Standing among the crowd, Yasuie felt a sense of foreboding after hearing Luke’s words. He realized what the new shogun, Yamato, intended to do.
It was something even more terrifying than Kurozumi Orochi’s brutality.
Yamato intended to truly overturn this country—to reshape the people’s perception of their ruler!
Sure enough, Luke continued, "Shogun Yamato could not tolerate Orochi’s cruelty, so she joined me in cutting him down. Shogun Yamato could not bear to see the people suffer, so she brought vast amounts of food from the Beast Pirates and distributed it among the people. We hope Wano will never suffer famine again. We hope everyone can eat well, dress warmly, and welcome a better future."
Luke himself had no particular talent for speeches, and his words naturally lacked any grand rhetoric. But because he spoke plainly, even the poorly educated people of Kuri could understand him.
The people present were deeply moved. They were not especially thoughtful people and did not know many grand principles, so their thinking was simple: the facts were right in front of them.
When Kozuki Oden had been daimyo here, he had indeed brought order to chaotic Kuri. But he had not ensured that everyone had enough to eat and wear. Even while the Kozuki Family ruled, many places across the country remained impoverished.
Then, during Kurozumi Orochi’s rule in recent years, Kuri had practically become hell. They had neither food nor water, and now they had fallen so low that they survived by scavenging through garbage. They could not eat their fill or dress warmly, and starvation threatened them every day.
Yet Yamato, the new shogun, had taken the initiative to send them food, ensuring that they would not go hungry for the time being.
Never mind the Kozuki Family. Compared with Kurozumi Orochi alone, it was like heaven and earth. No thought was needed to see which ruler was better.
Thus, many people dropped to their knees and shouted Yamato’s name, thanking her for her grace.
Things had gone even more smoothly than Luke expected. Still, this was not the first time he had witnessed such a scene. Before arriving at Okobore Town in Kuri, he had passed through quite a few regions and received reports from the other food-delivery teams.
At his instruction, every official distributing grain had used the same line he had just delivered.
It was not that Luke enjoyed brainwashing people. The degree to which a nation’s people liked its ruler would greatly affect the implementation of government policy.
If the people instinctively regarded Yamato as an evil pirate, then everything they did afterward would encounter resistance.
But if the people realized that the newly appointed Yamato was a benevolent ruler, then they would gratefully cooperate with her policies.
Among the crowd, Yasuie watched the villagers kneeling on the ground and praising Yamato’s benevolence. His heart turned cold.
He suddenly realized that this was an invader’s true killing blow against a nation.
To truly conquer and rule a country, one could never rely on brute force and fear alone. One had to win the people’s hearts through benevolence.
No matter how legitimate Kurozumi Orochi’s claim to the shogun’s position had been, the people would never love him. They would instead remember the Kozuki shoguns fondly.
That was because Kurozumi Orochi had been too brutal. His rule had made life unbearable for the people. But now, Yamato seemed intent on pursuing benevolent governance. After many years, would Wano’s people still remember the Kozuki Clan?
One only had to look at the people kneeling on the ground. Not everyone was a loyal, principled samurai. Most people in this country were merely ordinary citizens.
To common folk, it truly seemed not to matter who ruled them. They had resented Kurozumi Orochi only because he had made their lives miserable.
"Head on to the next stop first. I’ll take a look around here."
Luke waved his hand, signaling for the food-delivery team to continue toward other villages and towns in Kuri. He had spotted an interesting person here.
One remarkable thing about Endspace’s scouting skill was that it displayed a person’s name or title above their head. Luke had taken a look because the man’s clothing seemed strange, only to discover that the man with a cloth wrapped around his head was Shimotsuki Yasuie.
It could be said that among all the characters in Wano’s original storyline, Yasuie was the one Luke admired most. Not only was Yasuie one of the rare sensible people around, but he had a heart that genuinely wanted to do things for the people. Even when he had been daimyo, he had been deeply loved by the local populace.
Unlike Kozuki Oden, whose family name carried its own halo, Yasuie had earned the people’s love through real accomplishments. Wano was now in desperate need of rebuilding, and this was precisely when it needed capable people. Luke decided to recruit him.
Otherwise, if it was just him and Yamato, they would work themselves to death. Someone like Yasuie was capable, cared about the people, and would never engage in corruption. He was the perfect candidate for administration.
When Yasuie saw Luke approaching, he felt a bad premonition. Yet he kept his expression calm and bowed like the other villagers. "Thank you for the shogun’s generosity. Lord Luke, you have worked hard delivering this food."
The corner of Luke’s mouth rose. "You know me?"
Yasuie immediately thought that things had gone badly. He should not have known Luke’s identity. Yamato had only taken power a few days ago, and news traveled poorly in Kuri. Only people in the Flower Capital knew that Luke was a rising figure.
"I heard that one of Shogun Yamato’s advisors is surnamed Lu. Just now, I saw that all the guards treated you with great respect, so I guessed you might be the legendary Lord Luke."
Yasuie explained.
Luke looked at Yasuie with a meaningful gaze, then smiled. "I’ll be direct, Mr. Shimotsuki Yasuie. Become Kuri’s daimyo."
The instant his name was exposed, Yasuie’s scalp went numb and he nearly turned to run. But upon hearing Luke’s latter words, he froze where he stood.
"Lord Luke, what did you just say?"
