Chapter 272: A Match in Intellect
"Chloe just called me. She said they're going to play outside for a few more days and won't be back for a while."
Inside the Ryugu Palace on Fish-Man Island, Amphelite relayed the message to Nereus, who had just returned from checking on the military patrols.
"Let them play if they want," Nereus replied casually. "Dressrosa isn't far, and there hasn't been anything major happening recently."
"Speaking of which, Kaido sure is carefree. Has he really never bothered to properly look after his child all these years?"
"That's just how that guy's educational philosophy works. Pure 'free-range' parenting. Since he dumped her with me, he won't bother checking in again."
"I can tell the conflict between that father and daughter runs incredibly deep," Amphelite noted. "If Yamato actually learns something here and ends up beating Kaido down..."
"If that happens, he'll actually burst out laughing," Nereus smirked. "If he loses to his own daughter in pure strength, he won't have a single complaint."
Nereus knew exactly what kind of man Kaido was. He was an absolute brute, but his mind was sharp enough. He wasn't a good person, but he unequivocally respected defeat. The best way to communicate with him was to beat him into submission first. Only when you stood on equal ground militarily, or held a clear upper hand, would Kaido be willing to sit down and talk reasonably.
"Your Majesty Nereus! I brought back today's loot!"
At that moment, a colossal figure swam up to the exterior of the Ryugu Palace. His name was Wadatsumi. He wasn't a Giant hybrid; he was simply a naturally massive Tiger Blowfish Fish-Man.
Although he was only nine years old, his size was already comparable to a full-grown Giant. Right now, he was cheerfully dragging two completely wrecked sunken ships behind him.
These were pirate ships that had attempted to violate Fish-Man Island's strict border ban and force their way through. After being effortlessly sunk by the patrols, the wrecks were hauled back to serve as structural teaching materials for the shipwrights. Once the intact lumber was stripped away, the rest could be recycled.
Logically speaking, Wadatsumi was still just a child. He should have been in the academy learning alongside his peers.
However, his intellectual level was... lacking.
Perhaps his body had channeled all of its developmental energy into his sheer, absurd size, leaving his intellect only slightly higher than that of Biku Panda. He could manage his daily life and understand basic logic and commands, but there was still a noticeable cognitive gap between him and a normal person.
Coupled with his massive size making it difficult for him to fit in with the other children, Wadatsumi had simply entered the workforce early. Relying on his staggering brute strength, he was more than capable of feeding himself.
"Just drop them off at the Sea Forest and let the salvage crews handle it. Be careful not to smash anything on your way," Nereus instructed.
"Yes, sir!" Wadatsumi boomed happily.
Even though he wasn't fully grown, Wadatsumi's size wasn't much smaller than an average Sea Beast. And unlike those beasts, his nimble, humanoid hands allowed him to accomplish far more complex labor.
As for his education, Biku Panda had taken over teaching him. The brainwaves of those two frequently synced up perfectly. With neither of them being particularly bright, their interactions actually produced a bizarrely harmonious chemistry.
"The Vodka Kingdom and the Marines in charge of conscription back then were truly idiots," Nereus remarked as Wadatsumi swam off, continuing their previous discussion about Kaido. "They saw he was a peerless soldier and tried to forcibly drag him into the Marines in chains. If they had actually managed to recruit him properly, the Marines would have gained another absolute top-tier powerhouse."
Among the Kings of the 170-plus affiliated nations, very few actually possessed the competence to govern properly. Many nations with originally stable, prosperous societies had been thoroughly ruined by the sudden "brilliant ideas" of their incompetent rulers.
"Speaking of Kaido, it seems he recently recruited a new subordinate named Chameleone," Amphelite mentioned, recalling an intelligence report. "He's somewhat famous in the New World. Rumor has it he possesses the 'exact same' abilities as Kaido.
