Golden Ambition

North Blue · Deep within the Abandoned Mining District · Abandoned smelter

Acrid fumes filled the air. Rusted steel pipes twisted around one another, and the residual oil that had leaked from their ruptures had long since hardened into a black crust.

The entire place was like a dead behemoth, silent and oppressive.

"Whoosh!"

Space trembled, as though the air itself had been torn apart.

Tesoro's vision blurred, and he lost his balance, stumbling into the silent graveyard of steel.

He instinctively staggered backward until he hit a leaning support column.

The instant his fingers touched the metal, its chill sent a shudder through him.

"W-where is this?!"

He whirled around, his gaze sharp as a blade as he stared at the black-haired man who had appeared behind him without his noticing.

The man stood over three meters tall, his upright figure looming like a shadow beneath the dim daylight. His expression was composed.

"Y-you... Who the hell are you? Spatial transfer?! Are you a Devil Fruit user?!"

Roy leaned casually against a steel beam, his right hand still tucked into his trench coat pocket while his left tapped lightly against the mottled metal. His voice was low and steady, as always.

"Marine Headquarters. Rear Admiral Roy."

"A Marine...?" Tesoro's expression darkened as alarm bells exploded in his mind.

He instinctively reached for his waist, only to grasp at empty air—

"Looking for this?" Roy held up the dagger that should have been hidden inside Tesoro's clothes and spun it casually between his fingers. The practiced motion was like a dance, its cold blade tracing a sharp silver line through the air.

"Poisoned, double-edged, made for stabbing vital points. Very professional."

Roy looked up at him, a smile on his lips that held no warmth.

"What... do you want?" Tesoro's voice tightened, and the wariness in his eyes intensified.

"I'm not here to arrest you."

Roy casually drove the dagger into a rusty steel plate beside him. "I'm here to discuss a partnership."

"A partnership?"

Tesoro scoffed, his expression mocking. "The Marines are doing business now? Don't tell me you're a spokesman for justice and order who wants to shake hands and make peace with an escaped slave?"

He abruptly pulled down his collar, exposing the shocking brand on the back of his neck—the brand of a Celestial Dragon's slave collar.

"Do you know what this means?"

He grinned viciously, each word sharp as a blade. "This is the footprint the world left when it stepped on me, a gift from the 'Celestial Dragons' you claim to protect."

Roy, however, merely watched him in silence for a moment before replying calmly, "I'm not here to talk to a slave."

"..."

"I'm here to discuss a partnership with the future 'Gild Tesoro.'"

Those words stopped Tesoro's sneer, and the agitation in his eyes faltered almost imperceptibly.

"Are you insulting me?" His voice was hoarse.

"I'm acknowledging you."

Roy leaned forward slightly, his tone earnest. "A man who could find star iron ore in a mining district abandoned for thirty years. A man who could turn beggars into semi-skilled workers in half a month."

He pulled the dagger out, its blade flashing coldly, then slowly put it away.

"You have vision, brains, resourcefulness, and ambition. All you lack is a real opportunity!"

A sneer still lingered on Tesoro's lips, but his smile had faded.

He stared at Roy as though weighing up an unfamiliar gamble.

"So? You want to recruit me? Put a gold-plated dog chain on me and have me settle down as a 'state mine boss'?"

"You're wrong."

Roy straightened, his figure casting a long silhouette beneath the shattered skylight.

His gaze was resolute, his voice deep. "I want to invest in you, to make you the richest man in the world."

The air hung still for several seconds.

"Huh??!"

Tesoro froze, as though he hadn't understood. "What did you just... say?"

"I said, you're not interested in making money."

Roy pointed at his chest. "You want to use money to shatter that lofty world."

"To forge a blade from gold and cut their throats."

The words struck Tesoro's heart like a hammer.

At that moment, Tesoro's pupils trembled slightly. For the first time, the sarcasm and wariness he had fought to maintain faltered.

He wanted to scoff, but found his lips had grown stiff.

"What makes you say that?" His voice was hesitant and unwilling, yet probing.

"Because I'm not here to offer you empty words."

Roy's answer was plain, but forceful.

The next second, sand and dust churned violently beneath their feet as an indescribable pressure erupted from his body!

