"There's no such thing, all the craftsmen forge them themselves." Queen shook his head.
His main post was in Udon, where the mines and weapon factories were located, while other places had no mines, only weapon factories.
Those tall rock pillars with weapon factories on them existed all across Wano Country, constantly belching black smoke, and were also sources of pollution.
Sage pulled at the corner of his mouth. "I really overestimated you all... Reni, this job's yours. Figure out their techniques, pull out a few production lines, and lay them all over Wano Country. Mm... it's already polluted anyway, so let's pollute it to the end and turn it into a heavy industry base. Whatever causes pollution, we build it. The geography isn't bad either."
"OK~!" Renedia made an "OK" gesture.
This place was easy to defend and hard to attack, sitting at a height. You couldn't say everything would be centralized here, but some heavily polluting industries could be gradually moved over, turning it into a large-scale centralized industrial zone.
Sage's industries, claiming they were completely non-polluting, that was impossible.
Shipbuilding wasn't polluting only because it was just building ships. But he sold cannons and gunpowder as well. Anyone who came to buy warships from him basically got a full package; they didn't have to worry about anything—as long as they had enough money, they got everything.
Weapon factories in particular were a major source of pollution.
Before, the factories were located in the southwestern mountains of O'Hara Main Island. That area was mountainous and otherwise just sitting there, so he simply turned it into factory land. But after a long time, the pollution there had become pretty horrifying.
Lily had reported on this a long time ago, but as a core industry there wasn't a suitable place to move it. Finding an island with no real resources and putting the factories there would be nice, but then you'd need a large garrison stationed there, maybe even split off an important combat force.
And even then, there was no guarantee it could be guarded properly. If the Navy scouted it out and launched an attack, or some enemy on the Grand Line suddenly went crazy, even if they couldn't beat his subordinates, they could still plow the island from end to end.
After mulling it over, he still kept it on the main island.
But things were different now. Wano Country was a great place. Put them here and very few people could get up, plus he could disperse his weapon factories a bit instead of putting all his eggs in one basket.
"Governor..."
King, who had followed along, frowned at these words and said, "May I ask, these 'production lines' you mentioned, and this centralized polluting industry—what kind of impact will they have here?"
He couldn't quite imagine what would happen, but he instinctively felt something was off.
"What kind of impact..."
Sage gave a dry little chuckle and looked at Queen. "How bad is the pollution in Wano Country right now?"
"The farmland's ruined, most animals can't be eaten, the water can't be drunk—everything's toxic, only a small amount is still usable. This is already the limit. Our factories are running at full tilt; even if we wanted more pollution, there's nothing left to pollute."
Queen added, "As for food, we used to handle that. Back then we made a deal with Kurozumi Orochi: we supply him with healthy food, but only to them."
"No need to spell it out. Lily's out laying Radio Snails. She'll check on that along the way."
Sage waved his hand, looking annoyed. "You've spent twenty years here and the best you can come up with is this bargain-bin tyranny?"
Queen and King both showed puzzled expressions.
"Food shortage, shrinking land to live on—obviously that'll cut down Wano Country's population. Those are people! You bastards!" Sage cursed.
The two exchanged a glance, their confusion deepening.
Seriously, we're supposed to care about that?
You're not the Navy...
The Navy doesn't care about Non-Adhering Countries either.
The infamous Great Pirate, the most expansive of the Four Emperors, turns out to be someone who cares about commoners?
Doesn't sound like it...
"People are wealth! People are money! With no people, who's going to pay my taxes? You lot have zero concept of sustainable development."
Sage said to King, "Pollution, right? According to my method, in a year Wano Country won't have any drinkable water or arable land left."
"Eh? All of it?"
Queen was startled. "If we do that, the people of Wano Country really will starve to death."
King nodded as well. "If we move all the polluting factories here, it'll leave Wano Country with zero hope of survival. Even if we supply food, with such a massive gap, we can't cover it all."
