"Haha, looking down on pirates?" Shirogai smiled faintly as he sized up the handsome middle-aged man laughing before him.
"Heh, I always thought that dark, wealthy merchants like you, the ones ruling the underworld, loved pirates the most."
That was, in fact, the truth.
Most of the income that flowed into the hands of shadowy power holders like Tesoro came from industries intertwined with piracy.
More than half of the customers in the world's largest entertainment city were pirates. His long-standing cooperation with the Donquixote Family involved weapon trafficking, drug trade, human trafficking, and countless other black market dealings.
Almost every major client and supplier in these industries was inseparable from pirates.
Although some pirates held onto misguided ideals, the overwhelming majority followed the most primitive and brutal pirate code.
Burning. Killing. Robbing. Plundering.
These were not deviations, they were qualifications.
And the channels for laundering stolen goods and reckless spending could never be separated from the underworld emperors who silently supported them.
If the World Government ruled the surface of this world, and the Four Emperors ruled the seas from the shadows of notoriety,
Then these hidden dark force leaders, unknown to the masses, were the true uncrowned kings of the underworld.
If it were not for the tangled, chaotic, and mutually restraining relationships between them, if someone truly united all their power, they would undoubtedly rank among the three most terrifying forces in the entire world.
And perhaps not even third.
"Pirates?" Tesoro laughed heartily and adjusted his slightly disordered clothes.
"I do like pirates very much."
"In a world like this, being a pirate is indeed a fine profession, especially for a man as powerful as you, someone who could even face the entire Marine Headquarters alone."
Then his eyes narrowed with faint mockery.
"However, the speed at which pirates make money is far too slow. Even pirates at the level of the Four Emperors earn at a rate not worth mentioning."
"After all, the most profitable industries in this world will never fall into the hands of pirates, who stand on the opposite side of justice."
"If it is not pirates who truly make money," Shirogai replied calmly with a smile, "then who does?"
"The underworld rulers like you?"
Tesoro let out a low chuckle filled with disdain.
"The most profitable business does not belong to us who live in the shadows."
"These days, the most profitable word in the world is 'justice'."
He looked straight into Shirogai's eyes.
"Only under the banner of justice can the greatest wealth be gathered."
"Compared to the so called rightful plunder carried out by the World Government through its countless member nations, even the fortunes of the underworld are insignificant."
Shirogai rose slowly from his seat and glanced at the magnificent golden hall around them.
"As long as pirates exist in this world, the World Government will always have an excuse to demand 'protection fees' from its member nations."
"As long as pirates are not extinct, those nations will forever be attacked by so called pirates who plunder food, arms, and vital supplies."
"Pirates will never be extinguished."
"The Marines will never truly wipe them out."
He smiled faintly.
"After all, if all the mice were caught, why would anyone still need cats?"
"Cats are not fools, and what kind of cats are the World Government, really?"
"They are not cats at all. They are lions, baring their fangs while licking the blood from their claws."
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
"Hahahahaha! Shirogai, that was truly amusing."
Tesoro applauded with genuine interest, his favorable impression clearly deepening.
"Indeed, if there were no mice, what purpose would those cats serve?"
A flicker of painful memory passed through his eyes, and the mockery at the corner of his mouth deepened.
"If someday all the mice truly vanished, I fear the cats would be the first to suffer."
"Some of the smaller cats might even be forced to become mice themselves, just to be hunted by the larger ones."
He sneered.
"No, I misspoke. Those are not cats at all. They are man-eating lions."
"In the eyes of such lions, people are no different from mice."
Tesoro felt no goodwill toward the Marines.
He felt even less toward the World Government.
And for the Celestial Dragons who stood above it all, his heart held only hatred and resentment.
But he was no longer the powerless sixteen-year-old boy he once was.
Though his chest burned with fury whenever he thought of them, he would never reveal it to anyone.
Not to anyone.
