Kokodoro.
A beautiful island at the beginning of the Grand Line's New World sea area, near the Calm Belt.
The island is covered with green trees and flowers, beautiful and picturesque.
It is a rare spring island.
But...
"Ah~"
"The pirates are here again, run."
"King's Army, King's Army, run, run, ah~"
On the shore, a large pirate ship disgorges a large number of pirates armed with weapons and fierce expressions.
Pfft—!
A pirate slashes a civilian across the back with a knife.
The civilian falls to the ground with a cry, and crimson blood splashes onto the bluestone pavement, scattering on the pink petals of the peach blossoms that drift down from the trees on both sides.
It's extremely dazzling.
"Hahahaha!!"
A tall man, carrying a large saber on his shoulder and with his upper body bare, shoves aside the pirates blocking his way and stands at the forefront of the pirate horde.
Staring at the panicked civilians fleeing deeper into the street, his face is filled with bloodthirsty ferocity.
He raises his saber and charges forward, "Lads, plunder everything you see! The Kingdom of Kokodoro couldn't pay the Celestial Tribute, and has been removed from the World Government's member states. The nearby Marines won't bother with their lives."
"Kill..."
In a short while, beautiful streets are strewn with corpses, and the surrounding houses are engulfed in flames.
By the time the King's Army, led by a tall, armored middle-aged man, arrives, the pirates have long since fled back to their ship and sailed away.
Such incidents have been happening every day for the past few months.
Kokodoro was originally a very prosperous island, with many villages and towns surrounding it.
But in the past few months, most of the towns on the island's periphery have been reduced to ruins.
Although Kokodoro is not as large as the major islands, it is not small either.
The middle-aged man receives the news, and it takes time for him to travel from the royal palace to the villages. These pirates do not engage him, but simply plunder and flee.
For months, he has been like a firefighter, constantly putting out fires all over Kokodoro.
And the pirates are like sharks smelling blood; one wave is repelled, and another appears, as if endless.
However, he knows that the pirates who have been coming for the past few months are just small fry.
When they have plundered enough, pirates of even greater strength will arrive to strip him, the king, of everything.
That's right, he is the King of Kokodoro, "Kokodoro Charles."
Despite Kokodoro's prosperity, all the money earned each year is paid as Celestial Tribute.
In fact, he had foreseen the arrival of this day years ago.
But he was helpless. The Celestial Tribute increased year by year, and he had developed Kokodoro's sources of income to their limit. Yet, during the last Celestial Tribute payment a few months ago, he failed to pay the full amount.
He searched everywhere, even sacrificing his royal dignity to seek an audience with the Five Elders in Mary Geoise, but he was not even allowed to enter and was driven out.
Thinking of "Gus," which is not far from here and has now become a pirate base, a shadow flickers across his face.
Charles, after gathering his troops and comforting the civilians in the town, returns with his guards to the city of "Brest" located in the central basin of the island.
This is currently the safest place in Kokodoro, guarded by tens of thousands of King's Army soldiers. However, due to the large number of civilians needing to be accommodated recently, Brest has become quite crowded.
"Your Majesty the King!"
As they walk, civilians around them bow respectfully to Charles, who occasionally nods and returns their greetings.
Clearly, Charles commands high prestige among the common people.
Upon returning to the royal palace, Charles hurries to the council hall.
On his way back, he had received news that his eldest son had returned.
Half a month ago, a group of pirates sneaked into Brest and abducted his youngest daughter, Sophie, who was playing outside. It was then that his eldest son, "Kokodoro Donald," set sail to search for these pirates.
Half a month has passed, and he had thought his eldest son might have met with misfortune, as this is the New World, filled with pirates of considerable strength.
He did not expect him to return now.
Creak!
Pushing open the door to the council hall, Charles enters with two elderly men who appear to be stewards.
At a glance, he sees a handsome young man, among a group of armored generals, speaking in a low voice.
After not seeing him for half a month, the handsome young man has gained a certain aura of severity and maturity, with less of his former nonchalance, which brings a hint of relief to Charles's eyes.
But not seeing his youngest daughter, Sophie, fills his eyes with worry and heartache.
After all, Sophie is the princess of Kokodoro, doted on by the entire nation. She has never suffered any hardship since childhood. How has she fared during these past two weeks of captivity?
Will she go hungry, will she be beaten, will she...?
The thought of that terrifying scene causes his heart to feel as if it has been pierced by something sharp, causing a piercing pain.
"Father King."
Charles's entrance interrupts the discussion between the generals and Donald.
Donald quickly rushes out from the crowd, approaches Charles, kneels on one knee, and looks up at him excitedly, "Father."
"Your Majesty the King."
Behind him, the generals also bow.
"Indeed!" Charles nods to the generals before looking down at his eldest son Donald, a flicker of excitement in his eyes as he bends down to help Donald up.
Looking at his eldest son's strong face, he pats his robust shoulders and smiles, "It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back."
Donald looks at Charles, a trace of guilt on his face, and says in a deep voice, "Father, I'm sorry, I couldn't find little sister."
"You really didn't find her?"
Charles looks at his eldest son, who has his head bowed and a face full of remorse. Sadness flashes in his eyes, and he then pats his shoulder heavily, "It's alright, it's good that you're back. I believe Sophie will surely be safe."
After a moment of thought, he forces a smile to comfort, "Perhaps Sophie will return on her own one of these days."
He comforts his eldest son Donald, and himself as well.
They cannot collapse, for they are not only Sophie's father and Donald's elder brother, but also the King and Crown Prince of Kokodoro.
Kokodoro is in such dire straits now; if they were to collapse, Kokodoro would truly fall.
Exchanging a glance with his eldest son Donald, Charles suppresses the worry for Sophie in his heart and walks resolutely towards the desk in the center of the conference room.
"Alright, let's continue the meeting!"
"Yes, Your Majesty the King."
"General Left, have the pirates in the east been repelled?"
"They have been."
The Left General hesitates for a moment, then says sternly, "However, the casualties were quite severe. When we arrived, those pirates were plundering. Although we drove them away, the King's Army suffered heavy losses."
At this, a trace of sadness appears on everyone's faces in the room.
In just these few months, the King's Army has dwindled from nearly a hundred thousand to less than seventy thousand.
Nearly thirty thousand King's Army soldiers have been sacrificed in just a few months.
The number of civilian casualties is countless.
Moreover, the individual strength of the pirates is inherently greater than that of the King's Army. Despite their own losses, they have not truly annihilated any pirate crew in these past few months.
With this imbalance, when truly powerful pirates arrive at Kokodoro...
Then...
The meeting continues. Kokodoro is like a leaky sieve, with winds blowing in from all sides, impossible to stop. And the battlefield, of course, is not limited to the east.
And the despair that has lingered over Kokodoro for the past few months has intensified with the increasing number of pirate attacks.
One wonders who will be the hero to save Kokodoro?
Otherwise, if we wait any longer, Kokodoro will become the next Gus.