Ortolan's Official Scapegoat, Dragon!
Before embarking on a great adventure, you must first determine what it is.
Is the plan detailed enough? No, as the person involved, the first thing to determine is whether there is anyone who can take the blame!
If no one can take the blame, then aren't you just getting yourself into trouble?
Good guy Ortolan is a meticulous guy. Before he does anything, he always considers who will take the blame after the incident.
Therefore, Shiki and the current Commander-in-Chief successfully attracted his attention.
This is only the first layer of insurance, so the reason for asking Rayleigh and Shakky to do this is actually to treat Rayleigh and Shakky as the second layer of insurance.
If Shiki and the commander-in-chief fail to shoulder the blame, Ortolan will not hesitate to release Rayleigh and Shakky as scapegoats.
As for whether Rayleigh and Shakky will turn on Ortolan because of this,
Firstly, as a senior member of the World Government, an Elite Vice Admiral of the Marine Headquarters, and the base commander of the New World G-5 outpost, when Ortolan speaks, will the World Government believe him or the pirates Rayleigh and Shakky?
Secondly, this matter also concerns Amazon Lily in the Calm Belt. If Rayleigh and Shakky are forced to take the blame, and instead of taking responsibility, they try to implicate others and expose Ortolan, then Ortolan will definitely sell Amazon Lily without hesitation.
This Amazon Lily is Rayleigh and Shakky's Achilles' heel.
Whether Rayleigh and Shakky should shoulder the burden themselves and embark on a journey of wandering and being hunted, or expose Ortolan and bring countless people on Amazon Lily to their doom and be wiped out, Rayleigh and Shakky will surely have a scale in their hearts at that time.
After considering these layers of protection, Ortolan thought it over and felt that as long as he didn't personally go to the front line to set fires and get caught red-handed, there shouldn't be too much risk.
This means there isn't much risk involved; it's within his risk tolerance range. After all, how can you do something big and want to reap huge profits without taking risks?
Once these things have been considered and arranged clearly, we can officially begin planning how to burn Mary Geoise.
"So, according to your line of thinking, our most urgent task right now is to get Impel Down out of prison, and then use that as an exchange to get him to cooperate with us in burning Shiki Mary Geoise, right?" Rayleigh asked after thinking for a moment.
Ortolan immediately rolled his eyes and looked at Rayleigh with utter disdain, saying, "That's why I say you pirates can't amount to anything. Let me ask you one question: is Shiki's credibility trustworthy? You've planned and discussed everything with him, do you really think he'll keep his promise after he actually breaks out of prison?"
Rayleigh was retorted, but he was speechless and unable to refute it.
Shakky sighed softly, "You're right. Shiki isn't trustworthy. Besides, bringing him into this kind of thing is risky in itself. Whether it succeeds or not, there's a risk that it's not in our best interest."
"Yes!" Ortolan nodded in agreement, then said, "Therefore, I must be careful. We only want to make the burning of Mary Geoise by Shiki a fait accompli. Whether Shiki is willing to cooperate with us or not is completely irrelevant. Whether he is willing or not, we have to do it. As for whether he does it himself, we don't need to worry about those details..."
"So what you mean is?" Rayleigh raised an eyebrow, thinking that in this matter, Ortolan was more intelligent... or more accurately, more despicable, and he would rather follow his arrangements.
Ortolan grinned, a wicked smile playing on his lips. "First, we need to get Shiki out of prison. This needs to be carefully planned. We need to create the illusion that he has successfully escaped, but in reality, we need to Shiki firmly under our control from beginning to end. In fact... it would be best to kill him from the start to avoid trouble. As long as we have his body, that's enough."
When it came to killing Shiki, seeing that Rayleigh and Shakky showed no emotion or objection, Ortolan nodded inwardly before continuing, "Only after we have the escaped Shiki under our control can we begin to arrange things for Mary Geoise Shiki. We have a Marines admiral in G-5 named Issho, whose ability is Paramecia type Gravity Reality. Therefore, in terms of style, we can simulate Shiki's style as closely as possible. First, we'll create a bunch of miscellaneous things—ships, warships, small islands, and so on. Then, Mary Geoise will launch a surprise attack... Combined with the previous news of Shiki's escape, what do you think Mary Geoise will think if something goes wrong?"
