One Piece: Kaido the Beast Playing House.

Chapter 25 Cooperation
"Iron Islands, father, this is not..." Prince Riku was about to say something, but King Riku glanced at him and swallowed the rest of his words.

"The Iron Islands are only 35 nautical miles away from here. They used to be part of Dressrosa. Did Dold introduce you to the bridge connecting Dressrosa and Greenbit?" King Riku followed the prince's words.

"I've introduced it to you, but I haven't seen it in person yet." Lily said, touching the pointed corner.

"Haha, Dold should have said that this bridge is made of steel, and Dressrosa was once famous for its high-quality steel extraction and forging." King Riku said with a slight sigh.

"And 50 years ago, the Iron Islands were occupied by pirates. Because the Iron Islands were only used by our country as a mine, they did not belong to our country in name. Therefore, although our country is a member of the World Government, it is impossible for the navy to take them back."

"So you want us to help you take it back?" Kaido asked, rubbing his chin.

"Yes and no." King Riku shook his head. "The Iron Islands are located in a special geographical location. Due to the distribution of the islands, the islands are surrounded by whirlpools that never dissipate all year round. There are only two waterways, one in and one out. If you two need a stable base, that place is definitely suitable. Once you take it, it will be easy to defend and difficult to attack."

"Then what do you want?" Lily asked. There is no free lunch in this world, and King Riku cannot go to the trouble of helping two strangers to find territory.

"Development requires money, whether it is for the two future pirate groups or Dressrosa." King Riku pointed at Kaido and Lily, then pointed at the ground with his backhand.

"I hope to reach a cooperation with you two. The Iron Islands have changed hands frequently in recent years. Now there is a pirate group with 1 million Beli entrenched there. Once you two take over the Iron Islands, I will send people to the island to mine ore, and then the two parties will split the profits from the sales." King Riku introduced his ideas while ordering his men to get the wanted warrant.

"Since you said that this place is easy to defend but difficult to attack, then why did it change hands several times later? Don't you feel it is a bit contradictory, Your Majesty?" Lily keenly discovered the loophole in the king's words and asked.

"Regarding this," King Riku coughed and blushed in embarrassment, "Because Dressrosa is close to the Red Earth Continent, there are some new pirates entrenched here. These pirates often do not stop to develop the territory, but leave after looting. Therefore, the pirates who occupy there usually operate on the central island, and the outer gaps are generally rarely guarded. The only exception was a guy named 'Blood Finger' George who was going to run it carefully 20 years ago, but I heard that there was an internal conflict and George was drowned. Later, the dealer took turns there."

"Then why not send Dressrosa's army over there." Kaido asked. Since, according to King Riku's intention, the pirates here are becoming increasingly weak, they can take the opportunity to occupy them back.

"Uh..." King Riku suddenly choked.

"Mr. Kaido, you don't know that Dressrosa hasn't had a royal army for a long time. It's not that we don't want one, but we really don't have the extra funds. The only combat force that can be used is the National Defense Army." Prince Riku saw his father's embarrassment and stepped forward to explain.

"Huh?" Kaido thought of many reasons, the only one he didn't expect was that he had no money.

"Over the years, for some unknown reason, the collection of heavenly gold has become more and more, and Dressrosa has lost its main source of income. The country has become increasingly poor and can no longer afford the military expenses of the royal army." King Riku's face turned red with embarrassment. The kingdom really has no money, otherwise it would not have sought cooperation with Kaido and Lily. Although he seemed to have a good impression of the two when drinking last night, they were pirates with wanted warrants after all. If he had money, he could either form an army himself or spend money to hire mercenaries. However, 22 consecutive years of deficits have forced King Riku out of options and he can only resort to this last resort. I hope he can succeed.

"Okay." Kaido took a sip of the black tea in front of him, then put it down again. This thing was too sweet. "In that case, let's talk about the profit sharing." "Okay." King Riku hesitated. Are we going to talk about profit sharing before we conquer the Iron Islands? But he thought for a moment that it would be better to talk before we conquer them. Otherwise, if the other party raised the price, it would be even more uncomfortable for him.

