SWNOVELXO Chapter 111: Chapter 111: Development
New World, Dressrosa Kingdom.
Everywhere you looked, the scene was unmistakably one of busy construction. Dilapidated houses were being torn down for reconstruction, and workers bustled back and forth, diligently carrying building materials. After the Umbrella Corporation reached an agreement with King Riku, the latter handed over the port area and the slums to the Umbrella Corporation for development.
In a simple warehouse, Gild Tesoro stood before a table, pointing at architectural planning drawings spread across it. He was deep in discussion with five contractors about the industrial park's development plan. Stella, clad in an OL uniform, stood beside him, observing and learning intently.
Uh-huh!
A thin red line pierced the void, accompanied by a burst of spatial ripples. Sephiroth, wearing a black cloak and a half-mask obscuring the upper part of his face, stepped out from the inner space of the folding door.
"Boss!" Gild Tesoro and Stella exclaimed in unison, bowing slightly and nodding in greeting.
"How is the industrial park's development progressing now?" Sephiroth asked, his voice sharp, standing by the table and glancing at the planning drawings.
Hearing this, Gild Tesoro quickly reported the current project's progress, "All slum residents have reached a demolition agreement, and we have arranged temporary accommodation for them... Since Whitebeard requested us to quickly supply a large number of weapons, the completion volume of other company orders has been relatively low recently, and revenue has also been affected, resulting in tight company fund operations. However, when we establish the industrial park on this side, I believe everything will be fine."
"Short on funds?" Sephiroth gently rubbed his chin and smiled. "Don't worry! Tomorrow, Saturday, you go and do something big with me, and you're guaranteed to get rich!"
"Doing something big?" Gild Tesoro and Stella exchanged glances, slightly confused by his meaning.
"You two make arrangements beforehand for the last ten and a half days. Tomorrow I'll take you on a long journey to replenish the company's funding source!" Sephiroth explained, still mysterious.
"Okay!" both replied in unison. Due to the peculiar situation, they could only suppress their curiosity and didn't ask specifically what was to be done. Instead, they began arranging appropriate work matters for the five contractor foremen.
Dressrosa Kingdom, southern city, Sebio.
On a wide street, a stone giant, over seventy meters tall, walked towards the kingdom's border. Pedestrians on the street were accustomed to this sight, so they didn't panic. Instead, they all made way and let the stone giant pass.
Scarlett, wearing a short blue coat on her upper body and short denim jeans on her lower body, sat leisurely on the giant's shoulder. Her eyes gazed towards the highest point of the Dressrosa Kingdom, where a black flag fluttered in the wind. The pink-haired girl's eyes were slightly bewildered, and her thoughts gradually drifted away.
In her original conception, Marines represented justice and pirates represented evil. However, it felt strange that after this country was placed under Whitebeard's dominion, the pirates passing through Dressrosa seemed to have transformed into law-abiding honest folk, who no longer dared to rob Dressrosa, even knowing how to pay for shopping and meals.
Sephiroth once told her that in this sea, pirates also had their own rules. The rules set by the Whitebeard Pirates were that territories placed under their dominion. If other pirates dared to cause trouble, it meant declaring war on the Whitebeard Pirates, and the other party would pay a heavy price!
The best example of this was Fish-Man Island. As the only way for pirates to go to the New World, Fish-Man Island was where pirates appeared most frequently. As a member of the World Government, it could not guarantee the safety of Fish-Man Island. Pirates causing trouble and hunting fish-men. The incidents were repeatedly forbidden.
However, fortunately, the current king of the Ryugu Kingdom on Fish-Man Island, King Neptune, had a close friendship with Whitebeard. So Whitebeard lent his flag to Fish-Man Island. At this point, incidents of pirates causing trouble and hunting fish-men "and so on" have seen a significant decline. Except for those pirates who used to cause trouble on Fish-Man Island, and those criminals, they now made up their minds not to step into the New World in the future, because they would be retaliated against by the Whitebeard Pirates! In addition, even if you stayed in Paradise, if you got into trouble with the Whitebeard Pirates, they could still return to the first half of the Grand Line through Fish-Man Island to cause trouble for you! This strong deterrent, even the Marines and the World Government couldn't achieve. Therefore, in the eyes of the residents of the Ryugu Kingdom on Fish-Man Island, the World Government was a garbage organization that required them to pay high protection fees every year, but never protected them...
A gentle breeze blew and stirred Scarlett's long hair, scattering it over her shoulders. She reached out and stroked the slightly messy strands on her forehead. Since Sephiroth said he liked to see her long hair unbound, she had changed her habit of wearing a ponytail.
However, Scarlett's swordsmanship teacher criticized her for this, saying that her hair was too long and casually spread over her shoulders, which would affect her vision during battle and bring danger. Scarlett thought for a moment, and she felt that the other person had a lot of merit in what he said! As a result, when she took swordsmanship lessons, she would use her hair tie to temporarily bind her hair tightly.
She had also once considered whether she already had the Ishi Ishi no Mi and possessed extraordinary power in herself, and whether there was still a need to continue practicing swordsmanship? In this regard, Sephiroth told her that Devil Fruit abilities were merely a means. If she relied too much on them, when these abilities were limited or restrained by other abilities, she would become very passive and even vulnerable... Therefore, Scarlett finally decided to continue practicing swordsmanship. She was preparing for a stronger route that focused on developing Devil Fruit abilities and was supplemented by swordsmanship.
Just as the pink-haired girl was deep in thought, high above in the sky, a slender figure with black wings spreading from behind him descended onto the stone giant's shoulder, moving from far to near. Sephiroth, leaning against the pink-haired girl, raised his right hand, pinched the girl's nose, and asked with a smile, "What are you thinking about? So lost in thought?"
"Thinking about you!" The smile on Scarlett's face was bright and sweet, and the girl naturally embraced him and rested her head on his shoulder.
Sephiroth glanced at the stone giant beneath him, and with curiosity, he asked, "How did you move these stones here?"
"I'm going to open a paved road between the two cities of Acacia and Sebio," Scarlett replied. The yellow mud roads in these two cities caused a lot of inconvenience for citizens on rainy days.
Hearing this, Sephiroth couldn't help but twitch slightly at the corner of his eye, and he silently said in his heart, Sure enough, again! Since Scarlett obtained the Ishi Ishi no Mi, she has gradually stepped further in the direction of an infrastructure maniac! Road hardening, bridges, house construction... In fact, Scarlett recently approached Gild Tesoro, wanting the other party to create engineering design drawings of the coastline for the Dressrosa Kingdom.
The girl wanted to transform and shape those mushroom-shaped rocks on Dressrosa's coastline. On the country's edge, high walls would be built to resist the invasion of outsiders. Except for necessary ports and city gates, the outside world would no longer be able to sneak into the Dressrosa Kingdom from the coastline! Had it not been for Scarlett's stony Ishi Ishi no Mi, which could change the shape and density of rocks at will, it would have been an extremely labor-intensive and incredibly vast project.
However, in the plan that Gild Tesoro asked his subordinates to design and provide, Scarlett would need at least one or two years to build that high wall!
Sephiroth stayed with Scarlett in the Dressrosa Kingdom throughout the morning before bringing Gild Tesoro and Stella with him, using a spatial passage, back to the Sabaody Archipelago and letting the two of them go to prepare for tomorrow's departure.