One Piece: The Living Devil Chapter 418: Why Did His Highness Expose Himself

Politically, militarily, and economically, the allied nations had all agreed without resistance.

When it ca to the relatively less significant topics of culture, resources, and technology, they were even less likely to object.

In fact, culture and technology had almost nothing to do with the allied nations themselves.

It was purely Rosse's one-man show. He simply ordered all the allied nations to submit their cultural and technological data.

In the current era, the value of culture and technology wasn't very high.

Besides, with the scale of the World Governnt, taking that information wouldn't create any kind of competition anyway.

It was just copying sothing of little worth. Most of the allied nations were happy to do Rosse a favor by handing it over.

After all, their military power had already been taken, what was a little data compared to that?

As for the topic of resources, Rosse didn't demand that the allied nations turn over their rare materials. In fact, he proposed a global resource distribution system.

All resources exported by allied nations would be purchased by the World Governnt first, and then redistributed and sold.

During the process, the World Governnt wouldn't charge any markup, the purchasing nations only needed to pay the base cost and transportation fees.

In other words, the selling nations wouldn't even need to organize trading fleets anymore. Once the resources were harvested, they could sell directly to the World Governnt.

For the sellers, this saved the costs and risks of trade, and they'd never have to worry about finding buyers.

For the buyers, they could now obtain rare resources that used to be hard to get, through the World Governnt, greatly improving the lifestyle of nobles and royals, and in turn raising the happiness of their citizens.

This was good news for all allied nations, so naturally, they had no reason to refuse.

If there was any part that caused a little grumbling, it was that all purchasing and selling would be conducted through the Employnt Association, and the prices would have to be negotiated with the local branch.

That, in effect, gave the Employnt Association even greater influence over the allied nations.

Still, for once, this wasn't sothing that hurt the interests of the allied elites, it was even beneficial to them.

By this point, all of Rosse's core proposals for the World Summit had been fully achieved.

Now ca the fun part, the show.

"From now on, it's open discussion ti. If you have any appeals or requests, feel free to speak."

Rosse interlocked his fingers beneath his chin, watching the varied expressions of the kings below.

This next part was the real reason these kings were so eager to attend the World Summit, to use the World Governnt's power to gain more benefits.

And this ti, without surprise, there were definitely people like Saint Garling and the others pulling strings behind the scenes.

"Saint Rosse! A new, unprecedented illness has broken out in Flevance, it's caused massive casualties! I beg the World Governnt to help develop a cure!"

As soon as Rosse's voice faded, a bloated, pale-skinned king, so pale he looked almost sick himself, jumped to his feet, shouting desperately.

"Flevance... the country with the special Amber-Lead mines?", Rosse raised an eyebrow, looking at him with interest.

If there really had been a large-scale epidemic, they should've requested aid from the World Governnt long ago.

But no, they waited until now, during the World Summit, to make a dramatic plea for help.

That was clearly ant to give him trouble.

The only question was, which one of the Five Elders was backing this man?

"Yes, I am Perth, King of Flevance. We are the only nation that exports Amber-Lead ore. Honored Saint Rosse, I beg the World Governnt to extend its hand to Flevance!", King Perth lowered his head, his voice trembling with desperation.

'How interesting.'

Listening to Perth's plea, the corners of Rosse's mouth curved upward.

The real issue here wasn't Perth's request, it was the Amber-Lead ore itself.

Amber-Lead was an extrely valuable mineral, used by the World Governnt in the production of gunpowder.

Gunpowder mixed with Amber-Lead was ten tis stronger than normal.

But this ore wasn't without its downside, it was toxic. Long-term exposure caused symptoms like skin whitening and organ failure, and the poison could even be passed down genetically.

According to the World Governnt's own estimates, at the rate things had been going for the past century, Flevance's people would begin dying en masse within three to four years.

This was classified as top-tier confidential information, known only to the Celestial Dragons and the Flevance royal family.

Every year, all of Flevance's mined ore was fully contracted to the World Governnt.

And now, Perth was bringing up this "disease" issue, clearly intending to expose it.

But that exposure would do him no good whatsoever. After all, it was an undeniable fact that both the royal family and the World Governnt had conspired to conceal the ore's toxicity.

Likewise, the exposure would bring no benefit to the World Governnt, or to Rosse himself.

Once the truth ca out, the world would be flooded with voices questioning the World Governnt's morality.

It seed like there was no gain for the other Elders at all, but that didn't an they wouldn't do it.

Because once it happened, as the man overseeing this Summit, Rosse would inevitably be pushed into the center of the storm.

No matter how he handled it, there was no way to separate the World Governnt from the bla. And with the other Elders stirring things up behind the scenes, his public reputation would take an easy hit.

The World Governnt's reputation was already poor, but thanks to the Employnt Association, Rosse's na was surprisingly decent, sowhere between praised and reviled.

The other Five Elders didn't really understand why Rosse cared about reputation, but they could see that he was actively promoting stronger ties between the World Governnt and its allied nations.

In simpler terms, he was trying to abandon brute-force dominance and instead build a community of shared interests.

Saint Garling and the others couldn't fathom what the point of that was. To them, as Celestial Dragons, there was no need for such nonsense, the world and the allied nations should submit to them.

And those who didn't submit, should pay in blood.

They didn't understand, but that didn't stop them from trying to sabotage Rosse.

Whatever the enemy wanted to do, their job was to make sure he didn't succeed.

That, in itself, was a win.

As for why the enemy was doing it, irrelevant.

If the enemy supports it, we oppose it. If the enemy opposes it, we support it.

It was that simple.

And there was another crucial detail, a hundred years ago, the Five Elder who first signed the cooperation deal with Flevance's royal family… bore the surna Jaygarcia.

"I heard Amber-Lead ore is a poisonous mineral. Is that true?"

Rosse smiled brightly as he looked toward the suddenly frozen Perth, finding the situation even more amusing.

Why did people always assu he was so kind of savior-type good guy?

Had he not killed enough people yet?

"There's no such thing! How could Amber-Lead possibly be poisonous? We in Flevance have countless crafts made from it. If it were truly toxic, after mining it for a hundred years, we would've had problems long ago!"

Perth explained awkwardly, dryly, he really hadn't expected Rosse to ask so directly.

'Isn't this matter supposed to be classified by the World Governnt?'

Back then, hadn't they promised the Flevance royal family that as long as they kept the secret and continued mining, once the truth inevitably ca out, they'd be granted the status of World Nobles?

Their royal family still had that written agreent, signed by a Jaygarcia, one of the Five Elders two generations ago.

'Your Highness Rosse... why trouble one of your own like this?'