The second stop on the Whiskey Peak route was Little Garden, home to the two giants.
Given the Oran Empire's relationship with Elbaf, the approach to dealing with the island's two giants, Dorry and Brogy, was straightforward and forceful.
After easily subduing them, Axel contacted Elbaf directly and asked them to send someone to pick the pair up.
Of course, as a good friend of Elbaf, Axel did not forget to share some intelligence gathered by the Oran Empire's Intelligence Department before sending them off.
When it came to making life unpleasant for the World Government, Lind and his officers were professionals.
In the end, through a combination of force, personal ties, and intelligence, Axel successfully sent the two away from Little Garden. Whatever they did afterward was no longer his concern.
After they left, the Oran Empire also sent officials and merchants to develop Little Garden, building a harbor and supporting facilities while preserving as much of its original scenery as possible.
As an island that retained much of its prehistoric character, Little Garden was well suited to tourism.
At the independent kingdoms farther along the route, such as Alabasta and the Drum Kingdom, Lind and Axel took no particularly aggressive action. They maintained those countries' independence rather than incorporating them into the Oran Empire.
This was also one of Lind's ways of making the World Government and other countries less wary.
In his struggle with the World Government, the amount of territory directly administered by the Oran Empire was not that important, and expanding it offered Lind only limited benefits.
What mattered most was reducing the World Government's sphere of influence while expanding his own.
Thanks to Lind, countries such as Alabasta and the Drum Kingdom had not seen their economies or their people's living standards decline.
Instead,