“A method of training Haki…?”
Nereus’s condition made Gloriosa hesitate slightly. She seemingly had not expected him to ask for such a thing.
“What? Is this condition too difficult for you? Don’t tell me that, as the empress from two generations ago, you don’t know how the Kuja train their Haki.”
“No. Every Kuja warrior knows it. I simply didn’t expect someone like you to be interested in this kind of training method.
You should have a more effective method of your own.”
Many nations with long histories had unique combat styles passed down through generations. Fishman Island’s karate and jujutsu were themselves highly unusual fighting techniques. Their method of attacking by striking water allowed even Logia-type users to be unable to ignore the techniques of the Fish-Men.
Gloriosa believed the Ryugu Kingdom should also possess its own inheritance.
“Of course I have my own method of training Haki, but it isn’t easy to popularize. I’m rather curious about a method that allows every Kuja warrior to master Armament Haki.”
“That’s fine, but there are some things I need to make clear first. As you know, the Kuja live on an island of women. There are no men on our island.
This type of Haki is merely more convenient for women to use. I don’t know what effect it would have if men tried to learn it.”
Amazon Lily was also a nation that revered strength. Even if a Kuja warrior developed feelings for a man while away from the island, that man would not be particularly weak and would generally already have mastered Haki.
There had simply never been any opportunity for a man to begin training Kuja Haki from scratch.
“That doesn’t matter. As long as it is an effective method, that will be enough. Even if it ultimately cannot be widely popularized, our agreement will still stand.”
Although not every citizen of the Ryugu Kingdom was a warrior like those of the Kuja, military training had been continually popularized over the past decade or so. If some special situation truly arose, the kingdom could still transform into a state where every citizen was a soldier.
“This can be considered a secret of the Kuja as well. Personally, I hope you won’t spread it outside and will keep it confined to your own sphere of influence.”
“You can rest assured about that. I have plenty of external enemies myself, so spreading it would do me no good. I merely want to further strengthen my nation.”
Although it was considered a secret, it could not be said to have never spread beyond the island. Due to the local customs and culture, the Kuja were easily influenced by ‘love-struck’ tendencies.
Once lovesickness struck, there was no telling what they might do. Between the successive Kuja empresses and the many warriors who had ventured outside, portions of the method had inevitably spread.
However, this method of Haki training was suited for women. Even though some outsiders knew about it, it had never been passed down systematically the way it was among the Kuja themselves.
Just like the Giants’ Spear of Elbaf, although it is a hereditary technique of a race, it was not incomprehensible for someone outside the race to use it.
As the Kuja empress from two generations ago, Gloriosa had her own considerations. Compared to ordinary warriors, the future empress of the Kuja was clearly far more important.
Without a top-tier combatant to uphold it, the deterrent power of the Kuja Pirates would decline exponentially.
Gloriosa already regarded herself as a sinner of the Kuja, so even if she had to pay a price, she still wanted to protect the Kuja’s future.
“The training method can only be explained orally. I’ll tell you everything without reservation. Can you help us now?”
“Sebastian, contact Karma. Have him disperse all available personnel. I want the whereabouts of every slave ship that has been operating nearby over the past few days.”
Slave traders were not fools. The enormous profits brought by the slave trade made them willing to risk their lives in the business.
But they were not stupid enough to hang a flag from the top of the mast announcing to everyone that their ship was transporting slaves.
Slave ships operating near the Sabaody Archipelago were especially careful to conceal their true purpose, disguising themselves as ordinary merchant vessels.
Those slave traders knew perfectly well what would happen if they were discovered by Fishman Island’s people in this area.
Yet despite the high risks, the demand for slaves had not disappeared. Instead, it had driven slave prices even higher. With such enormous profits at stake, there was no shortage of people willing to gamble their lives.
After handing three portraits to Nereus, Gloriosa began orally explaining the details of the training method, while Sebastian passed down the order.
Before carrying it out, he also paid Shyarly a visit. Although divination could not precisely pinpoint a person’s location, determining a rough direction was not difficult.
In the past, some slave ships had been unable to understand why, even after disguising themselves and deliberately taking detours, they still ran straight into Fishman Island’s soldiers. Even as they died, they simply assumed they had been unlucky.
In reality, it was because Fishman Island’s unique mystical methods, combined with its strengthened military forces, happened to make their strikes highly effective.
Divination alone was not particularly useful. But when someone with sufficient power and skills could use mystical methods to narrow the scope of an operation, many things became different.
…
Nereus merely arranged for others to search for the human traffickers. If they proved unable to deal with them, Nereus himself would make the trip.
However, once the order was passed down, its meaning had changed by the time it reached Karma and the others.
“Everyone, I have some bad news.”
Back then, Karma had infiltrated the human traffickers under Nereus’s orders. Later, because of Nereus, the traffickers stopped trusting any Merfolk or Fish-Men, since there was a ninety-percent chance that any of them had been sent by Nereus.
After that, Karma was transferred back to Fishman Island, where he led a small unit tasked with searching for human traffickers and coordinating with the Neptune Army to strike them whenever circumstances allowed.
Now, looking at the written order Sebastian had brought, Karma summoned several squad leaders before him.
“A group of damned human traffickers evaded our surveillance and slipped away through the nearby waters.
“News of this has now reached His Majesty Nereus. This is His Majesty’s latest order: find those b*stards.
Everyone, allowing them to quietly slip past us once was already a failure on our part. If we let them escape again… it will be our disgrace!”
The sea was vast, with countless navigable routes, but there was only one sea route connecting to and from the New World. That was why Fishman Island could guard this vital passage.
There was no helping it if someone managed to avoid Fishman Island’s patrols.
But now that the matter had reached Nereus and an additional order had been issued, it carried an entirely different meaning in Karma’s ears.
After excluding the routes that already had patrols, Karma quickly marked several suspicious areas on a nearby sea chart.
Then, based on the results of the divination, he divided his subordinates into several teams. After borrowing additional forces from the Neptune Army, they began their search.
Gloriosa had not been wrong. When it came to countering slave traders, Fishman Island was the expert. Once they devoted more resources to the task, they quickly identified several suspicious ships…
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