Free Web NovelChapter 289: 289 One Piece 53
Around the time Whitebeard’s territories were stabilizing, I tried to go to Sky Island to help with the village construction. But under Robin and Vivi’s command, with the help of the craftsmen from Hand Island, they were designing the village so that they could bring in sewage and electricity on their own. It seemed that just providing supplies would be enough for them to build it themselves. Seeing this, I thought that bringing the craftsmen was definitely a good decision.
So I came back down, managed the store in Mock Town, and for Marco and the others, I was building a headquarters and a supply warehouse on Sphinx Island so they could dock and rest. Since the people of Sphinx Island and Marco’s group were also helping out, it didn’t seem like it would take very long.
Then, suddenly, I got a call from Hancock.
— Taejin, we’re short on supplies. I’d like you to come. The store is already built.
"I’ll come right away."
I left a clone on Sphinx Island and teleported quickly to Amazon Lily. Then Hancock, perhaps because I arrived too quickly, was very flustered.
"Ah! Taejin, I missed you~... not... to think you’d come this quickly, I’m not ready yet! My heart isn’t ready yet!!"
When I arrived, they were preparing to celebrate the store’s opening. The store was decorated with various beautiful fabrics, the path was well‑maintained, and the roadside was lavishly decorated with beautiful trees and flowers. It was to the point where you’d mistake it for a newlywed home. It was obvious how much Hancock had grilled the people of Amazon Lily for this occasion.
"This is too much... I only asked you to make the store." ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
"I can’t help it! I can’t just make any old place for Taejin to stay!"
Hancock tilted her head back again, striking her signature pose, and spoke to me proudly. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
"R-right..."
Hancock and I looked around the store. The interior was relatively normal, decorated like a typical store.
"I like the inside."
"It’s a shame — we were still decorating. We couldn’t decorate more than this."
From Hancock’s words, ’not ready’ meant they hadn’t been able to decorate the inside.
"No, this is enough."
The store was divided into two floors. The first floor was divided into a storage area and a sales counter, and the second floor was made like a home, with a kitchen and a bedroom, so that I could come and rest anytime.
"Hmm... I’ll probably need someone to help. The Kuja Pirates are a pirate crew, so they go out often, so that’s a bit..."
"Taejin, if you need help, I’ll step in and help you myself."
"That won’t do. You’re the queen of Amazon Lily — it’s not really fitting for you to sell goods or help organize them."
"Th‑that’s true, but..."
While I was looking around at the people of Amazon Lily who had come to see the store, I spotted ’Margaret’ with her short blonde hair and immediately pointed her out.
"That one over there looks good."
"Me?"
"Yes. I need someone to sell goods or organize things when I’m not here."
"But I’m in charge of perimeter defense... eep!"
When Margaret tried to refuse, Hancock immediately glared at her. Then Margaret, with a surprised face and breaking out in a cold sweat, said she would take the job.
"I’ll, I’ll, I’ll do it!!! Just leave it to me!"
Well, it was a bit strange that Margaret was chosen as the store employee, but since Margaret, as I knew from the original, was a trustworthy person, I felt I could leave it to her with peace of mind.
Since this was Amazon Lily, I stored and displayed beautiful clothes, accessories, hair combs, cosmetics — things women would like — as well as necessary supplies like metals, and various food items that couldn’t be obtained on Amazon Lily. But since Amazon Lily, apart from the Kuja Pirates, didn’t really deal with berries much, none of them had much money. So I decided to exchange various leathers and oils that could be obtained on Amazon Lily for berries, and then sell the goods for those berries.
When the store preparations were finished, the people of Amazon Lily gathered around, looking at various things, trying cosmetic samples, and everyone was very happy. I was in charge of exchanging the leathers and oils for berries, and Margaret was handling the checkout at the sales counter. She was very busy on the first day, but since all the products had price tags, there was no confusion.
