However, Vinsmoke Judge had not been making excuses. He truly needed to wait for his children to grow up—or, more precisely, for Germa 66 to regain its strength.
It had to be admitted that Mousse's analysis made a great deal of sense. The reason the Germa Kingdom's hegemony in the North Blue had ultimately failed was, on the surface, the united opposition of the North Blue nations. But at its root, the World Government had been unwilling to see the North Blue unified and a superpower capable of challenging it emerge—just as it had always guarded against the Flower Kingdom in the West Blue.
"Even if your nation won that decisive battle and defeated the coalition of nations, the World Government would personally intervene. You would still have no chance—unless your scientific power could kill a Marine Admiral! Or unless a third party with strength sufficient to resist a Marine Admiral was willing to help you!"
Mousse's words were like a blow to the head, waking Vinsmoke Judge and Germa 66 from the self-deception they had clung to all along. Yet after considering it, he still refused to leave the ranks of the World Government's allied nations and place himself under the BIG Pirates.
It was not because Vinsmoke Judge was ashamed to become another power's pawn. In truth, as long as it allowed him to fulfill his ancestors' dream, even if he had to bark like a dog and crawl all over the ground, this once-handsome blond man could swallow his pride and do it.
Rather, Vinsmoke Judge, whose mind had not yet been completely clouded by obsession, understood that even being a pawn required sufficient strength. Otherwise, when the two sides clashed from afar, the aftermath alone could crush you, the pawn, to pieces.
Even if Germa 66