Was Sakazuki's reasoning sufficient?
It was.
Ortoren silently studied Sakazuki for a long moment. Then the corner of his mouth lifted.
"Alright. Then this will be our battlefield."
After confirming it with Sakazuki, he immediately tapped the table.
"Very well. Admiral Sakazuki has already made his decision. This war will be fought on Aquino Island. Does anyone have any objections?"
He said it was Sakazuki's decision, but since the words came from Ortoren himself, no one present was foolish enough to misunderstand what their admiral truly intended.
One after another, the commanders nodded in agreement.
"I also favor Aquino Island. Since it's a volcanic island, Admiral Akainu's strength can be fully brought to bear."
"Honestly, any of these islands would work. But since Sakazuki-san believes this one is more suitable, I have no objections."
"Aquino Island is indeed well suited as a battlefield. Aside from the volcanic factor, it has another advantage the others lack. You may not have noticed, but there are no Marine bases anywhere nearby, so there's no need to worry about the aftermath of the war affecting anything else."
Momonga, Yamakaji, and the others closed their files as well, signaling their support without raising objections.
At this point, the location of the war was officially decided.
With the battlefield settled, Ortoren turned to Tesoro.
"Vice Admiral Tesoro, since Aquino Island has been confirmed as the site of this operation, all preparations and construction on the island will be your responsibility. You'll coordinate with Moria. Within three months, I want that island fully capable of supporting a battlefield. Any problems?"
Tesoro immediately stood, snapped to attention, and saluted, his voice firm and resolute.
"No problems. Mission guaranteed. All for justice. Loyalty!"
The moment his words fell, every Marine present except Sakazuki straightened in unison and echoed loudly,
"Loyalty!"
The sight stunned Sakazuki.
He could clearly feel the fervent devotion these New World Marine commanders held toward Ortoren. Those cries of loyalty were not directed at the World Government, nor at Marine Headquarters.
They were for Ortoren himself.
In Sakazuki's view, factions within the Marines were entirely natural. From the moment he joined, he had sensed that tradition. For a political organization as massive as the Marines, having no factions at all would have been the truly strange thing.
After years of climbing the ranks, Sakazuki himself had become the undisputed leader of the Marines' hawkish faction.
As for Ortoren, Sakazuki believed that he fundamentally belonged to none of them. Neither hawk, nor dove, nor neutral. In his early years, Ortoren had shown dove-leaning tendencies, but his time at headquarters had been too short for him to formally join that faction. Once he left headquarters and went to G-5, he had effectively formed his own camp.
At first, this group was known within the Marines as the "G-5 faction," made up largely of so-called problem children. But as G-5 continued to grow, Ortoren steadily promoted its members and transferred them to various Marine bases and even Marine Headquarters. There, they took root, developed, and gradually spread throughout the entire Marine organization.
Within this faction, there was no distinction between hawks, doves, or centrists. They didn't care about political stance.
They only cared about origin.
As long as you came from G-5, you were G-5 faction.
And that situation continued until Ortoren became an Admiral, assumed governance over the New World, unified the New World Marines, and began massively absorbing fresh blood. Elite Vice Admirals such as Yamakaji, Strawberry, Cancer, and Stainless were brought under his command and led into the New World.
These elite Vice Admirals were never solitary figures. They had spent many years cultivating their influence within the Marines, each with their own subordinates, trusted confidants, and networks of relatives and allies. As they joined Ortoren's command, the people around them gradually shifted their positions as well, subtly realigning themselves toward Ortoren.
By this point, the former G-5 faction within the Marines underwent a fundamental transformation, or rather, an elevation.
They no longer called themselves the G-5 faction.
They now called themselves the New World Marines.
From that moment on, the G-5 faction became history, a thing of the past. The New World Marines rose forcefully, and at this stage, they formally took Ortoren, a Marine Admiral, as the core doctrine of their faction and their absolute leader.
In the past, Ortoren had only been a Vice Admiral. At that level, he could not truly be called a "leader." It was much like Arber's current situation. At best, Arber could be considered an emerging figurehead among those officers loyal to the World Government.
But an Admiral was different.
An Admiral stood at the very pinnacle of the Marines. There were only three. Their numbers were few, their authority immense, and their status unquestionable. Such a figure could truly become a leader, and was worthy of absolute loyalty.
That was why, only after Ortoren became an Admiral, the slogan of "Loyalty" began to spread rapidly throughout the New World Marines.
The slogan itself might have seemed a bit formalistic, but in reality, it was extremely effective at consolidating unity. Everyone now shared the same object of loyalty. When loyalty was directed toward a single Admiral, cohesion naturally followed.
And slogans, once repeated often enough, truly could seep into people's minds. Over time, they strengthened belief and subtly shaped how people acted and the style in which they carried out their duties.
Before this meeting, before hearing that unified chorus of "Loyalty," Sakazuki hadn't given much thought to this newly risen "New World Marine faction." To him, it had simply been another faction that formed after Ortoren became an Admiral.
But at this very moment, he suddenly realized something.
The New World Marines might be fundamentally different from any Marine faction he had known before.
They were not the same concept at all.
Within this faction, Ortoren's personal prestige had already reached the level of extreme reverence.
Sakazuki himself was also the leader of the hawkish faction. Figures like Onigumo respected and followed him deeply. But those were individual cases. The vast majority of hawkish Marines merely gathered around Sakazuki, forming a loose circle.
But the New World Marines were different.
They were a community bound by shared interests.
And the linchpin, the absolute core holding this enormous community together, was Ortoren himself.
This realization shook Sakazuki to the core. Even if the Fleet Admiral personally came to the New World, he might not possess Ortoren's level of control over these Marines, might not command Ortoren's prestige, and might not inspire this kind of loyalty.
This was no longer just a faction.
This was a warlord.
A massive warlord within the Marines.
A powerful naval force that could, at any moment, break away and stand on its own.
How could Sakazuki not be shocked by this? Because he himself could never accomplish such a thing. And not just him. Even Kuzan, another Admiral, absolutely could not do it either.
In fact, that was exactly how things played out. In the original timeline, Kuzan fought Sakazuki, lost, and then left the Marines alone.
But if that role were filled by Ortoren instead, even assuming he lost to Sakazuki, there was no chance he would leave alone.
The entire New World Marines would likely leave with him.
That was the fundamental difference between Ortoren and Admirals like Sakazuki and Kuzan.
Those two might be faction leaders, or something similar.
But they were not warlords.
Ortoren already was.
And he was the largest warlord within the Marines.
Sakazuki was still reeling from this realization.
Meanwhile, Tesoro had already returned to his seat. The Admiral had given him three months to transform Achino Island into a battlefield fit for war. That meant establishing rest camps for one hundred thousand Marines, setting up logistics and supply systems, building a temporary medical network, and, as the main battlefield, constructing defensive installations and a usable port.
Under normal circumstances, a project of this scale would take far more than three months. Even three years wouldn't have been excessive.
Yet Tesoro accepted without hesitation.
The reason was simple. He had overseen the construction of the Golden City, managed the building of Ortoren's Admiral command headquarters, and participated in the development of multiple Marine bases under figures like Yamakaji. His experience was extensive.
As long as he could bring in the equally experienced and frequently cooperating Labor King Moria, completing the project within three months was entirely feasible.
After all, this was a one-time project.
It didn't need to last forever.
It only needed to survive a single war.
Whether it would be scrapped or destroyed afterward didn't matter in the slightest.
...
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