How did one travel from the North Blue to the West Blue?
It was a question worth considering.
Broadly speaking, there were two possible methods.
The first was to enter the Grand Line, travel to a suitable location, cross the Calm Belt, and circle halfway around the world before finally reaching the West Blue.
In theory, the same method could be used to travel between any of the Four Blues.
In practice, however, it was both slow and extremely dangerous.
The Grand Line was filled with pirates, criminals, hostile nations, and unpredictable conflicts.
The Calm Belt was even worse.
It was the breeding ground of countless Sea Kings, and anyone without sufficient strength would be little more than a meal waiting to happen.
Ordinary sailing ships also relied on wind, making it nearly impossible for them to move through the windless waters of the Calm Belt.
As a result, there was only one truly safe and dependable route connecting the world’s major seas.
That route centered around the Holy Land of Mary Geoise atop the Red Line.
It connected Paradise to the New World and linked the North, South, East, and West Blues together, forming the most important transportation artery in the world.
This route, often called the world’s main artery, allowed travelers and cargo to move between the seas in the shortest possible time and with relatively little danger.
Mary Geoise’s position at the heart of that network was one of the reasons the Holy Land had remained prosperous and influential for eight hundred years.
However, the route also had a serious drawback.
A monopoly was never cheap.
The World Government controlled the only safe passage connecting all the major seas, so naturally, anyone who wished to use it was charged an enormous toll.
There were generally two kinds of service.
The first transported people and cargo, but not their ships.
The Red Line stood directly in the path of the route, making it exceedingly difficult for a vessel to cross intact.
Most merchant fleets therefore arrived at a port below Mary Geoise, unloaded their cargo, and transferred both goods and passengers across the Red Line.
Once they reached the destination port on the other side, everything would be loaded onto a different ship before the journey continued.
People and cargo crossed.
The ship did not.
This option was comparatively affordable.
Many of the world’s largest trading companies kept fleets stationed at ports around Mary Geoise specifically to accommodate such transfers.
The second option was the most expensive service available.
Once a vessel reached port, enormous cranes would lift the entire ship from the sea.
It would then be transported across the Red Line by land before being lowered into the water at the destination port.
Both passengers and ship crossed together.
The price was vastly higher than transferring only people and cargo.
Depending on the vessel’s size, the cost could reportedly climb into the hundreds of millions of Berries.
At that moment, Doflamingo stood on the deck of his ship, the Flamingo.
The vessel had been secured by one of Mary Geoise’s enormous cranes and was slowly rising along a track built into the Red Line.
The Young Master, who had no shortage of money, had chosen to transport both himself and his ship to the West Blue.
The Flamingo was not particularly large.
It was merely a small three-masted sailing ship.
The posted fee was ten million Berries, an amount the Donquixote Family could easily afford.
With the Family’s current strength, crossing the Calm Belt was not impossible.
In fact, a significant portion of its smuggling operations relied on steam-powered vessels specifically designed to travel through waters without wind.
Over centuries of illicit trade, smugglers had also charted several relatively safe passages through the Calm Belt where Sea Kings appeared less frequently.
With capable fighters aboard—and, when necessary, suitable bait prepared in advance—the crossing remained dangerous, but it was no longer certain death.
Smuggling existed precisely because some people were willing to accept greater danger in exchange for greater profit.
The problem was time.
Traveling by that route could take six months, a year, or even longer.
Compared with such a journey, paying to pass through Mary Geoise was far more efficient.
“Doffy, machinery powerful enough to lift an entire ship onto the Red Line really is incredible.” A young man wearing sunglasses and sporting a bowl-shaped haircut stared at the enormous machinery in amazement.
“Is this where you used to live?” The Family members closest to Doflamingo knew that he did not avoid speaking about his painful childhood.
He had never treated his past as an untouchable wound.
The young man addressing him was one of Doflamingo’s closest companions, so there was no need for him to choose his words carefully.
He was the young Vergo.
Vergo was the same age as Doflamingo, and the two had effectively grown up together.
Vergo also possessed an impressive natural talent for Haki.
Since Doflamingo had never relaxed his own training, they had spent years constantly sparring, training, and improving side by side.
“That’s right.” Doflamingo gazed toward the distant summit.
“This is the first time I’ve returned since they drove me out.” He reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette, and placed it between his lips.
“As for the crane, there’s nothing particularly advanced about it.” Doflamingo had started smoking when he was eight and was already a seasoned smoker despite his age.
At this rate, perhaps lung disease would be what finally killed him.
The machinery at Mary Geoise truly was less impressive than it appeared.
It was much like the Holy Land’s moving walkways.
From the outside, they looked like products of advanced engineering.
In reality, if Doflamingo remembered correctly, the cranes were powered by several enslaved giants turning a massive mechanism beneath the surface.
It was little more than an enormous winch.
The slave trade really is absurdly profitable, Doflamingo thought.
Even here in Mary Geoise.
As one of the leading figures in the North Blue’s underworld, Doflamingo had naturally encountered the trade many times.
The Donquixote Family had participated in it as well.
Near the western edge of the North Blue, close to the Calm Belt, there was an enormous island comparable in size to a small continent—perhaps even as large as Arabasta.
An isolated people lived there, cut off from the rest of the world and possessing little in the way of modern civilization.
The island was rich in natural resources, allowing its inhabitants to survive comfortably without developing intensive agriculture or industry.
For centuries, a thick fog had covered the surrounding waters.
Reefs, whirlpools, and dangerous currents made the island almost impossible to approach.
Then, a little over two years ago, the fog that had blanketed the region for generations inexplicably vanished within the span of three months.
Only then was the enormous island revealed to the outside world.
The Donquixote Family moved quickly, surveying both the island and its inhabitants.
Afterward, they began capturing its people and selling them to estates and plantations throughout the North Blue as forced labor.
In a grim sense, Donquixote Doflamingo had opened an entirely new branch of the North Blue slave trade.
A new population had been added to the list of people trafficked through the underworld.
Strangely, however, the Donquixote Family limited its direct involvement almost entirely to this particular trade.
That did not prevent Doflamingo from understanding the wider slave market.
A giant slave, for example, might sell for fifty million Berries twenty years from now.
At present, the market price was closer to twenty million.
By that estimate, the enslaved labor needed to operate Mary Geoise’s enormous winching system had probably cost no more than two or three hundred million Berries in total.
Everything earned afterward was almost pure profit.
Exploiting others had always been one of the easiest ways to amass wealth.
As the Flamingo continued its slow ascent, Mary Geoise drew nearer.
For a moment, Doflamingo thought he could feel the familiar breeze of his childhood.
It carried a scent he despised.
The scent of the Celestial Dragons.
First impressions were difficult to erase.
When the unfamiliar soul inside Doflamingo had first opened his eyes in this world, he had found himself surrounded by Celestial Dragons who mocked, condemned, and humiliated him.
There had never been any chance of him developing a favorable opinion of them.
Even though he had already broken away from the fate awaiting the original Doflamingo, his disgust for the Celestial Dragons remained as intense as ever.
Perhaps being cast out of Mary Geoise wasn’t such a terrible thing.
Doflamingo stared toward the Holy Land in the distance.
After all, how could I ever make the Donquixote Family great again while surrounded by those vermin?
One day, he would return openly and stand here without bowing to anyone.
Imu could sit upon the Empty Throne.
Why couldn’t Donquixote Doflamingo?
He wanted the throne of the world as well.