"Waaah!!"
The fifteen-year-old girl burst into tears and threw herself at Rowan, her face smeared with soot, tears, and snot.
With a look of disgust, Rowan pressed one hand against her face, stopping her in place.
"Alright, alright."
"Your two sisters are over there."
"Go wash your face with them. We'll be leaving soon."
Held back by his hand, Hancock flailed her arms wildly, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach him.
The large twin-masted sailing ship headed toward an uninhabited island in the New World.
It wasn't a Revolutionary Army base.
It was simply a temporary location where the rescued slaves would be separated according to their wishes.
On the bow of the ship, Rowan and Kuma stood side by side.
The Den Den Mushi connected to Baltigo had already been answered.
"So you've returned?"
"All the slaves have been rescued."
"They've safely reached the rendezvous point."
"We're heading to the transit island now to see what everyone wants to do afterward."
Dragon fell silent for a moment.
"So that means the giant mechanical soldier wasn't in Mary Geoise?"
Rowan smiled.
"I hadn't even said anything yet, and you already figured it out?"
"The detector did pick up an enormous energy source inside Mary Geoise but it probably wasn't the giant mechanical soldier Vegapunk was looking for."
"Do you remember?"
"I once mentioned that the Celestial Dragons possess a massive weapon one capable of destroying an entire island with a single shot while leaving behind an enormous crater."
"I suspect the energy detected belonged to that weapon they probably can't use it repeatedly."
"It likely takes time for the energy to recharge."
The Den Den Mushi copied Dragon's frown before he asked,
"Then why did you say two days ago that the mission had succeeded?"
Rowan replied,
"What Saturn said reminded me of something from the future I'd seen."
"You know a long time has passed."
"I don't remember every detail about the future anymore."
"Two hundred years ago, the giant mechanical soldier attacked Mary Geoise."
"Although it didn't cause much damage what do you think those Celestial Dragon parasites would do with something that dangerous?"
After thinking for a while, Dragon answered,
"They'd destroy it and if they couldn't destroy it they'd never leave it in Mary Geoise."
"Exactly."
Rowan nodded.
"A giant mechanical soldier that once climbed the Red Line and attacked Mary Geoise would never be allowed to remain there and something like that can be dismantled."
"With the Celestial Dragons' resources, that wouldn't be difficult."
"But one of the Five Elders responsible for Scientific Defense Saint Jaygarcia Saturn chose to preserve it."
Dragon's breathing immediately became heavier.
"So they had the same idea we did?"
"They wanted to study the giant mechanical soldier left behind by the Ancient Kingdom?"
Dragon spoke rapidly.
"I remember you once said Vegapunk was crucial to the future of this world."
"Combined with what you just said about that island-destroying weapon requiring enormous energy and Vegapunk wanting the mechanical soldier because of its power source..."
He suddenly stopped speaking.
Rowan continued in his place.
"That's right."
"If they successfully decipher the giant mechanical soldier's power source then the energy problem behind that weapon capable of annihilating an island and leaving behind an unfillable crater will no longer exist."
"And once that happens the centuries-long struggle between them and every force that has ever risen against this world will finally come to an end."
Silence fell.
Dragon said nothing.
Neither did Kuma, who had been listening beside Rowan.
After a long while, Dragon finally spoke.
"Teacher you don't sound particularly worried."
Rowan smiled.
"So I didn't completely scare the two of you after all."
"Everything I just said is true."
"But only on one condition."
"They would need someone with a mind like Vegapunk's and the endless knowledge that Ohara left behind."
"The very thing that could allow them to completely control this world has always been right beside them and they personally destroyed it isn't that rather ironic?"
Knowing what Vegapunk accomplished in the original timeline, even he only created what could be called an infinite energy source after Ohara's destruction, when Saul secretly transported the surviving books and knowledge to Elbaf.
Only after studying those records, and spending more than twenty years on further research, did Vegapunk finally succeed.