As expected, clothes, accessories, and cosmetics sold like they had wings. Of course, the other items weren’t unpopular either. The metals, which were scarce on Amazon Lily, sold out in an instant, and the food ingredients and alcohol, despite having prepared plenty, were also quickly depleted.
"Ugh... I’m tired..."
When the sales ended, Margaret collapsed in front of the counter to rest.
"It’s busy now because it’s the start, but once it stabilizes, it won’t be, so just endure a little longer."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
We closed the store, rested for a bit, put the leathers and oils into my inventory, then restocked the goods and finished up. Then Margaret dragged her tired body and returned to her home.
"Is it finally done? Come, come~ The banquet is prepared, so let’s go to Kuja Castle and enjoy the banquet together~"
Hancock came by as soon as the store work was done and, excited, took my hand and led me to Kuja Castle. When Hancock and I arrived at Kuja Castle, a large amount of food was laid out. By this point, I just accepted it.
"Thanks for preparing it. I’ll eat well."
After eating and drinking like that, I asked Hancock.
"You didn’t participate in the war last time — what happened to your Warlord position?"
"The Navy didn’t say anything. So I’m still maintaining my Warlord position."
"Really?"
I thought the Navy wouldn’t just let that slide, so I wondered why. Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard any news about what happened to ’Gecko Moria’ either, unlike in the original. So the Warlords were just four: Mihawk, Hancock, Doflamingo, and Moria.
’Maybe because the number is small, they’re having a hard time dismissing them?’
Certainly, it’s a possibility. The Navy, which had suffered greater damage in the Paramount War than in the original, must have judged that if they dismissed even the remaining Warlords, it would be difficult to fill the power vacuum.
"And now I’ve decided. Taejin, let’s get ma‑ma‑married. I couldn’t think of any other way. If you, the Merchant King, and I, the Empress of Amazon Lily, marry, the warriors of Amazon Lily will also accept being affiliated with the Merchant’s Island."
When Hancock suddenly said that, blushing, I was a bit conflicted. Because I remembered the promise I had made with Hina before — ’not to have any other women besides the three’. But I also had the desire to take Hancock as my wife.
While I was thinking for a moment, Hancock asked with a worried expression.
"Surely, you don’t dislike me?"
"It’s not that, but I already have three wives."
"Wh‑what??? I thought you had two wives???!!!"
"No, three. And I made a promise to them — that I would not have any other women besides the three."
Then Hancock, as if getting a headache, put her hand to her forehead and spoke.
"Haa... it’s shocking enough that you have three wives, but to have made a promise like that... I understand — I would have done the same — but it’s too cruel."
"Since I’ve already made that promise, I think it would be best for you to come to the Merchant’s Island with me and explain the situation directly to my wives, and hear their opinions."
Then Hancock, looking uneasy, asked me.
"Do you think they’ll allow it?"
"Honestly, I don’t know. If they don’t allow it, we’ll have to find another way."
"Is love always this difficult to achieve..."
Then Granny Nyon, who had been listening to everything from the side, suddenly shouted.
"Love is always a hurricane!!!"
Anyway, I spent that day at Kuja Castle like that, and when the next day came, I ran the store for one more day, then left it in Margaret’s care. Since the number of customers had definitely decreased compared to the first day, I thought even Margaret alone could handle the sales sufficiently. After that, I took only Hancock in the Talaria vehicle and moved to the Merchant’s Island.
When we arrived, the men on the Merchant’s Island couldn’t keep their heads straight seeing Hancock. But she didn’t pay any attention to that and was busy looking around the Merchant’s Island.
"It’s amazing enough that we’re on Sky Island, but to think you were preparing all this..."
Hancock looked around Sky Island and was extremely surprised.
"I’ve been planning and preparing this. Now do you understand what I was saying?"
"Ye‑yes. I see."
