Felisk arrived at the front door of his home and knocked for quite some time before his sister finally opened the locked door to let him in.
Felisk's sister appeared to be around twenty years old and bore a resemblance to him in facial features, though she seemed a bit unkempt. Her smooth forehead had a noticeable indentation, as if it had been struck by something heavy.
Upon seeing Felisk, she greeted him with a childlike smile that belied her age. "Felisk, I'm hungry," she said.
"I'll make dinner right away." Felisk didn't pause to rest and headed straight to the kitchen. Throughout the process, his sister kept chattering and clinging to him, repeatedly saying the same things, to which he responded patiently.
Felisk understood that his sister was simply happy he was finally home and by her side again.
Once the simple dinner was ready, the siblings sat together at the dining table. Felisk hesitated before cautiously saying, "Sister, the factory is starting night school soon, and I plan to attend. After work, I'll come home to make dinner for you, but then I'll have to go to class, so I might come back later to keep you company..."
Clang!
His sister threw her spoon to the ground, interrupting Felisk's words.
When Felisk bent down to pick up the spoon, he noticed his sister had stopped eating and was staring silently at the table. He tried to place the spoon back in her hand, but she clenched her fists, refusing to let him do so.
"Then... I won't go?" Felisk asked tentatively. Seeing his sister's expression soften and her mood improve, he sighed and put the spoon back in her hand.
Late at night, after his sister had fallen asleep, Felisk returned to his room and began to read the latest issue of the East Blue News with some difficulty. Any words he didn't recognize, he noted down with the intention of asking someone for help the next day.
Felisk was genuinely eager to attend night school. Since childhood, he had admired the idea of sitting in a room filled with books, writing elegantly. He envied those with knowledge and aspired to be like them because his dream was to travel freely around the world in a hot air balloon and document his adventures in a travelogue.
However, achieving such freedom sounded easy but was incredibly challenging. For Felisk, it meant abandoning his ambitions and leaving behind his sister, whom he considered a burden.
In his dreams, Felisk had imagined leaving home to live a free and adventurous life, gaining knowledge and writing travelogues.
But upon waking, rationality returned, and he was consumed by guilt, feeling he was being too selfish.
After stumbling through the newspaper, guessing at words he didn't know, Felisk stared blankly at the wall in front of him.
If William were here, he would be surprised because the wall was covered with photos of him. In addition to images cut from factory pamphlets and street posters, there were also newspaper photos, all carefully trimmed and pasted by Felisk.
At the center of the wall was a photo of William smiling while patting the shoulder of an aide who had descended from a hot air balloon.
Felisk looked at the photo with envy, his expression akin to a fan idolizing a celebrity from William's previous life.
In the midst of unfortunate experiences and hardships, people often seek spiritual solace, sometimes in religion, other times in an idol.
William's legendary journey had brought Felisk a much better life than before, making him a small admirer of William.
As a young man who had benefited from William's policies and was an avid supporter of William, Felisk held a positive attitude toward the recent Cocoyasi Village and Hoshia Town incident.
Felisk had immense confidence in William, believing that the Arlong Pirates were no match for him. He also sympathized with the plight of Cocoyasi Village and Hoshia Town, thinking their decision was the most correct one.
Felisk believed that even without the Arlong Pirates, Cocoyasi Village and Hoshia Town would never thrive under their original rulers as they would under William's leadership.
Felisk sincerely thought that more people tormented by this chaotic era should receive William's protection.
…
Two weeks later, news finally came from the palace. Governor William had decided to accept the petitions from Cocoyasi Village and Hoshia Town, officially incorporating them into the Navia Kingdom's territory, and he would personally lead the campaign against the Arlong Pirates.
This announcement brought mixed reactions, but as Sabo had predicted, there was little complaint, even from those who initially opposed the petitions. After all, the decision was made by the person who had transformed the country, turning it into a haven amidst the chaos—a hero who had solved the problem of the massive impoverished population in the slums.
At the docks, many citizens came to see off William's warship. Although William had previously clashed with the Arlong Pirates and gained the upper hand, the public, misled by the newspapers, largely believed that the Arlong Pirates were vicious and that William and his forces might not be able to defeat them.
William did not offer much explanation.
He waved to the crowd from the deck, maintaining a friendly demeanor, and only returned to his cabin after leaving the dock.
Dampier was already waiting for him there.
William wasn't particularly worried about the outcome of the upcoming battle, so he specifically had Dampier bring along a team from the laboratory and the newly developed M.H.5 poison gas bombs for some field experiments.
"With M.H.5, are you planning to kill all those fish-men?" Dampier continued to ask, even at this point.
"Fish-men have extraordinary resilience; they won't die that easily," William replied with a nonchalant smile.
"Their plans could actually be useful to us. You map out the weather and terrain with hot air balloons, but you can't collect detailed oceanic data like underwater currents, and there have been frequent accidents with the balloons, resulting in several missing personnel," Dampier suggested, squinting. "Why not use force to intimidate these fish-men into working for you, gathering and analyzing various ocean data, rather than killing them all with poison gas?"
"Don't forget, these fish-men are all racists," William explained with a smile, though his words were far from amusing. "Especially their leader, Arlong, who is a staunch extremist. For such a group, unless enough of them die and they feel genuine fear, how would they ever work for us?"
"I'm just worried that if you end up with a deep-seated hatred, they might remain stubborn," Dampier reminded him.
William shook his head. "You haven't seen those fish-men in person; their resolve isn't that strong."
There was something else William hadn't mentioned: even if the Arlong Pirates remained stubborn, he still had the card of Zangy, who excelled at hypnosis.
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