The Marines Fall into a Trap?

This newspaper report had stirred up quite a storm. Not only did it contain information about the friendly relations between Tru Kingdom and the Marines, it also came with photos of King of Tru chatting with Aokiji.

Most importantly, Nova had no intention of passing up this opportunity to promote his country. The paper was packed with all sorts of flashy advertisements. In this era, after all, few people had yet realized the value of this kind of marketing.

But everyone at Marine Headquarters was now utterly dumbfounded.

Aokiji had yet to return to Marine Headquarters, but the Den Den Mushi in his arms had already rung an unknown number of times.

Inside Marine Headquarters.

"Wahahaha..."

The laughter seemed endless. Garp looked at Sengoku, and the moment he saw the newspaper, he could no longer hold back his laughter.

"Garp, you bastard, can you stop laughing? Weren't you going back to your hometown in East Blue? Get the hell out of here already. Don't let me see you again."

Sengoku roared angrily.

Yet Garp acted as if nothing had happened, continuing to laugh and eat. The newspaper remained in his hand, and in its most conspicuous spot was a photo of Nova and Aokiji.

"Who would've thought that a bunch of old geezers like us would be played like fools by a little king? He liberated a country controlled by pirates, and the key is that one of our Admiral candidates took part in it. That kid really planned this well. Even the World Government is probably getting a headache over this now, but they can't say a word about it."

Garp said with a laugh, though he also admired the other party's scheming. Seizing a country without drawing criticism from the outside world—that was the most brilliant method.

Most crucially, once this newspaper came out, it was as if Marine Headquarters had made an agreement with Tru Kingdom. An Admiral candidate had participated in that war, so no matter how one looked at it, Marine Headquarters could not escape this matter.

"Garp, what do you think we should do now? Before Aokiji left, I specifically told him that no matter what happened, he was never to get involved in a battle between two countries. But look at the situation now—it's already been announced so openly."

Sengoku said angrily.

"What's the point of pursuing that now? Instead of that, we should see what that little king is really after. I don't think this was an accident at all. The whole thing feels like a grand chess game designed to make us jump right in," Garp said.

However, as far as Nova was concerned, when he had first gone to Loguetown and placed no restrictions on his subordinates using their abilities, his original goal had been to get the Marines to casually send someone over, so they could prove that his country had friendly relations with Marine Headquarters. Although the situation had undergone a fundamental change, the final outcome was still the one they wanted.

The war between the two countries had even pushed the matter to new heights.

As a result, the entire Marine Headquarters was in a complete headache over it. This was exactly the kind of situation they least wanted to see.

Marine Headquarters had always upheld Absolute Justice, favoring neither country nor faction. But because of this incident, the scales of that so-called Absolute Justice had begun to tilt.

No matter what, this matter had a considerable impact on the Marines, yet they could do nothing about it. After all, the Great Pirate Era had already arrived. The major forces across the seas were gradually merging together, and the age of pirates had reached its peak.

The Marines were already exhausted just dealing with the pirates, let alone a distant Tru Kingdom far beyond their reach.

South Blue had always been the weakest of the four seas. Even after something like this happened, Marine Headquarters could only suppress the matter.

Still, inside Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office at Marine Headquarters, Garp and Sengoku looked at each other. There was probably an indescribable bitterness in both their hearts.

Garp did not care much, but Sengoku was truly at his wits' end. Despite being known as the wise general, he could not come up with a good solution for the moment.

"I'll head back tomorrow. This matter won't have much of an impact on the Marines. I believe King of Tru won't do anything excessive. Once the pirate situation settles down, we can deal with this then," Garp said.

"That's all we can do."

Sengoku nodded as well.

But what they did not know was that in the days to come, Tru Kingdom's commercial development would advance at a staggering pace.

All merchant ships flew the flags of Tru Kingdom and the Marines as they sailed across the seas. Even when they encountered pirates, they no longer needed to avoid them. Even if they passed right beside them, few pirates dared to make a move.

That was Nova's true objective. Commerce was the economic lifeline of the country, and this was the cheapest and simplest method, yet it could maximize the benefits.

After this incident, leaving aside whether the surrounding countries had any designs on Tru Kingdom, they would not dare take any action based on strength alone.

Ever since Roa Kingdom had been occupied, Tru Kingdom's territory had leaped to become the largest country in South Blue.

Its population had likewise become the largest among all the countries in South Blue.

Tru King's Palace was still the same one as before. Nova had not chosen the more luxurious Roa King's Palace.

Instead, he chose to tear the entire place down and move everything valuable into the Royal Treasury.

If they truly used Roa Kingdom's former palace, leaving aside whether people with ulterior motives would criticize them for it, those things offered them no benefit anyway.

Tru King's Palace was close to the coast, and Royal City had already become the core area of Tru Kingdom's economic development. Those things could not simply be abandoned.

Nova did not share King Roa's mentality. Making one's residence so luxurious was completely pointless. Rather than that, it was better to improve the country's economy.

Yet most kings had never considered such things, or perhaps they had no concept of them at all.

They had hardly cherished the thrones passed down to them. Otherwise, their countries would not have become so poor and destitute.

One month after this matter ended, Tru King's Palace held its first major conference.

Many people attended this conference, roughly a hundred or so.

Tru Kingdom also began planning special reforms of its own.