Sea Circle Calendar 1466.
The new year had yet to bring great upheavals, but the last one was easily the most shocking in eight centuries.
The World Government, which had stood for eight hundred years, had been forced by a mere pirate to cede land and pay in kind.
Of course—
To the Government's upper echelons, giving up the barren New World was acceptable; their control there had always been thin.
Ordinary people didn't see it that way.
Prestige takes countless years to build—but can collapse in an instant.
Not a few member nations began doubting whether the Government could truly protect them from pirates, and whether a navy whose Fleet Admiral had been captured could still thunder over the seas as before.
Crushed by their countries and unable to pay the Heavenly Tribute, countless people began considering the sea.
Rumors even spread—
The New World was a true paradise—no exploitation, no oppression.
Real freedom lived there.
"White King Magnus!"
On a small pirate sloop, a youth in a straw hat grinned.
"I wonder if he ever reached the end of this world."
"No kidding?"
Beside the straw hat youth, a blond in a checkered shirt sprawled on deck and curled his lip.
"He's the strongest pirate in history."
"Haha, not necessarily!"
The straw hat youth's eyes shone. "History exists to be broken, doesn't it?"
"That still has nothing to do with small-timers like us."
Rayleigh took a bite of his apple. They'd been at sea for less than a year, and with the heavy-hitters all drawn to the New World, they'd met almost no real opponents.
No opponents meant no bounty; calling themselves small fry wasn't wrong.
"Haha, don't be like that."
Roger hooked an arm around Rayleigh's shoulder and chuckled. "Didn't Magnus spend decades to get where he is? We've only sailed a year. No rush."
"That's true."
To the new generation, Magnus was a legend.
Fifty years unnoticed.
Old enough to retire—then he suddenly returned to the sea.
Silent for ages; then one earth-shaking cry.
People even said now that the East, West, North, South Blues and the first half of the Grand Line belonged to the Government—but in the New World there was only one name.
White King Magnus.
Plenty of young pirates used Magnus to fire themselves up.
Look at Magnus—he conquered the New World at nearly eighty. I'm only twenty—plenty young. When he was my age, he wasn't even as good as me.
Late-blooming greatness.
That was Magnus now.
Roger, though, didn't fancy fighting into his seventies and eighties.
Unlike Magnus and Rocks—
Roger had little interest in conquest. His dream was to circle the world, turn it upside down, and make everyone remember his name.
As for being king of the world—
Roger wasn't interested.
Even so, he knew the world had split in two, with Magnus ruling the second half of the Grand Line.
At the end of his journey, he might well meet Magnus.
"Heh."
Roger pulled the straw hat down over his face, a bright smile peeking beneath.
"Now that'd be fun."
Before he ever met Magnus, though, he bumped into the rival fate had chosen for him.
"Hey, isn't that flag a pirate crew?"
"Where'd they come from?"
"Judging by the shipbuilding, looks like East Blue—"
"What!?"
A burly youth dozing on the side snapped up at once.
"Where, where?"
"There."
A marine pointed toward the little ship in the distance. Garp, who'd been scowling, flopped back down.
"Tch. Just small fry. You handle it."
He'd thought a big-name pirate had sprouted in his hometown.
"Ga–rp!"
The warship's officer in charge—a colonel—kicked Garp in the backside.
"Who's the colonel here, you or me? I'm ordering you to take a squad and stamp out that little pirate crew!"
"Eeh~"
As only a lieutenant, Garp sighed.
After seeing the monsters of the New World, he'd decided there was a big correlation between a pirate crew's strength and the size of their ship.
Having a big ship didn't guarantee strength—but a crew without even a decent ship was never that strong.
That war last year had spiked pirate numbers by at least twenty percent across the Four Blues and the first half of the Grand Line for months.
It would likely keep rising.
So Garp's mission this time—
Escort the warship on patrols through the first half and nip rookies in the bud.
For a man who'd survived Acropolis Harbor and fully mastered the Navy's Rokushiki, it wasn't hard.
But it wasn't exactly easy either.
The defeat at Acropolis still burned in his mind; it hit him hard—enough to dial down his usual devil-may-care attitude.
He was lying down because he'd just fought.
He was resting.
But the colonel—sent by Kong to keep eyes on him—wouldn't let him rest.
After Acropolis, the navy's top-rankers were at an all-time low. The new Fleet Admiral Ortega had to remain at HQ; Hains Oran had to guard Mary Geoise.
The only Admiral truly able to move was Kong—alone.
Remember six years ago—
There had been three Admirals free to deploy.
One had died; one defected.
Even with backfills, Ardent and Portman Nissen's resignations left a hole impossible to plug quickly.
So Kong had to pin his hopes on the new generation.
Garp and Sengoku were the ones he favored.
Still—there were two hidden "inheritances" Ardent and Portman Nissen left behind, not just a mess:
Zefa and Tsuru—operatives who had already successfully infiltrated the White Wolf Pirates.
