"One Piece:The True Codex"Chapter 381: The Mysterious Boss
Gin and Selkirk wolfed down several servings of pastries before heading back to the Starlight with William and Dampier.
On the way, Selkirk asked, "Do you think those people will try to run away?"
When they returned to the ship, William found that not a single crew member was missing. The news of his appointment as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea had already spread among the crew. Everyone now looked at William, the newly risen maritime overlord, with complicated expressions, unsure of how to interact with him. Only the eccentric doctor Hogback, who considered himself an early supporter, came forward with a smile, showering William with flattering words.
William paid little attention to the crew's mood. His next destination was neither the Calm Belt, where Vice Admiral Garp was being held, nor Marineford, the venue for the upcoming Shichibukai meeting. Instead, it was Water 7, where he intended to fulfill his promise to return the Starlight and Portia's group home.
Water 7
This city, renowned for its shipbuilding expertise, had been gradually declining due to the harsh commercial environment of the Great Pirate Era and a lack of resources. However, it now showed signs of recovery. Although orders remained sparse and profits were still meager, the operation of the maritime train had at least given the people a means to sustain themselves.
Iceburg, the apprentice of the legendary Fish-Man shipwright Tom, had recently gained fame as the owner of a shipyard. At this moment, he stood at the dock with a large group of workers and managers from his shipyard. They had cleared the area, seemingly waiting for someone.
Thanks to William's financial support, Iceburg's shipyard was the only one in Water 7 that had not only avoided shrinking due to the harsh environment but had even managed to expand.
Many people couldn't understand Iceburg or the intentions of his mysterious backer, thinking they were simply squandering money.
Indeed, though Iceburg was still young, his shipbuilding skills, organizational abilities, and boundless creativity surpassed those of many veteran craftsmen who had spent decades in the trade. Many of the craftsmen working under him were drawn not just by stable wages but also by admiration for his exceptional skills.
Even craftsmen from competing shipyards couldn't deny Iceburg's craftsmanship, despite their rivalry.
However, human ability has its limits. Even though Iceburg was a shipbuilding genius, he was still just one person. The decline of Water 7 was caused by the overall maritime environment during the Great Pirate Era and the island's geographical challenges, such as frequent natural disasters that submerged parts of the island, making it impossible to grow shipbuilding resources. This situation couldn't be reversed by one or two craftsmen or by shipbuilding skills alone. Even Tom, a Fish-Man genius, had only been able to give the people of Water 7 a glimmer of hope.
When William initially invested in Iceburg's shipyard, even Sherlock, who managed Morgan Group's finances, couldn't comprehend William's actions and had tried to dissuade him.
While William usually took his subordinates' opinions into account, once he made up his mind, no one could change it, no matter what they said.
To Sherlock and others who had thoroughly studied Water 7's environment, the city's current situation seemed like a dead end. A few maritime trains couldn't change the overall conditions.
If the goal was to acquire the technology for maritime trains, the initial investment was already substantial and had greatly helped Iceburg. But William had gone on to plan several rounds of funding, with an estimated total investment exceeding 2 billion Beli. If not for disruptions caused by Golden Lion Shiki and Marine Headquarters, William's plans would have already led Iceburg to acquire other shipyards in Water 7, further consolidating his position.
No one had understood William's actions until he unveiled his maritime train network plan. Only then did people realize that Iceburg and his shipyard were merely one piece of William's larger strategy.
The shipyard, still in its early days and currently in a phase of intense effort, required Iceburg, even as its boss, to frequently work on the frontlines. He had no luxury to sit in an office and detach himself from the craftsmen. Like the workers, he usually wore sturdy, labor-appropriate clothes and worked on the shipyard's construction sites. However, today he had dressed in a suit, and the workers accompanying him had also been instructed to wear formal attire.
A few foremen, accustomed to wearing loose and comfortable work clothes, stood awkwardly behind Iceburg. After a while, one of them asked, "Boss, who exactly is this person?"
The others chimed in, "Yeah, you've been so secretive about it. We've worked at this shipyard for so long, but we still don't know who the backer is."
"Has he never visited the shipyard because he's too arrogant, or does he not care about the money he's invested?"
Both William and Iceburg had deliberately kept the source of the funding a secret for the time being. The craftsmen at the shipyard only knew that the company had a wealthy backer who had given Iceburg a large sum of money. Even the group of students from the East Blue who had joined the shipyard during its early days had been ordered to keep quiet. While most workers knew these students were not locals from the Grand Line, only a few knew they came from the East Blue, and even fewer were aware of the specifics behind the scenes.
When news of William's battle with the Marines spread, Iceburg felt fortunate about the decision he and William had made. If the shipyard's deep ties to William had been revealed during the peak of tensions between the Marines and William, the consequences would have been disastrous.
But now, with news of William's appointment as the new Shichibukai spreading worldwide, and with Gin personally calling Iceburg from the Sabaody Archipelago to inform him that William would be visiting Water 7 in person and bringing a solution to the city's plight, Iceburg's worries dissipated. He was now openly meeting the company's true boss.
In the distance, a seemingly ordinary merchant ship approached the dock. The craftsmen began murmuring among themselves, feeling that the ship didn't quite match their expectations of a wealthy backer's vessel.
But when the ship docked and lowered its gangplank, and a young man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a black katana at his waist descended, the workers who saw his face couldn't help but gasp.
Seeing him, the ship's "ordinariness" transformed into mystery, and its "unremarkable" appearance became a sign of hidden depths.
Some illiterate workers who rarely read newspapers didn't understand why their colleagues' faces had changed so dramatically. They asked questions, and their coworkers whispered explanations about the identity of the blonde-haired man.
He was none other than the infamous pirate whose name was currently making waves across the world due to newspaper headlines. Once worth a bounty of 10 billion Beli, he was the only new Shichibukai to emerge from the East Blue—the sea widely regarded as the weakest. He was known as the "Lionheart King" and the "Pirate King of Nations," Morgan Stolt William.
For the first time, the workers at the shipyard realized that their mysterious boss was a globally renowned pirate.
(End of Chapter)
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