"Hey, Hancock!"
"Huh?!"
Hancock was delighted.
Good had called her name on his own initiative. Was this a marriage proposal?
Watching the woman crouched beneath the mast, seemingly lost in some wonderful fantasy, Good did not know whether to laugh or cry. He turned and left.
"Let's head back to the fortress first."
In the conference room on an upper floor of the fortress.
Good stood beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the fortress square below, where quite a few soldiers were doing physical training.
Their spirits were excellent.
Good looked at Lucci and the others.
"What do you think?"
"Very impressive!"
Apart from the taciturn Lucci, the others all voiced their amazement. This fortress had truly opened their eyes.
It was every bit the equal of Enies Lobby.
Had the World Government built it, they would not have been surprised. But these were pirates. Since when could pirates achieve something like this?
"The Hoenn Government was only recently established. We currently have just seventeen affiliated nations, only a tenth of the World Government's number. In addition, three large fortresses and over a dozen small and medium-sized fortresses are under construction."
Good took out a map and outlined the Hoenn Government's situation.
In the North Blue, there were ten affiliated nations, including the Rune Kingdom. Here in the New World, there were seven, including the Land of Laborers.
If he wanted, he could easily double that number, but more affiliated nations was not necessarily better.
What he needed was not a loose alliance like the World Government, formed to collect the Heavenly Tribute, but a highly centralized, powerful nation firmly under his control.
His will was the will of every affiliated nation of the Hoenn Government!
Only then would the nations stop acting independently and attacking one another, instead