Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
The highest floor of Pangaea Castle, the Chamber of Power.
The Five Elders were seated on the sofas inside the office, each of them holding a document, flipping through the pages again and again.
As they read on, their expressions grew darker and more strained, until a heavy, oppressive atmosphere filled the entire room.
"When Ortoren first arrived in the New World to take charge of the G-5 Marine base, G-5 had already suffered a devastating blow. Counting G-1 as well, the entire New World had fewer than forty thousand Marines at the time. Yet in less than ten years, by last year, when he governed the New World and declared war on the Whitebeard Pirates, the number of Marines under his command had reached two hundred seventy-six thousand seven hundred and twenty-six. And that's only what we were able to verify. After the war, not only did his forces fail to shrink, but according to our covert investigation at the beginning of this year, the New World Marines have already reached three hundred thousand."
Saint Saturn stared at the report, his voice low and heavy, his expression cold.
The Five Elders all looked at the figures in the report, genuinely stunned. How on earth did this man expand so fast?
Especially when they compared it to the military budget the Marine Headquarters had actually allocated to the New World, it became completely incomprehensible.
Ortoren commanded three hundred thousand Marines, yet over the years, Marine Headquarters had only funded a total of one hundred thousand personnel across bases like G-1, G-12, G-7, and G-3 combined.
The remaining two hundred thousand were largely maintained by Ortoren himself. A smaller portion consisted of garrison troops from the various countries under his jurisdiction, with those nations covering the military expenses themselves.
Not only that, for the entire New World force of three hundred thousand Marines, Marine Headquarters had only provided seventy warships over the years. Every one of those ships was assigned to bases like G-1, distributed according to each base's troop numbers.
In other words, the remaining two hundred thousand Marines under Ortoren had practically never received a single warship from Marine Headquarters.
And yet…
This report listed all Marine warship serial numbers that had appeared publicly in the New World over the past two years. Setting aside the seventy warships officially supplied by Headquarters, there were still another two hundred seventy standard-issue Marine warships that had already been confirmed.
Was this even remotely reasonable?
Two hundred thousand fully equipped elite troops, plus at least two hundred seventy warships that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. How did Ortoren support all of this?
Where did all that money come from?
In the past, the Five Elders had suspected that Totto Land was providing Ortoren with a steady stream of financial support. Now, it was clear that wasn't possible. Totto Land couldn't afford to sustain an Ortoren on this scale.
"Under Dressrosa's lead, the New World Maritime Police has developed for less than three years and already possesses five hundred thousand combat personnel…" Saint Nusjuro read up to this point and froze.
Less than three years, and they had built a five-hundred-thousand-strong maritime police force?
Judging by the timeframe, these were inevitably inexperienced recruits with limited combat strength, but the sheer number alone was terrifying.
In the past, they would never have taken this maritime police force seriously, dismissing it as a joke. But after Ortoren revealed his fangs, every single thing he had done proved to be anything but simple. The Five Elders could no longer afford to treat this force lightly.
That was precisely why Saint Nusjuro was stunned when he saw this figure.
Where did all these people come from?
How did they suddenly appear?
After a brief pause, he continued reading. A look of realization slowly appeared in his eyes as he said, "Five hundred thousand in total. Thirty percent of the recruits come from the New World, while the remaining seventy percent are from the North Blue. A maritime police force primarily composed of North Blue natives… the North Blue…"
As if something had clicked, Saint Nusjuro looked up and asked, "Over the past ten years, hasn't the North Blue's economy shown sustained growth, now exceeding its level from ten years ago by more than four and a half times? Haven't the number of North Blue member nations increased by six during this same period? And over these ten years, hasn't there been a single North Blue country that went bankrupt due to the Heavenly Tribute system?"
Because Saint Nusjuro was responsible for financial matters, he was well aware of the North Blue's economic surge in recent years. The data came easily to him. However, until now, he had never paid close attention to it.
