Sea Circle Calendar 1521, June.
Sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting mottled patterns across the dark, mirror-smooth floor. Dawn sat behind the broad desk, calmly watching the six subordinates who had just returned.
Two men and four women, dusty from travel yet unable to hide their elite bearing. They had spent more than half a year racing across the West Blue, finally taking over and absorbing all the industries formerly controlled by the four major bosses of the Underworld.
Lucci stepped forward first, his expression as cold as ever, and casually tossed a thick stack of documents onto the polished desk.
"Captain, the Buffalo Family's arms industry has been fully taken over."
Dawn nodded slightly, reached out, picked up the top few documents, and began reading through them.
There were many kinds of documents, but a large portion of them bore the word "APPROVAL" clearly printed at the top—standard contracts used throughout the Underworld.
His gaze swept over the signatures at the bottom, where one illustrious name after another from the West Blue's legitimate world was written:
Wealthy merchants, minor mafia bosses, kings, pirates... and even Marine officers wearing capes of justice.
"Tsk, this world really is beyond saving. It might as well be torn down and rebuilt."
In Dawn's view, given a seafaring civilization, merchants had to guard against pirates, so buying arms for self-defense was understandable;
It also made sense for kings, mafia groups, and pirates to need weapons to consolidate their power or carry out raids.
But the Marines, who represented the World Government's face of justice, also had to acquire arms through Underworld channels?
That could only mean the World Government itself had enormous problems with its military-industrial production capacity. A regime that had existed for eight hundred years yet could not even supply weapons