It had to be said that the royal families of the member nations varied greatly in quality.
Some royal families looked like they were just eating for free. They'd reached their status by relying on the blood of their ancestors. They knew nothing and were muddle-headed, not much different from the Celestial Dragons.
But some royal families were very rational and excellent, their words full of conviction and power.
Similar to Nefertari Cobra, and similar to Riku Doldo III who was supporting his proposal.
However, although the young Cobra had made a very correct proposal and wanted to take the opportunity to abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea system, the World Government seemed to have been prepared and responded calmly.
After the two sides argued fiercely for a while, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn and Saint Topman Warcury knocked on the table with a smile, making the conference room quiet again
"We have to admit that His Majesty Cobra's proposal is very constructive. Perhaps the promulgation of the Seven Warlords of the Sea system does have some questionable factors in terms of legality. Therefore, based on the debate just now, we, the Five Elders, unanimously believe that since the World Conference has such high legal authority within the World Government, a vote should be held here regarding the Seven Warlords of the Sea system to completely resolve the dispute over whether this policy is legally justified," Saint Saturn said with a smile.
Cobra's eyes lit up, and he felt a flicker of hope in his heart.
"Then, let's vote by raising hands. Those who agree with His Majesty Cobra's proposal and support the abolition of the Seven Warlords of the Sea system, please raise your hands," Saint Topman Warcury, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter, said softly.
Cobra raised his hand without hesitation.
At the same time, several outstanding kings, including Riku Doldo III and Elizabello II, also raised their arms.
Finn didn't hesitate at all. As an Admiral of the Marines, he certainly had the right to vote in such a meeting. Otherwise, why would he even be here?
Therefore, Finn also raised his arm. At the same time, Admiral Sengoku, Instructor Zephyr, and Fleet Admiral Kong also raised their arms.
Here, they openly expressed their opposition to the World Government's stance.
However, the other royal families weren't too surprised by the Marines' attitude.
Because the Seven Warlords of the Sea system would primarily affect the interests of the Marines. It would be strange if the Marines agreed to it.
Moreover, as a just organization of force, how could the Marines possibly agree to such a morally questionable system as the Seven Warlords of the Sea?
But His Majesty Cobra's expression didn't become excited because of this. On the contrary, it gradually grew gloomy.
Because he could now see clearly that even though the high-ranking Marines unanimously supported his proposal, judging from the situation in the entire conference room, they were still in the minority.
This made him very angry. Were all these royals from the member nations brainless?
At that moment, he also saw the half-smiles on the faces of the Five Elders.
His heart sank. It seemed the Five Elders, or rather the World Government, had anticipated this situation long ago.
They'd made preparations and arrangements in secret, and had even bribed many royal families of member nations.
"Please raise your hands if you wish to abstain," Saint Warcury said, glancing at Cobra.
Then five more royals raised their arms.
And at that moment, it was proven that Cobra's proposal was rejected.
At the same time, what disappointed Cobra even more was that his proposal not only failed to abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea, but to a certain extent, had actually promoted the legal legitimization of the system.
As expected, before he could sort out his thoughts, he heard Saint Warcury say, "Then, those who support the Seven Warlords of the Sea system, please raise your hands."
As soon as he finished speaking, a large number of royal family members raised their arms and completely crushed the minority group like Cobra.
Finn stretched lazily and muttered, "Alas, kind words cannot persuade the damned."
Now that things had come to this, these were their own choices. If they suffered any losses in the future regarding the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the World Government wouldn't have to feel guilty, because they were all elected by you yourselves.
"We were already mentally prepared for this kind of result, weren't we?" Admiral Sengoku said indifferently.
Although he was very frustrated when he saw these ignorant royals formally pass this bill, Marine Headquarters already had a mature countermeasure against the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and Smoker was already moving forward with full force, so Admiral Sengoku didn't really care.
You can do whatever you want. The Marines have ways to deal with it.
He just felt a little sorry for Cobra and other knowledgeable people. It would be a miracle if they could win when led by a bunch of foolish teammates.
Seeing this, Saint Warcury glanced at the distraught Cobra with a slightly mocking look and smiled. "Then, regarding the Seven Warlords of the Sea system, the World Conference has officially passed it. From now on, the Seven Warlords of the Sea system will have legal authority recognized by the World Conference."
Having said that, Saint Warcury glanced at the Marine leadership with a teasing look in his eyes.
Finn and the others, on the other hand, showed no change in expression.
The meaning of the Five Elders' words was very clear. Before, the Seven Warlords of the Sea system had only been a policy promoted by the World Government, but now it was a system recognized by the member nations at the World Conference.
The significance of these two was completely different.
If nothing unexpected happened, no one would have the power to abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea system on their own. If one wanted to abolish a policy passed by the World Conference, the only way was to go through another World Conference.
