The boundless sea stretched as far as the eye could see.
A merchant ship flying a common flag sailed swiftly onward.
Whoosh!
Roy lay on a beach chair in nothing but a pair of shorts, puffing a rich smoke ring into the sky as he basked in the warm sunlight.
"Looks like Spandam really is out of money!
But Carlos is an interesting fellow."
Thinking about how Spandam had rushed off impatiently not long after acquiring the resource islands,
Roy knew that guy probably did not have much funding left.
But that had nothing to do with Roy.
Though on the surface his losses had been just as great as Spandam's, the treasures he had looted from the Kingdom of Kroll had already recovered more than half of those losses.
So compared to the currently impoverished Spandam, Roy, who was usually skilled at amassing wealth, was nowhere near as miserable.
Besides, Roy's usual expenses were far lower than Spandam's.
Since he had no particular desire to climb higher right now, he did not need to participate as excessively and frequently as Spandam in maintaining connections, offering tributes, and currying favor with his superiors.
Authority over the management of resource islands was something everyone coveted.
After all, the resource islands directly under the World Government's control had once each been nations abundant in resources.
It was simply that all those nations had been wiped out by the World Nobles, leaving behind only islands ravaged by mining.
Naturally, the three resource islands Roy and Spandam had acquired were not among the newest batch to be opened up.
The World Government had already mined these three resource islands for nearly a century, but even so, the resources on them were enough to earn Roy and Spandam a fortune.
But Roy did not particularly value the resources on those islands.
Compared to authority over those resources, what Roy cared about more was that dwarf called Carlos.
After all, a slave trusted by the Celestial Dragons was a priceless treasure that nearly everyone on the seas wanted to befriend.
He pulled out a contact he had spent nearly twenty million Beli to purchase.
"A Celestial Dragon's lapdog, a dwarf with immense authority?
I'm really looking forward to working with you."
He had spent tens of millions,
only to buy a way to contact him.
Others might think Roy was a fool throwing money away, but to Roy, it had been immensely worthwhile.
Because Roy had seen greed in Carlos's eyes, and as long as that emotion existed, their future cooperation would no longer be a problem.
Greed was not frightening. Sometimes, trading with greedy people was what put one most at ease.
After all, the strongest alliance between people was built on mutual benefit.
And once a chain of interests was formed, they would be grasshoppers tied to the same rope.
He silently memorized the contact information in his hand.
Then carefully folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket.
He drank freshly squeezed orange juice.
He savored the memories of several romantic encounters on the Sabaody Archipelago.
The gentle breeze and perfectly warm sunlight made Roy hum a leisurely tune.
As the ship sailed swiftly onward,
more and more merchant ships gradually appeared around theirs.
"Lord Roy, we're almost at Water Seven."
Bruno came to Roy's side and reported their current location.
"Oh, are we there already?"
Roy propped himself up and looked at the several nearby ships that were also speeding along.
Puff, puff!
The sound of a whistle made Roy turn his head.
"The Sea Train!
Looks like we're almost there."
He watched the line racing through the distance.
No matter how many times he saw it,
Roy still felt that the Sea Train was the means of transportation that would change the entire world in the future.
Thinking of that made Roy's heart ache.
Because that idiot Spandam had gotten Tom, the engineer who built trains, killed several years ago.
The thought left Roy with a sour expression.
That pufferfish fish-man had been the finest shipwright in the world!
Instead of protecting such talent and putting him to use, Spandam had ordered soldiers to attack him.
That was nothing less than blatant waste.
Every time Roy thought about it, his heart hurt.
Talent was hard to come by, and Tom was not only the world's greatest shipwright—he also possessed Pluton's blueprints.
The ship sped onward.
Gradually, a city resembling a castle standing upon the sea came into Roy's view.
As the ship swiftly approached that city floating on the water, the vessels coming and going grew denser.
Roy had come to Water Seven this time for two reasons: first, to send Bruno back to Water Seven; second, because he happened to need a batch of merchant ships.
Although Roy now knew whose hands held Pluton's blueprints, he was not particularly interested in them at the moment.
Iceburg was not an easy man to deal with.
And taking the blueprints from him through conventional means would be nearly harder than scaling the heavens.
So Roy's plan was to leave the blueprints in Iceburg's hands for now, until he acquired a Glint-Glint Fruit user or a Memory-Memory Fruit user.
Only then would it be time for Roy to truly get his hands on Pluton's blueprints.
After all, if he merely tortured the blueprints out of someone,
no one could guarantee that they would not contain deliberate flaws.
The more powerful a weapon was, the more precise and complex its structure would be.
Pluton, which eight hundred years ago had stood alongside Poseidon and Uranus,
was not something Roy believed an ordinary person could build.
Therefore, Roy believed that for now, everything should develop as it originally had.
Although Roy knew both where Pluton's construction blueprints were and where Pluton itself was located, he did not stop Spandam's plan to send CP9 to Water Seven in the slightest.
Pluton's blueprints were indeed extremely valuable.
But in Roy's eyes, the powerful fighters of CP9 would also make excellent subordinates.
As for how to bring them under his command,
Roy already had certain ideas in mind.
And in Roy's plan, Spandam was an indispensable link.
In the future, CP9 would inevitably be abandoned by the World Government once again.
And Roy would be the only light to save them from the darkness.
Before you continue