Chapter 140: Research Progress on the Airship

"The Seven Warlords of the Sea?"

Garen's immediate reaction upon hearing this was, "But I'm not a pirate!"

"Well..."

Garp's voice came through the Den Den Mushi, followed by a moment of silence before he replied, "Actually, the Seven Warlords of the Sea aren't really considered pirates to begin with."

That was true enough:

The Seven Warlords were simply the Seven Warlords; from an official standpoint, they were supposed to be collaborators with the World Government.

It was just that almost all members of the Warlords happened to be pirates, which led the Marines and ordinary people to view the title "Warlords" as synonymous with heinous and monstrous pirates. Meanwhile, to the pirates themselves, the Warlords were just lackeys of the World Government who had betrayed their own class.

In short, the reputation of the Warlords was far from stellar.

Without much further explanation, Garp said to Garen, "Kid, if you don't want to be one of these Warlords, then just don't do it."

"You're not a pirate anyway, so there's nothing that old fool Sengoku can do to you no matter what! Haha..."

"Sengoku..."

Hearing that name sent a chill down Garen's spine.

Whether Garp had done it intentionally or accidentally, Garen immediately realized that he, this fattened-up pig, had already caught the eye of high-ranking figures like the Fleet Admiral of the Marines.

"Senior Garp!"

After a mere two seconds of hesitation, Garen said righteously, "I accept this position as a Warlord!"

"From now on, I will firmly support the rule of the World Government and safeguard..."

"What kind of nonsense are you babbling?!"

Garp snapped irritably, uttering words that felt entirely inappropriate for a Marine Vice Admiral: "What is there to protect among that bunch of trash in the World Government?"

"Ahem..."

Getting a bit too carried away with his roleplay, Garen suddenly remembered he wasn't being interviewed by a reporter, and couldn't help feeling a bit awkward. "Sorry, wrong script."

Garp didn't care about this little interlude and unceremoniously began explaining the onboarding process for a Warlord:

"Since you agree to be a Warlord, Marine Headquarters will immediately send a Headquarters Vice Admiral to confirm your intentions in person and sign the official Warlord treaty with you."

"Once that treaty is signed, you'll be an official member of the Seven Warlords."

"Understood."

Garen nodded readily.

Fortunately, he only needed to receive a Marine Vice Admiral; they weren't making things difficult by forcing him to barge into Marine Headquarters alone to hold some grand initiation ceremony.

"Kid,"

After a brief pause, Garp suddenly said in a rather inexplicable tone:

"Over the past few months, the number of pirates entering the Grand Line from the East Blue has plummeted. Smoker has packed up and sent so many pirates back to the Marine prisons that several warships aren't even enough to hold them all. This is something I've never seen in all my decades as a Marine."

"What you've been doing in the East Blue—both Sengoku and I appreciate it!"

"......"

Another wave of scalp-tingling chills washed over Garen's back.

It was one thing for Garp to appreciate him, but Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, also "appreciated" him, a regional warlord?

All those things he did in the East Blue were completely reasonable and legal, but viewed from another perspective, every single one of them amounted to subversive acts of undermining the World Government's foundations.

Yet Garen was truly overthinking it.

Because in this world, there were countless powerful individuals openly holding up banners and opposing the World Government; how could Sengoku possibly have the energy to bother with Garen, a "friend of the East Blue Marines" who at least had the decency to keep up appearances?

Compared to the other Warlords, Garen's actions were practically indistinguishable from those of a "law-abiding citizen." Naturally, the World Government wouldn't push such an emerging powerhouse—one who could be recruited as an asset—further toward the pirates.

"Senior Garp?"

Garen asked cautiously into the receiver:

"Do you mean..."

"You want me to keep a lower profile from now on?"

"A lower profile? Hahahahaha..."

The sound of Garp slapping his knee and roaring with laughter came through the receiver.

When the laughter finally subsided, the perpetually unserious Hero of the Marines turned genuinely serious:

"Your actions suit my tastes, which is why I help you and teach you—simply so you can go a little further."

"When you were as weak as you were in the East Blue, I told you to keep a low profile."

"But now your growth has exceeded my expectations, so what I want to tell you is this:"

"Once you become a Warlord, don't degenerate into the same kind of scum that both you and I despise!"

"Carry out your sense of justice to the very end!"

Garen gripped the Den Den Mushi receiver tightly, deeply moved in his heart.

Now he finally understood how the Hero of the Marines had managed to raise an entire family of criminals...

"I will certainly not live up to your expectations."

Garen instinctively straightened his posture, making his promise to Garp just as he had when they parted ways in the East Blue.

Garp gave an approving chuckle, and the call was disconnected.

Garen gently set the receiver back down, though his expression remained somewhat profound:

Whether the righteous knight he was portraying was real or fake, even he himself could no longer tell.

.......................................................................

The first thing the newly appointed lord did was pass all the work off to his secretary, Miss Robin.

