The Secret of D

"Hmph, even if you hadn't asked, I would have brought it up."

The Elder of Diplomacy smiled disdainfully, and the other Five Elders around him wore the same contemptuous smiles.

Amid the cold laughter, the Elder of Diplomacy began speaking.

"As for why pirates have become so rampant, hehe.

Eight hundred years ago, the war ended, and the World Government was formally established.

After that, our ancestors, together with the nations that had fought for a hundred years, buried most of the bloody history of that century-long war.

Though the war that lasted over a hundred years had tormented us terribly, the common people of the many kingdoms suffered even more. No one wished more fervently than they did for peace to arrive.

But there was always a small group who did not think so.

In Wano Country, the Kozuki Clan always believed that ending the war and forming an alliance was the betrayal of Wano Country by the hundred nations of the world.

Thus, the Kozuki Clan secretly carved Poneglyphs that recorded history!

If not everyone wished to conceal it, could history personally experienced by every one of them truly vanish into thin air?

Could something known to the entire world eight hundred years ago truly be erased so easily by us Celestial Dragons?

That was the hatred of several generations, along with every one of their memories!

The reason we were able to hide history was merely because, compared with hatred, the nations of the world desired peace even more!

They let go of their obsessions and abandoned their hatred and memories, all to embrace the peace that had not arrived for so long.

But as time passed, and the older generations in each nation who had experienced the war gradually died, the selfish actions of the Kozuki Clan finally sparked a new wave of resistance.

Around seven hundred and forty years ago, the flames of war once again swept across the world.

In response, we had no choice but to adopt certain special strategies.

At first, we sent soldiers to roam the world in small groups, making themselves active near nearly every island.

We did not seek to suppress the local kingdoms. We only wanted them to cause enough harassment and trouble for every country, thereby tying down their military forces and preventing them from easily raising the flag of rebellion.

But after several decades, the soldiers we had sent out had long grown accustomed to a life of wandering and plunder. They changed from soldiers into true pirates.

We did not take coercive measures against that, because we had only one enemy: every nation in the entire world!

Whether they were pirates, soldiers, or even the Revolutionary Army.

As long as they could bring trouble to the nations of the world, we could turn a blind eye!

At the same time, we undertook a truly grand project on a global scale.

To completely solve the fundamental problem of inconvenient transportation, which made it difficult for central authority to control local regions, we decided to build, between every island in the world...

A great infrastructure project called the Continent Bridge!

Ever since seven hundred years ago, the Continent Bridge project had never ceased. Countless workers had been thrown into this undertaking.

For a full seven hundred years, right up until today, this project had continued without interruption, rain or shine!

It was so in the past, it was so now, and it would be so in the future!

And before the Continent Bridge was fully completed, before we had the conditions to conquer all the nations of the world at once and swiftly dispatch forces to suppress rebellions on every island.

The existence of pirates was necessary.

Pirates scattered throughout the world would place enough pressure on the nobles of every nation, deepening those nobles' dependence on the World Government.

That pressure would also make the nobles more eager to seek our protection, and that protection would make them more readily hand over the taxes they ought to pay—the Heavenly Tribute.

For seven hundred years, this state of affairs had continued. Though there were occasional bumps along the way, the overall situation had never changed.

Until..."

"Until the appearance of that former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, right!"

Gawain's eyes lit up. He had thought of many things, so he interrupted the Elder of Diplomacy and asked softly.

Hearing his question, the Elder of Diplomacy gritted his teeth and said viciously.

"That's right.

Over the past seven hundred years, although pirates had emerged in endless numbers, under our guidance, they had been distributed exceptionally evenly.

Aside from some great pirates entrenched in that small region of the New World, the Four Blues and the Grand Line had enough pirates to put pressure on every nation.

That pressure was not especially great, but it was never so small that they could ignore it. We maintained that situation with exceptional stability.

Before Roger, whether it was Rocks or any other great pirate.

None of them had shaken that stability.

Until Roger appeared!"

The Five Elders must have hated Roger to the extreme. The Elder of Diplomacy spoke with great emotion, practically grinding his teeth.

"The Pirate King, hehe. After seeing the history of that vanished century on the island where the secret was buried, he probably thought he had truly made some great decision, didn't he?

It was precisely his declaration about the Great Treasure before his death that caused these seas—which might not have been good, but had at least been stable and possessed basic order—to completely lose their original order!

Young people and pirates from the Four Blues answered his call and rushed toward the so-called treasure he spoke of, all flooding into that tiny corner known as the New World!

You may not understand the scale of this disaster. I will explain properly just what kind of trouble excessive population loss has caused this world and the islands and nations of the Four Blues!

This matter..."

"No need!"

Gawain suddenly interrupted the Elder of Diplomacy.

"I can imagine the harm caused by this phenomenon!"

As he spoke, Gawain could not stop himself from smiling bitterly.

Of course he understood that kind of trouble, because in some ways, it was not so different from the place where he had once lived.

Pirates had charged headlong into the New World in hopes of making a fortune, while the dangers of the New World caused most of them to fall on the road ahead.

On the islands of the Four Blues, most of those qualified to go to sea were young adults in their prime.

Since Roger's death, too many young people from the Four Blues had embarked upon the path of piracy, never to return!

Wasn't that situation exactly like northerners leaving their hometowns in droves to head south? Whether they went elsewhere to work or to struggle, weren't they all doing it to make money or simply survive?

And once the young people left their hometowns...

Wouldn't the people back home no longer be able to drink sweet well water?

Just imagining it, Gawain could see that scene.

