"It's like this, Mr. Tom."
Inside the brightly lit research hall of Roselith Manor, Saint Roselith Seraphina stood beside the drafting table, her silver-white hair reflecting the warm glow of the lamps.
"Your Sea Train is an incredible invention practical, revolutionary, and capable of changing the relationship between islands entirely."
She paused briefly before continuing in a more serious tone.
"However, from what I understand, the current production process still carries several technical limitations. The locomotive is difficult to manufacture in large numbers, some of the required materials are too expensive or too difficult to source consistently, and the overall construction speed is far too slow for the scale I'm envisioning."
Her hand rested lightly against the edge of the table.
"So I wanted to ask you directly… is it possible to improve the production output even further?"
Tom, who had still been carrying a trace of wariness only moments earlier, immediately became more attentive the instant the conversation shifted fully toward the Sea Train.
That machine was his pride.
His dream.
His life's work.
He had spent fourteen years of sweat, failure, stubbornness, and inspiration building it.
To him, the Sea Train was no different from a child he had raised with his own hands.
The moment Seraphina began discussing its engineering limitations instead of vague admiration, the caution in his eyes began to soften.
"We can improve it."
Tom crossed his arms, already entering the state of a craftsman deep in thought.
"The first thing is materials."
He leaned forward slightly, his tone becoming more technical and assured.
"When I first designed the Puffing Tom, I didn't have access to the kind of materials I actually wanted to use. A lot of what ended up in the final construction were substitutions usable, yes, but not ideal."
He scratched his beard and continued.
"Some of the frame reinforcement had to be done with heavier alloys than I preferred. That kept it stable enough to run over ocean rails, but it also made production more expensive and maintenance more demanding."
Tom's eyes sharpened.
"And then later… I heard that Dr. Vegapunk had developed a new alloy."
The moment he mentioned that name, even the old researchers nearby subconsciously straightened.
Vegapunk was that kind of existence.
A genius so far beyond ordinary people that even researchers with pride and credentials of their own could not ignore him.
Tom let out a long breath.
"I've never met the man personally, but from what I heard, that alloy would be perfect for locomotive stabilization and weight reduction."
He tapped the edge of the table with one thick finger.
"If I had access to that material, I could reduce cost, improve durability, and probably increase production efficiency too."
He looked at Seraphina.
"But without the proper authorization, I can't get my hands on anything related to Vegapunk's research."
Seraphina nodded slowly.
"I see."
So the key point really was still materials.
That matched what she had expected.
In the world of One Piece, technology often advanced in bizarre, uneven leaps.
There were transponder snails capable of global communication, cyborgs, climate science far ahead of its era, and geniuses like Vegapunk who could create things centuries ahead of the world.
And yet at the same time, large-scale industrial infrastructure remained laughably underdeveloped.
This world had the ability to build miracles.
It simply lacked the people willing to connect those miracles together.
Now that Tom was fully engaged in the discussion, Seraphina took the opportunity to ask the question she had truly wanted to ask all along.
"Mr. Tom."
She looked directly at him.
"If the Sea Train can run on the ocean…"
She let the sentence linger for a moment.
"…then can we also build a train that runs on the Red Line?"
The room instantly went silent.
Tom froze.
Siva blinked.
Flani adjusted his glasses in surprise.
"A train… on the Red Line?"
Tom repeated the words slowly, as though he had just heard something absurd.
And yet…
…once the idea entered his head, it did not sound absurd at all.
In fact, it was terrifyingly logical.
The Sea Train was already a technological anomaly.
It was a locomotive designed to travel over the ocean itself, stabilizing against water, weather, and wave pressure through a combination of engineering, structural balancing, and specialized rail design.
If something that difficult could be made to work…
Then something as comparatively "simple" as land rail should absolutely be possible.
Tom's eyes widened.
He had never seriously considered it before.
And not because it was impossible.
But because, in truth, there had never been a reason to.
The Red Line was the domain of the World Nobles and the World Government.
Travel and movement across it were heavily restricted.
