488. The Following Months

As usual, Buggy and Shanks have a big party with everyone after trying to kill each other in a fight. It's like they forget they've just sent deadly attacks at each other's throats a moment ago. They even dance happily while hugging each other on the shoulders.

Uta who has joined the Red Hair Pirates again for a year is still quite shocked by this. She doesn't know how these pirates can be so carefree. But the most shocking thing for her is how powerful these guys are and they are very different from the images of pirates she always thought of.

For her, pirates were ruthless people who would commit any sort of crime, and it's actually true for most pirates in the world. But now she finally finds pirates who don't do anything she thought pirates would do. The pirates around her now are just a bunch of carefree sailors who labeled themselves as pirates.

"Why are you in a daze, little girl?"

Mantis approaches Uta while carrying a plate of food for her. She thinks Uta needs to talk to other women because Red Hair Pirates only have men, so she decides to talk to her.

"I am realizing something important. My view of the world was so narrow and I judged everything too fast with limited information. It has just been a few weeks since we left the island where Leo and I trained, but I've already seen more things than all those years on Elegia."

"Experiencing things yourself is surely different than knowing it from others. After all, you can experience the real things and judge them by yourself. What others say always has their personal feelings mixed in it even though they are telling the truth. We all have our own views of things, so there will always be bias in what people say. Only through experience can you understand how to know the truth. So you need to experience more things, darling."

"I guess so. I've just realized how narrow-minded I was after I saw many things in Grandline."

Both of them have some deep talks while the others are losing their minds at the party. Mantis really just can't leave her motherly habit, that's why she talks to Uta because she knows this girl just needs some guidance from adults.

Talking with Uta reminds Mantis of her children with Cricket. They already have a 12 y.o daughter and a 10 y.o son. But their kids aren't here now, and so are the other members' kids. They were sent to East Blue, to Bellemere's care before the war started.

Even if they were confident they could win the war, there would always be the risk of losing. So they didn't want to put their children in danger by letting them stay in the New World. They will pick up their kids after this whole mess is over.

Well, not everyone sent their kids to East Blue though. Palu and Jude sent their 11 y.o daughter to Palu's parents' home in Birka. The little girl asked to live with her grandparents herself because she likes Sky Island, so they sent her there.

Anyway, the party lasts for a rather long time and Clownland holds the festival for a week. But even while having fun, the Clown Pirates and their men don't forget to do their jobs. They are still running their business behind the scenes and still observing what happens in the world.

The situations around the world have become more stable now. New World and East Blue don't change much, while Paradise becomes the most violent sea now with wars happening most of the time. It even starts to resemble New World except for the fact that the forces there are too weak compared to New World.

But their numbers keep increasing as many new pirate crews are entering Grandline from the 4 Blue Seas. Unluckily for them, the Marines have waited for them in Paradise. The Marines are focusing their force in Paradise instead of spreading it equally all over the world because they know a lot of these pirates will enter Grandline.

With so many high-ranking Marines including the Admirals on Paradise, the rookie pirate crews' chances of passing through that sea and entering the New World are very slim. Many rookie pirates fall even before they can spread their names. A lot of them don't even have bounties yet, but they have been defeated already.

The Marines don't want to take any risk, so they stop every crew that declares themselves as pirates. It is relatively easy for the Marines to stop these rookie crews even though their numbers are much higher than the Marines. After all, number isn't everything in Grandline, power matters the most.

Even so, there are still pirate crews that managed to slip through the Marines' defense. They are either smart or lucky to escape the Marines' pursuit. However, it would be a pipe dream for them to make names by causing problems in New World which is under the 3 Emperors' control.

The Emperor crews, especially Clown Pirates are very active in managing orders in New World. They can't slack off less the Marines use it as an excuse to cancel their agreement. The Marines promised to let them explore the Marines' & Government's islands in exchange for them managing the situation in New World after the war.

Obviously, the Clowns won't just buy it as it is because Pirates and Marines can't just believe each other. So to make sure they get their payment, the Clowns asked to explore the promised islands in the New World while maintaining the order of this sea.

The Marines can only agree because they really need the Clown Pirates' cooperation to handle New World now. Even after the situation starts returning to normal after 7 months, the Marines still can only let the Clown Pirates explore those islands.

