"Hahahaha!"
Dragon's hearty laughter came through the Den Den Mushi.
"Congratulations, Kuma. I still remember the first time we met. Ginny was already proposing to you back then. It's been so many years."
Kuma's usually stern, stoic face broke into a bashful smile. Scratching the back of his head, he replied,
"Because now... I no longer believe that the Buccaneer race existing in this world is a mistake."
"Life has no hierarchy. If someone claims our existence is wrong, then the one who arbitrarily decides the fate of others is the one who needs to be overthrown."
"I'm a Buccaneer, but I also have the right to live in this world. No one has the right to define my destiny!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Rowan punched him lightly in the shoulder.
"Congratulations, Uncle Kuma. Don't worry. The fate you once feared will never come to pass. I promise."
In Rowan's memories, Ginny had been kidnapped to Mary Geoise by the Celestial Dragons, and the Revolutionary Army had been powerless to save her.
Years later, afflicted with Sapphire Scale disease, she had been sent back down carrying a little girl. She died in the church filled with memories in the Sorbet Kingdom.
She hadn't told anyone the truth, only made one final farewell call to the Revolutionary Army.
That little girl would later become Jewelry Bonney.
And she was also the reason Kuma eventually traded away his own life to keep her alive.
That tragedy would never happen again.
Rowan turned to look at the Red Line disappearing behind the ship.
On Mary Geoise the second Shadow Clone's mission wasn't over yet.
According to the original plan, the first Shadow Clone would locate the giant mechanical soldier. If everything went smoothly, its primary task would be transporting it away.
The first clone would attract attention.
The second clone would remain hidden after sending the mechanical soldier into the sky, ensuring nothing went wrong and that the Chicken Talisman wouldn't be lost.
But because of Saturn's remarks the main objective had become little more than an educated guess.
That left the second clone with two remaining tasks.
Free the slaves and kill as many Celestial Dragons as possible.
Without enemies like the Celestial Dragons his attribute gains were simply too slow.
The Revolutionary Army was still in its infiltration and development phase.
Unlike before, they weren't openly overthrowing kingdoms.
At present, only the Revolutionary Army's First Division in the New World, built around Kaido's Beasts Pirates, could occasionally harvest large numbers of pirates.
After more than a year that had only amounted to around a hundred thousand attribute points.
Mary Geoise.
Morning sunlight bathed the Holy Land.
On this new day, those Celestial Dragons planning to go out, or simply intending to toy with and kill a few slaves for entertainment, began sending their guards to fetch them.
However before the tightly sealed doors were even opened, the CP guards noticed something unusual.
The smell of blood.
"Did several slaves die in the arena yesterday?"
"No."
"With the doors still closed, the scent is this strong. It can't be just one or two people."
"Hurry!"
"Open the doors!"
The four CP guards who had arrived together immediately pushed the doors open.
The sight before them left every one of them frozen.
More than twenty guards assigned to this place lay dead.
Every single one had their throat slit.
Blood was splattered everywhere.
Even on the now-congealed pools of blood there were numerous chaotic footprints.
"S-Something happened..."
"This is... Mary Geoise!"
"Someone actually dared to commit murder here!"
"What was the target? The slaves?"
"Move! Hurry!"
The four men rushed down the underground stairway.
Bodies lay collapsed along both sides of the passage.
Every one of them had died from a fatal slash across the throat, their carotid arteries severed.
The cuts had been perfectly placed.
Air rushing through the opened windpipe meant they couldn't even scream before bleeding to death.
The intruder had clearly come prepared.
Which meant this had all been planned from the start.
It didn't take long before the four guards reached what had once been the slave cells.
Every cage was empty.
At the same time, another patrol arrived near Saint Matas's residence.
One of the guards glanced toward the mansion.
"In another couple of days, it'll be our turn to face disciplinary action. That damned Hooded Man actually dared to attack a World Noble."
"Keep your voice down!"
The squad leader shot him a glare before turning toward Rowan, who was at the back of the formation.
"You should all be grateful Saint Matas is still alive."
"Otherwise, every one of us would've been executed that very day."
At that moment Rowan decided it was time to make his move.
Before he could act, however.
"Philos... stay here and guard the place today."
"If... if possible...please put in a good word for us."
Even the speaker knew how ridiculous that sounded.
He sighed and shook his head.
"Forget it."
