One Piece: Global improvement system

February 13, 1472, Age of the Sea Circle

When Mario Lysander reached the place where the hideout sheltering his wife Bianca was located, what he found there made his blood run cold: the hidden entrance had clearly been forced open, and there were unmistakable signs of combat all around.

Bianca had not been completely alone in this place, since Mario had assigned his best group of soldiers to protect her, so the evidence of fighting made it clear that something terrible had happened here.

Without hesitating even for a second, he left the children in the care of one of his most trustworthy subordinates and rushed deeper into the hideout in search of his beloved wife.

Upon reaching the deepest part of the underground refuge, Mario found the entire place utterly destroyed, with a large number of corpses filling every visible space.

Terrified that the worst had already occurred, he forced himself to endure the nausea and searched among the bodies for Bianca, letting out a sigh of relief when he found no trace of her among the mountain of corpses. At least she had not died before he arrived. As long as his wife was still alive, Mario could cling to the hope that everything might still turn out well—although those hopes were about to be completely shattered.

Lifting his head toward the path that led back to the surface, Mario heard a commotion at the entrance to the underground hideout, and immediately hurried back to where the three small children were, his heart filled with worry.

There, he found that Marine officers had already overpowered his subordinates and captured the three small children who represented the future of the Lysander lineage.

He was a man of diplomacy and did not possess great combat power, so there was no way he could resist the armed forces of the Marines. Left with no other choice, Mario raised his hands before the merciless rifles of his enemies and accepted being taken captive by the forces of the Celestial Dragon Hannibal Rosward.

…

As the sun sank toward the horizon, Mario Lysander was finally taken back to his burning territory, where he came face to face with his enemy, Hannibal Rosward.

The arrogant Celestial Dragon looked at him with open disdain, a mocking smile spreading across his face.

"Human, what do you think of the gift I prepared for you? Isn't it a lovely sight to see everything that belonged to you being consumed by the flames?" Hannibal said, taking great pleasure in the look of despair on the human standing before him.

"Why…?" Mario asked hoarsely, as he gazed at the crucified bodies of his most loyal subordinates in the distance, with the fire devouring his palace and lands casting a macabre glow behind them.

"Why? Ha! From the moment you refused to obey my orders, your fate was already sealed! A mere human cannot go against the gods!" Hannibal replied, his expression satisfied as he once again savored his power over the inferior creatures before him.

Mario did not immediately understand what the Celestial Dragon was referring to, since he had never interacted with him before, much less disobeyed any order. However, when his gaze fell upon King Ulrich Klein and the other royalist nobles around him, he finally understood what was happening.

Clearly, he and his family had fallen victim to a conspiracy orchestrated by these hostile nobles, and it was not difficult for Mario to guess why. He had been at odds with the king and his sycophants for several months, and he knew that Ulrich Klein had simply used the Celestial Dragon to deal with him and eliminate a troublesome obstacle.

Gritting his teeth, Mario glared at the nobles present with bloodshot eyes, thinking how satisfying it would be to repay the affront he had suffered this day. Unfortunately for him, there was no chance of revenge now, for he had just lost everything.

His status as duke of the kingdom was a thing of the past, his personal army and lands had been annihilated by Hannibal Rosward, and even his own life would likely be taken by the arrogant noble of the World Government.

"Now, let me give you one last spectacle before sending you to the other world," Hannibal said, clapping his hands elegantly as a signal.

Immediately, two Marine vice admirals brought Bianca forward. She had been captured nearly an hour earlier thanks to information provided by one of the nobles allied with the Lysanders, who had betrayed them in exchange for greater gains.

Unlike the Lavenders, who were staunch allies of the Lysanders, the other nobles of their faction were not so impervious to greed. The moment King Klein promised them that they could claim part of the Lysander territory once the purge of the duke was complete, they had agreed to sell out their allies without hesitation.

Francis Lavender, who like the other nobles of the kingdom was present to witness the fall of the Lysanders, clenched his fists tightly and stepped forward to help his friend Mario. If he could not help him even now, then what was the worth of their many years of friendship?

However, before he could take more than two steps, his father grabbed him by the arm with a solemn look and said,

"I know how you feel, but if you take another step right now, our entire family will be destroyed just like the Lysanders."

Francis heard his father's words and knew that he was right, yet he simply could not stand idly by while his best friend was being humiliated by the Celestial Dragons.

Francis's father, the patriarch of the Lavender family, smiled with relief when he saw that his son and future heir possessed such a well-calibrated moral compass. Even so, he could not allow him to endanger the fate of their family, and so, with a sigh, he delivered a precise strike to the back of his son's neck, causing him to lose consciousness and collapse to the ground.

Francis was still a young man in his twenties, passionate and bold, and had yet to learn the importance of accepting tragedies the way his father had. Though the elder Lavender felt a bitter taste in his mouth over what was happening to the Lysanders, he knew that, with his current power, there was nothing he could do about it.

