Noblesse Privilege 15 (Patreon)

Noblesse Privilege
Chapter 15

-VB-

“Home sweet home!” I called out as I stepped out off of my grand galleon and onto Red Port, the port that directly controlled the flow of legal movement across the Red Line.

This port, controlled by the World Government, was a safe haven from which that the Marines and the World Government met jointly.

Of course, being the wealthiest World Noble who regularly donated to the World Government while maintaining a huge alliance of New World and now Paradise islands in his political coalition, Red Port was not just a familiar port of call but a base of operation for me.

“Welcome back to Red Port, Lord vel Monstrathum,” a reedy Marine commodore with somewhat scruffy but long flowing red hair greeted me with a bow.

“Oh, Jay Jay! How are you doing, man?” I greeted the man I once rescued as a child.

Jay Jay straightened his back and returned a grin. “Well, I am a captain now, milord. I never would have rose to such heights without your help.”

“Ah, shucks,” I chuckled. “Don’t suck up to me like that. I don’t help anyone who doesn’t have talent. After all, I did pit you against Luponte. Like a lot.”

Jay Jay, full name: Jayajoyos Jalama, chuckled with me as he led me to my private manor in this city. “Yes, I remember that. He tossed me around like a ragdoll.”

“Yes, well, he also tossed me around like a ragdoll, too, so you weren’t suffering alone,” I reminded him as we left my crew to handle the regular process for docking while Luponte and a few other guards silently took up formation around me and Jay Jay. Jay Jay was a trusted man.

Who else but a man I rescued would tell me the inner workings and politics of the Marines? Certainly not the admirals who had reason to dislike me for stealing Luponte. A commodore was not that high up on the food chain, but it was enough to get involved in politics tangentially and recognize the patterns and conflicts.

“So what’s the latest news?” I asked him.

He scratched his chin. “Hmm, well, it’s just more old news. Vice admiral Akainu and Aokiji are still butting heads. Vice admiral Garp is still giving everyone a headache for both his refusal to become an admiral and his inability to follow the book strictly.”

“So the usual.”

“Yes. But I hear that you, a World Noble, kicked a Warlord’s ass in Alabasta?”

“Yes,” I replied with a blush. “This talentless World Noble managed to kick a Warlord’s ass.”

He laughed.

“‘Talentless,’ he calls himself!” he barked out incredulously with mirth as he looked at Luponte. “Do you hear your master call himself that, Master Luponte? He calls himself talentless!” he cackled.

Luponte just grunted.

Jay Jay turned back to talk to me, but this time, he spoke quietly. “Fleet Admiral Sengoku is pissed.”

I winced.

“Uh, how bad?”

“Well, he wasn’t spitting nails yet.”

“Yet?”

“Yet.”

“Ugh. I’m fucked, aren’t I?”

As great as being a World Noble was with the ability to command the Marines up to vice admirals, Sengoku was a Fleet Admiral; he was a Marine with a rank that directly stood above most World Nobles when it came to command.

Of course, this situation wasn’t critical or steeped in emergency, so if he wanted to punish me, the most he could do was command the Marines to harass some of my island kingdom allies, but that was a recipe for disaster that both of us knew would cripple the Marines.

After all, I donated a shit ton of money to the Marines. One could even say that one of the Four Blues was more or less in my nominal control. The higher ranks of the Marines might adhere to the central command, but the lower ranks knew with certainty, because I made sure to let them know, that their “extra pay” that they have been generously receiving for the past half decade came from me.

This was easy because sailors received a pitiful pay to start with. Doubling the pay of all sailors and up to Chief Petty Officers in the East Blue did nothing to dent my income. This was also why the East Blues had the least amount of corruption. There was no need for any Marine to be corrupt when they were getting a fat paycheck and keeping said paycheck encouraged all lesser Marines to walk the line as tightly as they could.

If I got into a fight with the Marines Headquarter and pulled back my support in protest, then East Blue would erupt, especially since the World Government had a tendency to give the Marines just enough funding to run their ships and branches.

“He’s not telling me to come meet him, though, right?” I asked Jay Jay.

“No, sir. He asked me to tell you that he’s looking over this because the Warlord in question attacked you first, but he won’t tolerate Your Grace actively going out to fight the Warlords.”

I waved my hand in dismissal as we approached my manor near the center of the Red Port. “I don’t have any interest in fighting the Warlords. It was just a coincidence.”

Though I might go and visit Hancock. She was troublesome enough that I might need to recruit her to my side or at least keep her neutral.

Luponte and the other guards got on while Jay Jay stayed behind change in ground tiles that dedicated the change from Normal District to High District. Stepping in without express permission or work within the district would be death sentence, and our conversation had ended anyways. He bowed again.

“Glory to the World Government!” he saluted.

“And to the unending Justice of the Marines,” I chuckled as I continued to walk.