How Can You Become an Admiral Without Grassroots Experience?

After having lunch at home, Ortolan carried his suitcase to the naval port.

Upon arriving, one could see that quite a few Marines were already boarding ships here. Garp's Dog Head Warship was also docked in the harbor. Roger, barring any unforeseen circumstances, was on Garp's ship. Garp, however, was nowhere to be seen; he was probably in the cage having his final rendezvous with Roger right now.

From afar, Ortolan spotted two figures: Kuzan and Sakazuki.

However, the relationship between the two seemed rather strained. They stood on opposite sides of the dock, neither of them intending to speak to the other, nor even looking at each other.

Ortolan knew that the conflict between Kuzan and Sakazuki was merely a clash of ideologies; there was no real animosity between them, and their relationship was only somewhat strained, not to the point of irreconcilable enmity.

Ortolan and Sakazuki had little to do with each other, as Sakazuki was often stationed in the New World while Ortoren worked at headquarters, and the two had basically never met.

However, when passing by Sakazuki, Ortolan still gave him face and greeted Sakazuki, saying, "Long time no see, Vice Admiral Sakazuki."

Sakazuki seemed somewhat surprised that Ortolan would take the initiative to greet him. After all, he had learned from Onigumo and the others that Ortolan had no interest in the Hawk Faction Marines and was very close to Garp and other Dove Faction Marines.

Sakazuki wasn't the type to take a favor for granted. He quickly recovered, composed himself, and nodded to Ortolan, saying, "Long time no see, Vice Admiral Bane."

Ortolan took out a cigarette and gestured to it. Sakazuki didn't refuse and took it. Then Ortolan asked, "Did you just come from the New World?"

"Yes, I've finished dealing with the situation over there, so I'm here to report for duty. The Admiral Sengoku asked me to go to the East Blue with him." Sakazuki nodded, then said, "Thank you for your help with Roger's situation."

"It's all part of my job," Ortolan waved his hand dismissively.

"I'll be stationed here at headquarters for the foreseeable future, so feel free to keep in touch," Sakazuki said after a moment's thought.

Ortolan didn't refuse, and said with a smile, "No problem."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, seeing that Sakazuki also looked stiff and not very talkative, Ortolan didn't say anything more, just said goodbye and left.

Soon, he managed to infiltrate Kuzan's group.

"Yo yo yo, Rear Admiral Kuzan, long time no see." Ortolan approached Kuzan, his tone becoming much more familiar. He shrugged and said, "My shoulder is a little itchy. Could you take a look and see if there's anything there?"

Kuzan his eyes at Ortolan and said, "Trying to show off to me, huh? Vice Admiral General?"

"Hahahaha." Ortolan laughed loudly, then asked, "Why didn't you go to the South Blue with Mr. Garp before? If you had gone, you would definitely have been promoted to Vice Admiral."

Mentioning this, Kuzan said with some regret, "Just thinking about it makes me regretful. It's not about promotions or salary increases, but the regret of not participating in such an important mission as capturing Roger. I was on vacation at the time, so I went to Jia Hua City with Saulo for a trip. And then, suddenly I heard about you. Good grief, you were supposed to be in the South Blue dealing with the scholar's case, but you ended up capturing Roger on the way..."

Saulo, Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral, is the commander of the Giant Forces. He enjoys high prestige among the Giant race Marines Admirals and is a kind-hearted fellow. He is also a good friend of Kuzan.

In the original story, he was supposed to be in charge of the scholar's case. Ultimately, because of this case, he began to doubt and become confused about the Marines's justice. He then assisted Orbia's prison break, betrayed the Marines, and fled. In the Ohara incident, he was forced to confront Kuzan and was eventually severely injured by Kuzan. He then fled to Elbaf and never showed his face again.

After a few casual words, Kuzan put his arm around Ortolan's shoulder and asked mysteriously, "I heard you went to the South Blue and got married? What's going on?"

"Ahem..." Ortolan coughed slightly, a little embarrassed, and then said, "So... so that's it?"

"Heh, others might not suspect anything, but I always feel there's something wrong with this. You went to the South Blue with Gion, and after you came back, you actually married someone else and got her pregnant. And Gion laughs non-stop whenever she mentions it... This isn't normal, it's definitely not normal!" Kuzan asked suspiciously.

