Chapter 1231: Everything Was Within My Plans, At Least Until Before

Back then, Doflamingo came to King Riku in the dead of night, threatening that either he hand over 10 billion Belly, or he would simply take Dressrosa back by force. In order to avoid casualties from war, King Riku chose to believe Doflamingo.

But in the end, Doflamingo used his powers to control King Riku and the Soldiers to launch a bloody night in Dressrosa, then led people to defeat those Soldiers, seizing rule over this land in that way.

“But Violet is different. She’s not like you. She’s a woman who’s very good at scheming, never acts purely on emotion. From the looks of it, she wants to go all in and bet it all on me. Seems she’s gained that courage from Law, a fellow Seven Warlords of the Sea, and his alliance with him, same as me. It’s a pity she doesn’t know that even among the Seven Warlords of the Sea, there are gaps in strength. As for that Straw Hat in the alliance? His bloodline is decent enough, but in this place, he’s not worth mentioning. Compared to the monsters gathered here, they’re nothing but ants.”

“Hmph, compared to them, aren’t you also just an ant?”

“…You really dare say that. Fine, compared to them, I’m also an ant. This Sea is just that cruel—without sufficient strength, you have no right to speak. However, I have my own value. Monsters also vie against each other. As long as you control the balance, everything stays within my grasp.”

“You’re really confident. Gathering so many monsters in one place, one careless step and you’ll set yourself on fire. What are you doing all this for?”

“In the end, it’s nothing but profit. The struggles between monsters breed fear. No matter whose hands the Quake-Quake Fruit ends up in, it means one more destabilizing factor on the Sea. The more turbulent things become, the more wars there will be. The greedy want to invade others; and even without that ambition, just for self?preservation they’re forced to buy more weapons. Isn’t that enough?”

What King Riku said was indeed the risk Doflamingo had to face, but matching that risk was an enormous profit.

Up to this point, although there had been some small accidents, Doflamingo believed everything was still under his control. Even if Buggy took advantage of the chaos to snatch away part of his profits, he could get them back later.

Though there were many monsters here, he had connections with Hundred Beasts, and as a middleman in the Underworld and with Caesar’s status, he also had some ties with the BIG MOM Pirates.

With the title of Seven Warlords of the Sea, both the World Government and the Navy could be counted as allies. Doflamingo didn’t think anything would go wrong.

At this moment, Doflamingo didn’t know that somewhere beyond his sight, an uncontrollable variable had already appeared.

Usopp and Bon Kurei, who had split up from the others, accidentally entered the Dwarves Country—also known in Dressrosa as the Fairy Realm living in Greenbit.

This race was even more simple?minded; basically, whatever others said, they believed. Before they were swindled away, they wouldn’t even realize what was happening.

Back then, they too were deceived by Doflamingo, made to think King Riku was a bad man, and began to draw close to Doflamingo.

After that, the Donquixote family lied to the Dwarves Race that their Princess Mansherry was gravely ill and told them to plant Smile-Smile Fruit to cure her, using this pretext to enslave five hundred Dwarves.

This was because the Dwarves Race had an exceptional talent in plant cultivation; all known plants fell within the scope of what they could grow.

In the end, the Dwarves Race realized all this only after the fact. According to the Dwarves King, they had actually had old grudges with the Donquixote family since 900 years ago.

To resolve this problem and rescue their princess, the Dwarves Race, together with Kyros, who had already become a toy Soldier, devised Operation SOP—a plan whose ultimate goal was to scare Sugar into fainting.

Only by knocking Sugar unconscious could they turn the people who had become toys back into humans, thereby clearing Kyros’s name.

Usopp, who had wandered into this place, used his lies to describe himself as a descendant of Norland.

Norland had rendered great kindness to the Dwarves Race; even now, Norland’s name still circulated endlessly among them.

Usopp quickly gained the Dwarves Race’s trust and joined this operation. Relying on Bon Kurei’s Clone-Clone Fruit ability, they had already launched a special infiltration mission.

The attack on the Toy Factory was only on the surface; the inner workings had yet to be exposed at this time.

“Doffy, new intel from Machvise: the Navy has appeared over at the Toy House and has already surrounded the place.”

Pika, who had just left not long ago, returned again. Before he could finish speaking, Fujitora had already walked in, leaning on his blind cane.

“Moving real fast, huh? The Navy is already taking action? That’s quite a wise decision on your part, Fujitora.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I never said I’d aid a tyrant like you. But if some suspicious elements start stirring up trouble, the Navy will of course take action. When accidents happen, minimizing the citizens’ losses is the reason the Navy fights. For the sake of your head, they might ravage everything in their path. Preventing possible misfortune—that is my justice.”

Ever since Greenbit, Fujitora’s actions had repeatedly disrupted Doflamingo’s plans, making him feel there was something off about Fujitora.

“What are you talking about?”

“Though I’m just a newcomer recruited through the World Draft, since I’ve accepted the rank of Admiral, naturally there are things I want to accomplish.”

“Such as?”

“Completely abolishing the system of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. If we’d ignored the incident of a pirate seizing a country in Alabasta, that place would have become just like here—a kingdom of darkness, no? If you do too many evil deeds, your head will only become more and more valuable, Celestial Night Demon.”

“Fuffuffuffuffu, what, are you planning to take me out ahead of schedule?”

“Calm yourself. For now, I only wish to protect this country. Whatever chronic disease this country shows in the future, this blind man will not see it. We can still coexist peacefully for the time being. However, this year is a World Meeting year. No matter the outcome, the world will make a move.”

After that, Fujitora turned and left again. With his Observation Haki, he had naturally sensed King Riku and Law here, but he neither said nor did anything, as if he had appeared here solely to warn Doflamingo.

“Doffy…”

“Don’t worry, Pika. That guy… seems he still listens to the World Government’s orders.”

Doflamingo had noticed some of Fujitora’s intentions. If not for his title as a Seven Warlords of the Sea, Fujitora would definitely have already started a war with him; but the World Government’s Seven Warlords of the Sea system still existed.

Fujitora loathed this system, yet he hadn’t violated the rules. Instead, he wanted to use the law to abolish the system first, then deal with the rest.

Even Doflamingo couldn’t help rubbing his temples at this string of vexing matters. His earlier words now seemed a bit too bold.

Crack! Crack!

Just then, the windows of the palace all shattered under the force of the air currents. Ornaments and decorations inside scattered across the floor, and the violent wind almost blew Doflamingo’s sunglasses off.

“What’s going on?! Where’s that Supreme King coming from?!”

As a possessor of Supreme King, Doflamingo immediately understood what this was. Feeling this overwhelming pressure, his heart tightened. Following his gaze toward the window, he also grasped the source of this aura.

Centered on the Bullfighting Arena, the sky split open.