In Mary Geoise, within Pangaea Castle's Room of Authority, the Five Elders were, as usual, gathered together—each with a thick stack of documents in hand.
"I truly never imagined that one day, I'd receive a handwritten document from Lord Imu himself. This alone is worthy of being called a timeless treasure!"
Warcury spoke with great excitement.
The other four Elders, however, wore expressions of complicated emotion.
In the end, though, there was nothing they could do but accept the copies they had received. Though the writing on each was identical, theirs were still just duplicates. Valuable and worth preserving, certainly—but still not comparable to the original manuscript.
This was the first time in centuries that Lord Imu had issued instructions in written form.
Judging by the thickness of the document, they could also understand Lord Imu's reasoning. After all, trying to communicate so much information in person within the Empty Hall would've likely taken an entire night on their knees—and even that wouldn't have been enough time.
"By the way, Dragon's fleet has already reached the South Blue. According to the intelligence CP2 just sent back, he's doing quite well—especially when it comes to strategic thinking. Nothing like that bastard Garp's son ought to be!"
Ju Peter abruptly changed the subject. His mood had soured, and he wanted to discuss something else first—anything to delay having to dive into the dense document in front of him. So he briefly summarized what he had learned, and the others listened intently.
"Dragon's planning this time does have a hint of Sengoku's style," said Mars with a chuckle. "He accounted for various regional concerns in the South Blue and ensured that the so-called 'Slave King' wouldn't be alerted prematurely."
"Indeed," agreed Saturn. "If this had been left to Sakazuki, Borsalino, or Kuzan, I doubt they'd have been so meticulous."
At that moment, Nusjuro revealed a hint of hesitation on his face.
"If this mission goes smoothly, then we can go ahead and promote Dragon to vice admiral. But what I've been wondering is… what comes after that?"
"You mean the admiral position?" Warcury's tone turned serious. "Yes, that's definitely going to be a problem."
Since the founding of the World Government, the number of navy admirals had always been capped at three. Now that Sakazuki, Borsalino, and Kuzan were already confirmed as the next in line, what would happen to Dragon?
In terms of talent, strength, and Devil Fruit ability, Dragon was easily on par with the other three. And as the son of the Navy Hero Garp, he had an even purer lineage and greater ideological pedigree than the others.
By all rights, Dragon was fully qualified to become an admiral—but the slots were already filled. What were they supposed to do, give him a meaningless 'admiral-in-waiting' title and leave him sitting on the bench for decades?
After all, Dragon wasn't particularly young either. He was 34 years old. Unless something unexpected happened, he'd just have to keep waiting.
Unless Dragon chose to emulate his father and willingly serve as a vice admiral for life… but wouldn't that be a colossal waste?
Garp's longstanding refusal to accept an admiral promotion had already frustrated the Five Elders to no end.
Of course, their situations were different—Garp had refused despite a lack of admirals, while Dragon was being denied because there were simply too many eligible candidates.
"Let's just promote him to vice admiral for now—we can deal with the rest later," said Warcury helplessly. Nusjuro, standing beside him, could only nod in agreement.
"If Dragon can take care of that so-called Slave King, then half the agenda for this year's World Summit will have been pushed forward in advance," Saturn added, smoothly changing the subject.
When it came to the admiral positions, they truly didn't have the final say—nor did they dare to alter the rules on their own. After all, those regulations had been established by Lord Imu in the beginning. Unless Lord Imu personally requested a structural change, they would never bring it up.
Every generation of the Five Elders understood clearly how much Lord Imu disliked disorder and change.
That was also the primary reason why the system of the World Government had remained unchanged for the past 800 years. It was why the Five Elders had always done everything in their power to maintain global stability.
Although the World Government had recently begun experimenting with change due to the 'Great Prophecy', no one truly knew how much change Lord Imu would tolerate.
Which was why the five of them had long since developed an unspoken agreement: Whatever Lord Imu says—we do exactly that.
"Yes. Having the Slave King eliminated before the World Summit begins was an extremely wise decision by Lord Imu—it eliminates a great number of potential contingencies."
Mars then raised a new concern. "But there's still a major issue we haven't addressed: once the proposals are passed, what are we going to do with the over a hundred thousand slaves here in Mary Geoise?"
This sacred and dazzling Holy Land held a staggering number of slaves purchased by the Celestial Dragons. And these weren't just any slaves—they were 'premium stock' or 'exceptional specimens'. Beautiful, charming women; strong, capable men; individuals with rare talents or skills; and even various demi-human races. Every one of them had been personally selected by a Celestial Dragon and brought back.
"What else can we do? Kill them," Nusjuro replied seriously and with a blank expression. Then he elaborated: "If we let them go, their hatred toward us Celestial Dragons is bound to erupt. It would inevitably lead to negative consequences. Many of them would probably end up as pirates. And let's not forget—the number of pirates is already growing at an alarming rate."
His words left the other four in silence. After a moment, Warcury slowly shook his head. After thinking it through, he realized such an approach might not be wise.
"Sure, killing them all would be the easiest solution—but the repercussions would be severe. One of Lord Imu's main objectives for this year's summit is to restore the public's faith in the World Government, repair its image, and curb the rise of piracy. If this gets out... you already know the consequences."
"So what do we do?" asked Ju Peter.
"We release some… and detain the rest."
"Just like we did when returning the mermaids and fish-men. Have Tsuru come over to help cleanse the slaves' hatred, then escort them back to their homelands—with the entire process broadcast live to the world. We'll announce that Mary Geoise has released all its slaves. As for the remaining ones—we quietly move them elsewhere for now. The Red Line is massive. There's plenty of space."
This proposal from Warcury caused the other four Elders' eyes to light up. They all agreed—it was an excellent plan.
With tens of thousands of slaves in their custody, releasing just over ten thousand and managing the broadcast footage carefully would be enough to deceive the global audience.
At that moment, Ju Peter grinned and said, "Could we perhaps tweak this idea to also deal with the rumors about the great treasure?"
"Aren't there people who only became pirates because they were lured by the promise of Roger's treasure? Then why don't we organize a worldwide broadcast where we 'escort' the great treasure back to Mary Geoise? We'll announce to the world that we've already found ONE PIECE. It might not eliminate piracy entirely, but it would definitely have an impact."
Saturn laughed. "Now that is a good idea. A 'great treasure' is just treasure, right? So let's show the world what a real treasure looks like. Once they've seen it—once they're satisfied—they'll probably quiet down."
When it came to wealth and treasure, was there anyone on this planet who could rival the World Government?