Trump Card

Chapter 37: Trump Card

"I want to create a new world with these two hands." Leo had grown uncomfortable from squatting for so long, so he simply sat down in front of Ace and smiled at him.

"But my strength is too weak, so I need people like you." He held out his arm. It was about as thick as Ace's, and he was similarly tall and well-proportioned, but there was a world of difference between their strength.

That difference came not only from the gap between their races, but also from the powerful physique Garp, the world's strongest martial artist, had forged through round-the-clock beatings with his Fist of Love.

Even without eating the Flame-Flame Fruit, Ace's physique should not have been much worse than Sanji's, and he was still far stronger in hand-to-hand combat than Sanji had been when he first set out to sea.

He had merely been unlucky enough to run into one of the few top-tier pirates in this world.

"Isn't having her enough?" Ace gestured toward the Empress.

"I already said I wanted to create a new world. How could one person's strength possibly be enough?" Leo rested both hands on his knees and looked at him with a laugh.

"I know you still don't trust us, but the most important thing in this line of work is openness and honesty."

"Lies cannot grow truth," Leo said with a smile.

"And."

"Don't you think this world is absurd?"

"Your father created a free and unfettered world upon the seas, but don't you think this world has not changed at all?"

"It is still the eternal chase of Marines after pirates, the same unchanging nations, and Celestial Dragons who sit back and enjoy the offerings of everyone beneath them. What fundamental change has this world seen, whether before your father became Pirate King Roger or after his execution?" Leo's expression gradually turned serious. "Oh, there are more pirates now."

"But is that a good thing?"

"Explorers, people who truly love adventure, have become fewer. These adventurers, who are completely different from pirates, are either slandered as pirates by the Marines or assimilated by pirates. Everyone has become an extreme binary thinker: either a Marine, a pirate, or a pirate hunter. There are no longer any free adventurers or explorers."

"Nothing has changed in this world."

"That's nonsense! The Pirate King ushered in the Great Age of Pirates!" Scar, the intelligence officer aboard the Spade Pirates, shouted furiously.

Before joining the crew, he had been a pirate enthusiast who loved pirate culture and worshipped Pirate King Roger. He held the Pirate King and his own captain in the highest esteem.

When he discovered that his captain was the Pirate King's son, the excitement in his heart had burst forth uncontrollably. Now that he heard Leo "insulting" the Pirate King like this, he would rebuke him even if it cost him his life.

"Scar! Shut up!" Ace's face was dark. His feelings toward Roger were far too complicated.

So complicated that even he himself did not know what kind of feelings he truly had toward his father.

He hated Roger for causing the death of his mother, Portgas. He resented Roger for abandoning his wife and child for the sake of the sea. He cursed Roger for filling his childhood with misfortune and danger.

Yet he also admired Roger, the great hero who had ushered in the Great Age of Pirates. He respected Roger, because he was the world's strongest father. He envied Roger, because he was the freest man in the world.

He... did not know how to judge Roger, so he had been extremely radical and cynical since childhood, until he met his two brothers: Sabo and Luffy.

Even now, though his temperament had settled down, he still did not know how to evaluate Roger.

"Roger died of illness." Leo's words stunned everyone into silence. The explosive revelations he had dropped today were more than they had learned in their entire lives combined.

"Roger was already terminally ill at the time, so there were many things he never had the chance to do. He left all the secrets behind on Raftel, the Final Island."

"Then, he lit the spark."

Leo did not think highly of Roger, but given his physical condition at the time, it was impossible for Roger to have done much of anything—but given Roger's personality, it would also have been difficult for him to truly do anything to overthrow the World Government.

In Leo's view, as long as the World Government remained, this world had no hope of salvation. In the end, the problem was the system itself.

"He left behind quite a few old companions and crew members, waiting for the arrival of a new era, waiting for someone capable of overthrowing the World Government; waiting for people like me, waiting for young pirates like you, not so brutal, not so foolish, not so ignorant, who had grown up amid suffering under the oppression and exploitation of the World Government."

"Have you forgotten how your brother Sabo died?" Leo's icy words left Ace drenched in sweat.

"As long as the World Government exists, who knows how many people like Sabo will die. Have you forgotten that too?!"

Leo had not told Ace everything, but if even this could not stir Ace's desire to rebel, then there would be no point in telling him that Sabo was still alive.

"What do you want to do?" Beads of sweat the size of beans slid down Ace's face. He stared wide-eyed at Leo, like an enraged guardian deity, yet the words he spoke brought a smile to Leo's face.

"Unite every force that can be united. First, bring over some Marines and officers who are dissatisfied with the World Government." Leo laid out his strategic policy. In this world, few people cared about political platforms. Slogans would not work. They had to truly see that something was feasible, practical, and possible before they would seriously listen to whatever slogans you wanted to shout about revolution or greatness.

In the world of pirates, fists ruled supreme. Most people would not listen to your slogans or your righteous cause. Perhaps Fujitora would listen and believe, but more people believed in fists and strength.

If you did not defeat them and beat them into submission, many pirates were impossible to communicate with.

Take Ace, for example. He might have seemed suave, witty, and kind when he first appeared, but that was only the side he showed Luffy and Luffy's friends. Hidden in Ace's bones was still the arrogance of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division Commander and the power of a Logia Devil Fruit user.

If Whitebeard had not defeated Ace, would Ace truly have submitted to Whitebeard? Would he really have listened to Whitebeard talk about all that family nonsense about sons and fathers?

Everyone already knew the answer.

PS: The editor said this book had too few people following it, so it was a flop. Of course, I know whether my writing is good or not. It is also my fault that I did not write the flavor everyone wanted. I also read the pirate revolution story someone recommended to me, but deep down, I still do not think pirates would follow and trust you just because you shouted a few slogans. That is why I have not written much of that so far. I will write it later, but that will be much further down the line. Just like at the beginning of the late Qing Dynasty, all the common people were ignorant and muddled, while the warlords were selfish and cruel. There is no savior. You can only carve out a new world yourself, nothing more. Slogans cannot save the pirate world. It is that simple.