One Piece: Failure’s Road to the Pirate King

In the Royal City of the Deep Forest Kingdom, the architecture resembled that of the Indian tribes from Sage's memories, especially the palace, which featured massive stone steps leading up to square, intricately carved buildings.

It gave off a feeling that there were many treasures hidden here.

After dealing with the hundreds of gathered soldiers, Sage strode directly into the palace, while a dozen Pirates spread out to search for the wealth stored within.

At this moment, inside the stone-built royal hall, atop the high steps, Sage sat in front of the stone throne, one foot resting on the armrest, reclining at an angle, propping his head up with his hand, watching Akin check one box after another.

"Empty."

Akin flipped over a box and stated, then continued to the next one.

"Empty."

He flipped over another box and looked into the next one.

"Can you even tell if a box is empty or not?"

Renetia, curious, ran over and pushed open a wooden box, which was completely empty.

"It's empty!!" A vein popped on her forehead.

This scene made Sage, sitting on the throne, twitch at the corner of his eye.

They had found the treasure chests, but they were all empty!

Not a single Belly was found; his subordinates had worked hard for a long time, only to find some supplies, which were worth less than the King's corpse—at least the corpse was adorned with quite a bit of gold.

"Captain, we found a guy claiming to be the steward!"

A Pirate dragged a middle-aged man, cloaked and wearing a fancy feathered hat, to the front of the hall and threw him to the ground.

"No, please don't kill me!"

The man knelt on the ground, his butt sticking up, hands clutching his head, trembling in fear. "I can tell you anything, please spare my life!"

"Steward Gadri, long time no see." Marika smiled gently.

Hearing the voice, the steward looked up in shock, "Marika! Is this your revenge?"

"You could say that. In any case, I'm about to join this Pirate Crew formed by a bounty of seventy million, and Captain Sage here is troubled because he can't find any treasure."

Marika maintained her smile: "So, could you please tell us where the treasure is?"

Sage cast an approving glance at Marika.

After killing that King, it seemed this woman had made up her mind to join the crew.

"T-treasure…"

The steward stammered, "There's no treasure. All the collected money was handed over to the World Government by the King."

"What?!"

Sage was taken aback. "He paid that much? Not a single coin left?"

Sage didn't know how much heavenly gold was, but he knew that with the King's habit of needing money everywhere, it was impossible he couldn't gather enough for heavenly gold.

"N-no, Captain. The King thought the kingdom was too poor and lacked resources, so he wanted to exchange for another country, thus paying more to the World Government in hopes of trading for a new wealthy nation to become its King."

The World Government was indeed a colossal entity, but it didn't encompass the entire world; it only included about half of the countries. There were still many unjoined nations in the world, and even in the East Sea, half of the countries did not belong to the World Government.

It wasn't that those countries didn't want the protection of the World Government; such situations were rare and belonged to powerful nations that looked down on joining the World Government and paying a hefty sum of heavenly gold.

The vast majority of countries simply couldn't afford that much money, so they weren't protected and lacked the 'human rights' within the World Government's jurisdiction, making them easy targets for conquest.

However, there weren't many powerful nations within the World Government's realm; they were all on par with each other, and some were even weaker than those unjoined nations. The sea was so vast that even the World Government might not know the locations of all the unjoined nations.

Even if they did find a country, with the strength of a single kingdom, it would be difficult to launch an expedition.

After all, local defenses would always have an advantage over attacks from afar.

And this King of the Deep Forest Kingdom thought that since he couldn't do it himself, he might as well hand it over to the World Government, paying extra each time, hoping they would give him a wealthy unjoined nation in exchange, allowing him to become the King of that country.

The Deep Forest Kingdom was indeed very poor; the only resource it could produce in abundance was fruit, which the King exploited to the limit, even selling people to the Bridge Kingdom, leaving only a small amount of money, and that portion was also handed over to the World Government, so there was definitely nothing left.

Sage clicked his tongue: "Who did he hand it over to? Do you know where they are?"

"N-no, I don't know. I only know that every year, it's delivered to government officials along with the heavenly gold." The steward replied.

Great, so it was all gone.

