With Gatō’s organization destroyed, the people of the Land of Waves were finally liberated.
However, after suffering from poverty and weakness for so many years, they still lived in dire circumstances.
They possessed nothing and had to rebuild their lives entirely from scratch.
Even under favorable conditions, it would take at least three to five years before they had any hope of escaping poverty.
Akira could not allow the first territory claimed by the king to remain so shabby.
Thus, he generously opened his treasury once again.
He withdrew less than one hundred-millionth of its contents and bestowed the wealth upon the impoverished people of the Land of Waves, providing them with the initial capital necessary to rebuild their homes.
The people were moved to tears by his generosity.
United in their devotion, they acknowledged Akira as their king and willingly became his loyal subjects!
Akira’s wealth provided the initial capital the country desperately needed, but money alone could not rebuild ports, restore farmland, establish laws, train officials, or reopen foreign trade.
Those problems would require years of organized work.
Such extravagance was truly beyond reason!
Of course, Akira had not acted without a purpose.
[Main Role Progress: 21%] [Supporting Role Progress: 10%] “Kid Gilgamesh’s Portrayal Progress only increased by one percent, while Whitebeard’s rose by nine percent?” Akira was somewhat surprised by the result.
His original intention had been to increase his progress as Kid Gilgamesh.
However, after thinking about it carefully, the reason was not difficult to understand.
Kid Gilgamesh possessed a free-spirited personality and generally acted according to his momentary whims.
Although he could be generous, he would rarely distribute wealth among ordinary civilians with the deliberate goal of improving their lives.
Whitebeard was different.
He had been born in a village on an island in the New World.
Because the country was too impoverished to pay the Heavenly Tribute, it could not join the World Government.
Such unaffiliated nations usually deteriorated into lawless islands overrun by pirates and human traffickers.
After the country collapsed, increasing numbers of children were left as unfortunate orphans.
Whitebeard himself had become a pirate at a very young age.
Even so, he had always cared deeply about his homeland and anonymously sent his earnings back to the island to support its impoverished residents.
From that perspective, Akira’s decision to distribute wealth among the poor of the Land of Waves closely resembled something Whitebeard would do.
That was why his Supporting Role Progress had increased so significantly.
“An unexpected benefit, then?
This works out perfectly.
I can obtain more of Whitebeard’s power…” Akira clenched his fist.
The skin covering his hand first turned red as though heated from within before instantly becoming pitch-black.
Armament Haki— A power that enhanced the user’s defenses like an invisible suit of armor and could also be converted into offensive strength!
Immediately afterward, a translucent white sphere appeared around his fist.
Tremor-Tremor Fruit— A terrifying, natural-disaster-class ability capable of producing vibrations powerful enough to shake the atmosphere, split the earth, and even generate enormous tsunamis!
“Let’s play a little joke on everyone~” Akira drove his fist, coated in both Armament Haki and tremor power, heavily into the ground.
Rumble!
Rumble!
Rumble!
Rumble!
With Akira at the center, violent shock waves spread outward through the earth.
The tremors covered the entire Land of Waves!
…
“Pfft!
Wh-What’s happening?!” The daimyo of the Land of Waves had been enjoying a delicious lunch when the sudden earthquake nearly frightened him into spitting out his food.
“Lord Daimyo, you must leave immediately!” The guards who rushed over quickly dragged him out of the building.
“An earthquake?
Impossible!
From the founding of the Land of Waves over a century ago until today, there has never been an earthquake here!” The daimyo wiped the grease from his face and stared at his cracked palace as though he had seen a ghost.
Rumble…
Rumble…
However, the strange earthquake vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
It was almost as though Mother Earth had merely played a joke on humanity, shaking herself briefly before becoming still once more.
“How could something like this happen?
Could this earthquake have been caused by something other than a natural disaster?” The daimyo frowned, unable to understand the situation no matter how much he considered it.
“Lord Daimyo, strange incidents have become increasingly common ever since someone claiming to be a king arrived in Daka Village,” the captain of the guards complained.
In truth, as a member of the Land of Waves’ upper class, he was bitter because he had received none of Akira’s gifts.
Consumed by envy, he could not resist slandering Akira before the daimyo.
“A king…” The daimyo’s expression darkened.
Nominally, he was the highest authority in the Land of Waves, possessing the power to determine the life and death of every commoner beneath him.
Previously, Gatō had arrived with his criminal organization and used various methods to seize control of half the country.
However, Gatō had never dared challenge the daimyo’s official position.
According to the law, the daimyo was the country’s sole legitimate ruler.
Anyone who openly challenged a daimyo’s authority would inevitably earn the hostility of the daimyos of the other nations, even if the offended ruler governed only a minor country.
A daimyo possessed the right to commission a hidden village and use the military power of shinobi to suppress all rebels!
That was precisely why Gatō, despite acting tyrannically throughout the Land of Waves, had never dared provoke the daimyo.
Instead, he had voluntarily handed over a considerable portion of the wealth he extorted from the villagers.
The two had maintained a mutually beneficial relationship through this exchange of profits.
By killing Gatō, Akira had effectively severed the flow of wealth reaching the daimyo.
Naturally, the daimyo was extremely displeased.
Even so, he had remained patient and waited for Akira to visit him.
The person who killed Gatō had most likely done so merely to replace him and seize control of his interests within the Land of Waves.
The daimyo had felt completely secure.
No matter who entered the Land of Waves, they could not ignore his authority.
Gatō had been his previous partner.
Replacing him with someone else made little difference.
In any case, not a single coin of the daimyo’s rightful share could be reduced!
However, events soon developed in a manner completely beyond his expectations…
The person who killed Gatō never came to negotiate with him.
Instead, Akira took out his own enormous fortune and used it to fund construction projects for those lowly commoners.
What kind of strategy was that?
The daimyo could not understand it at all!
What he found even more intolerable was that Akira had openly declared himself king!
If Akira was the king, then what did that make him?
This was something the daimyo absolutely could not tolerate!
“Contact Konoha immediately!
I want to issue an S-rank rebellion-suppression mission!”