"Boom!!!"

Conqueror's Haki swept outward like thunder splitting the heavens, shaking the entire abandoned smelter!

The rusted steel beams creaked, plaster flaked from the walls, and the ceiling shook violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.

Tesoro felt the breath knocked out of him in an instant. His knees slammed uncontrollably toward the ground, cold sweat poured down his body, and his spine felt as though it had been pierced by ice!

The air froze, and time stood still.

Amid that violent Haki, he felt as though he had been thrown into a forest of howling beasts, thousands upon thousands of them roaring in his ears—

This was not oppression.

It was a declaration.

A king's declaration!

Just as his mind was nearly torn apart, the dreadful pressure suddenly receded like the tide.

"Huff... huff..."

Tesoro lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for air, his knuckles white and his whole body trembling.

He raised his head and looked into those calm yet suffocating eyes. For the first time, genuine fear rose in his heart.

"You..." His voice was hoarse. "What the hell do you want?"

Roy approached slowly, his voice low, like a devil whispering temptation into his ear.

"I can give you more than control over money... I can also let you overthrow your nightmare with your own hands."

At that moment, Tesoro's pupils contracted sharply.

It was as though he could see it.

He saw Stella being dragged away by a Celestial Dragon on that pitch-black, rainy night, her cries tearing through the darkness.

He saw himself chained to the marble floor of Mary Geoise, his knees bleeding and palms rubbed raw, crawling like a dog beneath the leather boots of countless nobles.

He saw the contemptuous Celestial Dragon raising a golden scepter. In that moment, he had thought he would die there.

"Money..."

He murmured under his breath, as though grinding his past humiliation between his teeth. "Without it... you're nothing..."

His fingernails dug into the sand, drawing blood.

He slowly raised his head and clenched his teeth. "...What do you want me to do?"

Roy did not answer. He merely reached inside his trench coat and slowly took out a black metal box.

"Click—"

The lid sprang open. Inside lay a Devil Fruit, its entire surface like flowing liquid gold, glowing with an eerie light, as though burning greed had condensed into solid form.

"Paramecia-type · Gold-Gold Fruit."

Roy spoke calmly. "It gives whoever eats it supreme control over gold. Solid, liquid, or dust, it can all be shaped, manipulated, and reconstituted at will."

"Every property of gold... will become your most powerful weapon."

"With it, you can control value, shake the established order, and make the rules."

Tesoro's breathing grew heavy. Of course he knew what this meant.

Gold was the lifeblood of kingdoms, the fuel of war, the currency of power, and the shell of faith.

To control gold was to hold the world by the throat.

Fluctuations in the gold market, the demands of the military-industrial complex, the rules governing transactions in the Underworld... Countless possibilities exploded in his mind.

"You..." Tesoro stared fixedly at Roy, a complicated glint appearing in his eyes for the first time. "You're actually willing to give me... this kind of power?"

"This is only the beginning."

Roy chuckled softly, his voice calm but edged with icy sharpness. "I don't need your loyalty."

"I only need you to succeed."

He added calmly, "I'm simply putting the right person in the right position."

Silence fell, as though the entire ruin were holding its breath.

After a long while, Tesoro dropped heavily to his knees.

Not because of the pressure of Haki, but because the humiliation, oppression, hatred, and longing that had weighed on his heart for twenty years all burst forth at that moment.

For the first time in twenty years, someone had seen through the layers of disguise to the person he truly was: not a vengeful demon, not a money-mad lunatic, but a mastermind driven to genius by despair.

"...All right."

He reached out with trembling fingers. When he touched the fruit, it was as though fate had set him ablaze, scorching ambition surging from his chest.

Roy gently placed the fruit in his palm and said calmly, "Eat it."

Tesoro stared at the fruit, his gaze burning.

"From today on..." he murmured, as though making a vow, "I won't bow to money. Money... will serve me."

He bit into the fruit, the crisp sound of his chewing resounding through the silent ruins.

Roy turned and walked toward the rusted iron door. Sunlight streamed through a shattered iron-framed window, falling across his shoulder at an angle.

"Remember, when you say 'money can do anything'..."

"Make sure that you yourself are money."