"The first thing we'll suspect is that this is Shiki's revenge against the World Government!" Rayleigh said without hesitation.
"That's right!" Ortolan nodded and said, "However, there are some differences in abilities, so when doing this, we need to choose a dark and windy night, take advantage of the darkness so that everyone is confused about the situation, and then have Issho use his ability to control Shiki's corpse or something, fly around in an area on Mary Geoise where he can be seen but not shot down, and show his face. Then this matter will basically be confirmed!"
Hearing this plan, Rayleigh was shocked. After staring blankly at Ortolan for a while, he couldn't help but sigh, "When it comes to being insidious, despicable, and framing others, it really comes down to your Marines..."
"You pirates are just people who hang out on the same ship. If you don't get along, you disband. But we Marines have to go through complex political struggles to climb the ranks, understand? Our battlefields are on completely different levels!" Ortolan glanced disdainfully at the country bumpkin, Rayleigh.
"This is a general plan, but in reality, we also need to make some more thorough preparations. Since we've already burned Mary Geoise, we can't just leave it burning, can we? Liberating the three sisters is liberation, and liberating all the slaves on Mary Geoise is also liberation, so why not do it all at once..." When Ortolan said this, he murmured with a slightly complicated tone, "It can also be considered as making amends for some of the sins of our Marines in aiding and abetting evil."
"In some ways, your Marines is indeed a bit...tsk..." Rayleigh shook his head with some emotion as he looked at Ortolan.
Ortolan ignored him and continued, "If we're going to liberate these slaves, we can't just let them scatter and run away on their own, can we? The geography of the Red Line is what it is; they have nowhere to run even if they wanted to. Someone needs to come and meet them..."
Rayleigh and Shakky hesitated for a moment, then shook their heads, saying, "We're afraid we can't help with this..."
"Of course I know you can't do it, so I'm bringing in another partner, my personal scapegoat. This is also to provide you with a layer of protection, so that you two won't be exposed and implicate me..." Ortolan said, cursing.
"Who is it?" Rayleigh asked, ignoring Ortolan's disdainful tone.
"The Revolutionary Army!" Ortolan said without hesitation.
Ortolan is quite ruthless; he not only wants to burn Mary Geoise, but also wants to interfere with the government of the mortal realm!
What good thoughts or feelings would the vast slave population of Mary Geoise have about the World Government? Certainly not; they would love to kill the World Government!
Among this group of people, there must be many who no longer want to get involved in trouble, but there must also be a large number who want to take revenge on the world's government. Who are these people? These people are high-quality potential Revolutionary Army members!
Moreover, as Ortolan grows stronger in G-5, the risks he faces also increase. Therefore, at this stage, he needs a strong ally to stand on the high seas and constantly draw the attention of the world government to him, in order to reduce the pressure on G-5.
After much deliberation, Ortolan decided that the Revolutionary Army was the most suitable candidate for the role. Moreover, as the Revolutionary Army gradually developed, it became a potential major customer for someone like Ortolan. He could sell them all sorts of products, such as weapons, Revolutionary Army, and even food that would be developed in the Calm Belt!
You guys rob those noble lords in front, acting as the vanguard for the king, while we'll be your solid backing for converting funds into cash—it couldn't be more reasonable!
However, there is a problem: as Ortolan's go-to scapegoat, Ortolan has betrayed Dragon quite a few times before, so the trust between the two is low. It is estimated that Dragon is very wary and suspicious of Ortolan.
So if they want to cooperate, Ortolan needs to clear up the 'misunderstanding' between Ortoren and Dragon first, which requires a bit of sincerity.
By using the burning of Mary Geoise as an opportunity to reveal some of his weaknesses in order to win over the Revolutionary Army, Ortolan thought this was a sign of great sincerity.
Even after all this, you still can't believe me? Do you expect me to cut off the heads of the Five Elders as a greeting gift?
What's the point of having your Revolutionary Army then?!
Of course, you can't give any substantial leverage over us, like concrete evidence, otherwise we'll be at their mercy in the future. As for the rest of the empty promises, sincerity is all that matters. Even if Dragon wants to use this to threaten us and turn the tables, it still comes down to this: do you believe the World Government, a key figure like Ortolan, or you, a criminal leader who opposes the World Government? Can you really use just words without any substantial evidence?