"My idea is to split the profits 50-50. I will be responsible for providing the people for mining and smelting, and I also have sales channels here, so we can sell directly, and you two will provide the venue and shelter during transportation. This is my bottom price. What do you think?" King Liku did not hesitate and directly put forward the bottom price without any beat around the bush. He really could not wait any longer. He had just handed over the gold from heaven, and now the treasury was extremely empty. Today's lunch was squeezed out of his pocket. But once this plan succeeded, he only had to tighten his belt for a few months and the treasury would no longer be a problem. Dressrosa had not completely given up the smelting industry over the years, and sales had always been there, but importing ore from other places cost extra money, and the round-trip shipping costs were a bit too much for the kingdom to bear. In addition, the sea was not peaceful, and they were robbed and their ships sunk from time to time, which was quite devastating.

Hearing King Riku's words, Kaido and Lily were both stunned. Who would guarantee a minimum price right from the start? However, after thinking about it, they decided that this condition was completely acceptable. The mined ore needed to be smelted, and the smelted steel needed to be sold, but they didn't know how to do all of this. Although Kaido knew some black market transactions, the black market didn't need so much raw ore. These were not ready-made swords, and not everyone could smelt ore.

"Okay, we basically agree to the offer, but we want to make some changes." Lily spoke on behalf of the two, "We hope that the miners from your side will work as our employees. We can even pay them, but we hope that part of our profits can be turned into real weapons." This is Kaido's idea. Pure steel is much cheaper than weapons. The price of a 10-jin steel is less than half of a -jin steel knife. Especially after seeing the group of honor guards, although the quality of the personnel is not very good, but the equipment is good. Kaido wants some weapons. In addition to arming himself, he can also sell them at a high price on the black market. As for the salary, it can be regarded as a surrendered benefit.

"Of course. Although our country does not produce famous swords, mass-produced high-quality swords are not a problem for our country." King Riku smiled immediately. He understood what Lily and Kaido meant.

"So, do we need to sign a contract?" Lily asked.

"Of course, of course." King Riku stood up and informed the guards and summoned several important ministers. The two sides held a small ceremony and signed their names on the contract. Not too many people should know about this. Although many countries are cooperating with pirates, and even the armies of some countries are pirates, this kind of thing can never be brought to the table. It concerns the face of the World Government. Although the author expressed doubts about whether the World Government has this thing.

After signing the contract, King Liku was ready to treat everyone to dinner again, but suddenly he remembered that the treasury seemed to have no surplus food. Fortunately, at this time, Sir Anbo, as a minister, saw King Liku's predicament and took the initiative to come forward to take charge of the banquet, which saved the extremely embarrassed King Liku. After the banquet, King Liku took Sir Anbo's hand and asked him to give him the bill. He would pay him back when the treasury was full. Sir Anbo refused several times, but he still couldn't persuade King Liku, so he had no choice but to give King Liku a 50% discount on the banquet bill.

At night, Lily and Kaido returned to the tavern. They took out the information given by King Riku and began to read it.

You don't know until you see it, and you'll be shocked. This Iron Archipelago includes 3 large islands, 44 small islands, and 115 large and small mineral veins, including iron ore, copper ore, aluminum frame, tin ore, and even some precious metal veins. According to intelligence, when the people of Dressrosa were driven out, they blew up the mine. Because the islands changed hands frequently, the pirates on the islands were unable to mine the mineral veins. It will not be a problem to mine the current mineral veins for a few hundred or thousands of years.

In addition to the introduction of the island, there is also an introduction to the pirates on the island now, the "Cheese Cream Pirates", the leader is the cheese man - Andebo, with a bounty of 1 million Beli, and the deputy leader, the cream man - Dehabo, with a bounty of 7000 million Beli.

"Cheese Man and Cream Man?" Kaido touched his chin. "He should be a person with special abilities, otherwise there wouldn't be such a weird nickname."

"It seems that we are lucky. It seems that these two things are not very heat-resistant." Lily smiled.

"Oh, oh, oh, yes, we are indeed lucky, oh, oh."

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(End of this chapter)