Yasuie thought he had misheard. The other man had learned his true identity, yet instead of killing him as a remnant of the Kozuki Clan, he was inviting him to become an official?
"I said, please become Kuri’s daimyo. Or, if you prefer, you can return to Hakumai and serve as daimyo there."
Luke repeated himself.
This time, Yasuie was sure he had heard correctly. His face was full of confusion. "Lord Luke, since you know my identity, then you should know that I am a retainer of the Kozuki Clan. I will never serve pirates like you. If you wish to arrest me, then you may do so now."
"Tch. You really are loyal. I don’t dislike loyal people. But Mr. Yasuie, have you considered this? Dying is easy. But once you are dead, you cannot accomplish anything. You cannot give the people you care about a better life, and you cannot keep the baby girl in your arms alive, either."
Luke looked at the infant in Yasuie’s arms. He had been somewhat puzzled before because Toko had seemed fairly young in the original story. But if she had already been born now, then by the time Luffy and the others arrived, Toko would be twelve years old.
He did not know what was going on. He could only assume that malnutrition had stunted her development.
"You..."
Yasuie became somewhat angry when Luke mentioned the infant in his arms. But though he wanted to refute Luke, he could find no reason to do so.
Indeed, he wanted to do something for this country. Once he died, he could accomplish nothing.
"Mr. Yasuie, let me ask you a question. Are you loyal to the Kozuki Clan, or are you loyal to the people of this land?"
Luke changed his approach.
This time, Yasuie fell into deep thought. He understood Luke’s meaning. If he was loyal to the Kozuki Clan, then he should commit seppuku now. If he was loyal to the people, then he should consider accepting Luke’s proposal, becoming daimyo, and bringing prosperity to this land.
"Are you... serious?"
After a long silence, Yasuie looked into Luke’s eyes and asked.
"About which part?"
"What you said just now—that Shogun Yamato intends to let this country’s people eat well, dress warmly, and live good lives. Were you serious? Or were those only words for the people, meant to keep them from resisting the new shogun’s rule?"
Yasuie asked solemnly.
"Of course I was serious. Otherwise, this little performance would be quite expensive. If we only wanted to show a bit of kindness, we could toss a single bag of rice here. Believe it or not, the villagers would still think the new shogun was not too bad."
Luke smiled. "But we gave them a large amount of food—enough to feed an adult for a month. That is enough to prove that we want the people to eat their fill and live for the long term."
Yasuie pondered for a moment and felt that Luke’s words made sense. If the authorities distributed food like this everywhere, the cost would be enormous.
If they did not truly intend to reform the country, such expenditure would make no sense.
Perhaps the other side was not lying to him. Whatever their original motives, they really did seem to want to make this country better.
But if he joined them just like that, would that not make him disloyal?
For a time, Yasuie was deeply conflicted.
Seeing Yasuie’s silence, Luke knew the man was engaged in an internal struggle. So he pressed the point. "I once looked into your record, Mr. Yasuie. I thought you were a man who would do whatever it took to secure the people’s happiness. But it seems that, in the end, even you cannot escape the shackles of reputation. Which weighs more heavily in your heart: the label of disloyalty, or the people’s happiness?"
Yasuie’s expression wavered. He suddenly felt somewhat hypocritical. Back then, he had even lectured Kozuki Oden, telling him to settle down and do real work for the people. He had said Oden should not care so much about what others thought, but should look at whether the people under his rule were living well.
Yet now, because of his loyalty to the Kozuki Clan, he was about to voluntarily give up the chance to save the people from misery. It was utterly unacceptable.
"I... agree. Please let me become Kuri’s daimyo."
Having made up his mind, Yasuie spoke.
He decided that he would no longer place his hopes on a miracle that would only occur twelve years later. Instead, he would focus on the present and do whatever he could for Wano’s people.
"You won’t return to Hakumai?"
Luke asked with a smile.
Yasuie shook his head. "No. Hakumai is in far better condition than Kuri. This place needs a reliable daimyo to manage it."
He had governed Hakumai well in the past, so even amid Wano’s current chaos, the people there could still barely fill their stomachs. There was no widespread famine.
Luke clasped Yasuie’s hand. "Then Kuri is in your hands. Let’s create a better Wano together."
Yasuie’s feelings were complicated. He had boarded the pirate ship now. If members of the Kozuki Clan truly returned years later, they would surely point at his back and curse him.
But regardless of what happened in the future, right now he simply did not want to watch Wano continue rotting away. He wanted to save more ordinary people.
"By the way, Lord Luke, now that I have decided to join you, may I ask about your plans going forward?"
Yasuie curiously pointed toward the residents who had received food. "Even if the Beast Pirates are wealthy enough to acquire grain through overseas trade, they cannot support Wano’s people without limit. Once this month is over, they cannot simply go back to scavenging through trash, can they?"
Luke looked at Yasuie approvingly. It was rare to encounter someone so capable of thought in the world of One Piece. "Of course we cannot keep feeding them for free. If people do nothing but eat and drink, they are animals being raised in captivity. They need to create value for the Beast Pirates and for this country."
Yasuie frowned slightly. "What do you intend to have them do?"
"Build factories, receive training, and then work in those factories after passing the training. We will pay them wages appropriate to their abilities."
Luke explained, "And Wano’s food market will gradually stabilize in the future. With those wages, every family will be able to eat their fill—and perhaps even have a fair amount left over."
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