Ordinary people had no freedom there.
And Tom himself had not grown up in an environment where such an idea would naturally emerge.
Most of his life had been spent on Fish-Man Island, and after that, in Water 7.
The only major period in which he had truly wandered the world was when he answered Fisher Tiger's call and later worked as a shipwright for those who sailed under his spirit of resistance.
Back then, he had been too occupied with survival, ideals, and the sea to think about world-scale transit systems.
Only after settling in Water 7 had he poured everything into the Sea Train.
And now…
Now that Seraphina had spoken the idea aloud…
Tom felt as if a door had suddenly been kicked open in his mind.
"It's possible."
His voice became firmer with every syllable.
Then, almost immediately, he slapped both hands against the table and stood up.
"Wait!"
"I think I've got something!"
Before anyone could react, the huge Fish-Man turned and rushed toward the drafting room with surprising speed for his size.
Within moments, he returned carrying a large roll of blueprints, several rulers, and enough drafting tools to occupy an entire desk.
He spread everything out with practiced movements.
This was not just an engineer's workspace.
This was a battlefield.
The blueprints he laid out were his life's work.
They were the refined and repeatedly revised structural plans of the Sea Train.
Ever since arriving at the research center, Tom had not spent his days idling away.
Although he joked, ate, played cards, and argued with the other scientists often enough, he had also been constantly refining his designs.
There was no point hiding the work anymore.
The World Government already possessed copies of the original blueprints anyway.
And more importantly, the conditions inside the Roselith Physics Research Institute were so absurdly luxurious that Tom could finally attempt things he had never been able to finish before.
There were only a handful of researchers in the institute.
But every one of them was highly capable.
The equipment was cutting-edge.
The available materials were abundant.
And the funding…
The funding was frankly obscene.
If there was one thing the Roselith Family would never lack, it was money.
Their industries stretched across all four Blues and beyond.
And with Saint Roselith Victor controlling a major portion of the World Government's financial channels, funding a private scientific institute was no more difficult than moving coins from one pocket to another.
Even Siva and Flani, who were both old monsters in their own fields, watched Tom with unconcealed interest.
Because what they were witnessing right now…
…was the birth of a new idea from the mind of a true genius.
Train Builder.
Master Shipwright.
Fish-Man Tom.
Tom bent over the blueprints and began sketching rapidly.
"As long as we adjust the engine structure here…"
He drew several quick lines.
"And redesign the wheel assembly for land-based pressure distribution…"
More notes followed.
"The body doesn't need to maintain the same oceanic resistance requirements either, so we can swap out some of the heavier materials for more standard industrial metals."
His pen moved faster.
"The track system would be easier too. On land, we wouldn't need floating support stabilization, so ordinary steel rail would be enough in many cases."
The more he spoke, the more excited he became.
His entire body seemed to come alive.
In front of Seraphina's eyes, the concept of a land train was being born.
And what made it almost funny was the sheer absurdity of the world itself.
This world had somehow developed the technology to create a Sea Train first…
…but had never bothered to create a proper land train.
It was ridiculous.
And yet somehow, perfectly fitting for the strange technological tree of the One Piece world.
From a purely engineering standpoint, a train that ran over the sea should have been vastly more difficult to create than one that ran over land.
And not by a little.
The requirements for balance, stability, pressure, and durability were on a completely different level.
So once Tom truly began adjusting the original design for land use, the modifications came rapidly.
As the blueprint changed beneath his hands, the cost estimates dropped dramatically.
The production burden lightened.
The scalability increased.
And Seraphina, watching in silence, felt the future of the world becoming just a little clearer.
Because she understood something that this era did not.
Transportation changes civilization.
Good transportation was not merely about convenience.
It was one of the foundational conditions for increasing productivity.
It accelerated trade.
It accelerated labor movement.
It accelerated migration.
It accelerated communication between islands that had once existed as isolated worlds unto themselves.
And perhaps most importantly…
It accelerated the spread of culture, ideas, and awareness.
Good transportation shortened the true distance between people.
