Chapter 52: Who Are Our Friends?
In truth, they only had time to think about these questions at night, when they lay in bed.
Leo had packed their training schedule full: morning exercises upon waking, marching drills, formation drills, musket loading, and Haki training in the afternoon. Even the comrades who had come from pirate backgrounds gradually grew stronger with the plentiful food and salted meat, and naturally, they too could join the Haki training.
Now, they had no desire to leave at all. They had thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the great cause of human liberation.
Lying in their hammocks, everyone's thoughts ran wild. Their minds soared freely as they all considered whether they counted as surrenderists, whether they harbored some kind of tendency.
The truth was that if Leo had not clearly pointed this out, everyone had carried such thoughts to some extent.
Even in Eastern countries that had been liberated for seventy years, many people who could eat their fill and afford internet access still believed, [The emperor isn't wrong; the people below him are.] Naturally, there were also many who thought, [I don't need the country at all. My parents supported me so I could eat my fill, and I built my own foundation with these two hands. I haven't paid a cent less in taxes than I should have. The country needs me; I don't need the country.]
But in truth, they were all wrong. They all leaned toward something, and they were all far too binary.
But once Leo pointed this out, the Marines' and pirates' thinking quickly changed.
No one was stupid. Many people were merely limited by their horizons and knowledge, leaving them with only this little understanding. But when someone like Leo, someone with a macro-level strategy, told them where the problem