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  .....

  The Celestial Dragons lingered for a few more days to train their new sves.

  Smoker spent most of his time either wandering around in front of the Celestial Dragons or chatting with Gernika.

  On the fourth day, uhe watchful eyes of the entire Navy, the Celestial Dragon's ship slowly departed Primisoma Isnd.

  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

  Even for the Marines, dealing with the erratic moods of the Celestial Dragons was incredibly stressful.

  Serving a ruler is like living with a tiger, they say.

  But serving an uable and irrational ruler? That’s even more dangerous.

  Meanwhile, the women and children who had hidden in the mountains finally begaurning home.

  Since Smoker wasn’t sure if the Wover had left spies behind, he didn’t release the injured captives.

  He figured they couldn’t stay on Primisoma Isnd anymore. Better to take them somewhere else.

  Word was that Zephyr had retly taken over a non-affiliated nation with a popution she—sending them there seemed like the best option.

  It’d be tough starting over, but at least they’d be alive.

  The townsfolk gathered at the warship, bowing deeply in gratitude to Zephyr and the Marines.

  But their gazes toward Smoker were more plicated.

  While he was their savior, sparing them from svery, he had also executed hundreds of injured captives without hesitation.

  Gratitude mingled with fear and anger in their hearts.

  Smoker, however, didn’t bother expining himself.

  With the sound of the ship's horn, the warship departed the port.

  After anizing everything, Smoker returo the and room, where Zephyr was already waiting for him.

  "Brat, hand over those fine cigars you snagged!" Zephyr demanded.

  Smoker paused for a moment, caught off guard. They’d just witnessed a tragedy, with even some recruits lost, a Zephyr was already thinking about cigars and liquor?

  Then again, it made sense.

  Zephyr had fought pirates his whole life and had likely seen pces far worse than Primisoma Isnd—tless times.

  And as for fallen rades? He’d probably filled entire ships with their memories by now.

  Perhaps he’d just bee numb to it all.

  "Don’t tell me you’re pnning to keep it all for yourself!" Zephyr snapped.

  Smoker shook his head, snapping out of his thoughts. "I don’t know what you’re talking about..."

  "You think I don’t know? You took the Fang Pirates’ treasure chest! I don’t care about most of it—it’d just end up with the Celestial Dragons anyway. But the cigars and liquor? Those, you’re not keeping for yourself!"

  Scratg his head awkwardly, Smoker relented. "Alright, alright..."

  He’d thought he’d been discreet, but Zephyr had still figured it out.

  Smoker handed ilded box, which Zephyr eagerly opened, revealing dozens of premium cigars. The rich st of tobacco wafted out immediately.

  Zephyr took a deep inhale, a look of satisfa spreading across his face.

  "Ah... This is my orue indulgen life!"

  Without wasting a moment, he cut one open and lit it, exhaling plumes of smoke.

  "So, Smoker, why did you get that agent’s tafo? What are you scheming?" Zephyr asked through the haze of smoke.

  Smoker didn’t answer directly. Instead, he ged the subject.

  "Zephyr-sensei, isn’t it time for us to graduate?"

  Zephyr blihen nodded.

  "Yeah, five years sure flew by... But don’t worry, with your and Hina’s skills, graduation will be a breeze."

  Smoker’s abilities had long surpassed those of the other trainees.

  In fact, he was strohan most instructors, rivaled only by swordsmanship prodigy Gion and Haki genius Gaji.

  With talent like his, he was on par with legends like Sakazuki, Borsalino, Kuzan... and even Monkey D. Dragon.

  Not only that, Smoker had turhe elite Marine expansion css into something resembling another Base 161.

  The other trainees had been pushed to keep up, drastically exceeding expectations.

  Smoker reached for one of the premium cigars, but Zephyr quickly snatched the box away, clearly intending to keep them all for himself.

  Sighing, Smoker pulled out a regur cigar, lit it, and exhaled a puff of smoke.

  "I’m not worried about graduation. It’s what es after that s me."

  Zephyr frowned. "What do you mean?"

  Smhed again.

  "After we graduate, we’ll be assigo various branches, right? As someone who grew up in a base, I know how underfunded most of them are. And the smaller bases? They’re even worse..."

  Zephyr’s expression darkened as he nodded grimly.

  Marine Headquarters had no she of resources—manpower, ships, ons, whatever they needed.

  In theory, with the disappearance of Shiki, they should have been able to swiftly eliminate any major pirate threats with their full force.

  But the reality was far more plicated.

  The Wover stantly restrained Marine operations.

  To protect Mariejois, Marine HQ had been forced to struct tless fortresses, turrets, and stockpile ammunition.

  On top of that, the gover demahat Headquarters always keep at least half its forces stationed for defense.

  Mariejois was secure, sure.

  But most of the Headquarters’ strength was effectively useless.

