The Black Prince

The recapture of Whale Belly Island and Whale Head Island hadn't taken much time.

The main fleet of the Amento Kingdom and the pirate forces Umit had dispatched had all fallen at the port on Whale Tail Island. The few scraps of forces left behind before they headed south couldn't possibly stop Aleus's advance. With overwhelming force, he crushed all resistance, and the entire Toothed Whale Sea Area once again became part of the Ekmondo Kingdom.

Then,

Aleus's fleet continued north, but didn't enter the waters of the Amento Kingdom.

When news that the Amento Kingdom's main fleet had been destroyed on Whale Tail Island reached home, Nebri IV's brothers and sons immediately began fighting over the throne. The Amento Kingdom had descended into chaos, and this country, already strong on the outside but weak within, had thoroughly exposed its own weakness and incompetence.

In these circumstances, Aleus abandoned the idea of making money by selling Nebri IV. It wasn't that there were no buyers; it was that nobody could afford the price. Nebri IV's brothers and sons all offered the country's future tax revenue as collateral, each making outrageous demands with no sincerity whatsoever. If Aleus actually sold Nebri IV, he might even end up losing money on the investment.

There was no point in taking a loss on a deal like that.

So,

Nebri IV was hanged in his cabin on a dark and stormy night.

Aleus shifted his gaze away from the Amento Kingdom, which had little worth plundering, and turned it toward the real prize. Compared to the Amento Kingdom, whose own country was on the verge of falling apart and where people would split a single coin into five just to make it go further, Umit—the King of Maritime Transport—was a true mountain of gold, a money tree that kept bearing fruit.

"Aliye Shipping Company."

"Gemstone Sea Shipping Company."

"Heaven Commercial Shipping Company."

"Dallama Kingdom Shipping Company."

One name after another was read aloud. Each represented the dominant force in the shipping industry across one or several sea areas of the New World. On the surface, each of these powers was an independent company, but in reality, their true controller was Umit, the president of the Black Water Association.

Aleus had paid a hefty price for all this intelligence.

The Ekmondo Kingdom's own resources alone wouldn't have been enough to uncover Umit's information. But the Ekmondo Kingdom had one great advantage: it had plenty of money.

After tens of billions of berries were spent, even information that had initially been unavailable was eventually delivered into Aleus's hands.

"Which one is closest to us?"

Aleus asked from behind his desk.

"The Dallama Kingdom Shipping Company. It monopolizes all the shipping business in the Green Pillar Sea Area, and it's the closest to our current position. At the fleet's current speed, we should reach it in about three days," Dillon answered evenly from the sofa.

"The Green Pillar Sea Area... Is that where emeralds are mined?"

Aleus tapped his fingers on the desk.

"Then that's the one!"

Aleus found the location of the Dallama Kingdom on the sea chart and immediately circled it with his red pen. At the same time, he asked, "Do we have detailed information on the Dallama Kingdom Shipping Company?" His gaze swept across the faces of the four attendants sitting on the sofa.

In the end, it returned to the most reliable one, Dillon.

"Officially, the Dallama Kingdom Shipping Company is a company established by the royal family of the Dallama Kingdom. In reality, its true master is Umit. The royal family only has the right to a share of the profits and no actual control over the company. That's all the information the intelligence agency provided. There's nothing more."

"However, I do know a little about the Dallama Kingdom. Your Highness, would you like me to...?"

"If you know something, tell me. I won't bother going through the documents."

Aleus picked up his cup and took a sip of steaming coffee with milk. The rich aroma in his mouth lifted his spirits a little.

"The Dallama Kingdom is considered a powerful country in the New World," Dillon said solemnly, setting down the documents he'd nearly worn out from flipping through them. "It's also quite wealthy because it produces a great deal of beryl. But the Dallama Kingdom needs overseas sales channels to turn those stones into berries and other supplies. Unlike our Ekmondo Kingdom, it never established an independent transportation system."

The complexity of the New World went far beyond its strange magnetic fields and unusual sea areas. Even more complicated were the conflicts between the Navy and pirates, pirates and pirates, kingdoms and the Navy, kingdoms and pirates, and kingdoms and kingdoms. They had turned the entire New World into a gigantic whirlpool.

Here,

no one could stand apart from it. Everyone had to struggle in that enormous whirlpool.

Even the Four Emperors were now locked in a balance of power. If not for the conflicts among them, they might have driven the Navy entirely out of the New World long ago, leaving no more than a few branches to cling to survival there. Powers on the level of the Ekmondo Kingdom and the Dallama Kingdom needed even greater wisdom, strength, and luck to secure their place in that whirlpool.

The Ekmondo Kingdom had been lucky, and its previous kings had been wise enough. They'd managed to shelter themselves beneath the World Government's banner. Through generations of effort, they had used the Navy's power to build a transportation network of their own. They didn't have to worry about being held in check by others. Even now, with the Navy repeatedly forced to retreat by the Four Emperors, Paradise and the Four Seas remained under the World Government's rule, so the Ekmondo Kingdom's coffee business hadn't been greatly affected.

However,

not every country in the New World was as fortunate as the Ekmondo Kingdom.

