Achieving Nothing, I Can Only Be the Pirate King

Thinking of that, Tsuru looked deeply at Sage.

Young, full of energy, only twenty-four, yet already acknowledged by Pirates as the number one in the world, having replaced both the title of "world’s strongest man" and "world’s strongest creature in one‑on‑one combat."

The powerful fighters under his command are beyond counting; this is precisely his peak period.

What will happen in the future, no one knows, but the one thing we can know is: thirty years from now, when they’re dead, Sage will only be in his fifties, right at his prime.

By then, who knows if there’ll still be anyone who can stand against him.

From the founding of the Navy to now, the old generation that’s passed and the newly grown generation both can’t compare to the current layout—or rather, can’t compare to the situation when the "Three Admirals" were in office; that truly was the Navy’s most Golden generation to date.

The newly grown juniors now, not one of them shines, especially compared to the man standing in front of them...

Tsuru said, "Compared to the chaos caused by the schemers and would‑be usurpers out on the seas, the territory you control is very orderly. If possible, could you kill a little less? Even the Revolutionary Army doesn’t cause as much chaos as you do. If you want these negotiations with us to succeed, just accomplishing that will be enough."

"Hahahaha, my profession is Pirate. The Navy’s job is to arrest Pirates and protect the seas; naturally, a Pirate’s job is killing and robbing. I’m very committed and dedicated to my post."

As for doing business, that’s the big landlords’ line of work; Pirates and that are two different tracks.

"Besides, you people can’t make the final call. Whether this works out or not doesn’t have much to do with you."

Sage laughed and said, "Otherwise, you wouldn’t be the ones coming to receive me. That’s the difference between being a Pirate and being Navy, huh, hohahahaha!"

Put it crudely, it’s "commit murder and arson, then receive an imperial amnesty"; put it more civilized, it’s called living out one’s United Front value...

"That’s exactly what’s so strange."

Tsuru nodded, not caring whether Sage was mocking them, and went on, "By rights, you ought to be more loathsome than the Revolutionary Army. Yet the attention paid to the Revolutionary Army is far greater than to you. The sea... really is bizarre."

Sengoku wore the same expression.

Even someone as wise as the Buddha himself can’t fully make sense of this.

The Revolutionary Army doesn’t execute Kings; they just drive the King off the throne and replace him with a new ruler.

Take the Solube Kingdom where Kuma was from—after the regime was toppled, the original King abdicated, and the new King chosen was Kuma.

Later, though, they took it back again.

And Kuma came to be called "Tyrant."

But they know very well what really went on.

That’s the Revolutionary Army’s way of doing things; they’ve already been designated by those above as a major enemy. Yet what Sage does is even more extreme—he directly slaughters Kings.

And the strange thing is right here: the Revolutionary Army is already a threat to those above, but Sage isn’t just a threat, he grinds the very foundation of their rule to dust, stirring up panic.

Whether Adhering or Non‑Adhering Countries, the distinction isn’t just about paying or not paying the Heavenly Tribute; interstate relations have to be considered too. But no matter what, they’re still Kingdoms, and a King, in the end, is still a King.

What Sage does is wipe all of that out, leaving only himself as the sole ruler.

This kind of panic is unprecedented across the whole world.

Yet those above, when it comes to Pirates like him, don’t respond with the same urgency they show in dealing with the Revolutionary Army.

"An apostate is more hateful than a heretic; can’t you guess that much?"

Sage looked at the unchanging Red Earth Continent cliff face outside the lift shaft and said, "I’m the one who’s frightened the Adhering Countries, but precisely because I exist, your usefulness has grown. Hasn’t your budget gone up recently? The intel I got says that after the Summit War you had your funding cut for a while, right?"

"But ever since I became one of the Four Emperors, that budget’s come back, hasn’t it—and gotten bigger. The frontlines facing Totto Land are crawling with your surveillance ships, and I know some new branches are being built. Is that because you’ve got so much money you don’t know where to spend it? Apart from guarding against me, who else are you guarding against?"

"But the Revolutionary Army..."

He swept his gaze over the several big crates stacked inside the massive lift, flipped open one of them, and revealed the food inside.

