"Isn't it Wano's silver coins?"
Queen spoke up. He had been sitting for too long, and his massive butt was getting uncomfortable, so he twisted his body as he talked.
"Silver coins? They may be a precious metal, but they're not a universal currency on the seas. They only circulate within Wano. For us, they don't really have a clearly defined value, do they?"
Kurosaki Rei said calmly.
"As far as I know, we haven't looted Wano's silver coins. We've taken plenty of gold, though."
"It's grain!"
At that moment, King—who had been quietly pondering—spoke up, his eyes shining.
Kurosaki Rei glanced at King approvingly and nodded.
"That's right. The only physical resource we actually provide to Wano is grain. This is something the Beasts Pirates obtain through trade. In other words, Beli functions as this country's foreign currency. We use foreign currency to trade overseas, exchange it for grain—which the country lacks—and bring that grain into Wano. The people then use domestic currency to buy it."
He drew his conclusion.
"So, put simply, what we directly export is grain. The wages we pay to workers are, in essence, grain."
He wrote a series of words on the blackboard—foreign currency, grain, domestic currency, wages—and connected them with arrows. The Beasts Pirates executives were already starting to feel dizzy.
Those with slightly better brains, like King and Maria, could barely keep up. Kaido, meanwhile, wore a stiff expression, pretending he understood everything.
"A country's foreign currency reserves are extremely important. We're not just exporting unilaterally. The products manufactured in Wano's factories are converted into even more foreign currency through export trade. That's precisely how the Beasts Pirates' power has steadily grown."
As he spoke, Kurosaki Rei circled the word cost on the blackboard.
"So, are the costs we pay really that high? Mr. King, what's the overseas grain price like?"
King was often responsible for external procurement, so after a brief thought, he gave the average price from recent years.
"About 300 Beli per kilogram of rice."
Kurosaki Rei nodded.
"At current grain prices in Wano, seven silver coins can buy roughly thirty kilograms of rice. That means the real wage cost of a single new-factory worker is about 9,000 Beli per month."
"That's pretty high, isn't it?"
Jack the Drought said. He did a simple mental calculation and felt that the monthly wages of over a hundred thousand workers could probably buy his head several times over.
"High? Then it seems Mr. Jack doesn't understand our factories' profits."
Kurosaki Rei smiled.
"Based on my statistics, taking the weapons factory as an example, the average grassroots worker can produce goods worth about 900,000 Beli per month on the export market. That's a hundredfold difference!"
"That much?!"
Kaido exclaimed in shock. No one had ever broken down profit margins for him before—he'd just felt that he was making plenty of money.
Kurosaki Rei nodded.
"So the economic cost we pay is negligible compared to the actual profit. There's absolutely no need to worry that workers' wages will affect our income. All we need to do is let them live well, feel hopeful about life, and come to work full of energy every day."
He continued:
"And the people of Wano have no way of knowing this profit margin. Even if they did, they have no concept of Beli. People can only see what's right in front of them—grain that fills their stomachs, things that make their lives better. As for Beli? They don't leave the country. To them, it's just worthless paper."
Kaido finally understood and became visibly excited.
"So you're saying we should run everything according to the new factory model—constantly turning what you call foreign currency into grain, then turning grain into weapons, and finally turning that into my money? Converting it at a hundredfold speed?"
"That's more or less it."
Kurosaki Rei nodded.
"Governor, you just need to understand one thing: there's no need to treat workers like slaves. If they live well, we can still earn enormous profits—long-term ones, at that—and at even lower cost."
Kurosaki Rei thought to himself that for Kaido to grasp things at this level was already impressive enough, so he didn't bother delving into the more complex details.
"Although I've understood most of what you said, and can clearly see how profitable our industrial chain is, are the costs really that much lower?"
King frowned.
"Don't the craftsmen in the new factories also need training?"
His question made the other executives realize the same issue.
That's right—slaves need training, so don't workers need training too? Isn't that still a cost? And with higher wages on top of that—even if grain is cheap and profit margins are high, you're still paying more wages.
"Mr. King, you've fallen into a misconception."
Kurosaki Rei smiled as he explained.
"I explained profit margins earlier precisely so you'd understand this: compared to what we earn, workers' wages are insignificant. Even if we increased wages tenfold, we'd still be making outrageous profits."
"The truly expensive costs are time—time spent by skilled technicians, and time during which factory equipment is occupied."
King's eyes lit up slightly.
"Because factory profits are multiplied by a hundred, any time wasted during training is also effectively magnified a hundredfold?"
He still had doubts.
"But even so, don't we still have to train craftsmen for free?"
To everyone's surprise, Kurosaki Rei shook his head.
"Who said anything about training craftsmen for free?"
As the executives stared at him in confusion, Kurosaki Rei explained:
"That's the beauty of free workers. They want to work here—we're not forcing them. Naturally, the cost of education should be borne by themselves."
"Just build a technical academy and charge tuition."
The executives' mouths fell open.