While Francis and his father were having their brief conflict on the outer ring of nobles surrounding the area, Bianca was brought before Hannibal Rosward, who with a violent tug tore apart her elegant clothes, revealing the delicate and sensual body of the princess of Vespa.

"Now I'll force you to watch as I make this woman mine, and then I'll kill you once I feel you've seen enough, hahaha!" Hannibal Rosward burst into hysterical laughter, feeling intense excitement surge through his body.

Like so many other Celestial Dragons, he possessed a grotesque disconnection from empathy and took pleasure in watching humans suffer, beings he naturally considered inferior to himself.

Everything pointed toward a great tragedy about to be witnessed by all the nobles of the kingdom, but at that very moment Bianca stood upright, her imposing breasts exposed without the slightest hint of shame, her gaze firm and resolute.

"Stop! If you continue with this, I will die right now in such a way that you won't even be able to touch a single hair on my body!" Bianca declared, and with a movement of her tongue she revealed a capsule she had been hiding in her mouth.

After briefly showing the capsule, she tucked it back into her cheek and continued speaking.

"This poison is one of my family's secret recipes. It is capable of destroying my body completely in a matter of moments. If you do not let my family go, I will die right here and you will not be able to lay a finger on me!"

Despite the fragility of her situation, Bianca appeared utterly imposing to all the nobles of the kingdom at that moment, for even as she stood on the brink of tragedy, she was trying to negotiate the most favorable terms possible.

The princess of Vespa was not a weak and defenseless maiden, but a flower full of thorns. She knew she could not escape the Celestial Dragons today, but at the very least she had to ensure that her husband and children could flee safely. She was willing to make any sacrifice to achieve that.

"Oh? That's a convenient lie, haha," Hannibal did not take Bianca's words seriously, but King Ulrich Klein knew that what she was saying was true, and fearing that Bianca might truly commit suicide out of desperation, he decided to speak up and warn Hannibal of the situation, even though he knew that doing so might anger the arrogant Celestial Dragon.

"Your Divinity… this woman belongs to the Vespa lineage, who are known for their mastery of poisons and are called the alchemists of the South Blue… Ah!"

Ulrich Klein informed Hannibal of Bianca's identity, and just as he had feared, the Celestial Dragon drew a sword and severed his left hand for daring to contradict his earlier assertion.

Even so, Hannibal was not an unreasonable man—at least by his own standards—and so he did not take the life of the king of Koldara.

Upon hearing that Bianca's words were not merely a bluff and that she truly had the means to destroy herself, Hannibal felt intense irritation, for this woman of the South Blue was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen, and he did not want to lose the opportunity to make her his personal property.

For that reason, he finally decided to yield, convincing himself that it would be better to keep Bianca's family alive so that he could force the woman to obey him at all times in the future. He planned to use her for many years, and it would be more convenient if she resisted as little as possible, since he did not want to "break" her by being too rough during her future conditioning.

"Very well, I will let these four escape, but the rest will be executed without exception!" Hannibal declared, raising his hand and ordering the Marines who served him to release Mario and the three children.

"Now, human. Leave this place and do not ever appear before me again. Your wife is mine now; you should be proud that your wife belongs to a god."

Mario heard Hannibal's words, but his mind was entirely focused on Bianca, who was looking at him with a beautiful and sorrowful smile. He wanted to take a step forward, but Bianca gave him a subtle nod and then silently shaped several words with her lips, which he could read clearly even from a distance.

"Go. Don't worry. I love you."

Each word his wife mouthed was like a dagger piercing his heart, and he could not bear it. He was ready to throw himself at the Celestial Dragon and die trying to save Bianca, when suddenly he felt someone tugging at his trousers.

Lowering his gaze, Mario saw his young son Paul, who was only three years old and was looking at him with innocent eyes. His mind immediately cleared, and he knew that he could not act impulsively. No matter how much he wanted to try to save his beloved even if it meant death, he could not do it.

His life did not belong only to him, since he had three small children by his side who depended entirely on him. Mario loved Bianca enough to die for her, but he also loved his children enough to live on while enduring the greatest pain and humiliation.

With his eyes flooded with tears, Mario took Paul and Lira in his arms and said,

"Lolo, come on, we have to get out of here."

Then, without waiting even a second, he began to run toward the horizon carrying the two children. He could not hesitate for even an instant, because otherwise he would not be able to do it. If he turned around to look at Bianca one last time, he would no longer be able to leave, and he would condemn his entire family to a horrible death.

Lolo, who was a very intelligent child for his age, looked at his mother, who was smiling in the distance, and after nodding his head, he ran to catch up with his father.

Even though he did not show it outwardly, his emotions were exploding inside him. Unlike Paul, who would not remember much of what had happened on that tragic day, for Lolo it would be an experience that would define his entire future.

The bitterness and despair he experienced on this day would stay with him for many long years, and would only begin to fade when his nephew Orion rose to power and created his kingdom, restoring his hope of taking revenge in the future.