While I was showing Hancock around, we went together to the Merchant’s Island warehouse and stacked the leathers and oils I had brought from Amazon Island in the warehouse. I had already told the warehouse manager, so I thought the craftsmen would take care of processing them well. After that, I called my wives to the palace and introduced Hancock, and told them about the situation on Amazon Lily.
"Hina is disappointed. Are you planning to break our promise!?"
As expected, Hina was the first to flare up. Then Hancock stepped in and made an excuse.
"I’m sorry to you all, but to convince the warriors on Amazon Lily, there was no other way but a marriage alliance. I hope you understand."
"Haa... how can you say that..."
As Hina sighed at those words, Vivi, rather, spoke in favor.
"I think it can’t be helped. I’m not happy about it either, but with time running out, I think we need to absorb factions quickly to save more people."
Then Hina argued against Vivi’s words.
"That doesn’t mean we should let him build his power by using marriage like this. I don’t like saying this, but look at that handsome face of his! If we tolerate this, there’s no telling how many women will come flocking."
Hina pointed at me and said that openly, so it was a bit embarrassing. But then Hancock unexpectedly nodded in agreement.
"Right! Taejin is quite handsome. To the extent that I fell for him."
Hancock seemed to have agreed without any thought, just because a compliment about me came up. Even though it might be disadvantageous to her.
THUD!
At that moment, Robin, who had been listening quietly, took a sip of coffee, then, as if she also felt bad, set her coffee cup down hard on the table and opened her mouth.
"We women need to have another meeting. Taejin, go outside and wait!"
"O-okay..."
In a way, since I was the one who broke the promise, I went outside without a word and spent time feeding Holly and Karoo until their conversation finished.
This meeting between my wives and Hancock took quite a long time — starting around lunchtime, it only ended by evening.
"Come in, the conversation is over."
When Robin called me, I was finally able to go inside the palace. When I saw Hancock’s face inside the palace, she was making an extremely happy expression, so it seemed the conversation had gone well.
When I went to where my wives were, Hina sighed deeply and spoke to me.
"Haa... this is insane. We’ve decided to allow it. This was a decision made considering that Hancock is a Warlord and the situation on Amazon Lily. But from now on, we will not accept any more marriage alliances. Even if the world ends. We all agreed, so know that! You should be grateful to us. Wives with such open minds — do you think they’re common anywhere!?"
"Probably not."
"You know it well. So don’t neglect us just because you have more wives — treat us better. And..."
I had no choice but to listen to Hina’s nagging for a while. Hancock, watching that, was fidgeting. But since she was the first wife, she couldn’t do anything about it.
After spending a day on the Merchant’s Island like that, Hancock and I took the Talaria again and returned to Amazon Lily.
As soon as she returned, Hancock gathered all the people of Amazon Lily and first announced the news of our marriage and the alliance with the Merchant’s Island. She did it this way because the risk of immediately revealing the truth was high.
"I knew it would come to this, nyon."
"So sister is getting married. Then what happens now?"
"I’m happy too, but I’m worried..."
Granny Nyon and Hancock’s sisters were worried about the future. But contrary to their worries, there was no particular opposition. So I roughly looked into the reason, and it seemed that, perhaps because of the lovesickness that had swept Amazon Lily, there were many fans of mine, and the fact that the people liked the Merchant’s Island products I sold played a large part. And also, the fact that Hancock’s military power was quite high seemed to have contributed as well. Because Amazon Lily had its own rule of the strong.
The wedding was decided to be held at Amazon Lily, and only my wives were to attend. But since Amazon Lily had never held a wedding before, the people were flustered, not knowing how to prepare. Fortunately, Granny Nyon, having been active outside, had a rough idea, so preparations seemed to be proceeding somehow under her direction.
While preparations were progressing like that, the headquarters on Sphinx Island was also completed. Since I had provided all the materials, it didn’t take very long. I finished by further reinforcing the headquarters building with [Material Manipulation] to make it sturdy. Then I filled the supply warehouse to the brim with the necessary supplies for the ship operations.
