—Real World—
In the Sky Screen's broadcast, the Marine had won final victory and successfully recruited Admiral Tenryu. Saint Jaygarcia Saturn had genuinely given tremendous face to Artoria Pendragon—actually agreeing to such an outrageous proposal from the Acting Fleet Admiral!
The senior officers of the Old Marine experienced mixed emotions witnessing this result. Although it would undoubtedly feel extraordinarily satisfying to openly refute their supposed superiors in the future, the Marine absolutely didn't possess that kind of institutional strength in the current timeline.
They still desperately needed funding from the Five Elders to survive as an organization. Financial dependence meant political subordination.
"Just wait," Fleet Admiral Sengoku muttered darkly, looking at the knight girl with resentful expression. "The Five Elders will contact us very soon. And when that happens, none of you will be able to escape their scrutiny and demands for explanations."
The current Fleet Admiral had to bear responsibility and blame for the future Fleet Admiral's provocative actions. Wasn't this simply bullying an honest person who'd served faithfully for decades?
Although Sengoku often acted as institutional peacemaker—mediating conflicts, smoothing over controversies, maintaining diplomatic relationships—he still possessed certain untouchable bottom lines in his heart.
He would absolutely not hand over Artoria Pendragon to the World Government for punishment or political sacrifice. A responsible leader must leave seeds of future leadership for the Marine. They couldn't create situations where no qualified successors existed.
Sengoku himself couldn't fulfill the justice of truly ruling the world—that grandiose vision of perfect order through military power. His generation had failed achieving that idealistic goal.
So let the next generation attempt it instead. He genuinely hoped the knight girl would guide the New Marine to travel further along the path toward genuine justice, finding smoother routes than his compromised generation had managed.
Under the Sky Screen's subtle psychological influence—its continuous exposure to future possibilities—Sengoku had unknowingly begun accepting that Artoria Pendragon would become the next Fleet Admiral of the Marine.
If it weren't the knight girl occupying his position eventually, anyone else would prove demonstrably worse.
Admiral Kuzan was suitable as a subordinate but fundamentally unsuitable as supreme leader. His "Lazy Justice" philosophy sometimes made him feel profoundly conflicted about difficult decisions—a very serious shortcoming when making choices on critical strategic issues.
Hesitation killed. Moral complexity paralyzed. Leadership required decisive action even when no perfect options existed.
Admiral Borsalino? He'd already mastered navigating bureaucratic politics with cynical expertise. If you attempted discussing ideals or moral values with him, he'd only sneer dismissively behind your back.
Among the three Admirals, he was absolutely the most difficult to inspire with rhetoric. He'd applied the philosophy of "keeping a low profile" to its logical extreme—never committing fully, never exposing vulnerability, never believing institutional propaganda.
From examining future timelines, Admiral Sakazuki had become even more dangerously radical than his current incarnation. He could no longer tolerate any metaphorical sand in his eyes—any compromise, any mercy, any deviation from absolute pursuit of pirates.
He would rather kill a thousand pirates mistakenly than allow one genuine criminal escaping justice. His hands were already stained with the blood of too many people—combatants and civilians alike—and he was definitely not suitable becoming a balanced leader.
All three Admirals possessed serious disqualifying shortcomings for supreme command.
Other Candidates' Limitations
Other high-ranking Marine officers proved even less qualified to bypass the Admirals and claim the Fleet Admiral position directly.
Former Admiral Zephyr was simply too elderly now. His physical strength had seriously declined from its legendary prime. Age had stolen the capabilities that had once made him feared.
Even Marine Hero Garp—that living legend who'd cornered the Pirate King himself—had his honorary title stripped in some future timelines. He'd have to serve as Vice Admiral for his remaining years, never achieving the rank his accomplishments technically deserved.
If Garp couldn't advance, it would prove even more impossible for others shouldering similar responsibilities.
Faced with this comprehensive personnel crisis, Fleet Admiral Sengoku could only sigh with profound helplessness. There were no good options. Only least-bad choices.
"Could it be that Esdeath's freezing ability somehow originates from me?" Admiral Kuzan wondered aloud, his normally lazy expression showing genuine concern. "Some kind of genetic theft or bloodline factor extraction?"
The Admiral was experiencing mounting anxiety about ice manipulation proliferation.
First, there'd been Caesar Clown's creation—that octopus-fish hybrid demonstrating borrowed ice powers. Then Elsa the Ice Queen had appeared in Dressrosa with similar capabilities. Now there was yet another person wielding freezing abilities on the seas.
When had ice manipulation become so depressingly common?
Including Admiral Kuzan himself, there were already four confirmed combatants who could employ freezing techniques across all the seas. Admiral Esdeath's abilities overlapped significantly with his signature powers.
But she also possessed supreme-grade swordsmanship as additional combat dimension. Her true overall strength level absolutely should not be underestimated or dismissed as derivative.
The man possessed a disturbing intuition: if he fought the female Admiral in single combat, he shouldn't be calculating whether he could defeat her. He should be estimating how long he could survive before being overwhelmed.
