Chapter 264: Atlantis
A few days later, Louis pushed open the door to his room and walked along the giant corridor toward the main hall.
As he passed a corner, Louis saw Ulti, dressed in a maid's uniform, mopping the floor with both hands, and Page One, transformed into a dinosaur, wiping the walls.
After several days of hard work, the siblings' vigorous cleaning campaign had finally reached the one-tenth mark. But because the castle was so enormous, by the time they finished cleaning one area, the previously cleaned area was already dusty again.
This situation had driven the brother and sister, who had been janitors for several days, to the brink of collapse.
Seeing Louis's figure, the two of them subconsciously stopped their movements and looked over.
Louis, however, walked past them as if they weren't there and disappeared from their sight.
The two looked at each other, and in the end, they continued to bury their heads and work hard.
Half an hour later, Louis, riding an Island Cloud, descended from the sky, hovering directly over the giant lakeside. He looked down at the bustling scene of preparations.
Ever since the Fantasy Species Gaea had built the prototype of the city, Louis had arranged for personnel to come here to build this future city for the fish-men and merfolk. With the support of a small number of technicians from Fukaboshi, the architectural style here had already begun to align with that of Fish-Man Island. Many of the corals that had been raised up along with the old continent had been transplanted here, and a giant plaza, identical to the one on Fish-Man Island, as well as a mermaid cove, had been built.
Since Louis was not deliberately hiding his tracks, but was just hovering in mid-air, looking down on the unfinished city, the citizens who had been working here and some of the stationed personnel quickly noticed his arrival.
Violet and Baby-5, seeing him, immediately rushed to his side. "Lord Captain, what brings you here?"
Louis lowered his altitude and then stepped firmly onto the land. Facing everyone's questions, he casually explained while observing his surroundings, "The Noah is almost here. I came to take a look."
"It's almost here?" Violet was a little surprised. Her long and busy work schedule had left her no time to observe these things.
Then, she used her Glare-Glare Fruit ability to look toward the end of the giant lake, at the massive river that connected to the sea. As her vision gradually zoomed out, the scenery in her eyes changed rapidly, until at the mouth of the wide river, a massive ship appeared, being pulled by Sea Kings.
"That ship—it's huge..."
The sheer size of the Noah made even Violet, who was used to using her fruit ability to observe the surrounding seas and had seen much of the world, widen her eyes in incomparable shock.
Under her gaze, one after another, giant beasts, so large that even a part of their bodies was like a mountain range, stopped at the mouth of the river. After judging that the entrance was not wide enough for them to enter at the same time, all but two of the super-giant Sea Kings released the huge iron chains from their cavernous mouths.
Two of them then pulled the island-sized giant ship, slowly advancing toward the river, which was a thousand meters wide at its narrowest point.
Behind the giant ship, huge waves churned. An unknown, formless life was manipulating the waves, helping the ship to move.
The scene that met her eyes left Violet completely stunned.
By the time she came back to her senses, several giant portals had opened up around Louis at some unknown time. One after another, various figures appeared, stepped through the portals, and appeared at his side.
Seeing this, Violet, after a brief thought, realized that the arrivals were all powerful, important figures, and it was not appropriate for her to linger. She then tactfully left, leaving this place to the captain and his powerful executives.
Yelena approached Louis, then stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, gazing into the distance. "Although this trip had many accidents, in terms of the result, it was quite successful."
"You've worked hard," Louis said. This was one of his common phrases for communicating with his subordinates. Whenever they returned from a mission, regardless of whether it was successful or not, he would always say this.
"No, compared to us, you are the one who has worked the hardest," Yelena said, shaking her head. "Figarland Garling, Akainu, and the Five Elders... they are all terrifyingly strong. For you to face those monsters alone... it makes us, who have done almost nothing, feel quite ashamed."
Hajrudin, carrying his double-bladed battle-axe, walked out of the giant portal. He sat cross-legged in the harbor and looked at Louis, his gaze distant. When Louis noticed his gaze and turned his head, Hajrudin said tactfully, "Captain, I was actually confident that I could have defeated that old thorn-guy after I got Yelena's curse power."
Louis heard him and instantly understood what he meant. He then looked up at him. "I know. But Avant Heim had already opened the portal connecting to the deep sea at Fish-Man Island. And the Marines had already landed. According to the plan, the bombs were about to be detonated. It would have been difficult for you to get out if you stayed."
Although, due to an accident, some of the bombs had been dismantled by CP agents, the fact was that Fish-Man Island was about to be submerged at any moment. Hajrudin was indeed one of the few present who could have grappled with a member of the God's Knights. But in that situation, the longer it was dragged out, the greater the probability of an accident, such as Junko later rushing to the battlefield and bringing the Five Elders.
Furthermore, the purpose of the Archangel Pirates was to cover the evacuation of the people of Fish-Man Island, not to annihilate the World Government's people there.
