Turn Fourteen

Gideon was awoken early the next morning as a call had come in from Ilisia. Groggily, he asked, "What's the matter?"

"Last night after your speech, many of the refugees were radicalized into zealous followers of yours. There are tens of thousands who want to join the Royal Army and help you destroy the World Government. Many were off-put when they learned of the two conditions for joining. However, a little over five hundred still passed. A few thousand have passed the first round of Lyra's saying that they will retry after they have fully recovered. And I am sure that most will succeed," Prava informed him.

"I have five hundred soldiers to induct into the Army?" Gideon rhetorically asked in shock.

"Yes, my lord," Prava answered respectfully.

"Alright, first I need to know which can be made into captains, no more than fifty. Then I need you to organize the names with a preference for those that agree to conquer territories in West Blue. It seems like we will have all of West Blue under our control after the next offensive," Gideon informed her. "Since you have created so much work for me, I'm going to return the favor. You have a week to organize the invasion of the entirety of West Blue. Get me the ordered list as quickly as you can. I was hoping to try and continue the original topic from yesterday with the ministers today at noon."

"You should have the updated list within the hour, my lord," Prava said then ended the call. *katcha*

After doing some quick math on what to expect for his time constraints for the day, Gideon called Thalassa Lucas's number and connected with one of the former king's aides. Gideon informed the aide that he would be at minimum an hour late for the meeting and to not expect him to show up until two in the afternoon. Gideon then flipped over and went back to sleep until a token came back with the transcribed list. With a longing look at his warm bed, Gideon left for the Library grumbling about his stupid decision to be a responsible ruler.

Once he reached the Library, he began the all too familiar task of cycle casting. Nearly five hours later he was done. Overall, his army of tokens gained nearly +300/+300 again, making the strongest around 650/650. While the list of Celestial Dragons dropped by another twenty-three names after four more rounds of lightning.

After drinking an Elixir of Immortality, Gideon was on his way back to Ilisia in the Sanctum. While traveling, Gideon called Morgans again.

*pele pele pele pele pele*

*pele pele pele katcha*

"Emporer Gideon?" came a new voice from the other end of the line.

"Yes, is Morgans free?" Gideon answered.

"Yes! Yes! Please don't hang up! I'll go get him!" the voice shouted and diminished as it ran away.

"He does know that he could have taken the Mushi to Morgans instead, right?" Vali asked mirthfully.

"Probably, but my guess is he was hired specifically to sit in a room waiting for my call. I doubt he has answered the Mushi before, so just didn't think of it," Gideon thought aloud.

"That's a rather arrogant answer to a rhetorical question," Vali muttered.

"Gideon! That last headline was amazing! The news shook the whole world!" Morgans exclaimed with joy.

"Oh? Any particularly interesting stories to share?" Gideon asked with disguised interest.

"Yes! Do you have any new news to share?" Morgans asked.

"Yes, how about a trade? Five amusing anecdotes from the reactions of the last news for the current news. I will warn you that the news this time is nowhere near as explosive as the last," Gideon proposed.

"Easily done! First, two of the Five Elders fainted from anger when they read my latest paper. You should check the paper they are publishing today for a nice surprise. Second, the Red Hair Pirates threw a party in your honor!" Morgans started.

Gideon interrupted, "The Red Hair Pirates throw parties for everything, that barely counts."

"Thirdly, Whitebeard congratulated you for 'taking the sea's greatest pirates down a peg'. His and Shank's lackluster attitude means that only the Beast and Big Mom pirates are fighting over new territories. Fourthly, multiple kings have called each other to discuss separating from the World Government. The Five Elders supposedly have something planned for these nations. Finally, the Revolutionary Army is wishing to coordinate with you the destruction of the remaining Celestial Dragons. Now, what do you have for me?"

"Since we have last communicated, an additional twenty-three Celestial Dragons have died. Their names are..." Gideon informed Morgans of the current deaths.

"That is only worth two anecdotes, surely you have something else for me?" Morgans pressed.

"The West Blue Empire officially welcomes around eighty percent of the freed slaves as citizens of our Empire and given all the protections afforded to all other citizens. On a side note, tens of thousands of freed slaves are in the process of taking up arms to destroy the World Government that enslaved them," Gideon added. "And don't think I don't know how impressive it is for you to publish consecutive details of dead Dragons in your paper. That info is worth at least four anecdotes."

"Alright, that is worth all the information I have given you," Morgans said. "I gotta go. Big News to spread!" *katcha*

Gideon flew the remaining time to Ilisia in silence, planning his speech. He was trying to make it as convincing as possible so that he didn't have to worry about large resistance movements from Ilisia's influential as he planned for the next stage of territorial expansion. Once he made it into the current government meeting hall of Ilisia, he saw all of the current politicians of Ilisia looking at him with a new level of fear and respect.

"What happened?" Gideon questioned the assembled crowd.

"You have gotten your first bounty, Necromancer," Lucas responded.

"Come again?" Gideon prodded.

"The World Government has declared you the Fifth Pirate Emperor, Legion Master Gideon," Lucas answered. "You, and your notable Generals, have all been given bounties by the World Government and been declared pirates. Though your bounties are quite generous for first-timers."

"Oh, who has bounties, and how high are they?" Gideon asked.