"I remember you mentioning that Wobbegong and Kaido's subordinate, Queen, used to work on the MADS research ship studying the Lineage Factor of Devil Fruits. Could they have achieved some sort of scientific breakthrough and cloned Kaido's fruit?"
"No, I know of this Chameleone. He's the user of the Copy-Copy Fruit. It seems Kaido simply allowed him to copy his Devil Fruit ability."
"The Copy-Copy Fruit?" Amphelite raised an eyebrow. "Looking at his bounty poster, I assumed he was just a Zoan user."
Chameleone's appearance was quite bizarre, notably featuring an exceptionally long, prehensile tongue that made him look like an animal hybrid.
"Your Majesty Nereus, apologies for the interruption. A situation has developed in the North Blue that requires your decision."
A new, urgent intelligence report was delivered into the Ryugu Palace. However, it wasn't a problem within the Doyle Kingdom's borders, but rather a catastrophic situation unfolding in its immediate vicinity.
The Doyle Kingdom was strategically located in a highly developed transit hub of the North Blue. Although it was situated on an island, crossing a narrow maritime strait led directly to a much larger landmass.
That landmass was home to numerous nations, including a small country named Flevance.
While called a country, its size was essentially that of a single city-state. Because it produced a unique, beautiful local mineral known as "Amber Lead," Flevance was globally renowned as the "White City."
—[Flevance has recently experienced a massive outbreak of a severe, highly lethal infectious disease. The surrounding nations have formed a joint military blockade, completely sealing off all of Flevance's borders and ports. Although separated by a strait, the Doyle Kingdom's citizens are terrified this disease may spread into our territory. Do we need to adopt similar quarantine policies, blockade the nearby strait, and provide any humanitarian medical aid within our capabilities?]—
"Do they need my help?" Amphelite asked, reading over the grim report. "The Doyle Kingdom doesn't seem to have a specialized medical team equipped for an epidemic of this scale. If necessary, I can make a trip there."
Amphelite wasn't afraid of infectious diseases. No known virus could bypass her Lunarian immune system, and with the Phoenix's Flames of Rebirth, she could essentially purge the entire city of any viral plague just by bathing Flevance in her healing fire.
"Your Flames of Rebirth won't work on Amber Lead Syndrome," Nereus said, his expression darkening. "After all, it isn't a disease caused by viruses or bacteria. It's a terminal condition caused by toxic trace elements accumulating within the human body over generations."
As the name suggested, Amber Lead Syndrome was caused by Amber Lead.
When the mineral remained buried deep underground, it posed absolutely no threat to the human body. But as Amber Lead was aggressively and indiscriminately mined, the seeds of this tragic epidemic were sown.
As early as a century ago, when Flevance's Amber Lead industry was just beginning, the World Government's geological survey teams had been dispatched to conduct a comprehensive, meticulous inspection of the underground deposits.
It was during that exact survey that they discovered the horrifying truth of Amber Lead—it was beautiful, highly versatile, and astronomically valuable, but it carried a lethal, toxic curse.
However, in the face of unfathomable profit, the truth became a disposable bargaining chip.
The World Government deliberately chose not to broadcast this discovery to the public. The Royal Family of Flevance similarly chose absolute silence.
Both sides formed an unspoken, complicit pact to bury the truth, allowing the completely ignorant citizens to throw themselves into the Amber Lead industry. Day after day, year after year, the citizens mined, crafted, and breathed this beautiful, deadly mineral to endlessly line the pockets of the royals and the World Government.
In return, the citizens of Flevance received handsome compensation. The immense wealth generated by Amber Lead exports flooded into the small city like a tidal wave. The average income skyrocketed, and the poverty and backwardness of the past were rapidly left behind.
Flevance transformed from an obscure, unknown town into a world-famous, immensely wealthy nation. The streets were filled with an atmosphere of absolute prosperity, pristine beauty, and boundless hope.
However, the commoners of Flevance had absolutely no idea what price they were truly paying for the wealth they dug up with their own hands.
They were directly trading away their own lifespans.
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