Chapter 273

—

When Amon entered the castle of Alabasta, he was immediately hugged by a grinning Vivi.

"We won! I can't believe we won!" 

She hadn't participated in the battle today, since Amon saw no need to, but she's been a great asset in the past 9 months with Pluton.

"What's so hard to believe?"

Amon put a hand on Vivi's waist and started walking while she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Ahh, it's just so… unbelievable," Vivi spoke. "I was taught to respect the World Nobles from birth, taught that they were the invincible ruler of this world. At one point I had a goal to reclaim our position in Mariejois as one of the 20-twenty kingdoms. But look at it now, we are the sole ruler of the seas."

She hugged his arm tightly. "It’s been almost 8 hours since the Sins returned, what took you so long? Did that Shanks guy pose so much threat that you had to spend 7 hours behind him? Or have you eliminated the World Nobles?"

Alabasta was inside Door Dimension, so they couldn't see either of the two live streams. She gathered words from the Sins about the fight, but even the Sins didn't know about Mariejois.

Vivi’s guess was partially right. He spent around 2 hours combined, fighting Shanks, Luffy and Imu. After that, he spent another hour with the burning World Nobles. The rest of the 4 hours were spent with the former’s dead bodies… they had useful Devil Fruits, after all.

"I saw something burning in the far, was it Mariejois?" Vivi asked as she looked at Amon's eyes from the side.

"It was Mariejois, yes. Except for the few imprisoned Marines who I sent back here a few hours ago, the World Government barely has anyone within their higher rankings." Amon spoke. "In simpler words, I have conquered the world, and we are now the rulers of this land."

"We?" Vivi giggled. 

"Of course," Amon stopped walking and put both his hands behind her waist. "I am the King, and you are the Queen. In that sense, if I am the King of this world, what would you be?"

Vivi blushed and stared at Amon's eyes with love spilling outwards. "You tell me…"

After Cobra's death, Vivi got too dependent on Amon, more than she was already before. It's easy to make someone get obsessed with you when they are emotionally weak. Amon has made sure to use that to his utter advantage.

Before Amon could answer, footsteps filled the hallway. "The Queen of Whores of this entire world?" Raki came and leaned over the world. "That title suits you perfectly."

Vivi's dazed-in-love expression shifted as she wore a scorn. "Sister-in-law, such jokes aren't funny. You should learn to respect your brother's private space when he's with his wife, don't you think?"

"Oh?" Raki scoffed. "Really now? Hugging so intimately in the hallway, and you still call it 'private space'?" She walked over and leaned her arm on Amon's shoulders. "Also, fuck your wife bullshit. You act as if he only fucks you, fucking whore. You can't even last a whole night with him, yet you dare claim him all by yourself?"

"..."

"Brother," Raki turned her head to Amon. "When are you going to put her in that whorehouse?"

"Watch your words!" Vivi yelled as she released Amon from a hug. "Don't think I will let you talk like that just because you hide behind Amon!"

"Hiding, me?" Raki withdrew her hand back from Amon's shoulders and unsheathed her sword. "Now I am not 'hiding', what'll you do?"

Amon's tired sigh from the side caused both to turn to him. 

"You know… I have been thinking about how to resolve the relationship between you two." Amon spoke slowly as he put a hand on their shoulders and leaned over to their faces. "Let's finish this 'fight' in my room."

"..."

"..."

—★—

A week has passed since then, but things were far from calm in the world below the redline.

A portion of Amon's people, specifically the ones who joined in the last year, left his army.

They decided to go rogue and take over islands for them to rule since now there was no actual law present. They only scoffed when people said Amon was the ruler of this world; saying "It would take him decades to claim the world as his."

But the larger portion of people didn't leave, and they were smart not to do so since each person who left… had the news of their death printed in tomorrow's newspaper.

Big News Morgan had lost consciousness from internal pleasure when he saw Amon destroying Mariejois. He's been writing about that for the last week, and because of that everyone in each corner of the world knew about the change that happened in the world.

There have been countless attacks on Amon's territories, but his main base, Alabasta, was entirely intact. After all, not ‘many’ people could climb the redline along with their whole army.

Amon was in his office in Alabasta, inside the Castle. He was sitting in a chair, reading some papers when a knock fell on the door. However, the person on the other side didn’t wait for his affirmation and simply walked inside.

