[ 2 days later ]
Arlong sat down on his restored stone chair, and by his left side Nicholas stood submissively like an obedient servant.
Sigh!
'I've managed to keep my life, but I'm still very far from achieving my goal, this son of a b**ch leaves a lot of distance between us, and although he made me his subordinate, he doesn't want to listen to my thoughts for fear of upsetting his authority, but it doesn't matter, I've planted the poison and all I have to do is wait for it to take effect.'
Nicholas took a quick glance at the expressions of Arlong, who watched his followers frolicking in the large aquarium and the spacious courtyard of his palace.
'huh'
When Nicholas saw the kind of expression present on Arlong's face, he smiled happily.
'The moment of brilliance has come'
Without waiting long, he heard Arlong say in a slightly low voice "Nicholas?!"
"Yes, Sir Arlong, what do you want from this slave?"
"Tell me what you think of my followers."
"They are very strong followers and their loyalty to my master is great, there is no doubt about that."
Sigh!
Arlong exhaled resignedly, then turned his head and looked at Nicholas with eyes filled with some kind of anger, bewilderment and sadness.
"Enough flattery, tell me your honest opinion"
Swallow!
Nicholas feigned a little fear, then shook his head to calm himself down, and hesitantly replied, "If that's what Sir wishes, I'll tell you."
"Frankly, your followers are useless and they're just a bunch of weak, worthless people"
Arlong's forehead wrinkled and his veins began to writhe with anger, that's when he looked at Nicholas with a strong murderous intent.
Nicholas began to tremble in his place, took a step back and began to beg , "Please forgive my life, I forgot my situation for a moment and said things I don't mean."
Arlong calmed himself down and asked, "why do you think my followers are worthless?"
"Huf"
Nicholas wiped the few drops of sweat that leaked from his forehead, and returned to his place, "it's your gaze, Sir, your eyes told me, a man like you was among one of the most famous pirate crews in the Grand Line, he saw all kinds of strange things, the Four Emperors and the Seven Warlords, as well as the Admirals, you realize how powerful humans and non-humans are in the Grand Line, who we can say are monsters in the form of humans."
"You are an ambitious man, Sir, seeking to rule the world, but you realize that this is not something easy, or what will be impossible, and unlike you, your followers are just fools who think they are very strong and have reached the pinnacle of power unaware that they are just small larvae."
"Heh" Arlong exhales resignedly, although he is annoyed by Nicholas's words but realizes that it is an undeniable fact.
Suddenly Arlong's eyebrows arched, and he looked at Nicholas with some doubt "could it be that you have a solution to this?"
"I got you" Nicholas laughed sarcastically inside, but he showed an awkward expression on his face and shook his head, "I'm sorry about that, sir, but I don't have any plans about this," even though he said that, Nicholas showed a doubtful expression that made Arlong feel confused and ask, "you're hiding something, come on, say it."
Nicholas hesitated for a moment, then showed some determination and said, "I have a plan, but I doubt that you will implement it because it has some madness."
Arlong stood up majestically, grabbed Nicholas by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground like a small child, snarled at him, "Speak! insect, think I'm a coward."
Nicholas's body began to tremble violently and then he spoke hurriedly, "No! No! Sir, I don't mean that, all I mean is that my plan needs a lot of things, it requires several steps to be executed perfectly and I am aware of the possibility that you have better plans."
"Humph" Arlong pulled Nicholas and let him into his mansion, and after walking for some time they reached a spacious room on the second floor, filled with maps and valuable artifacts, and then Arlong let Nicholas go and ordered him to talk with everything in his sleeve.
Submissively, Nicholas pulled out a chair for Arlong to sit on, then he brought an old wooden blackboard placed in one of the corners of the room, carried a chalk and wrote a large word "King" in the middle of the picture "Sir Arlong if you want to achieve this goal you have to get three important things" after saying Nicholas wrote three words below "King" namely "Power" "Wealth" "Fame"
"It may seem to you that you have these things, Sir, but on the contrary you do not have them, all you have is some money, some weak men and a small piece of land ruled by violence like bandits and thieves"
Despite feeling annoyed, Arlong kept his composure and asked, "So what's the solution in your opinion?"
"Actually, the solution is easy, Sir, because you are a special person who can get all these things if you know how to play your cards well."
"You currently control a large island that can be considered the cornerstone towards building your vast empire, so first we have to change the way we deal with the inhabitants of this island, they are a valuable resource, we can sacrifice it when we need it, but all this remains just a small stone, our main goal is something else far from us," after saying that Nicholas pulled a long line and wrote a word that made Arlong's eyes widen.
"Mermaid Princess?! What we need is her"
"Sir Arkong, have you ever heard of Ancient Weapons?"
Arlong felt some shock because he knows some legends about these weapons, because remembering those legends he turned pale, his mouth dried up and in a dry voice he asked "Do you know anything about these weapons?"
"Yes, Sir, I know, and you must have heard the rumors too."
"The Mermaid Princess is one of the Ancient Weapons, she has a frightening ability to control fierce Sea Beasts and Kings"
Arlong stood up hastily, "but it's impossible."
Without making him wait long, Nicholas gave all the evidence that the Mermaid Princess is an Ancient Weapon, and after a few minutes Arlong sat in his place speechless from the shock of the information he heard.
And then he laughed maniacally until his eyes were filled with tears as he began to mutter, This is crazy, the key to world domination has been in front of my eyes all this time but I was blind, thank you human for this valuable piece of information, but you haven't explained to me yet how I'm going to get my hands on it."
"This is easy, sir, we must make you the savior of the Yujins and their master, and then you will win the princess with ease and use her and her abilities to harness the power of dozens of Sea Beasts and Kings for yourself, and then you will have a power that no one in this world has."
Arlong smiled happily and began to imagine the illusory glory that Nicholas had planted in his mind.
But he woke up from daydreaming and asked, "how are we going to do this?"
"There are several steps until we finish my plan, and the first step we have to do is to form a fleet of human Pirates who we will use to attack the island of Yujins and when the island falls into despair, you and your strong crew will intervene to save your race and the princess from under the control of Savage Pirates, and then you will do whatever you want some put your hand on the Princess"
Arlong grabbed his chin and started thinking " you are shrewd, human, but something is bothering me, if you have all this intelligence why didn't you find someone better than me to carry out this plan, or why didn't you carry it out yourself Are you planning to stab me in the back and get everything for yourself in the end?!"
Although Arlong spoke normally, but his voice carried a kind of coldness that made Nicholas tremble