Louis's words left Hajrudin stunned. He said no more. He, of course, understood what he meant, and also understood the core of this operation. The reason he was so hung up on the matter with Somazu was because he had revealed that he had a connection with his father, Harald. It involved his father's connection with the World Government and an unknown transaction. For a moment, Hajrudin had found it difficult to suppress his feelings. That was why he had wanted to learn the truth about his father's death and the deaths of the one hundred Ancient Giant warriors from him.
Nearby, Goldberg and Road saw this and exchanged glances, then stepped forward and patted Hajrudin's shoulder.
Louis looked at his expression and also thought of the matter of the God's Knights and Elbaf. After a brief thought, he suggested, "Hajrudin, if you really want to know the truth, why don't you go back to Elbaf and ask Loki?"
However, Hajrudin decisively refused. "No. He's only been locked up for a little over a year. If I go to see him now, he'll definitely think I'm a petty person taking advantage of his situation!"
"What a difficult pair of brothers," Louis complained in his heart, but did not say it out loud. He also knew what Loki had been like as a child. Not only had he beaten Hajrudin to the ground, but he had also, with his honeyed-sweet mouth, "greeted" his mother. In this situation, it would be strange if Hajrudin had a good impression of him.
"They're here," just then, Yelena, who had been silent, suddenly said.
The group looked up. Layers of waves were churning from the end of the lake, reflecting a brilliant color under the sun, and a faint rainbow hung in the air. It was the ripples on the lake's surface caused by the movement of two super-giant Sea Kings, each over five thousand meters long. Immediately after, a blurry dark shadow appeared between the steam and the rainbow, and gradually grew larger in their eyes.
The approach of the giant ship made the workers in the town subconsciously draw near. They scattered around the plaza, watching this scene with great anticipation.
As time passed, the giant ship, which was the size of a mountain, slowly docked, and its giant steel chains, like huge anchors, sank deep into the bottom of the lake. The mountain-like dark shadow was revealed under the sunlight, covering the entire harbor and a large part of the city.
Immediately after, one after another, stairs, made of a special wood, were lowered from the giant ship, landing on the edge of the mermaid cove. Two rows of neat fish-man soldiers walked down the stairs, suppressing their excitement as they stood guard on both sides.
At the end of the wooden steps, Fukaboshi and Shirahoshi, representing the pinnacle of power of the fish-men and merfolk, slowly moved toward Louis under everyone's watchful eyes.
From the giant windows and the edges of the deck, one after another, various heads poked out, curiously sizing up their surroundings, taking in the full view of the city that was to become their home. Ever since they had boarded the Noah in a daze, they had been living in the cabin and had not truly seen the sea, the sun, or the land. And now, they had finally seen all that they had longed for.
"Is this... the world on land?" a beautiful mermaid raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight, which was just right in human terms. Her eyes, whether from the stimulation of the light or for some other reason, began to stream with tears.
Beside her, a series of gasps came from the other beautiful mermaids.
"Look! This place is so much like the mermaid cove!"
"The plaza is also very similar!"
On the other side of the deck, a green-haired mermaid held a starfish with a hat in her arms, her beautiful face flushed. "Mr. Pappag!" she shouted excitedly. "Look! Real land! And trees!"
"Wait... what is that?" The green-haired mermaid girl named Camie looked up at the sky-high Treasure Tree Adam, her mouth wide open.
"..."
At the same time, at the stern of the Noah.
"Boss Jinbe, are you really not staying?" The former third prince of the Ryugu Kingdom, Mamboshi, looked at Jinbe, somewhat reluctant to part.
The Knight of the Sea, Jinbe, patted his shoulder and then laughed. "I have other things to attend to. I don't have time to stay here. When I have completed my atonement, I will have them return here!" With that, he slowly turned, preparing to jump from the deck into the lake.
Just then, Neptune's voice sounded. "What about you? Are you not planning to settle here?"
Jinbe heard him and fell silent.
Mamboshi saw this, turned to look at his father, wanting to say something but holding back.
Neptune, however, acted as if he hadn't seen him and said again, "Is it because you're caught between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Archangel Pirates, and you feel tormented, not knowing what to do?"
Jinbe heard him, and a subtle change came over his expression. He looked back at Neptune with a complicated face. Just as he was about to say something, Neptune didn't give him a chance. "What a coincidence," he said with a smile. "I'm also caught in the middle and don't know what to do. So, how about you add me to the list of people who are going to the East Blue to atone to the citizens for the Arlong Pirates?"
"."
When Fukaboshi and Shirahoshi had fully set foot on this new harbor, one after another, portals suddenly appeared. One after another, various races walked out from all directions.
Giants, Buccaneers, Lunarians, Tontatta, Flügel, Oni, and other figures surrounded them, quietly witnessing the historic moment of the merfolk and fish-men integrating into this land.
In the end, after receiving the Archangel's permission, the merfolk and fish-men settled in this lake, in their brand-new home: a city named Atlantis.
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