Bill: "You can believe that if you want, but I read your personnel file, Nelson."
Step by step, Nelson's training was coming to an end, but Bill continued to speak:
"Look at your current state compared to eleven years ago. You graduated from the Academy near the top of your class, and you were given a great assignment that could have given you a gradual promotion. Even if you never had the strength to become an admiral, becoming a vice admiral would not have been an impossible dream.
But instead, you stagnated and allowed your addiction to shape you into who you are today."
By this time the walk was over, and Bill led the breathless Nelson to a pool of sea water he had dug especially for him. The water was clear but salty, and it was the best he could do on this ruined island.
"You were chasing immortality? But did you really think you deserved it?"
Before Nelson could say anything, Bill continued:
"Only you know that. But ask yourself: would you have failed if you could walk? What would have happened if you had been able to give orders standing on your own two feet, rather than relying on subordinates who both feared and despised you?"
Then, leaning closer to the naked Nelson, who was floating in the water, Bill asked:
"And if you really are as superior to others as you claim, why aren't you scared or repulsed by what you've become?"
Nelson didn't respond after that, and Bill didn't feel any better for telling him that.
As for Nelson's earlier threats, Bill wasn't worried at all. Despite everything, he contacted Sentomaru and Aramakki and asked about the legal privileges Nelson was shouting about, and both told him that the nobles of the kingdom who joined the Marines had no such privileges.
In fact, Bill had already resigned himself to the fact that Nelson would be under his care for another nine years. When Nelson turned thirty-eight, his contract would end and he would go his own way.
At this point, Bill made no distinction between the kingdom nobles and the world nobles, believing that they belonged to the same category. After all, the kingdom nobles were part of the Levelley, which negotiated world affairs.
After pulling Nelson out of the water, Bill dried him with a huge hand fan and put him back in his place. Then he headed to the place where Yoko and Carol were learning math, or more precisely, learning how big ships float and why they don't sink.
The girls listened with varying degrees of interest as Bill prepared a few simple dishes. When it was time for dinner, the four of them ate at a table Bill had made of iron and stone.
He invited Nelson to join them, but he was not in the mood. Nelson ate his usual portion and did not ask for more.
The next month was not much different from the previous three.
Bill directed what he could through the snail-communicator, and his hills of scrap metal increasingly turned into small mountains.
There were millions of tons of iron there, so much that Bill began to calculate how much he could sell to traders.
It would be a huge amount of money - if he could sell it all, it would easily be worth a couple of billion belli even at moderate prices.
Unfortunately, the island would sink before everything could be removed, and the cost of transporting it was not worth it to his Department.
Moreover, he could not stay on the island to work as a stevedore. There were no docks for merchant ships on the island, and even if there were, there were no cranes to efficiently lift tons of materials.
Given these circumstances, Bill decided to spread the word that he was selling scrap and charge a fee for loading each ship.
He sent Masterson with the Blue Bird to Loachtown, where the traders could follow him back to the island. These ships would have to pay for the opportunity to load, and Bill would give them a limited period of time to collect as much scrap as they could fit on their ships.
When he reported the news to the local News Coo, his pitch went like this:
{500,000 Belly! 1 ship! 1 week! How much scrap metal can you carry!}
This was a real find, since a ton of iron usually cost 100,000 beli, and even a modest merchant ship could hold three hundred tons of cargo.
To put it simply, the average merchant ship could carry around 30 million belli in iron, but the owners would only pay 500,000 for it.
When he started implementing this plan, he was not worried about the possible oversaturation of the market with ore, as he believed that one island would not be able to greatly affect the entire East Blue. In addition, this resource was only available for a limited time.
With that task completed, Bill continued his work, helping Nelson learn to walk, training Yoko and Carol, and recycling giant gears into small scrap metal.
Before he knew it, Masterson was back with the first merchant fleet, a group of twelve small trading vessels.