“Huh.” Amon raised his head from the papers. “Did I allow you inside?”

“No.” Raki walked over to the desk. “Do I need your permission to meet my brother?”

Amon put the papers down and drew back his chair a little, allowing Raki to climb up on his lap.

“What do you need?”

Raki tilted her head. “I am just here to say…” She cleared her throat and spoke in a squeaky, girly voice. “T-thank you, brother, for the new two Supreme Grade blades.”

“Can you stop?” Amon gave her a deadpan stare.

“No, but, seriously.” Raki spoke in her normal voice again, frustrated. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with a cutlass and sabre? They aren’t compatible for dual-wielding!”

Shanks used a sword named Griffon, a Sabre-class blade. Gol D. Roger used to use a sword named ‘Ace’, a Cutlass-class blade. Shanks was in the possession of both, with one being on his waist and one being hidden by him. Amon gained Griffon after Shanks’ death and gained ‘Ace’ after the remaining Red-haired pirates came to attack Alabasta.

After finishing most of them swiftly, he went ahead to read their memories with their neurons. It’s easy now since Amon’s Will could easily overpower theirs, therefore breaking any of their restrictions. It wasn’t enough to brainwash them, but the reading mind was a fair game. From their memories, Amon learned where Shanks had hidden the last Road Poneglyph, where Roger’s sword was kept as well.

Being supreme-grade blades, not only was the quality of the swords better than Enma and Ame no Habikiri, the current swords Raki used, they also had special abilities matching, and to certain degrees, overpower Enma. One of them was the ability Shanks used to block Amon’s devil fruits.

“Hmm,” Amon tilted his head. “...True, true. Drop the swords here, I will fix them when I get time.”

“When will you get the time?” Raki frowned. “Why are you working, anyway? I know it’s not time to celebrate until we actually proclaim the world, but you know, you are the ruler of this whole planet now. Just relax for a moment, yeah?”

“It’s not time to relax yet.” Amon smiled at her.

“But-”

“If I relax now,” He interrupted her. “We are all going to die.”

“...”

“Also, you shouldn’t be relaxing either. I noticed you’ve been a bit too lazy lately.”

Raki’s cheeks flushed. “W-what… I-I mean, I just won the biggest war in the world, why shouldn’t I relax a bit. Not everyone is a robot like you, you know?”

“You won the biggest war in the world? And?” Amon scoffed. “Are you the strongest swordsman yet?”

Raki looked the other way. “...In my defence, Mihawk didn’t participate in the war. I didn’t even get the chance to fight him.”

The Seven Warlords, realising the government didn’t have enough things to offer them, left their ranks one by one in the past year. In the end, Mihawk left too. Many of those Former Warlords have been eliminated in the last year, either by the Marines or Einherjars who happened to come across them. Though some of them instead chose to switch sides and join Amon, Hawkeye Mihawk is sitting on his island leisurely, and training Zoro.

“Hm, a nice excuse.”

“It’s not an excuse though!”

Amon chuckled, running his hand down her backside as he spoke. “How about this… since you don’t seem so motivated, how about I give you some motivation?”

Raki’s eyes sparkled up. Her brother always knew what got her rolling.

“If you happen to attain the title of World’s Strongest Swordsman before next year...” 

Amon raised his hand in front of Raki, as slowly, his humane hand twisted as golden scales, each shaped like a square metal, formed around his forearm before green feathers erupted from the gaps and covered his entire forearm.

“...I will give you your devil fruit back.”

Why a year, exactly?

That was because, if Amon’s predictions and calculations were correct, the World Core will be at its final stage of forming by then, by then when Momonosuke will reach the present

—★—

The next morning, the people of Alabasta were frightened, shocked, and shaking on their boots when dozens and dozens of flying spaceships surrounded the entire kingdom from all directions.

Amon stood in the air in front of one of the ships, looking like a little boy today, while scratching his chin and looking down on the kingdom. “The commoners are quite annoying, and useless too. Guess I gotta move them out.” 

He should drop Alabasta on the sea and form something like the Mariejois for him and the important people. That was a must. He, his Sins, his cult, some servants and stuff, should stay here while everyone else should go rot on the sea below.