"What's wrong with this?" Ortolan asked, trying to bluff his way out of it.

Seeing Ortolan's unwilling expression, Kuzan raised an eyebrow, feeling even more that something was wrong. He had already noticed that Gion, who was usually aloof, was incredibly enthusiastic towards Ortolan, and that she must be interested in Ortolan.

Gion wasn't angry about Ortolan getting married; on the contrary, she found it interesting. There must be something fishy going on!

However, seeing that Ortolan was unwilling to say more, and that Kuzan was not the kind of person who didn't know the bigger picture, they didn't ask any more questions and quickly changed the subject.

"You were just chatting with Sakazuki, did you hear what he said? That guy is withdrawing from the New World, and I reckon he'll be stationed at headquarters from now on," Kuzan asked.

"Yes, I just heard him mention it. What's wrong?" Ortolan asked.

"Headquarters definitely needs someone capable of shouldering heavy responsibilities and overseeing the New World. Sakazuki was that person before, and now that he's back, you might be going there," Kuzan reminded him.

According to the normal system, the New World should have an Admiral in charge, who would act as the so-called "face" to deal with any major problems that might arise in New World.

However, the current situation within the Marines is rather awkward. There are only two Admiral: Garp is just coasting along, while Zephyr is basically semi-retired, devoting himself to education.

In other words, only Sengoku was capable of Admiral important task, and Sengoku, as the only Admiral, would inevitably have to be stationed at the Marine Headquarters. Therefore, the New World had no choice but to select a strong and capable person from among the Vice Admiral to take on this role.

Upon Kuzan's words, Ortolan immediately realized that among the current Vice Admiral generals in the headquarters, only he, Sakazuki, Garp, and Tsuru were capable of shouldering this responsibility!

But Garp is a lazy bum and there's no way he'd go, and the Chief Staff Officer position, so there's even less chance he'd go.

Sakazuki is back now, and Kuzan and Borsalino haven't been promoted or received any pay raises, so only Ortolan is left.

"Admiral Sengoku mentioned to me before that once someone reaches the rank of Vice Admiral, they will definitely be sent to a lower-level position for training. Now that I think about it, it might really be my turn," Ortolan said with a hint of interest.

He was still willing to do this kind of work. Being sent out to be a base commander would mean having great power and being a real local emperor. He had been considering when to submit such an application and be sent out.

It seems that he probably doesn't need to bring it up himself. Who knows, he might be able to be transferred out after returning from the East Blue.

Seeing Ortolan's interested expression, Kuzan smiled and said, "I thought you were the kind of person who wanted to stay at headquarters and didn't want to leave. I didn't expect you to be so interested."

"Headquarters is good, but I've never been a base commander before. Without this kind of grassroots work experience, it will be difficult to move up the ranks. So I'm still looking forward to it," Ortolan said without hesitation.

For Vice Admiral and Vice Admiral below the rank of lieutenant general, such work experience is not required. However, if you want to work your way up to Admiral Candidate or even Admiral, how can you be promoted to Admiral without some comprehensive management and coordination experience at the grassroots level?

The Marines isn't a place where you can climb the ranks just by being good at fighting. It's not only a violent institution, but also a political group!

"You've only been a lieutenant Vice Admiral for a few days, and you're already thinking about becoming Admiral? Are you really planning to challenge Teacher Zephyr's record?" Kuzan laughed and teased.

Ortolan shook his head and waved his hand, saying, "I know my own limitations. Admiral is still a long way off. I'm far from it in terms of both age and experience. Besides, I don't think there will be any opportunities for such a promotion in headquarters anytime soon, otherwise Admiral Sengoku be very difficult... This period is also a good time for me to build up my foundation. My previous promotions and salary increases were a bit too fast, and I haven't laid a solid foundation yet..."

While Kuzan and Ortolan were chatting, Chief Staff Officer Tsuru arrived with his men. Upon seeing this, Kuzan and Ortolan boarded Garp's Dog Head Warship together. Soon after, the fleet slowly sailed out of Marineford's naval port and headed towards Mary Geoise.