South Blue Upheaval, the First Stirring of the Great Pirate Era
Seeing that Spandine agreed, Ortolan pointed to Rob Lucci, who was training in the distance. "That little guy with the pigeon on his hat, is that alright?"
Spandine glanced at Ortolan with some surprise, then said, "Rear Admiral Bane has a good eye. That kid is the most outstanding among our new recruits so far. I wouldn't be willing to let go of anyone else. But since you, Rear Admiral, have spoken, then no problem!"
This batch of new recruits has indeed only been here for a short time. Although Lucci's performance is the best, he has not yet been called the 'strongest' or anything like that. His talent and abilities have not yet been fully noticed by the CP Agency.
That's why Spandine agreed so readily; otherwise, there might have been some real trouble.
As he spoke, Spandine gave a few instructions to one of his henchmen, who quickly left the team and went to the training ground. A short while later, Lucci was brought over looking completely bewildered.
"Rob Lucci." Spandine a friendly expression, patted Lucci's shoulder, and pointed to Ortolan: "Today you're in luck, kid. This big shot in the Marines, Rear Admiral Bane, has taken a liking to you. From today onwards, you'll be working for this lord."
"Huh?" Lucci was puzzled. He was supposed to be a special agent, so how did he become Marines?
He looked at Ortolan smiled kindly and said, "I really like your pigeons, kid."
Lucci seemed to snap out of his confusion and immediately replied, "Yes!"
For young Lucci at this time, there was not much difference between CP and the Marines. He was an adopted orphan, and he was also very intelligent and precocious. He knew that he could not make any decisions. Whether it was the Marines or CP, he had no choice.
"Alright, we'll talk about the rest later. You should pack your things and get ready. We'll take care of you when we leave," Ortolan said again.
After settling things off with Lucci, Spandine led Ortolan and the others to the CP-9 office building, where the two sides officially began their study mission, engaging in a series of discussions and exchanging intelligence.
"Because we have suspects, we have already conducted some undercover investigations in Alabasta and Ohara. However, the progress in Alabasta is not bad, but the academic organizations in Ohara are a bit more troublesome. After all, to recruit them, we need solid relevant knowledge and skills, which is not something we can cultivate in a short period of time..." Spandine he sat in front of a pile of documents.
As Ortolan flipped through the documents in his hands, he remarked with some emotion, "Moreover, for such an important matter, even the academic organization of Ohara would likely only have a specific group of people they completely trust involved."
"Yes, therefore, the possibility of making an internal breakthrough from these two suspected targets in the short term is not high. In fact, it might not even be them. So, the best solution is still to take action against these illegal research and investigation fleets operating overseas. In this regard, our CP does not have as many personnel as your Marines. Often, when we have intelligence, we are unable to quickly assemble personnel to make arrests locally. Therefore, we finally decided to cooperate with your Marines." Spandine nodded and said.
After a slight pause, Spandine lowered his voice again. "And according to our investigation, it's very likely..."
At this point, Spandine hesitated again, causing Ortolan to frown. "What's wrong?"
Spandine difficulty and said, "It's not that I want to slander or sow discord, but we have indeed found out that the Freedom Army is also very likely searching for this group of mysterious scholars... As you know, the Freedom Army's situation is rather special. It wasn't a problem before, but they attacked Affiliated Nation a few years ago and have now been identified as an illegal organization."
The leader of the Freedom Army is that guy Dragon, and Ortolan is one of Garp's men. No wonder Spandine to put on a show before saying those words.
While Ortolan was somewhat surprised that Dragon wanted to get involved, he wasn't entirely unexpected.
He left the Marines because he witnessed darkness, and now it seems reasonable for him to want to investigate the darkness hidden even deeper.
"In which areas is the Freedom Army currently most active?" Ortolan asked.
"The South Blue, and our current tracking of this group of scholars is basically locked in the South Blue for the time being. Of course, we cannot rule out that they are also active in other sea areas, after all, the Poneglyph they are investigating are scattered all over the world," Spandine said immediately.
"The South Blue?" Ortolan stroked his chin, pondering.
The next two years in the South Blue are certainly going to be turbulent, and they have changed the fate of many people.
For example, Bartholomew Bear should now be in the Sorbeth Kingdom in the South Blue, having become a priest. In a little over a year, Dragon and Ivankov will lead their Freedom Army to attack the Sorbeth Kingdom.
Given the current size of the Freedom Army Forces, such an attack on the country would certainly not be something that can be done on a whim. There must have been various preparations beforehand, and it would take about a year to carry out. No wonder the Freedom Army have been so active in the South Blue recently.
Similarly, it's estimated that it will happen in the next month or two. Ortolan believes that Roger should find Laugh Tale and become the Pirate King.
After disbanding the Roger Pirates, he went alone to Batara Island in the South Blue to marry Rouge and have children.
Looking at it this way, the South Blue is indeed a good place to go.
There's a possibility of meeting Dragon, Garp's rebellious son, or investigating the scholar team in Ohara.
These are all secondary to Ortolan. The main thing is that by loitering around in the South Blue, he will most likely be able to capture Roger, which will serve as a basis for his next promotion!
As Rear Admiral in the Marine Headquarters, he had already entered the rank of general officer. So, he couldn't just do whatever he wanted or go wherever he wanted. For example, he needed a suitable excuse to go to the South Blue. But he suddenly went to the South Blue and then abruptly found Roger or something.
It's strange no matter how you look at it, right?
If it were just a normal strange occurrence, it wouldn't be a big deal, and it could be handled. But Roger, before his execution, made a "declaration of the One Piece," which directly ushered in the Great Pirate Era.
If this matter is linked to your strange behavior, what if people suspect that you are colluding with Roger in a performance?
Using the investigation of the scholars as a pretext, he obtained a reason to go to the South Blue from Spandam. After wandering around the South Blue, he accidentally found Roger, and then there was no problem.
There are no flaws in the logic or details that can be deduced.
However, it's a bit early to go now. Ortolan said, "Judging from this information, the South Blue is indeed a place that needs close attention. Let's first check the clues we have so far and see if there are any signs of trouble. If there's still not much progress, I'll personally lead a team to the South Blue to see if there's any breakthrough there."
"Alright." Spandam didn't see anything wrong with it, and then continued, "The higher-ups know this task is quite complex and difficult, so they haven't pressured us to give results within a limited time. Therefore, you don't need to be in such a hurry..."
"Understood." Ortolan replied, then took out his Den Den Mushi and said, "Let's exchange contact information. That way, if anything comes up, we can communicate directly and exchange information without going through so many roundabout ways."
Spandam happily said, "That's what I thought too, come on..."
For about a week afterward, Ortolan and Gion stayed on Enies Lobby, working with Spandam to analyze and summarize various intelligence data related to the mission.
As the year drew to a close, Ortolan and Gion, along with Rob Lucci, boarded a warship again and returned to Marine Headquarters, Marineford, to celebrate the New Year.
These past few days, even the usually serious and violent Marine Headquarters has been filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Everyone is bidding farewell to the turbulent year of 1496 and is full of hope, preparing to welcome the arrival of 1497.
But Ortolan knew that 1497 was not a peaceful year because of Roger's coronation as king, and that the Great Pirate Era, the turbulent decade-long era, was about to begin.