"Necromancer Gideon 5,100,000,000 Berries the highest active bounty.

Fallen Archangel Akroma 3,000,000,000 Berries

Beastly Prava 2,000,000,000 Berries

Guardian Vali 1,500,000,000 Berries

Bloody Sword 1,400,000,000 Berries

Fallen Angel Lyra 500,000,000 Berries

The rest of your active 'crew' you had before you conquered Ilisia gained 100,000,000 Berry bounties. It is stated that your legions come from a devil fruit that allows you to turn corpses into weaker versions of others, such as your own followers. Which is why your legions have very little sentience since they are dead. It is also suggested that you have another power to strengthen all of your legions temporarily via human sacrifice. Your human sacrifice also being a weapon that can attack people over long distances. So the reason you kidnapped all the Celestial Dragon's servants was to use them as sacrifices."

"That is quite clever. The World Government has expertly learned to sling mud and wash their own hands simultaneously," Gideon smirked. "The only way for me to effectively dispel those incredibly harmful rumors would be to give the whole world precise details of how my devil fruit works. Either way, the World Government benefits."

"You're just going to surrender your devil fruit info that easily?" Vali asked aghast.

"If he wants to clear the stigma around himself and his new government, he has no choice," Lucas added.

"Basically, it's either be an evil necromancer pirate worse than Kiado and Linlin combined or display enough about my fruit to dispel those rumors and turn the World Government's narrative against them," Gideon added. "So, I want you to call Morgans and invite him to Ilisia for a live worldwide demonstration of my abilities, Vali. While she is doing that, can we please start the meeting?"

"Of course, Emperor," Lucas said.

Gideon walked up to the center podium and began. "Essentially, this is the government structure I will put in place in every kingdom that I take over. It is designed to limit the king and empower the people. The government will be divided into three branches. The Royal, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The Royal Branch is your position, Lucas. The current monarch declares an heir, blood-related or not, trains that heir until they are ready, then abdicates power to that person. The Legislative Branch is the branch of the people. There are one hundred members in it who are elected by the citizens via popular vote, they stay in office for eight years and twenty-five positions are replaced every two years. The Judicial Branch is my branch. There are nine members, they serve for as long as they want. Once a member decides to step down, the angels will go through a list of citizens who wish to replace them. The angels will select names who pass their judgment. Then the list is given to you. You select a name from that list and give it to the legislative branch, and they vote on it. If it passes, that person is the next Justice, if not, you choose another name, until they do. If no one passes, the angels place whomever they want from the list in that position."

"Alright, that is a complicated process. Is this all really just to limit the power of the King?" Lucas asked with a frown. The same frown all the ministers were wearing.

"Yes," Gideon said simply. "I trust that you are a good king, I have seen that for myself. I do not trust that your biological heir will also be a good king. Nor their heir, or their heir, and so on. I could get involved in removing bad kings, but that would create more discontent in my Empire than if I were to simply limit the influence of all kings once."

"Alright, you described the conferment process of these groups. What are their duties?" Lucas asked.

"The kings maintain all of their previous powers. Except that they can no longer create laws, just Royal Decrees, and all laws ever created by the previous kings becomes Royal Decrees. All laws will have higher authority than Royal Decrees. Any Legislator can propose laws and the Legislative Branch can pass them as long as there is greater than fifty percent support. You then can block that law if you disagree with it. The law returns to the Legislators who can pass it against your wishes if they have greater than two-thirds support. Any law or Royal Decree can be stricken from the kingdom if at least five of the nine Justices agree that said law/decree causes greater harm than benefit to the citizens of the kingdom. Additionally, while law enforcement remains your power, sentencing is now under the power of the Judicial Branch to set up as they see fit. Lastly, if for any reason, either other branch decides the current monarch is unfit for duty, and they convince two-thirds of their branch of the same, they can pass the vote to the other branch. If that branch passes the same vote, the current monarch is removed from power and their heir replaces them. If the current monarch has not determined an heir, then the matter goes back to the traditional determination of an heir," Gideon stated.

"So if I don't keep at least a third of my population happy with me, I'm gone," Lucas said with displeasure.

"More like if you cannot keep at least a third of your most influential people happy with you, you're gone. But I fail to see how that is any different than your current situation. The citizens do not directly control your fate, the people they elect do. The wealthy of the kingdom control the jobs of the people, meaning they are in the best position to endear themselves to the people. So it is still a matter of keeping the wealthy happy, the wealthy are now just stuck in a position of keeping the people happy with them," Gideon said.

"This is going to cause chaos," one of the ministers piped in.

"For a limited time, yes, but the situation will quickly stabilize," Gideon dismissed his concern. "It will stabilize even more than the kingdom has ever been. Since the people will believe they control their own fate."

The rest of the meeting was spent ironing out the details and particulars of the new government structure. With Gideon having to repeatedly assuage the concerns of the gathered politicians. When the meeting was concluded with the timetable for the rollout of the new structure, Vali approached Gideon.

"Everything is set. A group of angels have gone out to escort Morgans here. He is arranging for a worldwide live broadcast of you demonstrating your power tomorrow at noon here. With an additional hour for whatever else you want," Vali informed him.

"Tomorrow, the World Government is going to regret provoking me to this extent," Gideon said with a smile.