What good were government officials? There were only two types: one that embezzled for themselves, and the other that reported honestly and then got embezzled by those above them. But either way, it had nothing to do with Sage anymore.

"What about the nobles in your country?" Sage asked, unwilling to give up. "They must have money, right?"

A country couldn't possibly have only a King; there would definitely be nobles as well.

"The nobles are in the villages. Their money has also been collected by the King, but there should still be some left. I can lead you there!" The steward exclaimed.

"Forget it. It's too time-consuming." Sage thought for a moment and decided to abandon that idea.

A continent has many villages and towns, but the nobles would definitely be scattered. Not only would it take time to rob them, but they might not even have that much money.

Moreover, he was a Pirate, not a bandit. Their ship was still docked in the shallows; if they took too long, they would easily be discovered by the Navy.

Bang! Sage stood up and kicked the stone throne to pieces. He looked down at the kneeling steward and said irritably, "So I came all this way, and the most valuable thing is the gold on the King's corpse?"

"W-we can tax the commoners now! No, I'll go collect taxes right away!" The steward immediately said.

"Forget it, I'm not interested in the poor, and…"

Sage walked down the steps and glanced at the entrance. "Whether you can still collect taxes is uncertain. Let's go!"

He stood up and walked straight out of the palace doors. In the town below the palace, the commoners, armed with pitchforks and wooden sticks, gathered together spontaneously. Upon seeing Sage, they automatically split into two rows, clearing a path.

"Lady Marika!"

The commoners saw Marika behind Sage and were about to speak, but Marika blinked, placed her index finger on her lips, and made a shushing gesture.

The street leading to the entrance fell silent.

It wasn't until Sage walked out of the Royal City that he turned back and asked, "Aren't you going to say hello?"

"Ah, well, as someone about to become a Pirate, it's better not to say hello. Otherwise, if the people in the city are thought to be colluding with Pirates, it would be troublesome."

Marika smiled: "You've done what you said, so I will also agree to your request and become your crew member."

In her eyes, Sage had fulfilled his words, killed the King, broken the kingdom's gate, and allowed the people to return.

Without the King, there would be no heavy taxes, and everyone could have enough to eat.

As for other matters, "Oh!!"

Suddenly, a thunderous cheer erupted from the Royal City behind them.

"Why are they shouting so loudly?"

Renetia turned back to look and asked, "Is it that happy that the King is dead? Well, I guess it makes sense; I was quite happy when Mordok died too."

"That's different. You were seeking revenge; they are celebrating the end of heavy taxes, so no one has to go to the Bridge Kingdom anymore."

Lily said, pausing for a moment before adding, "Probably."

Whether they could resist and change their situation or would be suppressed and return to the way things were, no one could say for sure.

"What do you think, Sage?" she asked.

"Why should I care?"

Sage sneered: "I'm just a Pirate here to rob. I don't care what happens to them; the opportunity has been given. If they have the ability, they should make their lives better. But…"

He sighed: "What a waste."

"Waste?" Lily asked, puzzled.

Sage declared earnestly: "Of course! If I had such a large territory and so many people, I would definitely iterate new strategies around specialty products, align granularity, promote information without barriers, leverage distribution capabilities to pry into vertical fields, and ultimately achieve value conversion, then I could make a lot of money!"

Lily: "…"

Although she didn't quite understand, she had a premonition that Sage's continuous entrepreneurial failures might not just be bad luck. She changed the subject: "Why not try recruiting them? They don't seem opposed to Pirates, especially with Miss Marika around."

"With Marika, and then dragging her to play in the sand for two years, these people aren't suitable to be Pirates."

Sage shook his head: "Besides, I've already walked out, and not a single person followed me, which means they don't want to be Pirates. Let's look elsewhere."

"If it's for crew members…"

Marika thought for a moment and raised her hand: "Captain, I have a suggestion. We could try going to the Bridge Kingdom."

"Oh?"

Sage's eyes lit up, a smile creeping onto his face: "Right, I have plans for the Bridge Kingdom!"

"What?" Lily instinctively asked.

"Let's go to the Bridge Kingdom!"

Sage waved his hand: "There's definitely someone I want there!"