"The Revolutionary Army doesn’t target you, and they don’t target Pirates, and they don’t even directly target the World Government. What they target is the Heavenly Celestial Dragons. They overthrow Adhering Countries so they stop paying Heavenly Tribute—in other words... they want to swap out the innards of the World Government’s shell and stand as the new regime. That’s what you call a life‑and‑death struggle."

Sage bared his teeth in a grin toward the cliff wall within. "Look at what they’re doing right now—isn’t it exactly that? Cutting off those scum’s food supply, severing their travel routes. For you lot, things have been pretty leisurely recently, haven’t they?"

"Too bad they don’t have the guts to take the final step. If you ask me, since the mask is already off, why not charge up there and kill all the Heavenly Celestial Dragons? Without those bastards, what can those few old men do with their thin numbers? They’d still have to rely on you. Given enough time, maybe you could even play at being Five Elders yourselves."

"You vile bastard! It’s not that we don’t have the guts!"

A sissy voice echoed out from inside the rock. A Giant with a round, bearded face, speaking in a sticky tone, blasted the cliff open, stuck out his massive head, and yelled, "We’re nothing like you! We have ideals, and we don’t commit slaughter on our own whim!"

With the cliff broken, a flock of crows burst from the hole and, in midair, transformed into a man wearing a long‑beaked mask.

Western Army commander Morley, Northern Army commander Crow.

Both are rare powerhouses, capable of fighting the likes of Fujitora and Ryokugyu.

"Sage..."

Crow said in a deep voice, "I didn’t expect you to come here. Even someone like you is going to bow to the World Government?"

"Trying to bait me? Planning to make a move here too?"

Sage met Crow’s eyes as the latter hovered in the air and sneered. "Any other time, I don’t care. But right now, I’m in this thing, and if you cut the traction cables above and make me lose face, then some people aren’t just going to lose face—they’ll lose everything."

He doesn’t care what the Revolutionary Army does, but if they make him drop straight down right under his nose, that’s no different from slapping him in the face.

Teach could raid the former HQ at Baldivo; he could just as well erase Kamabakka.

"You bastard!"

Morley hefted his steel trident, about to climb up.

"Stand down, Morley!"

Crow barked, stopping Morley’s movement. "I’ll explain this to Dorag personally later, but this time we can’t act!"

"We’ve cut off their food for days now, and it just had to be at a time like this... I’m not okay with it!"

Morley pouted coquettishly and shrank back into the hole in the cliff, while Crow turned into coal dust and re‑condensed at the cave mouth.

"The Revolutionary Army, huh... you really are buried deep."

Sengoku fixed his gaze on Crow and said, "Doing this will only make people angrier. What exactly is Dorag trying to do?"

"It’s always been about revolution. That’s never changed."

Crow met Sengoku’s eyes without a hint of fear. "We and you in the Navy aren’t enemies. Our ideals differ, but we can cooperate. Dorag just couldn’t find a position within the Navy, but when facing evil, we should stand together. Once we’ve defeated the Heavenly Celestial Dragons and won the war, we’ll make the world more peaceful."

As he spoke, he once again turned into coal dust and scattered back into the cave, and the slab of cliff that had been pushed out was shoved back into place, restoring the Red Earth Continent to its original look.

"Garp’s bloodline..."

Sengoku pressed his hand to his forehead helplessly, groaning, "Is the D Clan really this prone to causing trouble? Dorag, that brat, should have made a fine Navy man."

"Not necessarily."

Tsuru said mildly, "The biggest Pirate we’ve got here isn’t from the D Clan—or do you have some hidden name we don’t know about?"

"Didn’t you people investigate me thoroughly?"

Sage said with disdain, "Robin is my cousin, my original surname is Nicole, from a civilian family in O’hara. As for this D... if bloodlines could really decide everything, Giants would be the Royal Family of this world, wouldn’t they? You might as well go join Elbaf."

At this point, he could say for sure: on this sea, humans absolutely aren’t the masters. The true masters are definitely the Giants; even the present‑day architecture is built to suit Giants, not humans.

Talking about bloodlines?

For all he knows, way back when, humans might have been slaves to Giants.

"We’re here."

The lift stopped. Looking at the colossal stairs stretching out of sight before him, Sage’s mouth curled up. "Last time I came up was for killing a Heavenly Celestial Dragon; this time, it’s because I can destroy the world. Sure enough, storming Mary Geoise is a hell of a lot easier than a King paying to get in."