Being in the Navy Has a Bright Future!

Marine Headquarters, Marineford. The top floor of the Fortress of Justice, the Fleet Admiral's office.

Fleet Admiral Kong stood by the window, looking out at the Justice Harbor at the island's edge. "Garp's ship has stopped," he said.

Two other Marine bigwigs were in the room: Chief Staff Officer Tsuru and Admiral Zephyr.

Zephyr held a folder he'd just received from the Fleet Admiral, filled with detailed intelligence on Bane Ortolan.

Clearly, this intel file came from the Chief Staff Officer's hand.

"Overall, it's no different from what he told Garp. At least he didn't hide anything from Garp," Zephyr said, looking at the file.

"Imagine this: if you were a pirate's child wanting to join the Marines, when faced with Garp's questions, would you choose to hide it?" Fleet Admiral Kong asked sharply.

Zephyr paused, his gaze toward Kong turning hesitant.

True. A kid barely eighteen, knowing full well he carried pirate blood, yet when he wanted to join the Marines, he confessed outright. Wasn't that... a little too rational?

Confessing was a good show, but precisely because it was too good, didn't it feel unnatural?

Just then, Chief Staff Officer Tsuru set down her teacup. "When you doubt someone, everything they do is wrong. When you trust someone, everything they do can be explained. That's arrogance and prejudice, Fleet Admiral."

Kong smiled, his earlier sharp expression softening. He nodded. "As expected of you, Tsuru. Are all intelligence officers as wise as you?"

Zephyr seemed to catch on too, laughing heartily. "Right. From a skeptical angle, he seems too rational, almost calculating. But from a trusting angle, isn't it just that he really wants to join the Marines with a clean slate, so he's thought about this many times, coming off as thoughtful?"

Calculating and thoughtful—they described the same thing, but a slight shift in wording made the whole story feel completely different.

Words were like that. Weren't people the same?

"If I keep going, I'll sound petty and intolerant, hahaha. But I still need to say this to you both, especially you, Zephyr. As a teacher, you'd better train these new Marine sprouts well. If anything goes wrong with them later, you'll regret it for life!" Kong warned.

"Don't worry, boss," Zephyr said with a confident wave. "Even if he's a crooked sprout, he's just an eighteen-year-old seedling. This barracks is the best place to temper a man."

"A furnace," Tsuru added with a hint of a smile.

"Right, a furnace. Even if there's some impurity, a few years will melt it away. No need to worry!" Zephyr shot Tsuru an appreciative look before saying.

Kong watched as Garp led the unfamiliar figure to the base of the Fortress of Justice. "They're coming up. You two get back to work."

Kong had his own business to attend to. As for Ortolan, a distant glance from the window was enough. He was the Fleet Admiral; he wouldn't go out of his way to meet a new Marine recruit, even a special one.

But since Garp valued him enough to introduce him to Zephyr as a disciple, he'd likely see the recruit often in the future.

Zephyr stood up. "Then I'll go see if this sprout Garp's taken a shine to is really that impressive!"

Tsuru said, "I still have some matters to finish. I'll head off."

Soon after Zephyr left the office, Garp's Den Den Mushi rang.

"If you like this book, don't forget to bookmark it so you don't lose track."

"Hey, hey? Zephyr? You in the office? I'm back at Marineford. About that thing I mentioned, I brought the guy. Let you meet him face-to-face..." Garp said boisterously.

Zephyr smiled at Tsuru, then spoke into the Den Den Mushi. "I just left the Fleet Admiral's office and was heading back. Just come to my office."

"Got it." Garp hung up.

Soon, Garp led Ortolan into the Fortress of Justice. Marine Headquarters was the core of the entire Marine system, and the Fortress of Justice was the core of that core. Only officers could move freely here; even the sentries at the main gate wore at least a Commander's rank.

The Marines bustling through the lobby with documents under their arms were mostly Captain or higher—Rear Admirals and Vice Admirals were everywhere, and occasionally someone with a Vice Admiral's rank could be seen lecturing a group of officers.

Garp had plenty of pull. He walked in with Ortolan without anyone questioning them. Every Marine they passed showed him deep respect, greeting him politely before moving on.

It was clear that while Garp was often seen as a nuisance among the top brass—a slippery old scoundrel—within the Marine ranks as a whole, the title of "Hero" carried absolute weight.

The Fortress of Justice had nine floors. The bottom three were busy, housing the public offices of the basic Marine divisions: Communications, Logistics, Support, Security, and so on.

Ortolan gathered this from the hallway signs. The middle three floors held higher-end offices: Intelligence, Strategic Command, Criminal Investigation, and various meeting rooms. Compared to the noise below, it got quieter the higher you went. The sixth floor was an entire floor dedicated to a massive meeting room, currently closed.

According to Garp, when a major situation arose, Marine Headquarters would immediately summon all members with the rank of Rear Admiral or higher who were present at headquarters to discuss the situation.

As for what counted as a "major situation," Garp said it depended on the case. No standard, then? If everyone thought it was big, it was big.

The top three floors were private offices. The seventh floor was for Rear Admirals, the eighth for Vice Admirals, and the ninth housed the three Admirals and the Fleet Admiral.

Below Rear Admiral?

Sorry, anyone below Rear Admiral wasn't qualified for a private office in the Fortress of Justice. If you were lucky, you might snag a director's spot in a public office on the middle or lower floors, enjoying some private space.

If you were unlucky, you'd be assigned to another Marine building. After all, Marineford wasn't just this one fortress.

As a Vice Admiral, Garp's office should have been on the eighth floor. But he was also a Marine hero, with seniority on par with the Admirals and Fleet Admiral, and he'd turned down promotions to Admiral multiple times.

For whatever reason, the vacant Admiral's office on the ninth floor was now Garp's to use.

"I told you the Marines have good perks, and I wasn't joking. Especially for headquarters officers. Once you reach Commander, you get a single-person dorm. Become a Rear Admiral, and you get your own private residence. For Vice Admirals and above, like me, I've got a standalone courtyard in the backstreets. But the yard's too big; I don't like living alone, so I usually just crash in my office," Garp said as they walked.

It wasn't just that. Garp had also mentioned that room and board were basically free at headquarters, as long as you didn't have any special requests outside the norm—like demanding a specific regional specialty for every meal. Then it really was all free.

Of course, there were special privileges. Big shots like Garp could request their own perks. Garp had to have good green tea every day and the best senbei... though Ortolan wasn't sure what "best senbei" meant.

As for Admiral Zephyr, he was apparently a cigar enthusiast. Ortolan suspected that was how he got his asthma.

What Admiral Sengoku's quirks were, Ortolan didn't know. But Garp had mentioned in passing that Sengoku liked keeping a goat in his office. The goat either ate some rare Chinese medicinal herb or special Marine document paper. Fussy stuff.

Anyway, Garp's point was: once you became a Vice Admiral, you enjoyed perks most people couldn't dream of. And if you became an Admiral Candidate or an actual Admiral, aside from noble privileges, your living conditions would be better than most kings'.

Once you became Fleet Admiral, you were at the top of the pyramid. The only ones with better perks were probably the Five Elders on Mary Geoise, the Fleet Admiral of the entire military, and some high-ranking Celestial Dragons.

In short, being a Marine was a promising career.