Pirate: It’s not a phantom beast, it’s a phantom god!

Chapter 277 Open the door! free trade!

Naturally, the group waited until late at night but Kaido never reappeared, and the promised small banquet was thus cancelled...

Of the two who were left behind, King and Bulfat, King seemed to have been released beforehand. However, he only went to the cafeteria to inform everyone that Kaido might not be available tonight before leaving.

Throughout the entire ordeal, King never revealed why Ra kept Kaido and Bulfat behind... and although everyone had some guesses, they all wisely refrained from asking.

In short, since King has said so, it seems that Captain Kaido is probably not coming...

In a moment of tacit silence, everyone quietly welcomed the sun of the second day.

……

The next morning, Taolong, Skypgate, and the others packed their things and prepared to return to their camp.

There are strict regulations governing the time these cadres stationed on the island can leave their posts, and this temporary special circumstance is no exception.

Originally, many people didn't accept these rules and regulations that were modeled after the Navy. After all, pirates are not the Navy, and they are inherently intolerant of these rules and regulations.

However, as Burfat tirelessly came down to inspect the island from time to time, and as these officers stationed on the island truly felt the improvement in the combat effectiveness of their troops under the so-called 'discipline,' they gradually began to take the lead in abiding by these not-so-lenient rules.

Of course, the principle of "what the superiors do, the inferiors follow" doesn't apply as much in One Piece.

Even with these high-ranking officers setting an example, the ordinary pirates below them still behaved the same way at the beginning...

Fortunately, the Beasts are a pirate crew that respects strength above all else. If they are too heavy-handed and kill some disobedient troublemakers, no one will care.

So, under the daily, "kind" educational stick of the officers, and the heavy monthly stipends of Berries, these undisciplined pirates eventually learned what it meant to obey orders.

It was precisely because of this discipline, which is almost unseen in other pirate crews, that Beasts was able to fight without being defeated in the great battle a few months ago, and keep casualties within an acceptable range.

Of course, besides following the rules of the pirate crew, there was another reason why they were in such a hurry to go back... According to the instructions given at yesterday's meeting, they might be setting sail to 'expand their business' in the near future.

When the enemy retreats and we advance, once there is no longer any danger on our homeland, it is natural to allocate the surplus defensive forces to external expansion.

Both of them knew perfectly well that the Beasts' next goal was to step out of the New World and expand their sphere of influence to the four seas and 'Paradise'.

These ambitious cadres naturally didn't want to miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and had to immediately return to prepare for battle!

"Please wait a moment."

Just as the two were about to board the ship, a voice called out to them.

"Huh? Wright, what brings you here?"

Seeing Light, who was nominally still part of his pirate crew but had actually become the Grand General of the Beasts, come to see him off, Skipgate greeted him with a smile.

Last night, he wanted to catch up with the other person, but he couldn't find him anywhere. In the end, he had no choice but to sit down at a table with Tao Long.

“Brother Skipgate… I’m sorry, Miss La called me to do something else last night, so I couldn’t have a proper drink with you.”

"Haha! It's nothing, you don't need to apologize."

"Miss La must have something important to discuss with you, right?"

"..."

Upon hearing his captain's words, Wright's expression turned somewhat strange.

Was what I did yesterday a proper thing?

I guess so, since it involves Governor Kaido himself and all the mid-to-high-level officers...

"Ah~"

Giving up on dwelling on this complicated issue, Wright took two documents out of his bag.

"Here you go. Miss Ra said you should go back and study this carefully, and never make the same mistake as Governor Kaido."

"Huh?"*2
With curious expressions, the two took the document and opened it—"Notification Regarding Comrade Kaido's Violation of Regulations by Drinking Alcohol During a Social Event, Causing a Major Safety Incident and Related Handling Results"

Skipgate: "..." Taolong: "..."

Well, it was somewhat unexpected, yet also quite reasonable.

It seems that Ra is taking the incident of Kaido almost drinking himself to death a few days ago quite seriously.

The entire document was handwritten... The two compared them and found that the handwriting was different, so each one must have been copied by hand.

Moreover, the characters... look a bit crooked and don't seem like Ra's handwriting. Instead, they are somewhat similar to Kaido's handwriting, but they are much easier to recognize than Kaido's.

Each letter, each word, is abruptly separated, with no legible connecting strokes. It's as if they're forced to write each stroke carefully, without the slightest hint of laziness or perfunctoriness.

"Miss La means that this document should be studied internally among your cadres, and that you should be careful not to drink excessively like the Governor."

La's attitude was never to issue a complete prohibition on alcohol, but rather to allow people to drink in moderation so as not to harm themselves or delay important matters.

Just like Kaido this time, he almost drank himself to death one minute, and then the next minute, before the start of his important meeting, he got himself all flushed and hot from drinking...

This is no longer just ordinary alcoholism; we must take strong measures!

However, in the end, Rai still gave Kaido some face.

It was called a notification, but it was only given to a dozen or so cadres; the people below didn't really know about the ridiculous incident where he almost drank himself to death.

……

"Well, I see."

Tao Long nodded first and put the notification document into his pocket.

He quit drinking a year ago and now only drinks a little on important occasions, otherwise he basically doesn't drink at all.

This warning document did not impose any real restrictions on him.

On the contrary, several of his combat squad leaders seemed to have this tendency, often drinking and firing cannons during battles...

[I'll have to remind them when I get back~]
Is there anything else?

Ignoring Skepgate, who was still agonizing over whether he belonged to the "very few cadres" mentioned in the document, Toron turned to Wright, hoping to hear what he was thinking from him.

Sure enough, Wright answered his question directly:

"There is indeed one more thing—the governor and his men seem to have decided to select a few officers to assist that Shichibukai in quickly establishing weapons sales channels outside the New World."

"Oh? When? Which ones were chosen?"

Tao Long then asked eagerly.

"The time hasn't been set yet, but it should be soon."

"Once we have fully integrated the arms alliances formed by those arms families into the Beasts' operating system, we can begin. I estimate it will be in a few days."

In fact, after Wright and the others saw the two off, they were going to contact Willie and ask him to get rid of that brat from the Media family and then take over Beasts' weapons export business completely.

Leave professional matters to professionals. After all, Wright is just a scholar, and he is already overwhelmed with work. He can't possibly handle everything all the time, so he needs to subcontract the work to others.

With the resource integration of the Beast Weapon production end now complete, it's time to send people out to advocate for 'free trade'.

"As for the candidate... it hasn't been decided yet."

"What? You want to give it a try?"

"..."

"Ah."

(End of this chapter)