Upon hearing this, Diarmuid knew Maxcas had misunderstood. He pulled the old Warden a few steps away from the others and said in a low voice, "Old friend, that's not it."
"Oh?" Maxcas was surprised. "Then what can I help you with, Vice Admiral?"
"Here's the thing," Diarmuid began. "First, I wanted to ask, is Impel Down at full capacity right now?"
Maxcas smiled and nodded. "Of course. Impel Down has always maintained a full number of prisoners."
"Is that so?" Diarmuid replied. "But it seems like new pirate prisoners are constantly being brought in, hundreds of them every month. Do you have room for them all?"
"Hundreds? Sometimes, a thousand prisoners can be brought in a single month. As for having room… well, we have to make room, don't we?" Maxcas said with a sense of helplessness. After a short pause, he added in a low voice, "While the rule of Impel Down is to keep them locked up, no one cares about the prisoners other than the important ones. There are many punishments here, and it's normal for some to die. If there are too many prisoners, we secretly arrange for some to 'disappear.'"
Diarmuid nodded again. It seemed Impel Down was always operating at full capacity, with a constant influx of pirates. Since the space couldn't be expanded indefinitely, Impel Down secretly executed a number of prisoners from time to time. This was normal; otherwise, they would have run out of space long ago. Considering the harsh punishments inside, it made sense that the place would be a death trap for villains.
With this thought, Diarmuid spoke again. "Old friend, you must have heard about Roger's execution, right?"
Maxcas nodded with a worried expression. "Of course, I've heard. It seems the seas are about to get chaotic."
"That's right. They're definitely going to get chaotic. We at Headquarters are now calling this chaos 'the Great Pirate Era.' In other words, there will be more and more pirates on the seas from now on. The Marines will be under a lot of pressure, and Impel Down will likely see the number of new prisoners double every month…" Diarmuid said.
"That's true. I've been thinking about this problem myself. If it continues, Impel Down will certainly be overwhelmed," Maxcas agreed.
"Oh? Have you come up with a solution, old friend?" Diarmuid's eyes lit up.
"I don't have a good solution, but I have a dirty one," Maxcas said with a slight smile.
"Keep killing them?" Diarmuid asked.
"We'll certainly continue killing them, but we can't be too excessive. I plan to bribe Enies Lobby to hand down harsh sentences and death penalties so fewer of them will even make it here alive. That would make my job easier," Maxcas said with a sinister grin.
Of course, Diarmuid thought. 'You wardens all have a black heart.'
He had no sympathy for these villains, so he didn't mind at all. But he also had a feeling he knew why Enies Lobby's justice system would be so rotten twenty years from now, with so many death sentences. It was probably this old man's doing.
"That's a good idea," Diarmuid said, nodding in approval. After a pause, he continued in a low voice, "Old friend, I have a method, too. If we work together, it'll be a win-win situation."
Maxcas knew the real reason for the visit was coming. He stroked the beard on his chin. "Please, Vice Admiral, tell me your idea."
"You know I've been transferred to G-7 as the Base Commander. To put it plainly, I'm going there with the honorary title of Admiral Candidate. Admiral Sengoku and the Fleet Admiral have already told me that as long as I achieve great results at G-7, they'll guarantee my promotion to Admiral when I return," Diarmuid began his bluff.
That's right, it was a bluff. Admiral Sengoku and the Fleet Admiral had never given him a firm promise. But it was a good enough bluff to fool Maxcas. Could he really go ask them to confirm it? Even if it were true, Sengoku and the Fleet Admiral would never admit it.
Maxcas knew very well that he couldn't confirm this, but he didn't doubt it either. He could see that Vice Admiral Diarmuid had a boundless future. This transfer was most likely a test, and if he performed well, it was only logical for him to be promoted to Admiral given his title. So he definitely couldn't afford to offend him.
That's right, Diarmuid was just borrowing the authority of his superiors to intimidate this old man.
"Then I must congratulate you in advance, Vice Admiral Diarmuid," Maxcas said quickly.
"Oh, it's all still up in the air," Diarmuid said, waving his hand as if he didn't care. The more he acted this way, the more Maxcas believed it.
After another pause, Diarmuid continued, "To achieve great results, I have to develop G-7 well. But honestly, I have no money and no people, so I came to ask for your help, old friend…"
"Do you need to borrow money, Vice Admiral? That's easy enough to talk about…" Maxcas said.
"No, no. To be honest, I'm here to borrow people," Diarmuid said with a smirk.
"Borrow people?" Maxcas was stunned. He recalled Diarmuid's earlier words and looked left and right before whispering, "Vice Admiral, you want to borrow prisoners?"
"Exactly. I'm thinking, these villains are taking up too many resources in Impel Down and aren't providing any value. Soon, you'll be catching more and more pirates, and you won't be able to keep them all. You'll have to kill them anyway. So why don't you lend them to me? I'll make good use of them," Diarmuid said.
"What kind of use?" Maxcas asked. This Vice Admiral wouldn't be trying to kill prisoners to claim credit, would he? That's a bit too extreme. Have all the Marines' methods become so wild?
