Early in the year 1504 of the Marine calendar, at Marineford, the Marine Headquarters. In Fleet Admiral Kong's office, Diarmuid was sitting casually on the sofa, eating an apple.
"Bartholomew Kuma? Is that guy a member of the Revolutionary Army? That's surprising…" Kong said with a chuckle, looking at the documents. As he finished speaking, he stamped the document with his seal and then picked up the next one.
Diarmuid took a bite out of the apple. He chewed while mumbling indistinctly, "I met Dragon back in Loguetown. Looking at it now, it's only normal for them to have a vague connection."
"That's true," Kong said, nodding. After a slight pause, he moved his gaze from the documents to Diarmuid. "What do you think of his proposal?"
"Me?" Diarmuid said, thinking while eating the apple. He then shook his head. "That guy is not as simple as he sounds. He most likely has other plans. So I have no opinion. Fleet Admiral, you can decide what you think is best."
"You're getting more and more cunning," Kong complained, but he didn't press any further.
Diarmuid also didn't bring up the topic again. Instead, he asked, "Where's Admiral Sengoku? I haven't seen him since I got back."
"He went to Mariejois. The Reverie is just around the corner, and the Marines have some things that need to be arranged there," Kong said casually.
"I see." Diarmuid didn't mind. Then he asked, "By the way, do the Marines have any requests to make at this Reverie?"
"No. Even if we did, it wouldn't matter. Our relationship with the higher-ups has been tense lately. I'll be thankful if they don't cut our military budget next year," Kong said with a chuckle.
"A tense relationship, huh…" Diarmuid mumbled, and then he fell silent.
"Take a look at this," Kong said, as if he had just thought of something. He picked up a document from his desk and tossed it to Diarmuid.
Diarmuid shoved the remaining half of the apple, core and all, into his mouth. He caught the document, opened it, and began to read. After a while, Diarmuid swallowed the apple and looked at Kong. "This is normal, isn't it? I remember in the year 1500, they also refused to attend the Reverie. From what I recall… I've never seen the royal family of Fish-Man Island come to Mariejois for a meeting, have I?"
The document wasn't about anything else; it was about the Neptune royal family of Fish-Man Island refusing to participate in this Reverie. This wasn't surprising.
Although Fish-Man Island had joined the World Government two or three hundred years ago and had been a stable affiliated country since then, because of racial issues and slavery, there were huge disagreements and conflicts between Fish-Man Island, the World Government, and the humans on the surface. So they almost never participated in the Reverie and were just a member in name.
Of course, it must be said that Fish-Man Island was rich and powerful, and they still paid their annual tribute on time… He didn't know what to say about them.
Now, in the Great Pirate Era, there had been some dramatic changes. For example, the flag Fish-Man Island was flying now was the Whitebeard Pirates' flag. They were now under Whitebeard's territory. In this situation, it was normal for them not to attend the meeting, right?
Kong nodded, then shook his head. "It's normal, yes, but normal doesn't always mean right. Fish-Man Island's location is very important. If I could, I would still like to secure their support…"
"That's probably going to be difficult. From what I know, the king of Fish-Man Island, Neptune the Great Knight of the Sea, is very hostile toward humans and is also good friends with Whitebeard. What's more, even though slave trade is legally forbidden, you, Fleet Admiral, couldn't possibly not know what a mess Mariejois is on the sly.
"The slave trade of Merfolk and Fish-men has never been completely stopped, and there are even Celestial Dragons supporting it. In this situation, it's a miracle they haven't turned on you. And you still want to get their support?" Diarmuid said, giving the Fleet Admiral a sideways glance.
That's right, Neptune wasn't as friendly toward humans as he was twenty years later. At this stage, Neptune was very hostile toward humans. It wasn't until Queen Otohime died that he truly came to his senses and inherited her will, starting to work on having Fish-Man Island interact with the surface society. But unfortunately, it didn't have much of an effect in the end.
"Slave trade, huh…" Kong's eyes flashed with disgust. He was also very clear that the biggest reason for the rift between Fish-Man Island and the surface was the issue of slavery.
"Do you have a good way to solve this problem of slave trade?" Kong asked.
Diarmuid was stunned for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. As long as you, Fleet Admiral, give the word, I'll go to Mariejois right now and take out all the Celestial Dragons. When there's no one to buy, there's no harm."
"What nonsense are you talking about?!" Kong glared at Diarmuid.
"Hahahaha, so you also know it's nonsense, Fleet Admiral. What can I do about something like this?" Diarmuid said with a loud laugh.
Kong glanced at Diarmuid, then said with a little emotion, "The World Government is corrupt, but the Gorosei actually have some good ideas and are capable. I'm not afraid to tell you that the Gorosei also want to rebuild their relationship with Fish-Man Island, but they just don't know where to start."
"With the Gorosei's authority, it shouldn't be a problem for them to teach those lawless Celestial Dragons a lesson, should it? As long as they can stop the trend of slavery, there's still a chance for things to turn around," Diarmuid said softly.
