Last year, he didn't have this qualification, but after his promotion this year, he finally earned it, so he places great importance on this event, having spent a significant amount of money preparing this gift.
Hundred Beasts Fruit is very favorable to talented high-ranking officials, as they enjoy shares in Hundred Beasts Fruit, and the more Hundred Beasts earns, the higher their potential positions.
To this day, the position of general manager of Hundred Beasts Fruit remains a part-time role rather than a formal appointment, with the actual decision-making power still resting with the Hundred Beasts Pirate Crew, which is one of the reasons for Kojiro's baldness.
"I still think... giving a diamond is not quite appropriate."
"No, Stella, it's not just a gift, it's also related to the suggestion I want to propose. Over the past two years, as you've noticed, the jewelry industry in the New World is vacant. Most jewelers are only regional industries, constantly fighting one another, with no clear winner.
Hundred Beasts Fruit has extensive trade channels and networks, which, if utilized properly, can solve the transportation issues. As for raw materials, whether treasures or minerals, as long as they can be found, supply isn't a problem.
Relying on this, we can certainly overthrow them to become the dominant force in this area. Such highly profitable luxury goods are not to be let go easily."
The jewelry industry in the pirate world has developed in a very distorted way. There are many factors at play, like peculiar islands covered in gold, where occupying them can directly lower product prices significantly.
At the same time, due to the rise of the Great Pirate Era, sea transport has become increasingly perilous. Since jewelry is not the kind of commodity bought in bulk like grain, even jewelry stores bring in only a small quantity at a time, making the profit from a single trip sometimes insufficient to cover the cost of guards.
Only on the safer Red Earth Continent are there chain jewelers, with most other islands having only regional jewelers.
But these are not issues for Hundred Beasts. Wandering everywhere is now their motto. Originally, Hundred Beasts' ships were sailing in various seas to find Plates, so tagging along to transport jewelry isn't a problem.
As for the supply, whether through financial support from Hundred Beasts Fruit, or by finding some special islands, these shouldn't be difficult. Tesoro doesn't know how wealthy Hundred Beasts is in terms of gold; it's just his speculation.
As a regional manager, he has the right to allocate some funds, thus in such circumstances, he helped propel his wife to stardom, even performing on stage himself a few times.
This way, he could save on endorsement fees, or rather, the endorsement fees directly become extra income for his family at cost price.
Moreover, his dream of stardom isn't shattered. Hundred Beasts Fruit's requirement for him is just one - to make money.
They don't touch human trafficking or toxic substances, but other than that, it's a different story. As long as the profit is sufficient, they won't mind expanding into a new department.
Since gaining capital support, Tesoro has seen more of those filthy things, and thus doesn't trust those so-called economic companies.
But he currently doesn't have decision-making power and can only submit application reports in such a way, hoping to catch upper management's attention.
Having the power to allocate part of the funds doesn't mean they can do whatever they want. In a big organization, there are all kinds of people. There have been embezzlers within Hundred Beasts Fruit, but the outcome of embezzlement in an enterprise of a New World Pirate Warlord can be imagined.
"You decide for yourself, I'm not very familiar with this aspect."
"Meow~"
At this time, Persian came out of the house. Seeing Persian come out, Tesoro affectionately rubbed its head, and Persian didn't resist much, indicating it accepted Tesoro.
Over the two years, it has also accepted these two people, but hasn't forgotten its duty.
As long as Tesoro doesn't have any ill intentions, Persian is just a cute pet, otherwise, it can kill as well, its claws have already been stained with blood.
That happened when Stella was out socializing. No one expected a cat to be capable of killing two drunken adult men, but afterward, Tesoro grew even closer to Persian, and it also made Stella develop a habit of taking her cat everywhere.
Picking up the luggage packed by Stella, Tesoro and she boarded the ship heading towards Wano Kuni.
Persian appeared even more excited than them, knowing well what returning to Wano Kuni meant.
...
After sailing for a while, the ship docked on an island near Wano Kuni. Stella looked around, but didn't see anything resembling a celebration.
"Here? Doesn't seem like it."
People around them were still busy, only the two of them were standing with their luggage, looking slightly out of place. At this moment, an Ironman approached, its metal-modified footsteps clanking loudly.
"Giovanni...."
He didn't call Tesoro's name, but rather his internal code name.
"It's me, you are..."
Facing him was Scotch, who, after years of being stationed outside, was also due for a rotation, to swap places with Hold'em for the next two years.
Yamato's birthday party was the time for his handover, and concurrently, he had a new mission to bring Tesoro and Stella back to Wano Kuni.
"Scotch, I'll take you to the base..."
Scotch took out a metal plate, signaling them to step on it, and then used a magnetic force to lift the plate, gently heading towards Wano Kuni.
After flying for a while, the unique rocky walls of Wano Kuni came into their view.
...
Tesoro handed the carefully prepared gift box to the Rotom at the door, then, guided by some maids, proceeded towards the venue. These people came from Wano Kuni to work on Ghost Island.
Ever since Kaidou solidified his position as the Protector King of the nation, working on Ghost Island has become commonplace, and Hundred Beasts only issued invitations to some subordinates stationed outside, with internal personnel not receiving such items.
This led to a situation where, as the current general, even without an invitation, Kozuki Hiyori had to take the initiative to attend Yamato's birthday celebration.
King would of course not overlook such a minor detail. He merely wanted to assess the other's attitude, and it seemed that there were no issues.
Subsequently, it was the familiar gift-unwrapping session. Currently, Yamato lacked nothing; most things she wanted could be fulfilled, so it was more about the sense of ritual.
However, when she saw the diamond, just as Stella had mentioned, such an item held little significance for Yamato.
"A shiny stone?"
After playing with it a bit, Yamato seemed to lose interest in it, but the good news was that the letter Tesoro left inside didn't go unnoticed by her.
Initially, he thought Yamato had some decision-making power, but it turned out he had overestimated some things.
"Godfather, look at this, it's really complex."
Arceus took the development proposal, then pulled out a recently received development plan from the desk, and upon looking at the diamond in Yamato's hand, he started to conceive new ideas...