Kaido froze at Luke’s words. After thinking it over carefully, he realized Luke had a point.
That was right. Why had he handed the country over to that useless Kurozumi Orochi to manage?
Orochi was neither the legitimate heir of the Kozuki Family, nor was he recognized by Wano’s people. He was not even a capable administrator. Why had Kaido entrusted the country to an idiot like that in the first place!?
The more Kaido thought about it, the dizzier his head became. He was starting to question his life choices. Why had he never figured out something so simple before?
He truly did not care whether the common people lived or died, but only living people could work in his factories. He also needed Wano’s craftsmen to process Seastone and forge weapons. If everyone died and their skills were lost, what the hell would he keep factories for?
In other words, Kurozumi Orochi was completely holding back his grand ambitions!
At that thought, Kaido’s gaze turned dangerous. The way he looked at Luke also gained a measure of seriousness. "What you say makes some sense. Then if Wano had a better direct administrator, would the current situation improve?"
Luke had not expected Teacher Kaido to be this easy to reason with. But thinking about it, Kaido did not seem especially difficult to deal with. At their core, he and Yamato were both straightforward people. If he accepted your logic, he would nod. He would not beat around the bush.
Facing Kaido’s question, Luke shook his head. "It is not that simple. Kurozumi Orochi is a malignant tumor in this country, but a nation’s corruption and decline are not the fault of one person alone. They are the accumulated result of historical factors."
Maria, seated beside Kaido, was now looking at Luke with a grave expression. She suddenly realized that she had misjudged him. This Luke really had some skills. He was practically a statesman of national caliber.
Why had they never thought of the problem posed by Kurozumi Orochi before?
If Luke knew what Maria was thinking, he would probably be too ashamed to show his face. A statesman of national caliber, with his little bit of knowledge? He was just shooting his mouth off based on a few things he had picked up from history books.
He continued, "Kurozumi Orochi needs to be removed, and everyone beneath him needs to be replaced as well. Wano’s existing system also needs reform. Only then can we avoid corruption in the short term, prioritize ensuring that the people have enough food, and thereby guarantee a supply of quality labor."
Luke knew perfectly well that talking to a man like Kaido about the people’s well-being would get him nowhere. The only things Kaido cared about were whether his labor force would shrink and whether it would affect his factories and profits.
"Reforming the system? That sounds troublesome. Replacing Kurozumi Orochi, on the other hand, would be easy."
Kaido pondered the matter.
"As the Governor-General says, reforming the system is a complicated process. In the short term, we only need to replace Kurozumi Orochi and his confidants. Kill every last one of them, intimidate the lower-level administrators, and I believe they will behave themselves for a while."
Luke said, "But as I just mentioned, Wano became what it is today for many reasons. Now that we have discussed the corruption within Kurozumi Orochi’s faction, let us return to the Beasts Pirates."
"What problem do we have? There is no corruption within our crew."
Kaido spoke unhappily. He maintained absolute control over the Beasts Pirates, and most of his crew were fairly simple-minded. He did not think they could become like Kurozumi Orochi’s faction. At the very least, no crewmember would go hungry.
"You misunderstand, Governor-General. I am not saying there is a problem within the Beasts Pirates. I am referring to the factories under our control."
Luke shook his head. He did not know much about other great pirate crews, but the Beasts Pirates’ layered structure was clearly the work of upper-ranking officers with some managerial talent.
The All-Stars, the Flying Six, the Shinuchi, the Gifters, the Waiters, and other such divisions formed a standardized large-scale corporation, with layer upon layer of management.
Normally, a long hierarchy made corruption more likely. But this was a pirate crew. The people here either pursued dreams, worshipped Kaido, or chased freedom. They were bound together by the relationship of comrades.
On top of that, they had no worries about food or clothing, and there was no real wage system. That did not mean corruption was completely absent, but it was probably rare.
"The factories?"
Kaido’s expression darkened. Those were his prized possessions. No matter what Luke said next, he would never reform his factories. Facts had proven that they brought him enormous profits and strengthened his pirate crew. They were perfect!
"Yes. I asked Yamato about it. The Beasts Pirates’ factories mainly include weapons factories, Seastone processing plants, and artificial Devil Fruit factories. Both the weapons factories and the artificial Devil Fruit factories produce huge amounts of waste. That waste is highly polluting, yet it is discharged directly into the rivers without treatment."
Luke watched Kaido’s expression as he spoke. "Leaving aside the damage this pollution causes to farmland and the reduced food output it brings—after all, the Governor-General can solve that by importing food—what about drinking water?"
Kaido had been about to interrupt Luke and tell him not to talk about the factories anymore. But upon hearing that final question, he instinctively began to think.
Seeing Kaido fall silent, Luke added, "A person can survive a long time without food, but without water, they die quickly. So the people living along Wano’s rivers have no choice but to drink it. Besides hunger, disease will then cause many deaths as well. That means losing a great deal of labor."
Maria spoke at that point. "Luke, what you are saying does not match the facts. As far as I know, Wano’s rivers are still fairly clear. There is no disease problem like the one you described."
