The thunderous roar of cannon fire was the only sound left across the land of Ohara.
The sky was so dark it looked as though it might collapse at any moment.
The burning Tree of Knowledge stood like a giant torch between heaven and earth, turning the gloomy day into a blood-red nightmare.
The hot air was thick with the smell of scorched paper and the salty moisture carried in from the sea by the wind.
"Boom!"
Another cannonball landed nearby. Dirt and shattered rocks were blasted into the air and rained down over everyone.
The surviving professors let out another wave of screams. They instinctively huddled together and crouched low, trembling in complete despair.
Rosinante and Smoker rushed to the edge of the clearing amid the chaos.
The moment Smoker arrived, he saw Aiden standing calmly in the middle of death and bloodshed. He froze for a second.
The next moment, he spat out the cigar in his mouth and crushed it under his muddy boot.
"Aiden!" Smoker rushed over. He did not even bother wiping the black ash off his face as he lowered his voice and said, "What the hell are you doing?! Didn't you say there was an emergency? Why did you suddenly speed up and leave us behind? Why did you come here alone?!"
"Ai... Aiden..." Rosinante bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. The moment he looked up, his eyes froze.
He saw the corpses of the CP9 agents.
Some were headless, some had been cut at the waist, and others had been sliced in half by sword slashes... blood had pooled together into small streams.
Rosinante felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. His face turned pale at once.
His gaze moved from the bodies to Aiden's calm face, then to the despairing professors.
Rosinante's heart tightened. He seemed to... understand something.
"These people... are...?" he asked in a trembling voice.
Aiden clapped his hands calmly and slowly straightened his wrinkled collar.
"Who else could they be?" he said casually. "Just a group of pirates trying to take advantage of the Buster Call to loot the island. I took care of them."
"Pirates?" Smoker frowned deeply. He recognized the unique symbols on the black suits. "Pirates wearing matching uniforms like that...?"
"Don't worry about who they were."
Aiden's voice was serious, without even the slightest hint of a joke. He shut down Smoker's questions immediately.
He looked around at the desperate professors, at the heavily injured Olvia, and at the little girl named Robin, who was clutching Professor Clover's robe tightly.
Finally, his gaze returned to Smoker and Rosinante.
"I have something more important to ask both of you."
The atmosphere froze at that moment. Even the sound of cannon fire seemed to fade into the distance.
"Do you two trust me?"
Rosinante did not hesitate for even a second. To him, this was not even a question.
He nodded hard, his voice cracking slightly with emotion. "Of course! Aiden! Of course I trust you!"
Smoker stayed silent.
He was not as naive as Rosinante. He looked at the CP9 corpses scattered across the ground, then at Aiden's resolute eyes.
He knew Aiden was lying.
...But.
"Cut the crap!" Smoker finally shouted in a hoarse voice. "The second I got your signal, I dropped my mission and rushed here! And now you're asking me if I trust you?!"
After living together as roommates for so long, the name "Aiden" already carried a weight in Smoker's heart equal to Hina.
"What are you really trying to say?!" Smoker demanded.
"Good."
Aiden nodded. This was the answer he had been waiting for.
He took a deep breath. Under the gaze of everyone present, he said something that would change everything:
"I plan to save every one of these professors."
Rosinante: ((((;°Д°))))
Smoker and Rosinante both gasped in shock at the same time.
"Are you insane?! Aiden!" Smoker nearly jumped. Lowering his voice, he growled, "This is a Buster Call! It is the highest order from the World Government! Even if we are not the ones carrying it out, you still want to openly defy it?! Do you want to be executed as a war criminal?!"
"An order from the World Government?" Aiden let out a cold laugh. "Smoker, look around you!"
He pointed at the unarmed people trembling in the firelight.
"What crime did they commit? Studying history? Knowing things that certain people do not want them to know?"
"I don't care what the government's orders are!" Aiden's voice suddenly rose, full of undeniable force. "This is a massacre!"
Those words struck Smoker and Rosinante like a heavy hammer.
Rosinante was kind by nature. He had already hated this indiscriminate attack. Now, he clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his skin.
Smoker's chest rose and fell rapidly. He believed in justice, but he believed in the justice in his own heart, not in blindly following orders from above.
"...Dammit."
Smoker spat on the ground. "I knew sticking with you would bring trouble!"
He looked up, his red eyes fixed on Aiden. "Tell me, what's the plan?! There are at least dozens of professors here. The target is too large. How are we supposed to get out?! There are warships all around the island!"
Aiden finally showed a faint smile.
"That's more like it."
He did not answer right away. Instead, he walked straight over to Smoker and pulled the military bag off his shoulder.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Smoker was stunned.
Aiden opened the zipper. He reached inside and pretended to search through it.
The next second, under everyone's shocked gaze, Aiden pulled an enormous number of items out of that small bag: sterile gauze, hemostatic forceps, roll after roll of bandages, large bottles of medical alcohol, needles and thread for stitches, and seven or eight small medicine bottles filled with different pills.
The items quickly piled up into a small mountain on the ground.
Smoker stared blankly on the spot.
He looked down at the pile of supplies, then at his own flattened bag. He could not even be bothered to shake it.
"I... I knew it... that trick again," Smoker muttered. Clearly, he had seen this before and was already used to it.
Aiden paid no attention to his companions' reactions. He grabbed several key emergency supplies and shouted to the group of professors, "Does anyone here know medicine? This lady is dying! Help stop her bleeding first!"
Several professors in the crowd responded immediately:
"I do!"
"I used to be a doctor!"
"Good! Get over here, quickly!"
Aiden handed the supplies to them. He knelt beside Olvia. Her breathing was weak, and the wound on her abdomen had started bleeding again.
Aiden looked into her gray eyes, which were beginning to lose focus from blood loss, and spoke in a low voice:
"Hold on, ma'am. Soon, you will be reunited with your daughter, and the two of you will be able to live together from now on."
Olvia's fading pupils suddenly contracted. With the last of her strength, she grabbed Aiden's wrist. Her lips trembled as she spoke. "Who... who are you... why are you helping us... helping Ohara..."
"There will be plenty of chances to talk later." Aiden gently lowered her hand. "Save your strength for now."
He stood up and watched the professors work. They were a little clumsy, but still professional as they began treating Olvia's wounds and stopping the bleeding.
Aiden's gaze fell on the burning Tree of Knowledge.
He asked himself: if the Tree of Knowledge had not suddenly reached out to him, would he still have chosen to save these professors?
The answer was yes.
It had nothing to do with being some kind of saint. It was because the soul he carried from his past life would not allow him to stand by and do nothing.
If he had the power to change everything today, but chose to hide like a coward and tell himself it was simply their fate, he would despise himself for the rest of his life. He did not want to live as a useless piece of trash.