Looking at the news published in the newspaper, even Rosinante, who was often a little absentminded in daily life, felt that something was off.
The list of targets being struck and the scope of the cleanup… it seemed like they were acting according to the intelligence he had prepared, and they were even more decisive than the Marines.
[Could it be… that they picked up the list I lost?]
Because he himself was naturally careless, Rosinante never thought that someone had stolen the intelligence. After all, only he and Sengoku knew that they were in direct one-to-one contact. Even Tsuru didn’t know that Sengoku’s intelligence came from Rosinante.
As long as he himself hadn’t been exposed, unless Sengoku personally leaked it, there was no reason for his undercover identity to be discovered, much less for someone to specifically keep an eye on that information.
So Rosinante had always assumed that he had accidentally lost the list during the chaos on Minion Island, and that someone had now picked it up.
[But this is fine too. In the end, my objective was still achieved. They’re good people too…]
“Corazon, stop reading that boring newspaper! Those guys from Fishman Island are just a bunch of busybodies! After what they’ve done, North Blue’s entire foundation is practically ruined.
Good thing we were already planning to enter the Grand Line. Otherwise, this would’ve been a huge headache.”
“…”
While Corazon was deep in thought, Doflamingo’s voice interrupted him. Although he acted as though he didn’t care, there was still quite a bit of irritation mixed into his tone.
“…”
“Are you asking why the Ryugu Kingdom did this? Who knows? Didn’t I already say it? They’re a bunch of meddlesome guys. The problem is… those guys also happen to be extremely powerful.”
During the years when Nereus had been most active, Doflamingo hadn’t even been an embryo yet. During the years when Nereus was still relatively active, Doflamingo had still been living in Mariejois as a Celestial Dragon young master and paid no attention whatsoever to what happened on the seas.
Later, after going through all kinds of upheavals, he learned that Nereus was a powerful “monster,” but he still didn’t know much about him, much less about the relationships between affiliated nations.
Apart from some locals in Dressrosa, certain royal families and guards who had attended the Levely, most people didn’t know about King Riku and Nereus’s personal friendship. Doflamingo knew even less.
He hadn’t stationed any undercover agents in Dressrosa. Even if he occasionally saw reports in the newspapers about Dressrosa supporting the Ryugu Kingdom, he simply regarded it as a matter of national interests.
“…..”
“Forget about that. Get ready to enter the Grand Line. Vergo sent word earlier—North Blue won’t be peaceful for quite some time.”
While Doflamingo was preparing to head toward Reverse Mountain and leave North Blue, Fishman Island’s operation had already begun entering its final stages.
Although Tesoro had come here, he hadn’t participated much in direct combat. Compared to that, the follow-up work was far more complicated.
Tesoro had instead made quite a few “state visits” throughout North Blue and established new trade relations with several countries.
Originally, Tesoro’s workload could have been a bit lighter, but recently a powerful mass of cold air had swept through North Blue, causing the weather in the Deul Kingdom to change abruptly. And with Otohime’s constitution…
She had caught a slight cold. Although Otohime herself insisted that she was fine, everyone else took one look at her condition and forcefully demanded that she rest. Otherwise, Otohime might have become the first minister of Fishman Island to unexpectedly die in office since Nereus came to power.
Tesoro took on some of her additional work, so he became relatively busy.
Now that Otohime had recovered and resumed working, Tesoro also began traveling to areas where the fighting had already ended to inspect conditions there.
Some of the Underworld members had been hiding within the territory of other kingdoms, while others had outright occupied islands or towns and forced the local inhabitants to serve them.
Now that those people had been dealt with, some of those places needed to be governed again.
Tesoro himself had come from the bottom of society, so he understood very well how such places should be managed and pacified. Besides providing food and medical supplies, guards were also needed to maintain order. Otherwise, it would only create even greater chaos.
If things were managed poorly, something as simple as distributing food could result in a massive stampede.
And at times like this, talented people could occasionally be discovered as well. Quite a few members of Tesoro’s own team had been found this way.
Sometimes, people who had been captured and sold as slaves were actually even more likely to possess valuable talents. After all, people with certain gifts and specialties fetched higher prices on the slave market.
And while looking around to see whether there were any suitable personnel, Tesoro really did make a discovery. He found a secretary with outstanding professional ability who, after some training, would be capable of handling many different matters.
“Mr. Tesoro, is there something I’m doing improperly?”
“Nothing. Your professional skills are excellent, but… why did you have to be a woman?”
“Huh?”
Tesoro’s words left Monet completely confused. For many years, her appearance had always been an advantage, allowing her to carve out a small place for herself in the rather unstable waters of North Blue and support herself and her younger sister.
Those years hadn’t been easy, but at least they had managed to survive. Now that the people who had coerced the sisters were dealt with, Monet wanted to do something she was good at—both to make a living and to repay the favor.
Yet, she hit a snag right here.
“Don’t misunderstand. I have a lot of things to deal with and need a personal secretary. I’m a married man, and I’m often traveling outside, so having a woman in that role would be inconvenient.
But you really are quite capable… Would you like to try changing your living environment?”
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