Previous investigation reports had suggested that the North Blue's rapid economic growth was mainly due to the drastic improvement of its once extremely chaotic social environment over the past decade. Saint Nusjuro had assumed that this was simply a release of long-suppressed productivity after stability was restored, and that within fifteen years, it would slow down and return to normal.
But now, taking Doflamingo into account, things were clearly not that simple.
It was very likely that Doflamingo had bribed the economic oversight system in Mary Geoise that monitored the North Blue, which meant that for more than a decade, the understanding of North Blue's economic development had been fundamentally wrong.
This was entirely possible. After all, it wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Within the World Government, the bureaucratic system and the noble class were deeply intertwined. Even the Five Elders couldn't casually move against them, because these people made up the very core of the World Government's power structure. As a result, oversight was weak, and internal corruption was rampant.
As long as the money was there, it would be all too easy for Doflamingo to buy off those responsible for supervising the North Blue's economic development.
Thinking further, those officials overseeing the North Blue economy were themselves members of the great noble families of the North Blue. Forget bribery. There was a good chance they were already in bed with Doflamingo from the very beginning.
Long ago, they had likely already defected to Doflamingo because of the enormous profits generated in the North Blue over the years. And when you added Doflamingo's backing into the equation, the answer became even clearer. Everyone knew who stood behind him: Admiral Ortoren.
If the vast economic system of the North Blue served as the foundation, then Ortoren being able to support so many elite New World Marines and build so many warships was no longer difficult to understand.
At this thought, Saint Nusjuro's expression turned ugly as he spoke grimly, "Perhaps we lost control of the North Blue long ago, without even realizing it. Everything we've seen over these years, whether in the North Blue or the New World, is exactly what Ortoren wanted us to see. As for what's really happening underneath, we're already blind."
And Saint Nusjuro's guess was, in fact, correct.
At present, the North Blue's economy was tightly bound to the New World. The entire New World market was firmly in Ortoren's grasp. If Ortoren decided to shut down the New World market today, the economies of the North Blue nations would suffer a devastating blow tomorrow. Of course, that would also cause massive losses to Ortoren himself, so he would never do something like that.
But this also proved something else. Under Doflamingo's infiltration, the North Blue's interest groups had already fully aligned themselves with the New World. For the Five Elders to try to cut off trade between the North Blue and the New World now would be equivalent to carving flesh off the great nobles of the North Blue, bleeding them dry, and demanding their lives.
The major noble families of the North Blue would never compromise, especially given that the region's military power had already largely fallen into the hands of the New World.
Over the years, officers who came out of the G-5 Marines had two main paths. One was transfer to Marine Headquarters. But there were only so many positions there. No matter how extensive Ortoren's connections were, he couldn't monopolize them.
The vast majority of G-5 officers had instead taken up posts at the major Marine bases across the North Blue.
So despite Ortoren being the Admiral governing the New World, in reality, with a single order, the entire North Blue Navy could purge the World Government's authority and switch allegiance within three days.
From military power to economic interests, the North Blue and the New World were tightly bound together, to the point of near-total integration.
It was precisely because the North Blue's noble class realized that its military strength had long since fallen into the hands of that New World overlord that they dared to deceive the World Government so openly, and defect to the New World and to Ortoren without hesitation.
Those ruling elites who refused to submit to Ortoren had long since been wiped out over the past decade by Ortoren, Doflamingo, and the local nobles.
On the surface, the North Blue appeared calm and obedient over these years. When the World Government demanded payment, it paid. When orders were issued, it complied. It looked every bit like a loyal sea under World Government rule.
But in reality, the North Blue had long since become Ortoren's North Blue.
Most of the officers stationed at the major Marine bases in the North Blue had come from the New World Marines. The two major powers of the underworld, the Donquixote Family and Germa 66, had already pledged their allegiance. The nobles of various nations were gorging themselves on profits under Ortoren's banner, and the common people, whether in handicrafts, manufacturing, or agriculture, had all benefited from the economic dividends of the past decade.
How could people like that possibly remain loyal to the World Government?
They had long since sworn loyalty to Benn Admiral.