Queen couldn't help but complain:
"You want people to pay us just to learn how to work for us?!"
He thought to himself: Who's the real brutal pirate here? Weren't you supposed to be a traveler? How did you come up with something this vicious?
So to work in the factory, people would have to pay for their own education, make themselves more competent, and then apply?
"Why not?"
Kurosaki Rei replied calmly.
"I'm sure many people would be willing to pay, especially adults already working in the factories. They'd gladly pay to let their children study, because they know this line of work has a future."
In truth, Kurosaki Rei's argument had serious flaws—but these were simple-minded pirates who wouldn't think too deeply.
What he was implementing in Wano was classic capitalist practice. It was exploitative in its own way, but it undeniably motivated people.
Put simply, the difference between educating workers and educating slaves was this: workers pay for their own education, while slaves wait for their masters to pay. And education isn't like carrying sandbags—you can see immediately if someone slacks off while carrying sandbags, but if a slave doesn't truly learn skills, you won't notice right away.
Workers, on the other hand, will actively train themselves. Capital only needs to pay relatively low wages. And compared to slaves, workers have another advantage: you can't choose what kind of slave you get—once you buy one, you're stuck with them.
But workers? If you don't like them, you can fire them at low cost.
So in reality, workers cost far less than slaves… or rather, workers are just slaves of capital with a nicer name.
Of course, with Kurosaki Rei's level of intelligence, he couldn't think of a better system. In his view, letting people eat their fill and work without brutal conditions already counted as progress.
As for the holes in his logic, they lay in the world's differences.
In theory, worker-funded training really does save employers huge costs. But Wano was entirely controlled by Kaido. No matter what training method was used, Kaido still paid the cost.
If you open an academy, you need land. To teach workers, you need equipment. To hire veteran craftsmen as instructors, you need to pay them. All of that is cost.
Still, compared to the traditional, hardcore on-the-job training inside factories, pre-employment technical schools were slightly cheaper. And the tuition workers paid was, in the grand scheme of things, just another drop in the ocean.
Kurosaki Rei said all this mainly to make Kaido and the others feel like they were profiting—because the moment they thought others were paying out of pocket, they'd feel satisfied.
In reality, Kurosaki Rei's deeper goal was to lay the groundwork for promoting institutional education across Wano.
If the factory reforms went smoothly, Kaido would subconsciously plant a seed in his mind: that opening schools and having people pay to learn was itself profitable.
"Mr. Rei… sometimes I really wonder who you are."
King said sincerely.
"Aren't you supposed to be a traveler? Or a demon slayer? How do you know so much about governing and management?"
King was genuinely astonished—and deeply suspicious. At first, he had thought Kurosaki Rei was just another reckless fool.
After all, most people who tried to assassinate Kaido over the years were exactly that type.
"Uh… I've just traveled through more countries."
Kurosaki Rei answered awkwardly.
"The East Blue is peaceful. Many countries there are quite well developed. I saw a lot, so I remembered some of it."
He thought to himself that it was a good thing this was the pirate world—otherwise, his behavior really wouldn't match his identity.
"Hahahaha! No matter what, higher factory profits are a good thing!"
Kaido laughed loudly and waved his hand.
"Get more new factories running right away!"
He didn't understand the complicated stuff. He only understood one thing: he was about to make a killing, and Kurosaki Rei had done a great job.
"Then… what about the old factories?"
Maria asked hesitantly.
"Change them all! Do everything according to Kurosaki Rei's plan!"
Kaido made the final call.
"Governor, we can't rush this."
Kurosaki Rei advised.
"Can you leave this to me? Drastic changes without preparation could cause unrest and affect production."
Kaido was in a great mood and didn't question him.
"Fine. It's yours."
Hearing this, Kurosaki Rei felt relieved.
His real objective was to break up and redistribute the personnel of the old factories. Those factories had many experienced craftsmen. Pairing them with newcomers would create a 'veterans guiding rookies' effect.
That way, newly built factories could operate normally. Output might be low in the short term, but after a year or so, it would gradually improve.
This arrangement would also give the old craftsmen—who had lived like slaves—the status they deserved. With their skilled craftsmanship, they would immediately enter middle or even upper management positions.
Such a dramatic change would be more than enough to make them regain goodwill toward the country's rulers.
Next, as long as a group of master craftsmen were recruited to build technical academies and new workers were gradually supplied from across Wano, factory scale could slowly expand.
"Governor, I didn't come here today just to explain the differences between the new and old factory models."
With the new factory model now accepted, Kurosaki Rei brought up the real purpose of his visit.
"I want to talk about the SMILE factory."
"Is something wrong with it?"
Kaido now trusted Kurosaki Rei deeply and didn't mind him touching even his core industry.
"After conducting statistics and investigations, I've found that the SMILE factory's returns are not high."
Kurosaki Rei spoke his ultimate goal.
"I'd like to discuss whether we should reduce production—or even shut down this business entirely."
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