As the Clowns have guessed, the Marines would breach the agreement if they could. Unfortunately for the Marines, even after they managed to stabilize the situations around the world, they are still faced with problems regarding the newly formed governmental system with the new World Government.

Many Nations are urging them to hasten the process of forming the complete New World Government. Obviously, the system has been formed by the new World Government since the group that handles this affair was known as the Revolutionary Army.

However, the Kingdoms and Countries that were once benefitted by Celestial Dragons' World Government's system are not satisfied with this development. They see this as a chance to get power and replace the Celestial Dragons, after all, so they are trying to take over the new World Government.

Of course, the New World Government and Marines know this very well. But they can't just oppose these Nations like facing pirates, they need a strategy. So they are planning to hold the first Levely of this new World Government era using the same schedule as the former World Government, which means it will happen in a few months.

But the ones that are invited to this Levely won't just be the affiliated Nations of the old World Governments. They are inviting almost all Nations worldwide. This includes those that weren't parts of the Old World Government like Wano, Elbaf, and even Sky Kingdoms.

That's right, the New World Government wants to include the Sky Islands in their ranks. Nations of various races that weren't part of them like Minks of Giants are invited into the Levely. They really want to create a world where all races and Nations live in harmony even if it will be very difficult.

Even so, this is their ideal and the Marines are happy with this. But it's also a problem for them because they are not close to those races and Nations. Instead of them, the ones closer to those races and Nations are actually the pirates, especially the Clown Pirates.

Not only Clown Pirates have visited almost every nation in the world as they are world explorers, they also forged good relationships with almost all races. It is proved by the compositions of their organizations. They have almost all races within their ranks from up to bottom.

Of course, it doesn't mean they are every Nation's allies. But most of the Nations that are hostile to Clown Pirates are human Nations. They have good relationships with other races, mainly because they treat them normally and they have a lot of business with those races.

That's why even though the Marines are reluctant, they can only agree to let Clown Pirates visit all their islands in the world. They even pay the crew to help them invite those different Racial Nations into Levely because it would be very difficult if the Marines were the ones doing it.

Of course, the Clown Pirates take this job happily because it's also a good chance for them. They can visit those places again and even strike some deals with those Nations for the future. Other than being pirates, they are also businessmen, so they can't let go of this big chance to have good deals with Nations that will be parts of the new World Government.

The Clown Pirates are very busy in the months after the war. They've predicted that the war would make them busy, but they are much busier than they thought. After all, they never thought that they would work together with the Marines, their great enemies.

But well, there is no real enemy in business, only profit and loss. They can always try to kill each other yesterday and be chummy today before going for each other's throats again tomorrow. That is the current situation between the Clown Pirates and the Marines.

Needless to say, the Clown Pirates are professional when it comes to business. They deliver the invitation quickly and do everything they can to persuade the various races to come to Levely. It took some effort, but they managed to make sure every Nation they invited would come to Levely.

The Marines and the New World Government are very impressed by how the Clown Pirates conduct their business. They never thought that pirates could be this professional. Especially a crew that is known to be the most playful and led by a literal clownman.

"Anyway, we've done our side of the deal. It's now your turn to do yours. Don't worry though, we plan to visit your islands after Levely, so you can focus on preparing things for that hot meeting. We still have some things to do, so we'll take our leave."

Buggy gets up and walks out of the Fleet Admiral room. A pirate meeting with the Admirals in the Fleet Admiral's room in Marine HQ would be a very unbelievable sight, but it is the reality now. Most Marines are still on edge every time the Clown Pirates come though because they are still enemies no matter what.

"Are we going back, Captain?"

"Yeah, let's relax a bit. I think it's almost time for those kids to return."

Cricket and Co understand what he means, so they grin just like him.

"I wonder how they grew in the last 2 years with everything that happened all over the world?"

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You can read more chapters ahead of my fanfics and more pictures on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.

Voting for this book is highly appreciate. Cover image is the MC, artist's ig: @fatmaqn_

I've uploaded Chapter 526. Leo vs Cracker

- Pictures of both stories (ex: bounty poster & magazine cover) by fatmaqn_

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