Because Tesoro knew that even though he now controlled nearly twenty percent of the world's circulating Berries, a fortune that stunned the entire world,
Compared to the Celestial Dragons who truly controlled this world, he was still far too weak.
Yet he believed in one thing above all else.
As long as he continued to accumulate wealth like this,
He would one day use the very 'power of money' he once despised to force those Celestial Dragons who looked down on him to kneel before it.
Money was power.
Even if the Celestial Dragons ruled through authority, so what?
Power could never exist without money.
One day, he would become an existence even more noble than the Celestial Dragons themselves.
And that Celestial Dragon would pay for the mistakes of the past.
Stella.
One day, I will make that damned Celestial Dragon regret being born into this world.
"Stop lying to yourself."
Suddenly, a cold, smiling voice echoed within Tesoro's mind.
"You will never dare to become an enemy of the Celestial Dragons, because you know the truth…"
The voice pierced through him without mercy.
"You will never earn enough Berries to force the Celestial Dragons to submit."
"The reason you can grow so fat now is because they are deliberately raising you like livestock, waiting for the right moment to swing their scythe and harvest everything."
"You..."
Tesoro shot to his feet, rage and panic exploding across his face as he pointed at Shirogai in disbelief.
"You can read my thoughts? What kind of Devil Fruit ability is that?!"
Under his furious and shaken gaze, Shirogai rose slowly.
His expression was neither triumphant nor cold, only disappointed and faintly disdainful.
"Tesoro," Shirogai said calmly, "you are truly pathetic."
"You clearly know that no matter how rich you become, you can never stand against the World Government."
"And yet you still use this endless gold to deceive yourself."
He spoke slowly, his voice steady and merciless.
"Just endure it a little longer. Just endure it a little longer. As long as I earn more money, I can have my revenge."
"In just this short moment, I have heard that inner echo repeat itself countless times."
"I wonder how many times you have lied to yourself already."
"You have grown accustomed to this illusion as if it were medicine."
Shirogai's gaze sharpened.
"The woman you loved was killed after being used and toyed with by a Celestial Dragon for three years."
"And you were powerless."
"At the time, you believed it happened because you had no money."
"Now you do have money."
"But you have lost the courage you once possessed at nineteen."
"You have matured. You have become steady. You have grown rich."
"And you have lost your spine."
Your own experiences tell you that the Celestial Dragons are the most untouchable beings in this world.
So you neither dare to provoke them,
Nor even dare to think of raising a hand against them.
"They enjoy themselves freely within your Golden Kingdom."
"You could take their lives with a single thought."
"But you do not dare."
"Because of that fear, you abandoned your original desire for revenge."
"You are angry. You are resentful. You hate them to the bone, yet you remain helpless."
"So instead, you redirect your hatred toward your guests."
"You design traps for them."
"You strip them of all their possessions."
"You drive them into desperation until they sell themselves or their families."
"And from that, you obtain a twisted sense of pleasure."
"Yes, in your own mind, it is not your fault."
"It is the fault of this world."
"Everyone kneels before the force of money."
"And you once knelt before it too."
"And now, you fool yourself into believing you are the god who wields it."
Shirogai looked at Tesoro, whose face had turned from red to a deep, livid purple.
His voice held nothing but contempt.
"You have always known who your true enemy is."
"And yet you still bow your head in submission."
"The penniless youth you once were had the courage to resist for the sake of love."
"But the man you have become is nothing more than a coward haunted by the terror of the Celestial Dragons and enslaved by money itself."
"You possess both wealth and power now."
"And yet you can only smile and bow before those you hate."
"You are weak."
"And the weak are unqualified to stand by my side."
"I misjudged you."
Shirogai turned his back without hesitation.
"Farewell."
As his footsteps faded, the entire golden hall began to tremble violently.
The walls shook. The floor roared.
From behind him came a hoarse, furious roar filled with madness and despair.
"What do you know?! I am not a coward!!!!"
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