"I plan to take them from you and bring those scoundrels back to G-7 to put their remaining energy to use. Labor reform. They'll build my base and my new city for me. Any hard labor will be done by them. This way, not only do I save money, but you can also transfer all of Impel Down's excess prisoners to me for handling. It's a win-win," Diarmuid said with an evil smile. His expression at this moment didn't look like that of a Marine pursuing justice at all; it looked like a slave trader.
Maxcas was dumbfounded. Is this even possible? Are you for real? You really are a monster!
"Will they even survive?" Maxcas asked again.
"How could they possibly survive? The new city and the base are military secrets. We have to be careful that no one leaks critical information like blueprints, let alone these pirates and villains. They won't survive; they'll have to work until they die… I'll be straight with you, old friend. After the new city and base are built, I'm going to try to develop the Calm Belt. I'll send all those scoundrels there to mine. Once the ships leave, with no other people or sea routes, they can't even run if they wanted to. It's a completely safe plan," Diarmuid said without hesitation.
'You really are a monster,' Maxcas thought. 'I thought my secret executions in Impel Down were cruel, but Vice Admiral Diarmuid is even more ruthless.'
The more ruthless Diarmuid was, the more Maxcas dared not offend him. If you offend a ruthless man like this, can you expect him to treat you well?
But Maxcas had dealt with villains on the seas his whole life, so he knew that if you weren't ruthless, you couldn't stand your ground. If you talked nicely to these villains, they wouldn't listen to you at all. On the contrary, if you gave them a few hard lashes, they would be very obedient! This was experience talking.
If Vice Admiral Diarmuid didn't have such a black heart, Maxcas would honestly be too afraid to lend him the prisoners. After all, if a group escaped and caused trouble on the seas, he would have to share the blame. But with Vice Admiral Diarmuid being so ruthless, he was much more at ease.
He guessed that if those people dared to plan an escape, Vice Admiral Diarmuid would truly have the heart to kill them all and feed them to the fish.
Diarmuid was indeed ruthless in this matter. He had already made up his mind. He would divide the prisoners into teams and put them to work. If a single person tried to escape, he would hold the entire team accountable and kill them all. If an entire team tried to escape, he would kill the whole batch and get a new one from Impel Down.
At the same time, if someone reported or captured an escapee, he would reward them, maybe even promoting them to a foreman. His mind was full of ruthless plans like this.
"Vice Admiral Diarmuid, your idea is a good one, and it would definitely put those scoundrels to use. But isn't the risk too great? It doesn't really follow regulations," Maxcas said with some hesitation.
In his entire career as a Warden, he had never heard of taking prisoners out of Impel Down for "labor reform." To be honest, it was a big deal. If it could be managed and proved successful, it could even become a new policy in the future. After all, keeping these people locked up was a waste of food.
If their remaining value could be squeezed out of them, Headquarters would probably be very happy about it. Vice Admiral Diarmuid's base could become a pilot program. But if someone with a vendetta caught wind of it and caused a big fuss, or reported it, it would be a violation of the rules, even a very serious crime.
"On the way here, I already reported this idea to Headquarters. Admiral Sengoku told me to try it out, but he also said that if anyone asks about it, he'll pretend he never heard anything. To put it simply, he'll support my trial run in name only, but he won't take the blame if anything goes wrong. He told me to weigh the risks myself, and I have," Diarmuid said.
'I haven't weighed the risks yet!' Maxcas roared in his heart. But at least he had some assurance now. He didn't have to worry about being reported, because Admiral Sengoku's meaning was very clear. He was just worried about mistakes causing trouble.
While the old man was still hesitating, Diarmuid spoke again. "I won't be able to give you a cut from the first few batches, old friend, but you have my word that if this works out, it will be a long-term arrangement. Once the base is built and we start on the new city, I'll pay you a commission per person—2,000 Berries per head…"
"It's a deal!" Maxcas said immediately.
2,000 Berries per person was very little; even slaves didn't have a price this low. But Maxcas thought it was perfect. He wasn't a slave trader, and if Diarmuid kept taking prisoners, he could provide over a thousand a month. That would be a steady two million Berries coming in, which was more than his salary.
Furthermore, judging by the current situation, the number of pirates would definitely increase, and if Diarmuid succeeded, a few thousand prisoners wouldn't satisfy his appetite. It could be tens of thousands… How much money would that be?
'You… you're a corrupt official all along! You should have said so earlier! Why did I waste so much time beating around the bush?' Diarmuid looked at Maxcas in shock, a mix of emotions in his heart.
"Vice Admiral, since that's the case, I have a suggestion. We should choose non-Devil Fruit users who are weak. To be honest, Impel Down has six levels, and the deeper you go, the stronger the prisoners are, but their numbers are also smaller. I think we should just get people from the first and second levels, right?" Maxcas suggested. He was also afraid that Diarmuid wouldn't be able to handle prisoners who were too strong.
Diarmuid nodded. "Yes, that's a good idea. Safety first."
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