King Azka's Secret Card

Seeing momentarily the scene quieten down, Commodore Adkin once again fell into self-denial that doubted his life, "It was so easy to calm the situation, does it seem like I'm only fit to fight?"

"You are... Ensign Longinus of the Marine Corps? I have heard Cobra speak of you many times, though, and he speaks with great admiration of you, so let me hear what your marine hero has to say now, shall I?"

Although King Alabasta's tone was still somewhat arrogant, it was enough to turn the eyes of the crowd in the palace.

After all, even the kings of Cretan and Hisca had been reprimanded by him in the tone of superiority. So it was evident that the captain of the Marine only held a higher position in the eyes of the King of Alabasta than any other king.

The other two kings had also obviously done their research and knew that this Marine Captain was considered an iconic figure of the G2 branch, meaning that it wasn't out of the question that he would grow to be a huge figure in the Marine.

Therefore, these two kings were also very polite and said: "Ensign Longinus, I wonder how you feel about this matter as well?"

It caused the eyes of those famous ladies and noblewomen who were just eager to admire Longinus' face value to become once again filled with emotions.

"The southern part of Sandy Island is large enough to accommodate four kingdoms without difficulty, and the kings are waging war solely for the greater good."

"For example, the kingdom of Hisca, though rich, is small and poorly resourced, and is often at a disadvantage in terms of free trade, which is why it desires more land."

"The Kingdom of Cretan, with its hilly terrain, its rivers, and its lack of flat areas capable of growing large quantities of food, has the greatest demand for food among the four nations."

"Alabasta has a vast territory and a strong army, but in reality, it has suffered from severe internal conflicts and a lack of water, which makes it difficult to sustain a long war."

Initially, when they heard Longinus point out their country's shortcomings, the two kings of Hisca and Crete had frowned. Only after hearing that Alabasta's situation didn't seem much better than theirs did they cast their disdainful eyes on King Alabasta, saying in their hearts that it was no wonder that the older man had come to the peace talks. At the same time, they were surprised at Longinus' control of the whole situation.

King Alabasta's brow wrinkled, and his lips opened as if he was about to say something, but he quickly calmed his look and motioned for Longinus to continue.

"The Azka Kingdom has the largest granary among the four kingdoms, but suffers from a lack of proper trading channels, and thus desires the trade ports of the Hisca Kingdom."

"Hmph!" King Azka grunts in upset and says no more.

"It seems to me that the four kings could complement each other's needs, trade with each other to develop each other, and if they could turn today's peace talks into a mutual aid treaty, it would be a great step forward for any kingdom."

"Look ahead, there are more than a dozen countries on the island of Sandy alone, and beyond it, there are packs of wolves. The threat of pirates will never be out of date, and even the kings will have to pay a big tribute every year as heavenly gold, which is another heavy burden."

"So, the real threat comes from the outside world. If the four kings can put aside their past prejudices and work together insincerity, maybe in a few decades, this sea will have four more top powers."

The atmosphere in the room grows muddy with the situation and the inspiration of souls analyzed by Longinus.

Seeing that Longinus was able to surge the wind even in such a situation, the burning eyes of those noble ladies wanted to devour him alive. They somewhere in their bodies even grew faintly hot, causing them to tighten their legs shamefully.

King Hisca and King Cretan were the first to state, "We are willing to put aside our old hatreds and prejudices for cooperation if the two remaining kings are also quite sincere."

"Cooperation?..." the King of Alabasta lightly tapped on his armrest, which seemed hesitant.

King Azka, on the other hand, laughed out ridiculously, "I'm fine with the rest, but for one thing, before we begin your so-called pact, I want King Alabasta to compensate me for the war reparations of ten billion berries."

"Sheesh!"

There were many sudden gasps of cold air in the palace, was King Azka losing his mind? Even though they now knew that the Alabasta Kingdom wasn't as powerful as it looked, but at least up until now, the war situation was still one in which the Alabasta Kingdom held an absolute advantage. Was he trying to force the Alabasta King to fight them to the death?

After hearing King Azka's arrogant words, even Cobra's representative, who had been hesitant, said with slightly narrowed eyes, "King Azka, did I hear you correctly? Are you thinking you're having too much of a good time and want to try a little fall-out?"

"Humph! You'd better take a look at yourself before you say such things, and don't think I don't know the little things you've done in this war, but if you don't want to lose face or even be expelled from the ranks of the joined nations, you'd better have the sense to agree to what I'm asking." King Azka raised his neck proudly, feeling self-conscious of his grip on the other's lifeblood.

The crowd in the palace began to whisper. King Azka seemed to be relying on something with this gesture!

Longinus' brow frowned, it seemed that Kobra wasn't the only one who knew about Alabasta's secret contact with the pirates, but did he think that this scandal would bring down King Alabasta?

After all, the secret recruitment of pirates this kind of thing can be considered a private agreement between the countries. There is even no lack of the existence of such official pirate forces as the Eight Treasure Marine. Is that the Azka King two years ago contacted pirates to intercept the enemy fleet after the matter was thrown into the open, but also only made Azka's royal majesty and national credibility dropped a notch, and the substantive blow is not much.

In short, in the eyes of the World Government, as long as it did not plan a riotous uprising or a vicious event involving Poneglyph that could overturn its rule, that rotten regime did not care much.

So, King Alabasta calmly said, "Oh? Are you referring to the fact that I hired pirates to join the war? I am here to introspect deeply, and to assure you, in the presence of Commodore Adkin, that a similar thing will never happen again after that."

"Well, I've said what you wanted to say for you, do you have anything else to say next?"

Seeing King Alabasta's appearance of rogue behaviour, the other royal nobles were doubly frustrated in their anger, and this old guy didn't care about royalty at all anymore.

What does that leave them to do?

And the nobleman of Azka was sweating for their king, who probably didn't expect the older man to be straightforward when he went on the rampage!

Who knew that King Azka was still acting like an old god and sneered, "King Alabasta, you're skilled at avoiding the important stuff! Unfortunately, you may not have thought that my information is more detailed than you think."

"You purposely brought the talks forward to tonight, not at all because you were too busy with any domestic politics to leave the country for too long. You did so for the sole purpose of aiding one of the sea pirates you contacted to move secretly to kill us all in this palace!"

Published in Qidian, February 27, 2019