After losing large numbers of young and middle-aged men, the Four Blues would see an increase in aging, fewer newborns, and lower productivity.

Yet while productivity fell, the pressure of the Heavenly Tribute—that was, taxes—did not decrease.

Wouldn't the common people of the Four Blues suffer multiplied pressure from that?

And beyond that pressure, combined with what the Five Elders had said earlier, Gawain could think of other effects caused by the Great Pirate Era.

In the past, most pirates entrenched in the Four Blues came from the local islands. With them keeping the nobles in check, the nobles governing those islands would not exploit the common people too cruelly.

After all, the local bandits were right nearby. If they bullied the wrong people, wouldn't they get beaten to death?

And wouldn't the mass departure of local pirates cause ordinary islanders to lose an invisible but absolutely real force of protection?

For so many years, the Celestial Dragons had collected the same amount of Heavenly Tribute from every island and country.

Then why had the lives of commoners grown more miserable, while the nobles of affiliated nations spent more and more money on Sabaody Island every year?

Moreover, ever since ancient times, the numbers assigned to Marine branches established in the Four Blues should have corresponded to the number of pirates in their local seas.

But once the Great Pirate Era arrived, pirates in the Four Blues changed from semi-fixed criminals operating within certain areas into complete and utter sea roamers.

Every pirate focused on charging ahead. They charged toward Reverse Mountain, toward the Grand Line, toward the New World!

Who still cared about the Marines in the Four Blues?

Thus, the branches in the Four Blues grew increasingly poor and weak. Pirates who only fled onward could no longer provide fixed achievements for the branch Marines, and branch commanders had no accomplishments to speak of, making promotion difficult.

It created the absurd situation where a branch and its commander could remain entrenched in one place for decades with nowhere to advance.

Gawain knew what that would cause. Naturally, it would lead to the rapid corruption of the Marines in the Four Blues' branches.

Just like when Luffy and the others were in the East Blue, whether it was Morgan or Nezumi, corrupt and rotten Marine officers were everywhere.

But once Luffy and the others reached the Grand Line, such phenomena became much rarer, aside from those with connections, spies from other forces, and mentally unstable madmen.

In the various G-numbered branches of the Grand Line, the quality of the Marines was vastly higher than in the Four Blues.

Thinking of this, Gawain raised his head and gestured to the Five Elders.

"Believe it or not, I can probably understand what you have yet to say.

As for those matters, I do not think a solution can be found in the short term.

Compared to problems whose answers are already known but cannot be immediately resolved, I prefer exploring new unknowns.

So, can you tell... tell... me, the Will of D... what exactly... is it?"

"Hmph, hehe, ahahahahahaha!!!"

Hearing Gawain's question, the Five Elders all burst into laughter.

"Gawain, you still cannot shake off the temperament of youth!

You simply insist on pursuing those so-called secrets to the bitter end!"

This time, it was the Elder of Military who spoke. Holding his long sword, he teased Gawain.

"If the so-called Will of D truly were some terrifying secret, would we have allowed Garp, a descendant of D, to become the greatest hero in the entire Marine force?

Could we truly be such fools that we would not deal with a bomb sitting right before our eyes?"

"Uh..."

After the Elder with Sword put it that way, Gawain immediately felt that something was wrong.

He really had been too impatient!

Normally, he should not have acted like this. No matter how curious he was, he should have remained sufficiently calm according to the circumstances.

But now...

Gawain recalled how he had felt just now, and after a moment, he understood the reason for everything.

His internal organs were hurting more and more. The pain had merely been suppressed by his earlier tension, so his previous self had not noticed it.

Once he was no longer tense and had even begun probing the secrets of the Pirate King's world to satisfy his curiosity.

His injuries struck. He grew dizzier and dizzier.

For a moment, his vision actually blurred.

Fortunately, in his increasingly blurred vision, the Elder of Military smiled and spoke.

"The so-called Will of D, do you think it is freedom, dreams, or death?

No, no, no. Not every inheritor of D pursues those things!

Look at every inheritor of D you have met, then look at those annoyingly cheerful smiles on their faces.

Those mouths spread wide in laughter, those brilliant smiles that seem not to know the hardships of the world—aren't they a great big D?

They once established a nation called D. Then they drew a huge smiling face on its flag and named that nation the Kingdom of Joy.

Though they caused us some trouble, they were not worthy of becoming the enemy we feared most.

We are Celestial Dragons. We have never feared any single nation, no matter how powerful that nation may be!

The only thing we worry about is all the affiliated nations of the world joining forces once again and confronting us in an all-out conflict!

As for the current inheritors of D, yes, some among them are indeed not weak. But that is not because of any special talent. It is only because they love to laugh.

People who love to laugh are cheerful and optimistic, resilient and tenacious. Neither failure nor setbacks can easily crush them completely.

Should people like that be weaker than others?"

On the soft sofa, listening to the Elder of Military's explanation, Gawain's vision went dark, but joy rose in his heart.

At last... he had heard the secret he had cared about most before coming to this world!

Beside him, the Elder with Sword still wanted to say something more.

But before he could open his mouth, the Elder of Diplomacy, sitting on the same sofa, directly shoved him aside.

"Damn it!" the Elder of Diplomacy roared. "I got so carried away talking that I forgot about Little Gawain's injuries!"

Beside him, the Elder of Culture immediately cried out.

"Quick, urge Kizaru to hurry and bring Kuma over!

If something happens to Little Gawain, we may have to kneel before Lady Imu for an entire year!!!"

If Gawain could have heard those final words, who knew what he would have thought.

But unfortunately, he could no longer hear anything.