With that decided, Amon turned his head at the spaceships again. 

He spoke towards the ship, bigger than other ones, and a step ahead of them too.. “Park above the redline, I will come to meet you there.”

[“Okay, sir.”]

A language that only Raki could understand amongst the Alabastians, spoke from the ship as the ships started to move and started at land above the redline. The redline covered the entire world vertically, and horizontally it was still bigger than multiple Alabasta-sized islands combined. So the spaceships easily landed.

Little Amon followed them and while they slowly landed one by one, Amon brought a comfy chair from the kingdom and sat while sipping juice.

From the spaceships, a woman walked over. She had glossy, shining white skin and pale white hair as if they were ice. She also carried a blade on her waist that released icy energy outwards. She wore a skin-tight purple battlesuit, compact with many kinds of gears, which covered most of her body except for a diamond-shaped boob window on her cleavage. 

She walked in front of Amon and put her right hand above her chest.

“Hello, sir. Pleasure meeting you again.”

This was the Queen of the moon-5. She, like her race, had ice powers. If she had Haki, which she didn’t, she could match Aokiji easily.

Despite people looking down on non-auto weapons in her area, she still used a sword because of her royal family tradition and was therefore a capable swordswoman. She in fact had taught Raki swordsmanship when Amon and Raki went to the moon years ago.

“Indeed, Minnusha. You look the same as always.” Amon inclined his head, speaking the same language as hers. 

She was 50 this year, but she looked like she was in her early 20s. Such was the wonders of extraterrestrial races and medicines.

“I can say the same for you too.” The woman spoke in an accent, where the hard words were soft, even in her own language.

“Oh, why thank you.”

“It wasn’t intended to be a compliment." She said, "You are as short as ever."

Amon chuckled at that.

"Oh well," his body twisted before he took his 'regular' form in a flash of lightning. "I took that form to make sure you don't mistake me for someone else. I have got horns and stuff now, after all."

The woman looked at his horns and nodded. "...That's more like it." Then, she composed herself. "Either way, I am here with my division at your command. Please go ahead and tell me what I am expected to do here."

Amon sipped his juice. "Lean over to my face."

She did so, and at Amon's gesture, she proceeded to touch her forehead with his. Immediately, information, commands, and orders entered her mind with a bolt of lightning.

"Oh…!" She jerked backwards and blinked her blue eyes, her white eyelashes flapping. "I...I see."

She nodded. "I had presumed you had already conquered this planet, and that was why you were trying to expand your ruling to other planets. But to think you only conquered this world now…" she sounded a bit surprised. "How strong are the people of this world, anyway?"

Amon hummed. "The stronger people of this world have been eliminated, and the ones who remain… You'll realise their strength when you start to complete my orders." Amon said. "The other Division Leaders will soon be here, too. I am just giving you a heads up because I like you, for that reason, I expect greater results from you." 

Her orders contained many things, but in short terms, she was supposed to calm the raging population down with a power play and, as a whole, establish order around the world under Amon's name.

Amon could, by himself, do so. But its better if this job didn't require his attention, because he's got a lot of training to do in the meantime.

The woman, Minnusha, fell in a deep thought before slowly nodding. "I… understand. It's not exactly something hard."

"Precisely. You guys have done so before, and have experience in this stuff. That's the reason why I called for you guys, instead of ordering my people here." Amon nodded his head. "Do as I say, and I can guarantee your Moon will stay as one with the most resources."

Minnusha placed her right hand above her chest again, a form of showing respect in her place.  "Thank you very much, sir. I will start immediately."

"Alright." Amon nodded and was about to dismiss her before he recalled something. "Oh, is your daughter old enough yet?"

"..."

"Wasn't she 14 the last time we met? Hm, so she should be around 19 years old now…"

"Sir, as I said, without marrying her, you can't do anything to her," Minnusha said. "I am a mother first, before your subordinate."

"Aww, sad day. Anyway." Amon waved his hand. "You have a year in your hand. Things will go nasty after that, so I hope you, along with the others, will be able to calm everything in this year. I know it's a hard job to do on such a huge planet, but as I said, you'll be rewarded generously."

Minnusha nodded again.

A year, however, wasn't as long as many people might think. To Amon… it felt like seconds.

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