Shaya's Steadiness, and Water-Tight Schemes!

Another month passed...

Yes, Shaya's warship had been sailing the seas for over a month now.

During this month, Shaya had witnessed the "customs and traditions" of many nations.

And he had collected quite a few slaves...

Well, pirate slaves.

As for beautiful women and the like, Shaya had seen plenty...

But not a single one could compare to the young and lovely Stussy by his side.

After all, Stussy's original body had been personally certified by the "World's Strongest Man," Edward Newgate! Far surpassing those common, mediocre beauties...

Shaya was quite particular when it came to women. He wasn't like some starving character from a certain domestic TV drama who would eat anything put in front of him.

As for how Shaya acquired those pirate slaves?

Well, during Shaya's voyage, they had encountered quite a few pirates.

Among them, most of these pirates were engaged by that old rascal Garp the moment he spotted their ship, without a word of discussion.

Yes, that old rascal Garp often took the initiative when encountering pirates...

Ignoring the safety of Shaya, a Celestial Dragon, to go rescue merchant ships or civilian fishing boats being chased and harassed by pirates.

Shaya was perfectly happy with this arrangement.

After all, whenever Garp defeated those pirates...

Shaya would always take the pirate captains, brand them with the "Hoof of the Heavenly Dragon," and send them off to Holy Land Mary Geoise as slaves.

Surely, not just Shaya, but any Celestial Dragon in this world would be thrilled to acquire free pirate slaves worth millions or tens of millions in bounties, right?!

At the same time, to quickly accumulate slaves, Shaya often deliberately ordered his subordinates to steer their warship toward areas where pirates frequently appeared, fishing for lawbreakers.

Moreover, whenever Shaya's warship arrived in pirate-infested waters, he would specifically have the World Government agents lower the World Government flag from the ship for simple camouflage.

Or he would use ordinary merchant ships to lure pirate attacks...

Then, when pirates actually showed up! Shaya would often lean against the railing of the Marine warship, silently admiring Garp's valiant and skilled figure as he beat down pirates. Using his powerful learning ability, he would replicate Garp's every move.

At the same time, Shaya would put on an air of greatly admiring Garp.

And whenever Garp returned in glory after defeating pirates, Shaya would look down at him with the haughty attitude of a Celestial Dragon, full of pride...

Chin raised high, as if every word he spoke to Garp was an honor for Garp, something worth boasting about for a lifetime, he would say: "Garp, become my son... I mean, become my personal guard! If you become my private guard, I can give you the three things every man dreams of—money, status, or women. Then you can do whatever you want! Even the position of Fleet Admiral, I can find a way to secure it for you!"

"Sorry about that! This old man's strength is too weak, unworthy of your esteemed favor."

"As for Fleet Admiral or whatever? Hahaha, this old man is too used to being carefree. I can't even be a proper Admiral, let alone Fleet Admiral (Supreme Commander)!"

Unfortunately, every time Shaya extended an invitation to Garp, Garp would always refuse him.

Yet, even so, Shaya never tired of inviting Garp.

After all, inviting Garp was a pretense; putting on a show for those around him was the real goal...

Having these World Government agents report this matter to their superiors was the real goal.

Making Garp change his view of him was also the real goal.

At the same time, Shaya was also preparing for the day he could legitimately meddle in the internal personnel arrangements of the Marines, and travel to Foosha Village in the Goa Kingdom of the East Blue, using the pretext of having Garp pay respects, to train Straw Hat Luffy.

As everyone knows, Zoan-type Devil Fruits, whether Mythical Zoan, Ancient Zoan, or the most common regular type, are the easiest of the three Devil Fruit types to replicate...

As long as you perfectly replicate the Lineage Factor of a Zoan-type ability user, you can achieve a near one-to-one replication of the Zoan-type Devil Fruit!

Of course, at most there might be slight differences in color!

For example, Kaido's Azure Dragon Fruit was replicated by Vegapunk into the Pink Dragon Fruit...

Speaking of which, Sun God Nika is also a Zoan type, right?!

Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Sun God Nika?

Every single member of Shaya's future Divine Knights gets one!

Azure Dragon Fruit, Great Buddha Fruit, Phoenix Fruit, Nine-Tailed Fox Fruit, Nika Fruit, Great Mouth True God Fruit, Great Monk Fruit, Yamata no Orochi Fruit, Pegasus Fruit...

A variety of Mythical Zoans for you to choose from! If he didn't replicate a bunch, people might think Shaya couldn't replicate Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits?!

Years later, Shaya, blocking Imu who couldn't get out of Holy Land, said coldly: "Imu, give up resistance. Outside are all Nikas..."

Yes, Shaya never did anything meaningless. For every plan he intended to carry out, he would start preparing years, even decades, in advance!

To ensure the success of every single one of his plans...

As time passed.

In the blink of an eye, another month quietly slipped by.

During this month of Garp and Shaya getting along...

Garp's view of Shaya's character had changed a lot.

At the very least, Garp had discovered that Shaya was different from ordinary Celestial Dragons.

Although Shaya, like other Celestial Dragons, was lawless, disregarding the laws of the World Government and never paying the Marines any mind...