Princess Vivi had originally been a capable secretary under Garen, but now that she had recovered her noble status as a princess, it was naturally inappropriate for her to continue lowering herself to work for Garen.

Of course, Nami's lingering glare of displeasure was likely one of the reasons Vivi chose to temporarily step back.

However, back during Crocodile's era, Robin had been the one managing all affairs in Rainbase, so she handled this administrative role with practiced ease.

As for the sole government matter in his territory that Garen personally spearheaded, it was the establishment of the Rainbase Floating Technology Research Institute.

This research institute was no ordinary place:

It was Alabasta's most cutting-edge lighter-than-air craft research institution, as well as a key technologically supported project of the Rainbase regional government, boasting abundant funds, advanced philosophies, and technological innovation.

Current staff: one director, one researcher, one doorman, one security guard...

Well, they were all named Kentucky.

On this day, the chairman of Demacia Logistics, the lord of Rainbase, and the not-yet-officially-inducted Warlord Lord Garen personally inspected the Rainbase Floating Technology Research Institute.

Garen affirmed Director Kentucky's scientific research spirit and academic attitude, and delivered an important speech on the subject of lighter-than-air craft research:

"I've given you this much time and this much money!"

"And this is the round piece of junk you've managed to make?"

Garen pointed at the few helium balloons floating inside the laboratory, gesturing angrily at Kentucky's nose as he lectured him: "Do you have any idea how much effort it'll take to mass-produce airships out of this?"

Living under someone else's roof, one has no choice but to bow their head.

Faced with Garen, a completely layman superior, Kentucky could only offer a weak and weary defense in a low voice:

"This gas is easy enough to produce..."

"But there's still a very long road ahead from laboratory preparation to industrial production."

Garen didn't give him a single moment to catch his breath, pressing on relentlessly: "How long?"

"I... I don't know."

Kentucky's eyes drifted as he guiltily replied, "I'm the only one doing research here..."

"Sigh..."

Garen let out a long sigh and delivered a merciless critique: "As expected, just a second-rate scientist!"

First-rate scientists in another world could handle all academic disciplines and all tasks single-handedly, just like Iron Man building a combat suit out of a cave with a box of scraps.

Moreover, right here in this pirate world, people had long since manufactured mature levitation equipment.

Although the principles were unknown to him, Garen knew that people in this world could even use balloons to drift all the way from the ground up to the moon.

Hearing Garen's words, Kentucky's face flushed red as he retorted with a hint of grievance:

"This isn't my specialty!"

"What I study is biochemistry! Biochemistry, I tell you..."

"Biochemistry?"

Garen irritably rattled off a bunch of terms whose names he only vaguely recognized:

"Then can you do genetic modification? Can you clone? Do you know what a genetic lock is?"

"What on earth is a genetic lock?"

Kentucky looked utterly bewildered.

"Ahem..."

Realizing he might have slipped up, Garen put on a cold and detached facade and said:

"Genetic locks are not yet an academic field within your reach."

Mulling over Garen's previous words, Kentucky cautiously probed:

"Lord Garen, are you also familiar with cloning technology?"

"That is a secret on the open seas that outsiders are absolutely not supposed to know..."

Garen immediately widened his eyes and pressed, "You know how?"

Kentucky's eyes darted around evasively, keeping his mouth firmly shut.

In the end, he simply said, "No."

"Sigh..."

Garen sighed softly, resigning himself to disappointment as he said, "Then you'd better just focus on studying the industrial production of helium!"

With that, Garen turned to leave.

However, Kentucky quickly called out to him:

"Lord Garen!"

"Although helium production is low right now, if we accumulate enough over time, we can produce enough for a single airship."

"Oh?"

Garen's eyes lit up:

"In other words, I can use this to build a flagship for myself?"

With a flagship capable of floating in the air, Garen could freely travel back and forth between the Grand Line and his home base in the East Blue, which would be unimaginably convenient.

Furthermore, while plenty of people in this world mastered Moon Walk, true powerhouses with the stamina to continuously step on air all the way up to altitudes of several thousand meters were scarce commodities. The safety of using an airship as a flagship could be considered reasonably guaranteed.

If he were to paint shark teeth on the bow of this flagship and equip it with high-explosive Buggy Balls, he could truly experience the thrill of a Kirov airship raining fire from a height of a thousand meters.

"About that..."

A troubled look resurfaced on Kentucky's face: "The helium is enough, but the kind of levitation vessel you've envisioned isn't just about floating."

"Lightning protection, wind resistance, weight capacity, sun protection, explosion prevention..."

"Gondolas, gasbags, engines, propeller fans..."

"All of these require professional design. A chemist like me can't possibly handle all of that. You should go look for professionals to help."

"Professionals?"

Garen's excitement immediately dimmed as he muttered to himself:

"Where on earth am I supposed to find that kind of black-tech talent..."