For many people, this was destined to be a sleepless night.
For most, it was because of excitement. But for King Neptune and Queen Otohime of the Ryugu Kingdom, it was worry.
Yemu's appearance here was completely beyond their expectations, and the information they later received from General Shark Fish-Man left them even more shaken.
Queen Otohime's first reaction was to stop it. What she wanted was to gain equality through nonviolent means, but King Neptune stopped her, because the way they had been stared at in the Holy Land Mary Geoise today, as if they were monsters, had left a deep impression on him.
And so, after the night passed and the sun rose again the next day, the Reverie finally began.
...
Pangaea Castle.
Inside the enormous circular conference hall, amid the solemn and majestic tolling of bells, the kings of fifty nations gathered together.
Normally, each Reverie was chaired in turns by the kings of these fifty nations, who took responsibility for presiding over the meeting. But today, there was one extra person present.
Sengoku appeared there in the imposing uniform of a Fleet Admiral, his figure tall and straight.
The kings of every nation were very curious about this newly appointed Fleet Admiral. They also understood that the reason this Reverie had been held ahead of schedule was because of this man.
Aside from a few grumblers, however, most of them welcomed Sengoku's presence.
"Then... I believe you kings already know who I am, so I won't waste time with unnecessary words. After all, our time is limited. We will move directly into the topics of this Reverie. The first item is the World Military Draft plan..."
The entire conference hall immediately grew noisy.
When it came to the World Military Draft, the most important issue was actually money.
Every Marine deployment required a vast amount of funding, and the existence of the Marines themselves also depended on financial support from the World Government and these nations.
This World Military Draft plan depended even more on the support of those nations.
On the surface, Sengoku's plan looked very simple.
To solve the pirate problem from its roots, the Marines would establish as many branch bases as possible around these nations. As part of the exchange, the Marines would provide elites from Headquarters to protect these nations from pirate attacks, while the nations would provide the funds to build and maintain the Marine bases.
Then, with those bases as the center, they would recruit people from the surrounding areas who were willing to become Marines. Through gradual training, they would be developed into powerful Marine soldiers.
That was the full picture of the World Military Draft plan.
Marine Headquarters had already made arrangements on the manpower side. What remained was to see how much support these nations were willing to provide.
Sengoku had thought his proposal would receive the approval of many people. After all, among the more than one hundred World Government Member Nations, the fifty nations qualified to represent them at the Reverie were generally quite wealthy. Even after paying the Heavenly Tribute, building and maintaining a Marine base with the money they had left should not have been much of a problem.
However, once he raised the proposal, nearly more than half of the nations expressed their opposition.
The entire conference hall fell into uproar once again.
...
Outside the conference hall, in the huge lounge, the personal guards of all the kings had gathered.
Although there was no need to worry about the kings' safety in the Holy Land Mary Geoise, it would look rather improper if the guards hid in their rooms to rest while their kings worked hard in the meeting. On top of that, for the sake of service and appearances, the guards had also come here.
The arguing inside the conference hall was very loud. Most of these kings did not seem to know what it meant to speak quietly, so even the guards outside could still hear their raised voices.
Of course, most people did not really care. They were greedily enjoying the exquisite desserts of the Holy Land Mary Geoise. After all, any chef capable of serving the Celestial Dragons was among the best in the world, to say nothing of the ingredients.
In a corner of the lounge, Jinbe sat facing Yemu and the others with General Shark Fish-Man beside him.
Jinbe had no interest in food made from the blood and sweat of countless people. What he was curious about was the discussion he could hear from inside.
Jinbe truly did not understand much about the human world, so he could not understand why so many people opposed Sengoku's proposal.
The Marines were clearly willing to build bases to protect them from pirates.
He looked at Yemu, who was sitting there in a daze, and could not help asking tentatively out of curiosity.
"Um... G-Guard Captain White, why are your human kingdoms unwilling to accept the Marines' protection?"
A slightly deep voice answered.
"It's simple. First, the relationship between our human kingdoms and the World Government is only that of member nations. We are not part of the World Government itself. And the condition of that membership is that the Marines under the World Government must protect our human kingdoms. In other words, protecting us is already the Marines' duty. Now they want us to pay for it too. Our human kingdoms don't have money falling from the sky."
"Second, once a Marine base is built, it means there will be an uncontrolled military base near one's own country. Do you think the kings of these human kingdoms would agree to that?"
"And last, the most important point is..."
At this point, Yemu's voice naturally lowered.
"The vast majority of human kingdoms rely on pirates to survive... So of course they won't cut off their own lifeline."
Fortunately, Yemu and Jinbe were sitting in a remote corner, and many people were keeping their distance from them. Otherwise, they would definitely have attracted a great deal of attention.
Even so, it did not matter. Judging by the indifferent expressions on the faces of the few people nearby who heard them, they clearly did not care much about pirates one way or the other.
Most of the guards who could appear here were guard captains from powerful and wealthy nations. With high positions, great authority, and no lack of strength themselves, they had never taken mere pirates seriously.
And the result was exactly as expected. In the end, aside from a small number of nations willing to pay for Marine bases to be built in the nearby seas, the vast majority chose to refuse.
Even more troublesome was the fact that the nations that agreed were all from the New World.
"What a headache."
For the very first topic to end in such a result made Sengoku deeply understand just how difficult the position of Fleet Admiral truly was. But the real trouble was still to come.
And while the Reverie was being held in the Holy Land Mary Geoise, the seas were also beginning to stir.