A Tide That Would Never Rise

Leo had never believed there was anything to hide about rebellion.

Though they were still too weak for now, if he did not make his ideals clear—if he could not even be honest with his own people—then what right did he have to ask everyone to risk their lives and futures alongside him?

Dragon's method of revolution would not work.

Leo had known that from the very beginning.

Dragon's stance was firm, but he was full of impractical fantasies and adventurism.

The Revolutionary Army, represented by Sabo, was full of adventurism, causing trouble everywhere alongside the Straw Hat Pirates.

But in truth, they had won no benefits for the Revolutionary Army at all.

The Revolutionary Army's headquarters had been destroyed by the Navy. The entire Revolutionary Army had broken up into smaller units and scattered across the world to organize resistance, practically becoming guerrilla forces.

That should have been their policy from the start, yet they had been forced to disperse only after the government's suppression. How many casualties and how great a price had the Revolutionary Army paid before realizing they needed to break up into smaller units?

If Leo hid things while carrying out the revolution, all he would gain would be false lies and a group of believers.

But now, what he had gained was a group of ideological warriors who knew who they were, where they had come from, and where they were going.

Their faith was extremely firm, their stance would never compromise, and once they had grasped this concept, they would never retreat again.

Among those who truly joined, aside from steadfast revolutionaries, there could naturally be CP agents sent by the government. But Leo had no ability to identify spies right now, so he could only treat everyone as people genuinely devoted to the revolution.

When the voyage began again, the formation of four ships became this: the Cutlass Pirates' Great Bay Blade towed the Spade Pirates' Spade, while a Navy warship followed five kilometers behind as if pursuing them. Bringing up the rear was the Kuja Pirates' Perfume Yuda.

Everyone had gathered aboard the Great Bay Blade, while the Navy warship was merely crewed by several Amazon female warriors who followed them.

Aboard the Great Bay Blade, aside from their daily training, they also attended Leo's lessons every evening.

Leo knew their time was tight.

Because Iska had told him it would take them twenty days to reach Jaya Island.

Over those twenty days, he needed to instill his ideas into the Navy soldiers' minds as much as possible. Though they had accepted his ideals and believed the World Government was their enemy, that was clearly not enough.

They were like many rural people driven into rebellion. They simply could not survive any longer and were forced to rebel.

If they happened to have the right timing, place, and support—if peasants in other villages and cities also could not survive and rose up in revolt—then their ranks would grow larger and larger.

But if they happened to have no such luck and only rebelled locally, then they would be easily suppressed.

That kind of rebellion was useless, unnecessary, and doomed to fail.

Just like the scattered sparks of revolution that had ignited across the Eastern Continent, they had all been easily extinguished.

Rulers, especially feudal rulers, would never yield their interests, nor would they show any mercy.

Only when a tide of thought had swept across the entire Eastern Continent, when all Easterners had embraced the concept of a nation, and even the bureaucrats serving as lackeys beneath the feudal government no longer dared to kill revolutionaries for fear of future retribution—only then would the time truly be ripe.

So the first lesson Leo needed to teach these people was this: before the time came, preserve yourselves.

"Then when will the time be ripe?" The Great Bay Blade's cabin was far too cramped to hold two hundred people together, so they had no choice but to hold the lesson on deck.

Yet thanks to iron discipline, even with more than two hundred people gathered together, they could listen to Leo in complete silence.

The Navy soldiers' discipline was clearly not as good as that of the pirates, who had already trained for fifteen days. Iska stood up, raised her hand, and asked.

"Remember to say 'report' next time." Leo pointed at her as he spoke.

She stuck out her tongue, then sat down. She nudged Ace beside her with her elbow and made a face.

If she had once been a soldier and he a pirate, making it impossible for them to openly acknowledge their feelings, then now they sat aboard the same ship, having become one of their own. At last, they could honestly face their hearts and feelings.

Now they sat close together, completely ignoring everyone else's looks.

"When will the time be ripe?"

Leo paced back and forth twice, considering it. "That is a very good question."

"So when will the time be ripe?"

"Actually, if we do nothing about them, that time will never come."

!!!

Leo's words startled everyone.

"Are you surprised? Do you find it strange?"

"That is reality. We must seek truth from facts and follow the objective facts of the physical world."

"The fact is that before I came, you lived in a muddle. You did not even know who your friends were and who your enemies were. You poor people slaughtered one another over scraps of meat and bones thrown down by those above you. If I had not appeared, would you have known to resist the World Government ten or twenty years from now?"

Leo's words made the people below shake their heads. Indeed, if Leo had not appeared, they would never have learned such theories and knowledge. Even after a hundred years, they would not have known how to resist the government.

"I am not saying this to tell you how great I am. I am saying that the seeds of revolution need to be scattered, watered, cultivated, cared for, and protected!"

"The whole world is divided by the seas, and information is cut off. Outside their own sea, people know absolutely nothing about the world or the news from other seas. Other than the World Economic News Paper, people simply do not concern themselves with worldly affairs."

"Even the World Economic News Paper has no way to spread news to ordinary kingdoms or ordinary people. Its main audience is actually pirates."

"Tell me, if we want to plant this seed throughout the entire world, how much time will it take?"

Leo looked at their thoughtful expressions and asked.

Everyone fell silent.

"Report!" William raised his hand.

"William."

"Then is there no way for us to achieve this quickly?" William asked.

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