The process from nothing to something had depended on both Ohara's knowledge and the giant mechanical soldier.
As things stood now, with only Vinsmoke Judge's intellect to work with, having nothing but the mechanical soldier to study, it would be perfectly normal if he couldn't make any sense of it.
"So where exactly is the giant mechanical soldier?"
Dragon's Den Den Mushi couldn't help twitching at the corner of its eye after hearing Rowan's joke.
Lately the Teacher seemed to be acting more and more like someone his actual age.
Rowan replied,
"Before Vegapunk went to Ohara to pay his respects to Dr. Clover, he had been working at a World Government research facility."
"So there's a high probability it's there."
"As for why Vegapunk previously told us to search Mary Geoise it's also possible the machine was being kept at another laboratory, or had only recently been transferred elsewhere so that Vinsmoke Judge could study it."
During the conversation with Imu and the Five Elders at the underground entrance beneath Mary Geoise, both sides had been talking past one another.
Neither had any intention of revealing useful information.
Even so, one sentence from Saturn had given Rowan a clue.
"If it weren't still useful, something like that would have been destroyed long ago."
That single phrase, "still useful," reminded Rowan of what he remembered about the giant mechanical soldier.
Two hundred years ago, it had climbed the Red Line and attacked Mary Geoise.
In the end, however, it caused very little actual damage before its own spear pierced its body and it shut down.
From eight hundred years ago to two hundred years ago was a span of six hundred years.
Even after lying dormant for six centuries, it had managed to reactivate.
A time bomb like that could never have been allowed to remain inside Mary Geoise by the Celestial Dragons.
According to Rowan's memories, Vegapunk had once said that government scientists had preserved it.
Rowan didn't believe any ordinary researcher possessed enough authority to keep a machine that had attacked the Holy Land.
Unless that "scientist" was actually one of the Five Elders.
Saint Saturn.
The Warrior God of Scientific Defense.
One of the rulers standing at the very peak of the world's authority.
"Actually at the moment, it may not even be on Punk Hazard."
Rowan sighed.
"Compared to us, the World Government has virtually limitless financial resources."
"So it's impossible for them to have only a single research facility."
Dragon nodded through the Den Den Mushi.
"But if Vinsmoke Judge's importance continues to grow on Punk Hazard then the mechanical soldier will eventually be transferred there, won't it?"
"They'll have him study it in hopes of solving the energy problem behind the Celestial Dragons' ultimate weapon."
Rowan shook his head.
"After Vinsmoke Judge's operation in the North Blue, he was taken away by the World Government."
"My guess is they'll place him in Vegapunk's former laboratory."
"That facility still contains Vegapunk's research notes and numerous unfinished projects."
"Those alone would provide Judge with plenty of inspiration."
"I'll head to Punk Hazard myself later."
"If Judge is indeed there, then even if the mechanical soldier isn't there now it will eventually be sent there."
Dragon nodded again before asking,
"So when you encountered Saturn it was because you were approaching the energy storage site for that weapon?"
"If that's the case your clone was still able to continue the slave liberation operation without being discovered?"
"It's not just Saturn, Dragon."
Rowan continued,
"Someone I expected to appear... did."
"The existence above the Five Elders."
"In one of the future scenes I saw, he was called Imu."
"Imu?!"
"You're certain the name was Imu?!"
Dragon's voice was filled with shock.
A moment later, muffled sounds of pages rapidly turning came through the encrypted Den Den Mushi.
After a while, Dragon finally spoke.
"Teacher I think we're facing a monster that has lived for eight hundred years."
"Among the Twenty Kings who founded the World Government eight centuries ago there was one whose name was Imu."
"His full name is Saint Nerona Imu!"
The words fell, but the shock Dragon had expected to hear from Rowan never came.
"So... you already knew, Teacher?"
Rowan replied calmly,
"The Op-Op Fruit that was recovered in Flevance. Once its user reaches a sufficient level of medical skill, it can perform the so-called Perennial Youth Operation, at the cost of the user's own life."