It seemed that all the Marines loyal to the World Government in this world were nothing more than Shaya's personal guards! He barked orders at Marine warships and the commanders of various bases.

But at least Shaya didn't hinder his crusade against pirates; in fact, he strongly supported it. However, the pirates he defeated did not end up in the prisons of various bases or in Impel Down, the great underwater prison, as Garp had hoped.

Instead, without any trial by a judge, they were forcibly branded with the 'Hoof of the Heavenly Dragon' by Shaya and became his personal slaves.

At the same time, Shaya was very strict in selecting these slaves: no petty thieves, no one with a bounty under one million...

Those who sailed under a pirate flag but could barely feed themselves, pure embarrassments who couldn't fight—none of them! All those weaklings were sent by Shaya to other prisons...

However, the more those pirates ran amok, flouted the law, were vicious and bloodthirsty, the more Shaya liked them.

In Shaya's own words: "Everything in this world belongs to us, the descendants of the world's creators, the assets of the great Celestial Dragons—that is, my assets."

"Only we Celestial Dragons can ignore the laws of the World Government or other nations! As for everyone else, whether they be kings of various countries, privileged nobles, wealthy merchants, or powerful pirates, they must all obey the law!"

"Those who do not obey the laws set by us Celestial Dragons shall be branded with the Hoof of the Heavenly Dragon and become our slaves for life. Since freedom was already given to you! But you didn't know how to cherish it! Then you don't get any freedom at all."

"Let you self-proclaimed evil pirates, you hypocritical tyrants! Truly experience what the real tyrants, the real 'evil' of this world, the greatest beasts of the Four Seas, the great Celestial Dragons, are like. Let you also taste what it's like to wish you were dead..."

Yes, in Shaya's view, these small pirates who only bullied ordinary people and prided themselves on slaughtering defenseless towns had no idea what true evil was.

And he, Shaya, the thing he loved most in this life was to make these arrogant bastards feel what true evil was and awaken the submission in their hearts.

Those who liked killing and slaughtering towns—he would send them to the Holy Land's colosseum to constantly fight wild beasts for the entertainment of the Celestial Dragons.

Those who liked robbery—he would strip them of their wealth, reputation, and name! Let them have nothing of their own for the rest of their lives, even take away their dignity...

As for those who liked rape...

Damn, even the beastly Celestial Dragons, when they saw a handsome man or beautiful woman on the street, knew to capture them and give them the title of wife or husband, as a not-so-pretty fig leaf.

As for these beasts who were even more animalistic than the Celestial Dragons—directly send them to the Holy Land, to be repeatedly violated by Celestial Dragons with unique tastes, perverse personalities, and XP systems that developed in strange directions.

When it came to justice, perhaps the Marines were not the most just in this world.

But when it came to evil, no one could surpass those beasts—

Yes, as a Celestial Dragon in this life, he, Shaya, had already risen above the lowly pleasure of bullying ordinary people. After all, in his previous life, he was an ordinary person. It was precisely because he had been bullied that he understood the powerlessness of commoners.

Precisely because he, Shaya, had once been caught in the rain—not that he would become an umbrella to help others, he wasn't that morally upright, nor that great! But at least he wouldn't turn into rain himself and deliberately drench others. That was Shaya's bottom line.

Since he, Shaya, was fortunate enough to obtain power, he wanted those arrogant, lawless bastards to feel what it was like to be bullied.

And all of Shaya's actions, Garp had witnessed over these days.

Therefore, in Garp's view, Shaya could be considered a Celestial Dragon (beast) with some conscience.

At the same time...

The large batch of pirate slaves Shaya had collected during his two months sailing the seas could be considered a justification for this trip.

After all, the purpose Shaya had reported to the Five Elders for this trip was that there were too few pirate slaves at home, not enough for him to toy with, so he wanted to go out to sea and catch them himself.

This kind of behavior—personally going out to sea to catch slaves—was perfectly normal among the Celestial Dragons, a very common occurrence...

Some Celestial Dragons even crazier than Shaya would do idiotic things like taking a group of retainers and government officials, without any Admiral-level escort, and privately sailing a ship to Fish-Man Island to capture fish-man slaves.

Now, Shaya had finished collecting his slaves, and he had more or less maxed out Garp's favorability. Moreover, according to Shaya's calculations, the timing was just right to go find Roger.

It had been ten months since Roger became the Pirate King...

No matter how you looked at it, Roger should have already met Rouge.

According to this timeline, Roger should have successfully gotten Rouge pregnant with Ace.

And based on Shaya's inference, Ace should now have been in Rouge's womb for a full three months...

Given the level of civilian technology in the world of One Piece, an embryo at three months would be very difficult to abort.

Simply put, Ace in Rouge's womb was now enough to threaten Roger, and Shaya also had Garp's protection.

Shaya now had a double insurance policy, so he believed it was time to set out for Baterilla Island to meet the Pirate King, Roger.

Mm, although he, Saint Shaya, was not weak in strength, he was far too cautious when doing things.

Please recommend, please invest, please keep reading, brothers~