Amidst the cloudy waves, the sea was ravaged by a powerful storm, with lightning striking every now and then in the waters, hitting Sea Beasts and Sea Kings that poked their heads out, making them howl miserably before being swallowed by the waves.
This level of storm, even in the New World, is considered a high-level existence.
Amidst the storm, the gigantic Black Ship was sailing smoothly.
"You didn't have to come for this."
In the captain's cabin, Lily watched the cloudy skies outside and said, "Gin wants to lead the team out. He just got his ability not long ago; he needs a place to experiment."
"He has more important things to do."
At the desk, Sage was swirling the Gemstone Wine Glass and said:
"We need to deliver a batch of weapons. It's too slow to just rely on manpower. Gin's ability is just suitable; it will be faster if he uses his power. Business is all about doing it early to earn more, and I'm not the kind of person who can't keep a promise."
He took a sip of his drink and said, "Instead of worrying about this and that here, why not think about what to name the new city and change the kingdom's name along the way."
Teach left from here a month ago, distributed three fruits to his subordinates, and the business gradually got on track.
The weapons and cannons that Crocodile and Doflamingo needed were a bit slow just relying on handcraft. To meet the schedule for the first batch, Sage had Gin stay and use his Fruit Ability to melt ores for casting, greatly speeding up weapon manufacturing.
The city has now basically been rebuilt. The civilians responsible for city construction have new jobs. The subsidiary territories are lands with more land than people but because of having fewer people, there isn't much efficiency, so they can be sent there to extract resources. As the resources increase, they can also solve the employment problem.
For those unwilling to go, Sage selected some clever individuals to form construction teams. He allocated funds to them to travel to various places within the kingdom to rebuild factories and construct houses.
What?
Your house can be built by yourself?
Well, it might not be as well-built as by these professionals. This is personally designed by the high-ranking officer of the Disaster Pirates, 'Magician' Basil Hawkins, focusing on both practicality and aesthetics.
Would you just watch your neighbors' houses being grand and beautiful while yours is pitifully small?
Of course not!
Then, pay the money.
The land belongs to Sage, so when houses are built on this land, the ownership is his, but civilians have usage rights, which can be passed down.
As for this, a part of the funds is required to buy it.
If the money is insufficient, Sage, as the landowner, will offer loans, ensuring that within three years, people can repay the money without worrying about food or expenses, under the condition they have the ability to consume.
This is within those people's affordability.
Sage became increasingly adept at the left-hand to right-hand game, opening Lily's eyes.
All the things here belonged to Sage. If he wanted, he could take materials from the subsidiary islands for free, produce weapons without costs, but everything just needed to be paid for, which not only didn't make him poor, but also brought in a lot of taxes.
Most importantly, the city exuded unprecedented vitality; although it had only been a short time, the future looked promising.
However, the vibrant city and nation, Sage no longer wanted to use the names Gares and Augustine Castle. At this point, the civilians in his domain gradually recognized him.
In such a situation, changing to a new name would make Gares Kingdom become a thing of the past and truly become Sage's territory.
However, even though everything was on track, there were always small hurdles, like now...
Two days ago, Doflamingo called saying that the first batch of delivered ships wasn't selling well.
"Tias is just a duchy, even though it's a member nation of the World Government, it's not large in itself, and we can handle it. Sage, at times like this, you should stay in the kingdom, that's the poise of a Great Pirate," Lily said.
"What the hell poise does a pirate have?"
Sage rolled his eyes, "The pirate's main job is to rob. If I'm not robbing, what kind of pirate am I? Occasionally, I also have to do the actual job. We're already out; there's no need to say this."
The Tias Duchy, in the New World, took on a part of the World Government's shipbuilding industry. Although its area is not large, its shipbuilding industry is very developed.
It also snatched a part of Sage's business.
Most importantly, it's not too far, only five days' journey from Sage's territory.
Its location...
Sitting on the sofa, holding an ice cream in one hand and a Sea Map in the other, Renedia stretched out her little tongue to lick the ice cream in her hand and said:
"This location, if I remember correctly, it should already be in the territory of Kaido and Big Mom."
She still remembered that strategy map of the New World that Lily took out back then, and from the location, Tias was right there.
"Territorial boundaries are only a generalization. In fact, we ourselves don't know how many islands are around Gares because they aren't Magnetic Field Islands."
Lily said, "Even powerful as the Four Emperors, their territorial boundaries are not that clear."
Except for the important islands they should know about, territorial boundaries are indeed a bit vague.
There could even be a situation where a major territory of certain Four Emperors is just a few days south, and suddenly you encounter a Navy Base or a World Government territory.
In this part of the New World, the ones without influence are the Navy, not the World Government.