Garling Learns His Lesson

Sea Circle Calendar, April 26, 1531.

Mary Geoise, Shangara.

"Father, what exactly are you waiting for?"

Shamrock viciously hurled a newspaper onto the mirror-smooth floor. The front page bore a shocking headline in enormous print: The World's Richest Man, Louis, Opens Businesses in Alabasta, Rapidly Reviving an Economy on the Verge of Collapse Due to Rebellion—Not Only Restoring It to Prewar Levels, but Showing Signs of Surpassing Them.

To ordinary civilians, Louis was a mysterious figure. Their daily food, clothing, housing, and travel were all closely tied to his name, yet few could describe what he actually looked like.

However, to the World Government that controlled the CP organization, Louis's identity was no secret.

Three months ago, when CP Agents learned that Louis had personally gone to Alabasta under the guise of opening businesses to help revive its economy, Shamrock had anxiously begged Garling to deploy God's Knights.

Yet Garling had remained unmoved, leaving Shamrock both furious and confused.

For three months, the first thing Shamrock did every morning was check the latest intelligence. He watched Louis open trading houses in Alabasta, watched city after city in the rebel regions get rebuilt, watched that man swagger about alive, alive, alive.

That fact was like a thorn buried deep in his heart.

Garling's gaze suddenly turned cold. Then he let out a soft sigh, lifted the celadon teacup from the table, and took a light sip of warm fragrant tea. The scent curled upward, but it did nothing to ease the heavy atmosphere in the room. "The disastrous defeat in the last Makaz Operation has already taught us a painful lesson," he said slowly, his voice low and firm. "Louis has very likely recruited a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user. We cannot be sure whether he deliberately exposed his whereabouts this time as