And when people were no longer cut off from one another by sea, fear, and ignorance…
…conflict could be reduced.
Or at the very least, transformed.
If she could truly lay down a network across the world one day
a real transportation backbone
then the dawn she envisioned would no longer remain just an ideal.
It would become something tangible.
Eventually, Tom stopped moving.
He looked down at the revised blueprints and exhaled heavily.
It was done.
At least the first practical draft was.
A train born from the Sea Train's heart…
…but now adapted for the land.
Seraphina looked at the blueprint for a few silent seconds.
Then she extended her hand.
"Mr. Tom."
Her voice was steady.
"I would like to officially hire you as the Chief Engineer of the East Blue Rail Network Project."
Tom blinked.
"The East Blue… Rail Network Project?"
He repeated the words as if making sure he had heard them correctly.
Seraphina gave a small nod.
"My apologies. I got ahead of myself."
Then she straightened slightly and spoke in a more formal tone.
"Allow me to properly introduce it."
"Our current plan is to complete the primary trunk routes of a two-way inter-island rail system across all major strategic islands in the East Blue within four years."
Tom's eyes widened.
Seraphina continued.
"The original framework was based on your Sea Train design and the floating rail technology you left behind in the World Government's archives."
"We've already begun preliminary work on floating bridge placement and route analysis."
"Now, with the revised land-train concept you've just developed, we can also begin integrating large-island rail lines to connect inland regions directly to coastal stations."
Tom was stunned.
Actually stunned.
He stared at her as if trying to determine whether this was some kind of elaborate joke.
But Seraphina's expression did not change.
She was completely serious.
"This… this is real?"
Tom asked in a low voice.
"It is."
"When I returned from the East Blue, I already had the project framework prepared."
"I left its early administrative rollout under trusted supervision."
"Thanks to support from the World Government and internal approval from the necessary channels, the project has already entered its early operational phase."
That last part was, of course, only possible because Victor had smoothed over nearly everything from behind the scenes.
Without his support, something of this scale would have been buried under bureaucracy before it even left the proposal stage.
But with Victor's influence…
Funding and approval had moved far faster than they ever should have.
For him, it was little more than state money passing through hands he already controlled.
And for Seraphina…
It was one of the first major pieces of the future she intended to build.
"I also intend to request access to Dr. Vegapunk's alloy research."
"If we can secure its usage rights, we can further reduce cost and improve efficiency."
"However…"
She looked directly at Tom.
"When it comes to locomotive construction, engineering oversight, rail adaptation, and practical implementation…"
"I still need you."
Tom's fingers tightened unconsciously.
His heart pounded.
He had once dreamed quietly, stubbornly, foolishly perhaps that the trains he created would one day run not just in Water 7…
…but across the world.
It had been a dream so large that even he rarely dared to say it out loud.
And yet now…
There was someone standing before him who was not only speaking that dream aloud
but already building it.
He could barely process it.
His happiness came too suddenly.
Too violently.
Too overwhelmingly.
Then, in the next instant, Tom's massive hand shot out and firmly grabbed Seraphina's extended right hand.
His grip was powerful and warm.
"I agree!"
His voice boomed through the room.
"If it's really like this if you're really doing this then I agree!"
His expression was more animated than it had been at any point since she entered.
For the first time tonight, all traces of suspicion were truly gone.
In their place was the blazing excitement of a craftsman whose life's work had finally found a road vast enough to travel.
At this moment, Tom felt almost the same as he had back when he first chose to set sail for something greater than himself.
Back when he answered a cause bigger than comfort.
Back when he still believed that a real man should build something that mattered.
And now
Building railways for the world.
Connecting islands.
Changing lives.
That was the kind of work worthy of a true man.
Seeing that Seraphina truly had no interest in Pluton, Tom finally cast aside the last of his inner guard.
And more than that…
He steeled his resolve.
If Saint Roselith Seraphina truly possessed the ambition to lay rails across the whole of the East Blue
Then why should he, Tom, lack the courage to help build them?
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