctioneer immediately put on a flattering smile.
"Congratulations, Your Excellency. This mermaid slave is yours."
Blake ignored him and turned to leave.
There were neither Devil Fruits nor especially powerful pirate slaves at today's auction, which left him somewhat disappointed.
The auction world could no more afford to lose Doflamingo than the West could afford to lose Jerusalem.
Still, buying a mermaid as an ornamental fish meant the trip had not been a total waste.
Ignoring the maids behind him as they handled the transaction with the auction house, Blake left the slave auction under the protection of his two CP agents and began wandering around.
Almost everything in Area 16 revolved around slavery. Behind the storefront windows lining the streets stood slave after slave, some with lovely figures, others with powerful physiques.
To be honest, the first time Blake had walked down this street, it had shaken his worldview badly. Compared with that, the calm expression—and even faint interest—on his face now made him seem like a completely different person.
Suddenly, a smiling blonde woman standing behind one of the floor-to-ceiling windows caught Blake's attention.
"Hm? Why does she look kind of familiar?"