That strategist's insight proved itself.
White King Magnus was beyond the navy's power to solve. The defeat had stolen Ardent and Portman Nissen's last breath of fire. When Kong next saw Ardent, the former Fleet Admiral's former majesty was gone; he looked ten years older in a day.
Only Portman Nissen, the chief of staff, hadn't wholly accepted defeat.
"White King Magnus's power exceeds anything we imagined. The Divine Knights and CP—five powerhouses together—failed to keep him. That means there will never be hope with brute force."
No one outside the inner circle knew who Imu was; they assumed that was a hidden ace of the Divine Knights.
So to Portman Nissen, the Divine Knights and CP were five apexes who surrounded Magnus—and he escaped regardless.
If the Knights couldn't hold Magnus, the navy certainly couldn't.
"But White King Magnus made one mistake."
Before, many in the upper ranks didn't accept the title "King"—they preferred "White Wolf."
After Acropolis, even Portman Nissen had to admit Magnus deserved the name of "King."
"In that battle, neither Tsuru nor Zefa joined the fighting. Not because Magnus distrusted them—my read is he was protecting them."
At Acropolis, only old hands and official crewmates fought.
Stussy had moved—but only as logistics.
Later, the navy learned:
The old hands and official crew fought at Acropolis; the trainees fought in the Nation of Steel.
Yes—
While Acropolis was ablaze, the newly formed "Seven Warlords of the Sea" invaded Gordonstein.
It wasn't as intense as Acropolis—
But it was still a clash of top-class pirates.
Unfortunately for them, the Warlords—merely big-name pirates—ran headlong into Rona, who wielded Admiral-class strength. If seven top-class pirates had truly worked together, even Rona would have had to back off.
They didn't. Rona shattered them one by one.
Acropolis mattered.
But so did the safety of the Eleven of Steel—the White Wolf's future logistics base—and it was Magnus's favor to Rona as well.
Better to shield civilians from pirate raids—
Than to force Rona and the marines under her to face their former comrades.
Thus—
Barely a year after forming the Warlords—
They were broken by the former Admiral Rona.
Some died, some fled, some became prisoners.
After that, the Warlords existed in name only.
Even if the Government wanted to rebuild them—were there still that many top pirates eager to sell their lives?
For the navy, that wasn't bad.
They'd opposed the Warlords from the start.
"Zefa and Tsuru joined the campaign against the Warlords. Using pirates' lives to buy White King Magnus's trust—nothing could be more cost-effective."
"He was supposed to retire due to age—he even disbanded the White Wolf once—then suddenly, for unknown reasons, he rose again."
"If Zefa and Tsuru can find the secret Magnus hides—then we may truly defeat him."
Magnus's pure gold and youth serums were stopgaps.
Even with them, you didn't grow stronger.
Therefore, the source of Magnus's power wasn't those things.
"If all else fails—send Tsuru."
As Kong turned to leave, Portman Nissen hesitated for a long time—and finally voiced the only path he saw.
"From all we've gathered, Magnus is good to his women. If Tsuru can attract him, she might glimpse his secret."
A crewmate is still just a crewmate. Even if Tsuru and Zefa became core members, they might never see the secret.
A bedmate was different.
Cruel, but Portman Nissen had likely picked the roles with that in mind from the start.
"For the sake of 'justice,' is anything permitted?"
Kong still remembered what he shouted before he left.
But then he thought of the spies the navy had used—
What a successful spy could win for the marines—
Even his own actions at Sphinx.
He realized, in despair, that if they wanted to beat Magnus, this might be their only hope.
"Forgive me, Garp, Sengoku."
Kong knew Tsuru; she'd been a recruit alongside Garp and Sengoku.
He knew their bonds were deep.
If they learned he'd sent Tsuru to do such a thing—he might not deserve to be their teacher.
Out at sea—
Garp's warship finally crossed paths with Roger's crew.
When these fated enemies collided—
Both would rise—beyond even ordinary Admirals.
Kong wouldn't live to see that future.
Acropolis.
Because of the war, less than a tenth of the island remained habitable; many spots could collapse at any moment.
So the White Wolf simply hauled an island from elsewhere, anchoring it atop Acropolis's old foundation.
Magnus never planned to hold off the Government with just one island. To do that he'd need to move Sphinx itself here—and sit in person.
That would be like pressing his face to the Government's front door and howling.
Remember:
Acropolis faces Mary Geoise across the water.
So he left only a monitoring force—to spot Government moves the instant they began.
Those duties, naturally, fell to the trainees led by Shiki.
With the Float-Float Fruit, Shiki was the civil engineer of the pirate world.
Of course—
To his face, Magnus called it "an opportunity to train your fruit"—and tasked Shiki, Zefa, and Tsuru to rebuild an island.
If that's not training, what is?
Thanks to Shiki's power, the trio renewed the island in less than a month.
Just as they finished and prepared to return to the White Wolf—
Tsuru received a message from Kong.
(End of Chapter)
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