Thorn Rose Princess Martha, the current First Princess of the Thorn Rose Kingdom, is an exceptionally outstanding princess in the mouths of the Thorn Rose citizens.
"My daughter, you've already drafted the notice—quickly let me take a look."
The King of Thorn Rose, a king just over forty and in the prime of his life, took the notice from Martha's hands, read it carefully, then finally signed his kingly name on it and stamped it with the seal belonging to the king.
"These damned pirates—if we were a member state of the World Government, how would they dare invade our country so brazenly? And that damned Pirate King too—why did he have to spout nonsense about some great treasure right before dying? That big-mouthed reporter deserves death as well, always asking too many questions for no reason…"
After signing, the king cursed the invading pirates and the Pirate King alike.
When he finished, he leaned back against the somewhat crude throne.
"If our country had strength like Kano Country, these pirates wouldn't even dare set foot in our seas."
Kano Country was powerful, possessing multiple naval forces that were both royal guards and pirate-like fleets. For example, Chinjao, the leader of the Happo Navy—his strength would be renowned even on the Grand Line.
Among the pirates of the West Blue, how many dared to cause trouble in Kano Country? Encountering a Kano Country fleet at sea and not being counter-robbed was already good enough, let alone robbing others.
Martha said, "That's precisely why we need the Marines' strength. Our kingdom's military power is simply too weak."
The Thorn Rose Kingdom Army was basically just slightly stronger sailors. Their weapons and equipment were rather average—fine for guarding land, but once at sea, they were no match for those pirates.
Moreover, the kingdom army's strength couldn't be spread out at all. The last time pirates assaulted Rose Island, one powerful pirate directly transformed into a formidable feline creature and rampaged through the kingdom army. If not for relying on firepower suppression, they would have already charged into the royal city.
"Father, why exactly are these pirates coming to our kingdom?"
"Someone spread rumors that there's some kind of Thorn Treasure in our waters. If our seas really had treasure, it would've been dug up long ago and handed over as Heavenly Tribute, joining the World Government in exchange for Marine protection."
The Thorn Treasure—long ago, a fairly famous pirate crew left behind this treasure. It was said to be worth several hundred million Belly. Hearing such news, these pirates naturally rushed headlong into the Thorn Rose waters.
They came here regardless of whether the treasure existed or not—first they would loot the place, then talk.
"The underworld gangs may also be playing some kind of role in this."
Pirates and gangs intertwined, leaving the Thorn Rose Kingdom battered by storms. Paying an enormous amount of Heavenly Tribute to join the World Government seemed to be the only way out.
Princess Martha thought about this: gathering the "Heavenly Tribute" would take time, and approval from the World Government would also take time. Even if both sides worked simultaneously, it would still take more than half a year at the fastest.
After that, it would take additional time for the Marines to dispatch forces to suppress the pirate unrest. The kingdom army's strength was currently only enough to defend a single main island. By the time the Marines completely suppressed the pirates and the Thorn Rose Kingdom stabilized, the kingdom itself would already be nothing but ruins.
"Perhaps we could draw powerful pirate hunters here…"
After witnessing a pirate captain transform into some kind of feline creature and slaughter people in the crowd, the Thorn Rose Princess had begun to believe that individual strength could accomplish many things.
If powerful pirate hunters came to block these pirates, perhaps those pirates wouldn't dare act so rampantly.
...
"This Thorn Rose Kingdom is really poor—those islands are all dirt-poor. There's no real oil to squeeze out of them."
"Looting the poor is just incidental. The key is finding the Thorn Treasure. I've heard that inside it there's the great sea treasure."
The great sea treasure naturally referred to a Devil Fruit.
A group of pirates was resting and reorganizing on a certain island. On this island were three pirate factions, all of them well aware of what the great sea treasure meant.
Because among the three factions, the strongest was the Black Panther Pirates. Just a few days ago, when they assaulted the royal city, the Black Panther Pirates' captain, Calder, truly transformed into a powerful black panther.
That strength was obvious to everyone.
The Black Panther Pirates' captain had eaten the great sea treasure, becoming a Zoan—Cat-Cat Fruit—Black Panther form.
"After eating the treasure you can't go into the water to swim, but taking this to the black market for auction would fetch at least over a hundred million Belly."
Many pirates chose not to eat Devil Fruits because they feared losing the ability to swim. As pirates, being unable to swim yet drifting on the sea all day long was clearly a very risky thing.
"There's a Devil Fruit in the Thorn Treasure, and other valuables as well."
"Where do we go next? There are several big cities…"
The underlings' circles were discussing their next actions, and naturally the captains were discussing too.
At the center of the camp, the three pirate captains were holding maps and dividing up destinations.
The three crews had come to these waters together, originally intending to target Rose Island first.
First, the Thorn Treasure was very likely on the largest Rose Island. Second, if they could take down a kingdom, then even without finding treasure, the loot alone would be enough to make them rich in one sweep.
Unfortunately, a kingdom was still a kingdom. Even piling up manpower could crush them. Sufficient gunpowder and cannonballs meant they could only land on the island but not break into the city—Devil Fruit users included.
"To take the royal city, we'd need at least ten pirate crews."
"Why not split up to look for the Thorn Treasure first? If we don't find it on the other islands, we'll unite all the pirates and attack Rose Island together, robbing this kingdom."
This wasn't the first time pirates had done such a thing. In kingdoms without Marine garrisons, multiple pirate crews would often join forces to loot. Most of the time they still couldn't kill their way into the palace, because the kings would concentrate elite troops into a single area, making any assault extremely difficult.
Moreover, pirate alliances were very loose. Once some pirates rushed into the city, they immediately started looting, making command impossible. In the end, it would turn into everyone robbing the city and then leaving—while the royal city remained hard to breach.
Calder had no objections. "Fine. I'll go to this island."
What he chose were the richest islands in the Thorn Rose waters aside from the royal city, clearly aiming to seize the largest share of the benefits.
Disagree? Then they'd have to taste the sharpness of his panther claws.
The other two captains felt some resentment but still reluctantly agreed.
After splitting up, the other two pirate captains gathered together to discuss.
"This Calder is way too arrogant. Back then he was just an ordinary combatant—he just got lucky and ate a Devil Fruit."
Calder had previously been just a regular fighter in a pirate crew. During a raid, he discovered a Devil Fruit and immediately ate it. After gaining powerful strength, he killed the old captain.
A guy who seized the old captain's ship and even renamed it—his reputation wasn't very good, though as a profession, piracy itself had nothing to do with good reputations anyway.
"Let him go to those islands. At most he can loot some civilians there. The treasure definitely won't be there. Those are all flatland islands—crowded, long since developed."
Since it was a pirate's hidden treasure, it had to be placed somewhere with few people and complex terrain. Therefore, poor and even uninhabited islands were their main search targets.
"We'll go to this stretch of sea—these are poorer waters with mountains."
The sea area they marked out included Shell Town.