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He spoke, his fingertips tapping lightly against the smooth tabletop. "It doesn't rely on sails. It travels along fixed tracks at a steady speed and can withstand storms and towering waves."
He paused briefly, letting his words sink in.
"The tracks themselves mark the way, and the sound the train makes as it travels is said to discomfort the enormous creatures of the deep, prompting them to keep their distance."
Barely audible rustles of clothing rose around the round table.
Several pairs of eyes brightened-the two greatest headaches on the Grand Line seemed, at that moment, to show a glimmer of being **.
"The inventor is named Tom."
The young man continued, as though laying an invisible track. "A Fish-Man shipwright.
"Many years ago, he built a ship for that man-Gol D. Roger."
That name abruptly froze the air.
"I imagine every nation represented here has suffered unrest and pain to varying degrees because of that man's final words."
No one disputed it.
After those words, the number of pirates had exploded, sweeping across the entire ocean like a plague.
Armed bands of dozens or hundreds of raiders were disasters most towns could scarcely withstand.
Ordinary people lacked training. Their first response to blades was always to cower and flee.
Even with populations in the thousands, tens of thousands, or more, numbers often meant little before real violence.
Thus, nations had no choice but to rely on the Navy to eliminate large pirate crews while doing their utmost to assemble their own maritime forces to combat the small bands of outlaws scattered everywhere like gnats.
The powerful Five Great Nations had long since established enormous private fleets, even turning their weapons against the coastlines of non-Affiliated Nations.
"Making a craftsman who once aided a serious criminal surrender his blueprints