In other words, if the Marines wanted to deal with the Seven Warlords of the Sea again in the future, they could only wait until the next quadrennial World Conference began, and then use reasonable and legal means to address it.
This also completely suppressed the World Government's concerns about the Marines. No matter how much trouble the Marines made, they could only abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea if they gained the approval of the majority of the member kings and passed it at the quadrennial World Conference.
If you use this issue to cause trouble for the World Government again, it will be the Marines' fault, and the World Government will be justified!
However, what surprised the Five Elders was that the Marines' expressions didn't change much. But soon they understood why: based on the level of understanding between the two sides, it was normal for the Marines to anticipate that the World Government would plug the final shortcoming of the Seven Warlords of the Sea plan.
"Well, let's continue discussing issues related to the Revolutionary Army," Saint Warcury said softly.
Afterward, His Majesty Cobra sat down on his chair in a somewhat dejected manner, his expression very dark.
Finn smiled and said to Admiral Sengoku beside him, "It's clear that His Majesty Cobra has vision and foresight, but his political skills, or perhaps his political acumen, are too simple. You could even say they're a bit naive and lack sharpness."
Admiral Sengoku nodded. "That's true, but no one is perfect."
It was true that Cobra was a good king and had vision and perspective, but his political mind was too simple and he wasn't decisive enough. Otherwise, he should have started building momentum and winning over allies long before the conference started, instead of simply making hasty proposals here, which had effectively given the World Government an assist.
From his struggle with that old schemer Crocodile more than ten or twenty years later, one could also see that his way of doing things was too conventional.
He had absolutely no understanding of what it meant to do extraordinary things in extraordinary times.
From beginning to end, he'd been played by Crocodile. To be honest, if the Straw Hat Pirates hadn't stumbled into Alabasta at that time, and if that guy Luffy hadn't used some absurd protagonist powers to beat Crocodile in the desert, then Alabasta would undoubtedly have fallen into Crocodile's hands, and the Nefertari royal family would probably have been exterminated.
Thinking of this, Finn was stunned for a moment. The Nefertari royal family exterminated?
Then he looked at Cobra and then at the Five Elders.
The Nefertari royal family were descendants of the twenty kings. The nobility of their bloodline couldn't be ignored by the World Government, because in terms of bloodline, they were Celestial Dragons walking in the mortal world.
Therefore, they had great influence regarding Mary Geoise.
The World Government couldn't just use dirty tricks to cripple them like they did with other member nations, like the former King of the Sorbet Kingdom, Bartholomew Kuma.
But the reality was that the Nefertari clan was far from being parasites like the Celestial Dragons. They'd been committed to changing the world's power structure to better benefit the world.
Or in other words, ever since they'd refused to join Mary Geoise more than eight hundred years ago, they'd had deep conflicts with the Celestial Dragon class.
Therefore, it was normal for the World Government to want to eliminate them.
It was obviously impossible that Crocodile had been doing evil in Alabasta for so many years without the World Government knowing about it.
The CP agencies weren't just sitting around doing nothing.
The fact that they'd allowed the situation to reach that point despite knowing about it had already proven a lot.
Maybe the World Government had been secretly supporting Crocodile.
"Tsk tsk. A top-ranked military power. Maybe we can win them over to the Marines' side," Finn muttered quietly to himself.
As for the subsequent meetings and discussions about the Revolutionary Army, Finn lost interest halfway through.
He turned around and started chatting with cartoonist Zephyr, because most of the discussions here were meaningless. It would probably take them three to five days before they could produce anything of value.
After a few more hours, today's meeting finally ended.
When Finn walked out of the conference room, he felt relieved.
Admiral Sengoku seemed to have something else to attend to, so he left in a hurry, and Fleet Admiral Kong followed the Five Elders.
Instructor Zephyr held his comic book and said he'd had a burst of inspiration and wanted to go back to continue drawing.
Therefore, Finn had to leave alone.
As for Hina, she was no longer qualified to participate once the meeting had started and had returned to the Marine base in Mary Geoise.
Walking out of Pangaea Castle, Finn looked at the sky, which was gradually growing darker.
He touched his stomach and felt a little hungry.
At that moment, a graceful figure walked out from behind a stone pillar and asked with a smile, "Are you hungry?"
Finn turned his head and saw it was Queen Stussy.
"A little bit," Finn nodded.
"Would you like to come to my house? I'm a great cook, you know," Stussy said, raising her eyebrows with a very seductive look.
Finn grinned and asked with feigned innocence, "Is it convenient? This is Mary Geoise. You, a high-ranking CP official, hanging out with me, a Marine Admiral... won't it cause trouble and misunderstandings?"
Stussy smiled. "It's after work hours now."
Finn nodded seriously. "That makes sense. It's after work. Speaking of which, we've known each other for so many years, and as close friends, I've never been to your house. That's my fault. Let's go. Let's go to your house and try your... cooking."
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