Luke was briefly stunned. He had indeed been jumping to conclusions. After all, he had only inferred this from Yamato’s words and the manga. Thinking about it carefully, wastewater had only been discharged for eight years. Kaido had not been established for very long either, and there were not that many factories. The rivers might genuinely not have been polluted badly enough yet.
But he quickly recovered. "Maria, you need to understand that pollution is not something that happens overnight. The damage caused by drinking water containing chemicals over a long period is gradual and subtle. It might not be obvious in adults, but children will have a much harder time enduring it. They will be more likely to die young."
Kaido remained silent and handed the conversation entirely over to Maria, his strategist.
Maria smiled. "It does not matter whether children die or not. They are not immediate labor anyway. As long as adults can work, that is enough."
Luke frowned at her words, sensing this woman’s ruthlessness. As expected of a pirate, her thought process was different from an ordinary person’s. "Maria, there are two problems with what you said. First, adults grow up from children. You noticed this country’s population decline before, and after discovering it, you realized the labor force might gradually decrease. So why do you not understand that without children growing into adults, the labor force will only keep shrinking?"
Maria remained unmoved. "But in reality, our factories have always had enough labor. The population decline has not affected them."
"Then you still have not noticed the heart of the problem. The population has declined, but the factories’ immediate labor force has not. That means most of those dying are children. The time frame has been too short for it to show yet, but in a few more years, factory labor will plummet off a cliff, because there will be no grown children left to replenish it."
Luke said, "Moreover, the population is not declining only because children are dying young. It is also because adults who drink chemically contaminated water become unable to have children. The population decline over the past few years is only a warning sign. Once it reaches a critical point, the population will collapse like an avalanche. That is why I said this country will no longer be able to function within fifteen years."
This time, Maria did not speak. Instead, she considered Luke’s words herself. After only a little thought, she realized he was right.
She had overlooked the issue before. Since the number of factory workers had not decreased, she had assumed the rough population figures were inaccurate.
But after Luke explained it, she, a person skilled with numbers, made a rough calculation and saw the terrifying future ahead.
Adults being unable to have children was an even more terrifying problem than famine!
Using eighteen years as a cycle, they were already nearly halfway through it. In roughly another ten years, Wano’s population would have an age gap. After that, the population would plunge off a cliff. It might take only a few years before their factories were affected.
The Beasts Pirates’ grand ambitions required long-term financial support. Looking at the worst-case scenario, this was not even something Kaido’s generation could complete. If the Wano they had worked so hard to seize and develop became unusable after another ten or twenty years, it would be no small blow to the Beasts Pirates.
"Maria, is he right?"
Kaido did not hesitate to ask. Rather, he had never put on airs around subordinates close to him.
Maria nodded with a solemn expression. "He is right. This was our oversight. We focused only on immediate benefits and failed to consider the long term. This problem needs to be solved."
Kaido did not fully understand the severity of the situation. He only felt that since Luke said so and Maria agreed, they should probably make some adjustments. "Fine, solve it. Just do not affect factory production."
Kaido cared most about his industrial chain. As long as it did not affect his profits or growth, he had no problem with improving the environment under his rule.
"It is good that the Governor-General and Maria understand. This problem is not difficult to solve, actually."
Luke smiled. "We only need to dig a dedicated canal and transport the wastewater through it to a designated treatment site."
What he described would be extremely costly in the real world, but in this superhuman world, it was not difficult. The Beasts Pirates had countless Ancient Zoan users, along with a giant corps. Digging a new canal would take only a day or two.
Kaido could even do it himself. One strike would carve out a river. So Luke felt that these people probably had simply never understood the dangers of wastewater pollution. Otherwise, they would have dealt with it long ago.
"That is too troublesome. Just discharge it into the sea. Have the Numbers do it tomorrow."
Kaido waved a hand, rejecting Luke’s proposal while feeling that his own idea was quite clever.
Digging a canal was fine, but creating a special wastewater treatment site? Would that not increase his production costs?
Luke was a little speechless. Saying that in this country was really fitting. He remembered records from his previous life about shameless people dumping nuclear wastewater into the ocean.
Luke wanted to persuade him, but after thinking it over, he could not find a suitable reason to fool Kaido into building a waste treatment plant. Kaido was a pirate. If Luke started talking about lofty subjects such as protecting the ocean and the world’s environment, Kaido probably would not listen.
At the end of the day, Kaido only cared about his factories’ profits. He would refuse to do anything that increased his costs.
If Luke wanted to persuade Kaido to take environmental protection further, he felt he would need the status of an All-Star at minimum. Continuing to touch Kaido’s interests right now would be courting death.
Helpless, Luke could only temporarily abandon the idea of having Kaido build a waste treatment plant. Later, he would tell Yamato about it and let her work toward it in the future.
"That arrangement is indeed reasonable."
Maria also praised the Governor-General’s cleverness, then turned her beautiful eyes toward Luke. "Kaido, since we are going to replace Kurozumi Orochi, Wano naturally needs a new administrator. Luke is so persuasive. Why not let him try it with Yamato?"
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