Mario, carrying the three children with him, escaped the kingdom and the clutches of the Celestial Dragon Hannibal Rosward, but he would never be able to escape the shadow that covered his spirit, even in his happiest moments in the future.

After escaping the kingdom, Mario Lysander headed to Vespa, where he spent some time taking refuge in the royal castle of his father-in-law, the king of that country. However, he would soon depart silently so as not to become involved in the dynastic struggles of Vespa's royalty, since he did not want his children to have to go through another tragedy.

With a bit of luck, he found a group of explorers who were preparing to found a new settlement on a distant island, and he joined them, eventually reaching Pacific Island, where many years later his grandson Orion would found a great kingdom.

On the other hand, the nobles of Koldara's royalist faction divided among themselves the territory and the valuable mines of all kinds of minerals that had once belonged to the Lysander family, thus erasing every trace of the influence of this ducal house.

The Lavender family, as the Lysanders' main allies for generations, suffered the hostility of the other nobles of the kingdom for years, with a decline in their power that became more pronounced with each passing year, until reaching the point where one of the most important noble families in the kingdom was on the verge of collapse.

…

February 14, 1472, Age of the Sea Circle

One day after the destruction of the Lysander family, the Celestial Dragons left Koldara. They could no longer tolerate remaining in the lower world of humans, and wanted to return to Mary Geoise as soon as possible, so they did not spend more than a single day on their final stop in a South Blue kingdom.

"Daddy, why did you let those humans escape? Shouldn't you have killed them like insects?" said Rosward Rosward, irritated that his father had given in to the threats of a mere mortal.

Slap!

"Silence! How many times do I have to tell you not to speak? You are far too stupid to understand. Now get out of here before I lose my patience!" Hannibal shouted, causing Rosward to show a wronged expression and run out with tears in his eyes.

"Sigh, this child is truly annoying," Hannibal muttered once his seven-year-old son had left the room.

Rosward Rosward was his fourteenth child, and without a doubt the least talented and the most stupid of them all. Hannibal wondered whether the reason behind his son's deficiencies was the fact that he had conceived him with his own sister, though he had no proof of it.

He had heard that there were rumors among some families in Mary Geoise about how children born from direct relatives were generally more stupid than average, but he had never seriously thought about it.

Hannibal could be considered a Celestial Dragon with an intellect slightly above the average of Mary Geoise, and he wondered whether his descendants would be as stupid as his son Rosward in the future. Fortunately, Rosward Rosward was so far down the line of succession of his family's branch that he would never have the chance to become patriarch, because otherwise Hannibal would probably have eliminated him to cleanse his bloodline.

Once his annoying son had been expelled from the room, Hannibal focused his attention on the beautiful woman who was there: Bianca.

This woman was his trophy from this trip, and Hannibal was very pleased to have obtained such a beautiful slave, to the point that he had decided to grant Bianca the status of concubine and use her for many years, until her beauty withered away.

The day before, he had not taken Bianca because she had refused. She had not accepted the Celestial Dragon because she needed to buy time so that her family could escape and reach safety. Hannibal had convinced himself that Bianca was a feisty prey, which was why he had not tried to impose himself by force.

Now, the time had finally come, and Hannibal Rosward could no longer contain himself. His penis was on the verge of bursting from the excitement he felt, and with a lascivious smile he approached the beautiful princess of Vespa.

"It's time for you to fulfill your part of the deal, isn't it? And don't try anything strange, because otherwise I'll go after your family and slaughter them mercilessly."

Bianca showed no expression at all and simply nodded, her gaze empty. To protect her psyche, she had decided to focus as little as possible on what was about to happen.

Like a beast in heat, Hannibal Rosward threw himself onto Bianca and crushed her beneath the full weight of his body. At last, he would possess this incredibly beautiful woman!

Bianca closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around the Celestial Dragon's neck, and without her captor noticing, she allowed a transparent, odorless liquid to come into contact with his skin. It was a special poison she had prepared before being captured, and it was now seeping through her enemy's neck.

Although Bianca was prepared to endure any humiliation in order to save her family, she did not want to give her enemy the satisfaction of fathering her child. For that reason, she used a secret formula developed by her family to poison Hannibal and permanently strip him of his ability to produce offspring.

Even so, a few months later, Bianca would be shocked to discover that she was pregnant, and fearing that her poison had failed, she would spend many days sunk in deep depression. Only when her son was born healthy would she understand who the true father of the baby was, since his facial features were the same as those of her beloved husband, whom she probably would never be able to see again.

As for Hannibal Rosward, he would never again be able to father another heir for his family, but rather than suspecting Bianca, he simply assumed it was a matter related to his advanced age.

Although Hannibal Rosward was somewhat more intelligent than average in Mary Geoise, he was still, in general terms, a fool.

Not only did he fail to suspect that his condition had been caused by the poison expert he had abducted, but he also accepted a child who was not his as one of his heirs, something that many years later would bring about certain unforeseen consequences.