As a Rear Admiral, Ortoren no longer had to hitch a ride on Garp's warship—he finally had a vessel of his own.
His ship cut steadily across the blue sea, and Ortoren stood at the very front of the deck, pacing back and forth as he kept studying the bow.
Before long, Gion came over with a cup of coffee in hand and asked curiously, "What are you looking at?"
"I was thinking of adding a figurehead, like Garp-san has on his ship. It'd make mine more iconic," Ortoren said seriously, rubbing his chin.
Gion thought of Garp's ship and replied, "As long as you don't add a dog's head. Garp-chan's ship is just plain ugly."
"Huh?" Ortoren blinked in surprise. "I actually think that dog-headed warship looks pretty cool!"
After a pause, he added, "Then what about a bull's head? That suits me, right?"
"That could work," Gion admitted, "but keep in mind, personal decorative figureheads aren't covered under 'warranty.' If it gets damaged in battle, you'll have to pay out of pocket when you dock at Marineford for repairs."
"There's a rule like that? I'm a Rear Admiral and I can't even get a figurehead reimbursed?" Ortoren looked even more stunned.
Wasn't the Navy supposed to have great benefits? All lies, huh?
I don't eat senbei, don't smoke cigars, don't keep goats—and now I can't even expense a figurehead? Are there any rules left in the Marines? Any law at all?
Then again, those who ate senbei, smoked cigars, or raised goats were Marine heroes or Admirals. Them using public funds didn't seem to be much of a problem.
"Forget it. It's just a figurehead anyway—what's the point? If I run into an enemy, they'd recognize me from afar and turn tail before I could fight them, and then I'd have to waste time chasing them down!" Ortoren said, trying to justify himself.
It was definitely not because he didn't want to spend his own money—it was all for the sake of justice!
Gion found his stinginess amusing and asked, "You've been in the Navy for almost two years now. You started off as a Captain at Headquarters, and now you're already a Rear Admiral. As far as I know, you've spent this whole time living in Garp-chan's courtyard, without any real expenses. You should have a pretty solid amount saved up by now, shouldn't you? So why are you still this stingy?"
"Strength aside, money is also a man's backbone, you know? If I want to fully dedicate myself to justice in the future, the little I've saved so far doesn't even make a splash. I have to think about how I'm going to make more," Ortoren said, shaking his head with a serious expression.
The Navy was a massive military machine. And what core tool did the World Government use to keep it in check, to force it to struggle in the mud and obey orders?
The answer was simple and brutal: military funding.
During the Marineford War, Headquarters summoned a hundred thousand officer-level Marines from across the world to join the fight. These were all legitimate military leaders. A Lieutenant Commander would command at least a hundred men, right? Otherwise, where would the Navy's prestige be?
By that calculation, the Navy had to command a worldwide force in the tens of millions to maintain control over all four seas.
That wasn't millions of blades of grass—it was millions of mouths to feed.
Just salaries alone cost astronomical sums each year. Add in base maintenance across every sea, weapon and ammunition expenses, warship upkeep and upgrades, casualty compensation, pensions, welfare, and more... the numbers were staggering.
At present, only the World Government had the resources to sustain such a massive force. And precisely because they could afford to, they could strut about so arrogantly in Mary Geoise, and the Celestial Dragons could act with such impunity—because they held the world's strongest army in their grasp.
Looked at from that angle, it was easy to understand why the Celestial Dragons were so absurdly arrogant.
By controlling the strongest force on the planet, they could live like Homelander himself—indulging in everything, no restraint required.
If Ortoren were sitting in their position, he doubted he'd be able to resist that temptation either.
And if he dug deeper into his own motivations, wasn't his desire to become the "embodiment of justice" also partly rooted in the thought, "they can be replaced"?
At least a little.
Why can you lot skip beef? I'm a bull from the Mink Tribe—if anyone has a reason not to eat beef, it's me!
If I don't want to follow Admiral Sengoku's path, and instead aim to one day control the Marines myself—turning it into the Marines of its Admirals and Fleet Admiral, not the Marines of the Celestial Dragons in Mary Geoise—then the first problem to solve is military funding.
Right now, there's no solution. But looking further ahead, there are possibilities. Take Gild Tesoro, the so-called Golden Emperor, who controlled a quarter of the world's money flow, or Donquixote Doflamingo, a fallen Celestial Dragon. Both have the necessary talents.
And conveniently, both also harbor deep hatred toward the Celestial Dragons. They're potential allies, and since neither has the strength to break through their own limits alone, they're forced to cling to others in search of a chance to overturn the board.
That was something Ortoren might be able to give them.
He had even thought through the starting capital already. Up on Skypiea, in that Golden City buried for four hundred years, there was enough gold to fill an entire city.
Gold wasn't just hard currency—it also held antique value. A massive fortune. It might not cover the Marines' colossal budget forever, but as seed money, it would be more than enough.
"Still, this isn't something a Rear Admiral should be concerning himself with right now. Even if I took the gold, where would I store it? If someone discovered it, it'd probably get confiscated, and all I'd end up with would be a silk banner and a shiny 'Outstanding Marine' title. Not worth it. At the very least, I'd have to wait until I was stationed away from Headquarters, take over as a Base Commander somewhere, and build the place into a fortress with only my own people inside. That would be the time to act," Ortoren thought to himself.
These weren't the kind of things a Rear Admiral could handle. At most, he could let the ideas run in his head. Writing anything down would be dangerous—if someone found it, they could snatch the credit and report it as their own.
While Ortoren was lost in these scattered thoughts, the warship slowly pulled into an island's harbor. The ships moored there all flew the World Government's flag. Clearly, this was a sealed-off island, no outside vessels allowed.
It was Enies Lobby—the Island That Never Sleeps. One of the Three Fortresses of Justice, not too far from Marineford. By passing through the Gate of Justice and riding the special circulating current, you could reach it in no time.
And it was also CP-9's headquarters.
The Three Fortresses of Justice system had been laid out over eight hundred years ago, at the very founding of the World Government: a trinity of strongholds. First came Marineford, followed by Enies Lobby and Impel Down—the latter recently receiving a new tenant, the Red Count.
Linked by the whirlpool currents created through the Gates of Justice, the three islands formed a network of rapid routes, able to send reinforcements between them in as little as half an hour. That was the core of the trinity system: if one fell into danger, the other two could respond immediately.
For centuries, the system had been touted as unbreakable. Enies Lobby and Impel Down both boasted of never having been breached.
But Ortoren wasn't impressed by such claims of "iron walls" and "impregnable bastions." Zephyr's family had been massacred by pirates in Marineford's residential district. Enies Lobby was trashed by the Straw Hats, who hadn't even been at sea for a year. And Impel Down? Best not even mention it.
Clearly, fortresses didn't guarantee safety—it all depended on the people inside.
As the warship docked, Ortoren spotted a group of men in suits waiting on the pier to greet him.
"Huh?" he muttered, puzzled. "Didn't you say the Marines and CP don't get along? What's with this welcome party?"
"This is the only place you'll get that kind of treatment," Gion explained easily. "Enies Lobby is home to CP-9, but the Marines garrison forces here year-round. It's tied to Headquarters in a joint defense system. And the biggest factor is CP-9's commander, Spandine. He took office last year—sharp as a tack and smooth in every direction."
...
(50 Chapters Ahead)
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