"For a force like the World Government, one that has ruled the world for eight hundred years, obtaining such an operation wouldn't be difficult."
He paused before continuing.
"For certain reasons, I still remember everything from when I was one year old. You already know that and the Saturn I met this time looks exactly the same as he did twenty-one years ago."
Silence fell on both ends of the call.
So the immortal monster wasn't just Saint Nerona Imu.
"There were others as well?"
Dragon felt that one more shocking revelation wouldn't make much difference anymore.
"Any other discoveries?"
Rowan thought for a moment before recalling everything he had witnessed in Mary Geoise.
The countless races living lives worse than death.
The Celestial Dragons, drunkenly treating living beings like livestock.
And finally those six monsters that seemed to have crawled out of hell.
"In my eyes, Mary Geoise truly is hell."
"And I don't mean that as a figure of speech."
"Perhaps it's because they've awakened Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits, but every one of the Five Elders had transformed into monsters."
"A gigantic spider."
"A sandworm."
"A skeletal horse."
"A monstrous bird."
"And a huge tusked boar."
"They all sound like animals, but those forms were absolutely nothing like ordinary Zoans the first clone was swallowed by the sandworm's terrifying suction."
"The skeletal horse's sword slashes carried the chilling aura of the underworld the giant spider's limbs were like blades, coated in corrosive venom..."
Rowan frowned.
"Before entering Mary Geoise, I left behind two clones as a precaution."
"The first one confirmed the detector's target and deliberately didn't bring the Chicken Talisman."
"As expected, once it approached the location, it was discovered it was swallowed by the sandworm and dispersed."
Once Rowan finished recounting everything that had happened in Mary Geoise, Dragon and Kuma both fell silent.
For eight hundred years the center of the world's authority had remained shrouded in mystery.
Even Dragon only knew of the existence of the Holy Knights, information that had leaked because of the God Valley Incident years ago.
But now when they looked toward the Red Line what they saw was no longer the Holy Land.
It was a hell wrapped in black mist.
"We can change this world can't we, Teacher?"
Dragon's voice was filled with unwavering determination.
Beside Rowan, Kuma recalled his own childhood in Mary Geoise.
Back then he had also been a slave of the Celestial Dragons.
Both of his parents had died there.
Their only crime was the race they were born into.
Even during the God Valley Incident, Kuma's first instinct had still been to endure everything in silence.
After obtaining the Paw-Paw Fruit, the first thing he thought of wasn't escaping.
It was saving more people.
Even if it meant sacrificing his own life.
But now...
"Teacher."
Kuma looked at Rowan, at the child he had brought back to the Sorbet Kingdom from God Valley all those years ago.
"I don't want to keep accepting this so-called fate."
"This kind of fate should never be something those people sitting high above get to decide."
"Teacher help us."
Tears welled up in Kuma's eyes as old memories resurfaced.
"No matter the cost even if it means giving my life this world, where living is worse than dying, must be changed."
"Death itself is not frightening."
"What matters is dying for something worthy."
"For the future for the next generation of every one of us..."
As he spoke, Kuma looked toward the far end of the deck.
A small child rested quietly in its mother's arms.
Someone so young whose fate had already been decided.
The world shouldn't be like this.
Kuma turned back and leaned close to Rowan's ear, whispering softly,
"Little Rowan I accepted Ginny's proposal."
"(⊙_⊙)!"
Rowan froze.
Even Dragon, speaking through the Den Den Mushi, was stunned.
Both of them turned to stare at Kuma.
Although the encrypted Den Den Mushi couldn't project images, it still perfectly mimicked Dragon's astonished expression.
Neither of them questioned why Kuma had called him "Little Rowan" instead of "Teacher."
Because they both understood.
To Kuma This wasn't something he wanted to tell the leader of the Revolutionary Army.
It was something he wanted to tell the child he regarded as family.
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