The Dallama Kingdom was one example. Since Umit had absorbed every shipping power in the surrounding sea areas, it had eventually been forced to join Umit's shipping network, becoming a tiny link in that vast system.

"...In summary, the Dallama Kingdom and Umit are probably only on good terms in appearance. If Umit didn't have such a strong hold over the New World's shipping business, the Dallama Kingdom would likely have already fallen out with him. Of course, that doesn't mean the Dallama Kingdom wants to see someone else take Umit's place. They'd probably much rather see Umit topple completely and the New World's unified shipping network break apart once more. Only then would the Dallama Kingdom have a chance to break free of its predicament."

Dillon finished his explanation.

Beside him, Casper had long since fallen asleep, drooling.

Across from him, Dick had nearly scratched himself bald from sheer boredom.

Eschbach had listened attentively, though it was obvious he wasn't genuinely interested in the subject. He was simply listening very seriously.

As for Fran,

as Aleus's personal maid, she didn't care about anything that had nothing to do with his private life.

The four attendants had shown their different personalities from a young age. The kingdom's elite tutors hadn't tried to force them into different molds. Instead, they'd taught each according to his or her aptitude, providing the necessary combat training while shaping the rest of their education around their individual interests.

Take Dillon, for example. His respect for rules meant he could one day serve as the kingdom's minister of justice, while his skill at managing finances could also make him a capable minister of domestic affairs. He was arguably the most capable of the attendants.

"The Dallama Kingdom... The Dallama Kingdom Shipping Company... It doesn't matter what they think. Our job is to take down Umit and replace him. Anyone who refuses can be beaten until they fall in line. Umit isn't young anymore. It's about time someone else took his seat."

Aleus stared at the sea chart on his desk.

"Ever since the Three Great Powers—the Four Emperors, the Shichibukai, and the Navy—settled into a balance against one another, it's been a long time since anything... truly exciting has happened in the New World. The Four Emperors, the Shichibukai, and the giants of the Dark World have crowded out all the room at the top. It's rather frustrating!"

"Casper, you idiot, wake up! If you drool on my sofa, I'll throw you into the sea to fish for sharks!" Aleus slapped the desk.

Casper, still drooling, yawned and struggled to straighten his back. He casually wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, then peered blearily at Aleus behind the desk. "Your Highness, what are you up to now?"

His weak, exhausted voice made Aleus feel a little sleepy too.

"Casper, you... Tsk! You're unbelievable..." Aleus rubbed his temples. "I'm putting you in charge of bringing the Dallama Kingdom Shipping Company to heel. I don't care how you do it. Just make sure the Green Pillar Sea Area breaks free of Umit's control."

"Huh? Is it really that much trouble?"

Casper wore a pained expression.

But Aleus didn't bother looking at the man who was lazy to the bone. "Eschbach, take down the Gemstone Sea Shipping Company." He issued his orders to Eschbach, the largest of the group.

"Dick, the Heaven Commercial Shipping Company. You can handle that, right?"

"Your Highness, leave it to me! I guarantee I'll get it done."

Unlike Casper, who was too lazy to move, Dick had no objections to the new assignment. He accepted it eagerly.

"Eschbach."

Aleus turned his gaze toward his largest attendant.

"The Aliye Shipping Company is your assignment. Don't be too softhearted. This is the New World, a paradise for scoundrels. Don't let your kindness go to waste."

These four companies were only a part of Umit's Black Water Association. Even if they were all taken down, it wouldn't be enough to cripple him. The King of Maritime Transport wasn't someone who could be dealt with so easily. This was only a signal.

A signal of attack.

Letting Venkura go had been a warning. The actions that followed would be the signal to attack.

He would defeat Umit from every angle in the most open and upright manner possible, then take his place.

"The Black Prince? Uh, who came up with that nickname? Couldn't they have picked something more tasteful?" After the attendants left to make their preparations, Aleus picked up the day's newspaper and began reading. But after only a quick glance, he found a report about himself.

Although the New World's giants had learned about the battle on Whale Tail Island very quickly,

it wasn't really a major event by New World standards. It was just another commonplace war, except that more people had died this time. Even in the New World, battles that killed more than ten thousand people at once were rare. Pirate wars were usually fought in units of hundreds or thousands.

Even the Whitebeard Pirates, not counting their subordinate forces, had only around sixteen hundred members in all sixteen divisions.

The scale of a war like that was not large in itself.

But a small headcount didn't mean a lack of destructive power. In a world where individual strength had reached unimaginable heights, tearing apart a warship with bare hands was nothing unusual. So large-scale casualties like these usually meant a Tyrant had appeared.

"Come to think of it, it took them this long to give me a nickname? I guess I really didn't stand out much before."

Aleus read it over several times. The brief article described how he had wiped out more than twenty thousand enemies in a single battle, then made a show of the Black Prince's brutality. It wasn't very informative—just gossip to give the idlers in taverns something to talk about.

"But... I'll leave it at that for now. Whatever it is, I'll have to keep moving forward one step at a time."

Aleus shook out the newspaper and started reading from the front page.