In the banquet hall, graceful dancers had just finished a routine.
Blake sat at the head of the table, as a pastry chef with trembling hands presented a strawberry cake to him.
The strawberry cake offered to a Celestial Dragon had to have every single strawberry seed facing upwards, to satisfy the Celestial Dragon's appreciation for "orderly beauty."
The previous pastry chef had his fingers severed by a supervising official merely because the angle of a strawberry seed was off by 15 degrees.
Stella, sitting beside Blake, cut the cake with a silver knife inlaid with rubies and brought it to his mouth.
Over two months, Stella had gradually adapted to her role as a maid, and her initial apprehension was slowly fading.
Blake ate the cake while motioning to the young man from earlier:
"What is your name?"
"Your Highness, my name is Aramaki."
...There were many strong individuals with names in the vast sea, but few could be recruited by Blake.
Rocks' crew members were all quite old, and each was an unruly individual who had some grievances with the Celestial Dragons.
Rocks was able to command them easily back then because these individuals had only recently set sail when they joined the Rocks Pirates; their strength at the time was not particularly great, and they hadn't seen much of the world.
By the time of the God Valley War, the Rocks Pirates were not exactly united internally.
Even if another strong individual capable of subduing everyone simultaneously were to appear now, these emperors of the sea would likely not comply willingly.
Among those around Blake's age, the future Shichibukai accounted for the majority.
These silver medalists, despite not being particularly strong, were harder to communicate with than the Four Emperors, often acting as if they were invincible.
Even the Four Emperors usually had to weigh the pros and cons, but the Shichibukai preferred to draw their swords and fight immediately.
Moreover, they were incredibly stubborn; even when beaten down, they often maintained a "do what you will" attitude, making communication impossible.
The only one with a bit of sense, Doflamingo, had deep conflicts with the Celestial Dragons.
The remaining well-known strong individuals from the original story were just the crew members recruited by Shanks.
But the fact that these people got along well with Shanks indicated that they would be difficult to get along with Blake.
After much thought, the only future strong individual who could truly be easily recruited was the future Marine Admiral, Aramaki.
"Aramaki" was the same age as Doflamingo, and only one year older than Blake; he was still a spirited young man, without the four characters "Death River in My Heart" tattooed on his chest.
It was said that Aramaki's tattoo was related to a certain woman and his imprisonment, which was more than twenty years in the future.
However, judging from his hairstyle, Aramaki should have already eaten the Mori Mori Fruit (Forest-Forest Fruit).
What Blake appreciated even more was Aramaki's personality.
In Aramaki's view, humans have survived by stepping on species inferior to themselves, and non-affiliated nations are therefore considered inferior; only by stepping on non-affiliated nations can people live in peace.
Thus, he vigorously defended the World Government and the Celestial Dragons, showing no mercy to his enemies.
Moreover, Blake recruiting Aramaki at this point in time had an additional benefit.
The World Government and the Gorosei were extremely arrogant; even if a person from the lower world had visible potential and talent, they still wouldn't be taken seriously.
As long as Blake brought Aramaki under his command beforehand, even if Aramaki displayed great strength in the future, the Gorosei would only think Blake was lucky to have found a strong "Slave" just by wandering the seas.
They would neither increase their attention on Blake nor consider incorporating Blake's private property into the World Government's system.
"This is the kind of talent a transmigrator needs to recruit when becoming a Celestial Dragon!"
Blake felt a sense of self-satisfaction:
"Those transmigrators who thought of recruiting Zephyr, Moriah, and Kuma, I wonder how they managed to succeed with their talk. The fundamental nature of these people is destined to be incompatible with the Celestial Dragons."
"No matter how eloquently you speak, or how virtuously you act, they will only think you have some ulterior motive. This is the impression the Celestial Dragons have left on this world for eight hundred years."
"This is called reputation!"
Furthermore, Blake was not the kind of transmigrator who wanted to save this world; he merely wanted to change its owner.
Thinking of this, Blake stood up and walked over to Aramaki, who was kneeling on one knee, and patted him on the shoulder:
"Get up. From now on, as my retainer, you don't need to kneel often. By the way, are you a Devil Fruit user?"
Aramaki quickly stood up, trembling with excitement:
"Your Highness, I am a Mori Mori Fruit (Forest-Forest Fruit) user."
Blake nodded:
"Starting tomorrow, I will have these two CPs train you. I look forward to your growth."
"Yes! Saint Black, I will not let you down!"
Seeing Aramaki's invigorated expression, Blake was quite pleased.
In the original story, Zephyr once criticized Kizaru for relying too much on his Devil Fruit powers.
In reality, Kizaru's swordsmanship and physical combat skills had both reached world-class levels.
In fact, in Blake's opinion, Kizaru was still too confrontational; his Devil Fruit could be developed to be much more elegant.
Aramaki was the Admiral who relied most on his Devil Fruit among all those who appeared, and probably the weakest.
Whether in the battles at Mary Geoise or Onigashima, Aramaki primarily used the mysterious abilities of his Devil Fruit, rarely even using physical combat skills.
He was essentially a larger version of Smoker.
By having Aramaki train with the CPs and prohibiting him from using his Devil Fruit, Blake could, to some extent, enhance his strength... After staying in Taya Kingdom for three days and enjoying the special queen and princess sent by the King of Taya, Blake decided to take them with him when he left.
He truly took both food and belongings.
The sanctuary was still drifting around the South Blue, and due to Blake's identity and the accompanying Marine warships, no foolish pirates came to cause trouble.
Blake lay under a parasol, while on the deck nearby, Aramaki was sparring with two CPs.
His physique itself was not weak; it was just that his Devil Fruit ability was so strong that it made him neglect the refinement of his physical combat skills and Haki.
Now only 17 years old, Aramaki was in his prime for strength growth, and under Blake's supervision, the achievements he could reach would definitely be higher than in the original story.
In recent days, Blake's strength improvement had been somewhat slow.
Perhaps the process of finding Aramaki was too smooth, causing him to overdraw his luck, leading him to draw an unknown pirate who was instantly defeated in one move. This left Blake to train his Haki on his own.
However, such an improvement was better than nothing for Blake; to advance his two-color Haki to the second stage, he either needed to defeat a large number of ordinary people with Haki, or wait for a lucky break to draw a master.
Recently, Blake challenged a young Kizaru every day.
The young Kizaru's strength was not particularly strong, and Blake, with his Iron Balloon talent, was not weaker than him.
However, even young Kizaru still displayed the characteristics of an old hand, making it difficult for Blake to seize an opportunity.
The current problem was that it wasn't difficult for Blake to gain the upper hand, but completely defeating Kizaru was extremely challenging.