The next day.
Neither the City Lord's Mansion nor the Marine Base on Starfish Island knew that the local Mafia had been secretly brought under someone else's control.
Tony was very tactful. Early that morning, he personally delivered thirty-six underage boys to West Mountain Plantation.
The West Mountain Plantation contracted by Vongola Trading Company was located on the west side of Starfish Island. At the foot of the mountain lay a V-shaped bay, but no one frequented it because its currents were extremely swift and it was densely packed with hidden reefs of all sizes.
In the age of sail, whether they were local fishermen or merchant ships conducting trade, no one liked such a reef-filled bay.
Thus, although the bay appeared quite spacious, it was actually of little value.
After West Mountain was contracted by Vongola Trading Company, West Mountain Bay naturally fell within the contracted area as well. With West Mountain blocking it off and no one passing through the bay, it formed a relatively enclosed area.
After taking in the thirty-odd boys, Hedgehog Head brought them to West Mountain Bay.
Among the coconut trees on the beach.
The scorching sunlight left every boy drenched in sweat and increasingly irritable. Quite a few began cursing under their breath, and the way they looked at Hedgehog Head turned hostile.
After standing there for more than ten minutes, a white-haired boy finally lost his temper and stepped forward to question him. "Hey! What are you trying to do? If there's nothing going on, I'm leaving."
"Heh heh!" Hedgehog Head grinned, sharp killing intent flashing in his eyes.
Suddenly, his figure flickered, and over a dozen Hedgehog Heads surrounded the boys.
The white-haired boy who had spoken first did not even have time to react before he felt a hand seize the back of his head and slam him hard into the sandy ground.
The other boys were horrified.
"Damn it..."
"What are you trying to do?"
"I'm Captain Barry's nephew."
"Bastard..."
Yet Hedgehog Head's smile only grew more malicious. Appearing and vanishing like a ghost, he had beaten every boy into submission in less than five minutes.
All the boys were battered black and blue, sprawled crookedly across the ground as they wailed in pain.
"Get up and form ranks immediately. You may refuse, but bear the consequences yourselves."
Their hair stood on end. The boys hurriedly got up and formed three columns, staring at Hedgehog Head before them in terror.
Hedgehog Head remained beneath the shade of a nearby tree, leisurely drinking coconut juice and paying no attention to the boys roasting beneath the sun.
Only after more than an hour did he emerge and stand before the formation. "From now on, you only need to remember one thing: obey orders, or be killed by me. Don't expect Tony to come save you."
Gulp!
By the end of the day, Hedgehog Head had given the boys a brutal lesson.
This life continued for a week.
Then, one night, Belfinger personally appeared in the Training Camp's main hall. After a week of military-style training, all the boys had begun adapting to a life of absolute obedience, shedding their former delinquent demeanor.
With a smiling face, Belfinger introduced himself. "Everyone, I'm the owner of Vongola Trading Company, and I'll also be your boss from now on. I'm very pleased to meet you all."
In the past, these Mafia boys would have grown impatient long ago.
But after being disciplined by Hedgehog Head for a week, they had learned one principle: trouble came from the mouth.
"Don't be too nervous. How about we talk about dreams?" Belfinger continued with a smile. "Bell, tell us about your dream."
A round-faced boy rose stiffly to his feet. "M-My dream is to become a great painter."
"Not a bad dream." Belfinger gestured for him to sit, then pointed to the next boy.
"I want to become the Pirate King."
"Me? I want to become a rich man!"
"Become a captain."
"Marry a beautiful wife."
"I want to drink every kind of liquor in the world."
One by one, the boys spoke of the dreams in their hearts. Some were ordinary, some ambitious, and some strange and bizarre.
After hearing all these wildly varied dreams, Belfinger smiled and asked, "Why do you think you became part of the Mafia's youth group?"
Uh... The boys looked at one another.
Belfinger continued, "If you had been born into a wealthy family and never had to worry about food every day, would you still have joined the Mafia?"
"Probably... not?" the white-haired Jack answered uncertainly.
"Have you ever considered this? Were you born to be poor and lowly? Are some people truly born noble?"
Belfinger opened his eyes, his gaze blazing as he stared at every boy. "Remember this: there has never been anyone inherently noble or lowly in this world. Fate can be broken through with your own hands."
After saying that, he used chalk to write a question on the blackboard in the hall: Why was there such an enormous gap between rich and poor?
"This is the homework I'm assigning you. In one week, I want to see your answers. Use your own minds and think it through carefully."
He left behind a group of bewildered boys. Even Hedgehog Head and One-Eye were somewhat unable to make sense of it.
Belfinger did not explain. Many things only needed a spark of realization, followed by an answer at the necessary moment, to become far more effective.
At the same time.
The Sicily Mafia on Starfish Island had already been reorganized once by Tony and One-Eye. After the reorganization, excluding the thirty-six juvenile members, the Mafia still had 243 people.
According to Belfinger's restructuring plan, they were divided into three sections: the Combat Group, Logistics Group, and Patrol Group.
Together with the fifty-nine pirates formerly from the Iron Hook Pirates, they formed a force of three hundred men.
The Combat Group had 150 men, divided into three groups of fifty. Each group had one captain and one instructor; every ten men formed a squad, with one team leader.
The Patrol Group had 100 men and was divided into two groups.
The Logistics Group had fifty men and was divided into one group.
Above groups were camps, regiments, armies, and so on. Normally, five squads formed one group, ten groups formed one camp, ten camps formed one regiment, and ten regiments formed one army.
The Sicily Mafia on Starfish Island, together with some members of the Iron Hook Pirates, now formed Starfish Camp. Its internal designation was Camp X-111, meaning the First Camp of the First Regiment of the First Army in West Blue.
Of course, Starfish Camp was not yet at full strength.
With Tony's cooperation, the Mafia's former businesses on Starfish Island were also secretly absorbed by Vongola Trading Company.
They included bars and casinos on Starfish Avenue, two inns, one restaurant, seventeen storefronts, three warehouses at the docks, and a residential area beside the slums.
As for the protection fees collected before, Belfinger did not have Tony stop collecting them. He merely reduced them somewhat, made preliminary adjustments to the charges imposed on various shops, and began standardizing them.
After all, the previous chaotic practice of skimming profit layer upon layer had indeed caused severe damage to the local business environment.
Naturally, shops that paid would receive Vongola Trading Company's protection.
Although Starfish Camp had only undergone an initial reorganization, its combat strength had actually increased considerably, especially since it included quite a few former Iron Hook Pirates.
Those men possessed Base Armor. Though all were basic models, their combat power already rivaled that of ordinary Marine officers at the major rank.
Then there was the upgraded equipment: everyone had an Alloy Steel Sword, a Repeating Firearm, and Ceramic Fiber Armor.
Let alone ordinary pirate crews, even the more than one hundred Marines from the Marine Branch combined with the City Lord's Mansion's 150-man Knights Order would not be enough for Starfish Camp to cut down.
Elsewhere, in the first half of the Grand Line...
Thank you all for your support (ω｀). Thanks to readers "Ao Netherworld," "8768767," "old man 4132," and "Knowledge and Action as One" for the tips.