  This left the Marines hesitant and underpowered when fag major pirates on the open seas.

  Yet when those same pirates attacked Headquarters directly, the result was a devastating one-sided battle.

  The best examples were Shiki and Whitebeard.

  Seven years ago, Shiki had stormed Marine HQ alone...

  Shiki was eventually captured alive and thrown into Impel Down.

  For Marine Headquarters, the losses amouo just a few hundred soldiers, a handful of warships, and some property damage.

  Years ter, Whitebeard's crew unched a full-scale attaarineford.

  Sengoku, Garp, Aokiji, and Kizaru fought with everything they had.

  The Seven Warlords either defected or stood by passively.

  To make matters worse, Bckbeard plicated things even further.

  Despite all this, the Whitebeard Pirates failed to achieve their goals.

  If it weren’t for Shanks’ intervention, they might have been wiped out entirely.

  Marine Headquarters, however, had bee imbanced—a fortress with high defense and low agility.

  Despite its reputation as the ruler of the seas, it posed hreat to the powerful pirates of the New World.

  The Wover allocates funds based on the Navy’s overall needs.

  However, a rge portion is wasted on unnecessary defenses for Headquarters, leaving the branches and bases severely underfunded.

  The stronger bases mao maintain some sembnce of order withierritories, while the weaker ones are stantly overwhelmed, barely able to respond to emergencies. Sometimes, they’re even annihited.

  It’s impossible to keep up. Simply impossible.

  Smaze was resolute.

  "Justice isn’t some lofty ideal; it requires resources—real, tangible funding!"

  "I want to try something new: making the Navy self-suffit."

  "What?!"

  Zephyr smmed the table and stood up. "No! Absolutely not!"

  As a former admiral, Zephyr kly what could happen if the Navy started raising its own funds. They could bee bloated and corrupt, exploiting allies by suppressing rebellions, hunting down pirate treasures, or eve prote fees.

  In no time, the Navy could amass a fortune.

  But the problem was that the Wover would never allow it.

  Their trol over Navy funding was a leash, ensuring the Navy never gained independence.

  Zephyr himself had been an admiral at the time. fronting the gover directly would have embarrassed them.

  Instead, they targeted his family.

  If Smoker tried something simir, the gover wouldn’t hesitate to strike back.

  Zephyr couldn’t allow his protégé to follow the same path!

  Smoker waved his hand dismissively.

  "Zephyr-sensei, I uand your s. Don’t worry; I won’t act recklessly!"

  "I know the gover won’t allow us to fund ourselves. But what if the money came from the Celestial Dragons instead?"

  Zephyr blinked. "The Celestial Dragons?"

  "Exactly," Smoker nodded. "Bancroft has been pining about how weak his sves are—they embarrass him in public."

  "So I was thinking: when ture pirates, why not sell them as sves to him?"

  "Normally, the Navy ’t cim bounties for captured pirates. But if we sell them to the Celestial Dragons, we egotiate a higher price."

  "I’ve heard pirate sves are stronger and more sought after. More importantly, for every pirate sve, at least ten oners might be spared."

  Zephyr pohis aually nodded.

  "I see. By targeting bounties and having the Celestial Dragons pay, the gover couldn’t object."

  The Wover allocates funds to the Navy in two stages.

  At the beginning of the year, they provide a fixed budget for basic expenses like food, housing, ship maintenance, and equipment development.

  At the end of the year, they reimburse the Navy for bounty expenses.

  The bounty system is tricky. Although the Navy advahe payouts, it isn’t allowed to collect bouself. This leads to billions in wasted potential every year.

  Smoker’s pn was to ge that.

  By selling captured pirates as sves to the Celestial Dragons, the Navy could earn signifit funds.

  Onsved, pirates wouldn’t live long anyway. When they died, the Celestial Dragons would simply dispose of the bodies.

  Such waste was intolerable to Smoker.

  He’d already made arras with Gernika, who would collect the bodies of the pirate sves and hand them over to Smoker.

  Since bounty cims only disappear when pirates are killed or imprisoned, Smoker po resell these bodies to bounty hunters at a disted price, earning a sed round of ine.

  As fernika, he wasn’t doing this for free.

  Bringing high-quality sves to the Celestial Dragons would be a major aplishment for him.

  Smoker smiled faintly.

  "Eventually, the other Celestial Dragons will catch wind of this. When that happens, Bancroft won’t be the only one w with us."

  "At that point, even if the gover objects, the Celestial Dragons themselves will defend the arra."

  Zephyr nodded. "What you’re suggesting might work. But having the Navy directly involved..."

  Smoker interjected, "We could create proxies or eveablish an underground Navy to ha."

  Zephyr was silent for a moment, lost in thought.

  "I’ll think about it..."

  "Oh, by the way," he added, "since you’re about to graduate, which base would you like to be assigo?"

  Smrinned. "Sabaody Archipego."

  .....

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