"It's not that simple. Although the Gorosei are the highest-ranking Celestial Dragons, they can't just go around and order the other Celestial Dragons to do things… I'm not entirely sure about the specifics, but…" At this point, Kong paused and his brows furrowed.
"But what?" Diarmuid asked curiously.
Kong thought for a moment before finally saying, "It seems that the Celestial Dragons in Mariejois, who seem to be useless, also have a very critical role to play for the World Government…"
"A role…?" Diarmuid mumbled. Then he asked, "Is it about the World Government's legal legitimacy?"
The twenty kings were the founders of the World Government, so their descendants had a very high level of power and were called the descendants of gods. This was the origin of the Celestial Dragons. And the reason the World Government revered them so much was that the existence of the Celestial Dragons represented the legal legitimacy of the World Government.
Kong shook his head. "It's not a political reason. It seems to be related to some secret of Mariejois. I'm just hearing rumors, and I'm not sure about the specifics."
"I see…" Diarmuid nodded and didn't ask any more questions. After all, the Fleet Admiral had already said he didn't know, so what was the point of asking?
"Forget it. These aren't things we should be worrying about." Kong shook his head, not wanting to talk about the Celestial Dragons anymore. After a pause, he looked at Diarmuid again. "You really have no good ideas?"
Diarmuid smiled helplessly and said, "It's nothing more than strengthening relations. If you really want me to offer a suggestion, Fleet Admiral, have you ever considered creating a special unit, similar to the Giant Squad, but made up of Fish-men? That might help to improve our relationship."
Kong looked at Diarmuid and said, "You might not know this, but the Marines once did something similar…"
Diarmuid's eyes lit up. "And?"
"And, it failed," Kong said with a hint of helplessness in his voice. Without waiting for Diarmuid to ask, he explained, "How should I put it? We don't need to consider Merfolk. Both male and female Merfolk are inherently more peaceful and are not suitable for combat. So we only recruited Fish-men…"
"Right. With ten times the base strength of a human and the ability to breathe freely in the water, this race, to be honest, I think they're more suited to this world than humans," Diarmuid said, nodding.
"Exactly. We also saw that back then, but for every gain, there's a loss. While Fish-men have great strength, they are also naturally very rude and violent. They have very poor discipline and are also very exclusive and xenophobic…" Kong said softly.
A look of understanding flashed in Diarmuid's eyes. He then asked, "And that's the reason for the failure?"
"That's right. The special unit made up of Fish-men eventually rebelled and was disbanded. Since then, there have been no more related proposals. Maybe they're good at being pirates, but being Marines… it's really not for them," Kong said very helplessly.
"That's a shame," Diarmuid said with a sigh. He really didn't know the Marines had made such an effort before.
"But speaking of which, not all of them are rude and violent, are they?" Diarmuid asked again.
"Of course not. There are always exceptions. Some Fish-men don't have that violent gene in their bloodline. They can tame their savage nature…" Kong said.
People like Jinbe and Fisher Tiger were probably this type of person, and even Hatchan could be considered one. But a few exceptions were useless and couldn't change the overall situation.
"Then I have no ideas," Diarmuid said, shrugging. Kong saw this and had nothing more to say. The issue was just that difficult.
But just then, Diarmuid suddenly said, "Doesn't Queen Otohime of Fish-Man Island have a lot of goodwill toward humans?"
Kong frowned and said with some hesitation, "I don't know much about her."
"Fleet Admiral, that's going too far. You want to appease Fish-Man Island, but you don't even know the current situation. Isn't that just an empty promise?" Diarmuid complained.
"Hahahaha, my mistake. In that case, I'll send someone to investigate the situation," Kong said.
"Good. If Queen Otohime truly has a benevolent attitude toward humans, then the Marines can perhaps start from that angle and support her. With her position, she might be able to achieve a miraculous result," Diarmuid said with a chuckle.
"I'll give it a try," Kong said, nodding.
Diarmuid picked up the teacup on the desk and took a sip. Then he asked, "I always feel like Admiral Sengoku is busy to death all day, but why don't I feel busy at all? Fleet Admiral, am I doing something wrong as an Admiral?"
"There's nothing wrong with it," Kong said with a smile. He then explained, "Sengoku is special. He's not just an Admiral; he also takes on a large part of the Fleet Admiral's duties…"
Kong didn't try to hide anything. He said openly, "When I retire or get promoted to Commander-in-Chief, Sengoku will definitely take over the Fleet Admiral position. So I'm giving him these tasks now so that he can quickly take on all the responsibilities of the Marines in the future."
"I see. In that case, I can slack off with a clear conscience. Hahaha," Diarmuid joked.
Just then, the Den Den Mushi in Diarmuid's pocket rang. He took it out, looked at it, and said, "It's Gion. Fleet Admiral, I'll be going now if there's nothing else."
Kong chuckled and nodded. "Go ahead."
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