They'd just been calling people "wealth," and now he was going to starve them all to death?
Even the hardliners felt Sage was a bit too extreme.
They'd followed Kaido in his tyranny, but they'd never actually planned to starve people to death.
After all, they still needed people to make weapons.
And their Pirates, in their own minds, really were nothing more than a Pirates.
Feeding tens of thousands had only been possible back when Kaido's territory was broad enough, and even then it was just enough to keep twenty thousand Pirates alive. However few people Wano Country had, it was still more than twenty thousand, not to mention Wano Country counted as a large nation, big in size, with plenty of people.
"Can't supply them? Who do you think Sage is? Some run-of-the-mill Pirate?"
Renedia said proudly, "We are completely different from every Pirate on the seas!"
Sage smiled. "As a Pirate, I'm not that different from Kaido. Our combat strength isn't that far apart. But when it comes to doing business, when it comes to rule, ten Kaidos—no, a hundred Kaidos—don't measure up to me. The gap between us is like heaven and earth."
"What's the point of tyranny? Leaving a whole bunch of prime labor idle—what a waste."
Sage spread his hands. "Use everyone. Pay them wages, make them work, instead of leaving them there. Once you pay them, if they want a better life, it's easy to motivate them."
"I've got massive food supplies here—clean and delicious! As long as you have money, you can buy anything! No farmland? Then no farmland. Just set up a few clean living zones, and keep the factories far away from where people live, and it's fine."
"Mobilize everyone in Wano Country and you'll stimulate even more domestic demand. My canning plants will have to expand again, creating more jobs, more tax revenue—what a perfect cycle!"
Sage burst into loud laughter.
As for how to rule Wano Country, he didn't even need to think about it. The old method would do.
What's more, thanks to Kaido and Orochi's tyranny, his implementation would be even easier.
First the stick—take out those who resist. As for the rest, give them dates.
These people lived on the edge between starving and not starving, racking their brains just to survive. Suddenly they'd have a job, with tasty food and clean water to eat and drink, and wages that not only supported themselves and their families but even left some surplus.
Isn't that way better than farming?
The farmland was gone anyway, saving Sage the trouble of figuring out how to pull them out of the fields. Right from the start he'd have a batch of prime labor.
Self-sufficient farmers entering the factories—that's productive force.
Once this whole set is in place, why would the people of Wano Country care about pollution?
The land's what's polluted, not the people, and they're living just fine!
"Every problem is a problem of demand. And I..."
Sage bared his teeth. "Can solve most problems!"
He really did pay!
"This..."
King's pupils shrank. You couldn't say he rejected it, but... he completely didn't understand, yet he was deeply shaken.
It can work like this?
Is this how the world runs?
"That's impossible!"
Queen, on the other hand, understood. "How could something like this work? The people of Wano Country hate us. We're invaders—they're not going to act according to our ideas, right? Besides, this is too hard. It would take too much effort. Even the King never did something like that."
He understood, but he felt even more strongly that it was impossible.
No one on the seas did things like this.
"We're invaders, but we're not animals."
Sage laughed. "Don't mistake a minority for the majority."
Invaders... how to put it.
Invade a country, seize territory, slaughter natives, enslave the locals, burn, kill, and plunder—do it all.
Of course that breeds hatred.
Invade a country, seize territory, only deal with those who threaten your rule, and give everyone else jobs, money, the treatment a normal person should get or better, and let them live better lives.
From starving to eating their fill, from eating their fill to having a house, a family, and a future to look forward to.
He was still an invader.
But he could be the kind of invader people led the way for.
"The King can't do it..."
Sage's voice boomed. "But the nation can! I am..."
He spread his arms, and as King and Queen stared at him in shock tinged with confusion, he burst into loud laughter. "The nation! Hohahahaha!"
This sea was magical in that one person's will could influence many.
Sage's will, within his territory, was like the will of a nation.
It was something he personally forged, and everyone would unite and act for his will, because he would let them gain more and live better lives!