Chapter 139: Aftermath
"What are you all still waiting for?" Leo asked, looking around at the cheering, excited crowd.
"Send someone to notify the children staying in the village to come help. Arlong Park belongs to all of you now. Take stock of all their assets," Leo called out to the villagers as he stood beside Tashigi.
"Why are you so practiced at this?" Smoker couldn't help but complain from the side.
"Let's go! Time to loot the place!"
Leo was a pragmatist, so he certainly wouldn't waste the sea charts Nami had spent five years making.
With those charts, if nothing else, the foggy waters of the entire East Blue had already been opened up. For a country—no, for a faction—no, for a pirate, they were priceless treasures. Luffy's actions weren't wrong, but from Leo's perspective, they were far too wasteful.
It wasn't that either of them was wrong. Their roles were different, so the choices they had to make were bound to differ.
At Leo's words, all the villagers grew excited.
Though there were only around a hundred of them, and they had to pay Arlong one hundred thousand Beli in taxes every month, Arlong's territory clearly extended far beyond Cocoyasi Village. They had merely been sacrifices Arlong used to squeeze Nami dry.
Arlong had a vast stretch of other territory from which he collected taxes, then shared the proceeds with Colonel Nezumi. Those territories were inhabited by people living on scattered islands.
They should have been people struggling to survive in the cracks of this turbulent age, under the protection of the Marines.
Yet now, the Marines and pirates had colluded to oppress them. It was truly the greatest irony.
But now, these assets belonged to them. It might have been somewhat unfair to the other exploited