That was the realistic assessment. Profoundly unsettling.
"The Three Royal Guards represents an entirely new institutional concept," Admiral Sakazuki observed thoughtfully, his intense gaze fixed on the knight girl. "Does 'King' refer specifically to Artoria in that formulation?"
He kept watching her carefully, only to witness the blonde girl dozing off as though she didn't remotely care about the dramatic events unfolding around her.
Artoria leaned against her best friend casually, appearing capable of falling asleep among everyone at any moment despite the tension.
Could such a girl—someone who was apparently a little greedy for food, who loved sleeping, who possessed rather straightforward personality—genuinely become a king worth following with absolute loyalty?
Admiral Sakazuki fell into deep contemplation. He felt compelled to seriously consider his future trajectory and institutional allegiances.
Since the old tree represented by Fleet Admiral Sengoku was proving unreliable and politically compromised, he didn't mind transferring his loyalty to a superior tree offering better growth potential.
Strategic flexibility was survival. Rigid loyalty was suicide.
The Marine organization itself wasn't experiencing major internal problems. But Pangaea Castle—the Five Elders' seat of power within Mary Geoise—had descended into complete institutional chaos.
The New Marine had actually mocked the Five Elders directly to their faces during public negotiations! The supposedly "win-win" plan only meant that Acting Fleet Admiral Artoria had won twice while the World Government gained nothing substantive.
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn—who would achieve considerably more institutional power in future timelines—had actually endured this profound humiliation while suppressing rage in his ancient heart.
This accumulated negative emotion made the Five Elders observing from outside the Sky Screen's broadcast feel sympathetic resonance. They understood his fury perfectly because they shared it.
"Remarkable," Saint Saturn muttered with grudging acknowledgment. "The Sky Screen genuinely exposed all my political secrets and strategic calculations. We truly possess no privacy whatsoever before this phenomenon. Is this Sky Screen really just a natural occurrence? Some unprecedented meteorological event?"
After expressing this unsettling feeling, he became increasingly confused about how the Sky Screen had been created mechanically. As for whether some chief director existed behind the metaphorical curtain—orchestrating these revelations deliberately—he found that speculation somewhat absurd.
Such a cosmically powerful existence could never be controlled by mere humans. The scale was wrong. The capability was beyond mortal achievement.
"Esdeath and Artoria are truly going far beyond acceptable boundaries," Saint Marcus Mars declared with barely controlled rage. "The Marine actually dares climbing over the heads of Celestial Dragons! What an absolutely untamable pack of rabid dogs!"
The Marine had gained tremendous face and political victories from negotiations with the Five Elders. They'd employed methods characteristic of the strong deliberately oppressing the weak.
This represented genuine rebellion against Heavenly Authority—the Celestial Dragons' supposed divine right to rule without challenge.
Saint Marcus Mars was somewhat losing rational control. He desperately wished he could immediately eradicate the Marine—that organizational tumor parasitically attached to the World Government.
Right now it remained relatively benign. But in the future it might suddenly metastasize into malignant cancer, stealing the Gods' nutrients to thrive independently while killing its host.
Saint Topman Warcury—the Elder responsible for legal affairs and institutional structure—now felt that external threats from the Revolutionary Army wouldn't genuinely affect Celestial Dragon rule from a pure strength perspective.
Instead, the internal threat represented by the Marine might actually replace the Celestial Dragons as ruling power. A coup from within rather than revolution from without.
The bodyguard becoming the master. The dog devouring its owner.
"Then let's discuss whether we should cease providing financial support to the Marine," proposed Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, the God of Finance who managed the World Government's economic systems. "And more importantly—what consequences would such action cause?"
Saint Nusjuro was extraordinarily sensitive about monetary matters. Raising and maintaining a Marine wasn't remotely cheap business. This violent enforcement organization functioned as bottomless pit consuming resources.
No matter how much funding was allocated, their appetite could never be satisfied. They always demanded more ships, more weapons, more personnel, more bases.
On this particular day, the Five Elders' attitude toward the Marine began transforming fundamentally. Instead of walking on two institutional legs—Marine and bureaucratic government—they needed considering future scenarios and compensating for the diseased leg through reasonable alternative arrangements.
The Five Elders were profoundly interested in the mysterious ally mentioned by Future Saturn. This potential partner was neither pirate nor Marine, and certainly not Revolutionary Army.
The ally's identity remained frustratingly mysterious despite intensive speculation.
The string of terms related to the Holy Roman Empire hung over the Celestial Dragons like the mythical Sword of Damocles—constantly reminding the Five Elders that someday the Marine would inevitably turn against its masters.
The World Government would become the most tragic stepping stone in history—a footnote explaining how the New Marine achieved independence and continental dominance.
Their creation would consume them. Their weapon would become their executioner.
And they were increasingly powerless to prevent this predicted future from manifesting.
The Sky Screen had shown them their doom. Now they could only watch it approaching with terrible inevitability.
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