"Begging a Celestial Dragon will probably just get us killed even faster."
The patrol departed.
Leaving Rowan alone outside Saint Matas's door.
Once the patrol was out of sight, he calmly pushed the door open and walked inside.
"Who's there?"
"Don't you know you can't enter without a Celestial Dragon's summons?"
Rowan ignored them completely.
Only then did the two guards get a clear look at his face.
Since he had been the one to find Saint Matas unconscious in the restroom, the CP agents stationed inside naturally assumed he had come hoping to claim credit.
One of them sneered.
"Got lucky once and now you're dreaming of climbing the ladder by earning a Celestial Dragon's favor?"
Rowan remained silent.
As he brushed past them.
"Ah..."
A flash of cold steel.
His tri-pronged kunai slit both of their throats in one smooth motion.
"Ghk... ghk..."
Air rushed through their severed windpipes, leaving them unable to scream.
Clutching their throats, they collapsed to the floor.
In the final moments before death they saw the distinctive three-pronged kunai.
That weapon had been highlighted repeatedly in the intelligence reports analyzing the Hooded Man's abilities.
So this person was the Revolutionary Army's Hooded Man?
Using his Observation Haki, Rowan sensed someone hurrying down the staircase after hearing the noise.
The man had barely appeared before a kunai pierced straight through his throat.
Rowan stepped onto the stairs.
Another kunai flashed.
Three more CP agents crumpled to the ground.
At last, he reached Saint Matas's bedroom.
Pushing open the door, he walked inside.
Saint Matas, who had been too terrified to sleep for days lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Attribute Value: 360,000
"It's been a few days, Saint Matas."
"Y-You..."
The insults never had a chance to leave his mouth.
Rowan's kunai swept across his throat.
As the Celestial Dragon's soul was absorbed into the Prison Space Rowan climbed out through the bedroom window and left the residence.
Now Remaining hidden was no longer the priority.
Killing a few more Celestial Dragons was.
Still disguised as an ordinary guard, Rowan immediately headed toward another villa of similar design.
Even pirates in this world possessed things like Vivre Cards.
Naturally the Celestial Dragons of Mary Geoise would have something similar.
Once the first Celestial Dragon died there was a very high chance the Holy Land would realize an intruder had infiltrated it.
"Ah..."
Vaulting over the courtyard wall, Rowan silently eliminated the guards on watch.
Inside the main hall, a pink-haired female Celestial Dragon wearing the trademark glass bubble helmet was furiously berating a CP agent.
"You useless fool!"
"Idiot!"
"Go and bring my slave here immediately!"
"That idiot Matas has already been attacked once! Do you expect me to end up the same way?"
"You, go by yourself, you fool! The rest of you stay here and protect me!"
Rowan pushed open the front door and walked straight inside.
His eyes swept over her.
Attribute Value: 370,000.
Compared to Saint Samit these two Celestial Dragons were worth slightly fewer attributes.
Was it because of their age?
"You filthy fool!"
"Don't you know this isn't a place for filthy humans like you? You may only enter after being summoned!"
Rowan didn't say a word.
He simply kept walking toward her.
The female Celestial Dragon stared at him in disbelief.
This filthy servant actually dared to disrespect her?
"Y-You bas..."
The last syllable of her insult suddenly weakened into a trembling whimper.
Rowan noticed her entire body shaking.
Fear had completely overtaken her expression.
"So they've already discovered me."
"That was fast."
"I only killed Matas a moment ago."
"So what exactly was the method they used to warn all of you?"
"...How did they notify you?"
"Drip..."
The sound of liquid hitting the floor echoed through the hall.
The area beneath the female Celestial Dragon quickly became soaked.
The pungent smell of urine spread through the room.
Only then did the stunned guards beside her react, hurriedly drawing their pistols.
Swish! Swish!
Two kunai flew out.
Each pierced straight through a guard's chest.
Their reaction speed was impressive.
Barely thirty seconds after killing Matas his disguise had already been exposed.
Clink.
The glass bubble helmet rolled across the floor.
The Celestial Dragon who had been screaming insults moments earlier now lay collapsed on the ground.
"P-Please..."
"D-Don't kill me..."
"I beg you... please don't kill me..."
If it had been any other intruder...
She would never have behaved like this.
She would have cursed and screamed, secure in the knowledge that no one would dare kill a Celestial Dragon.
But this man was different.
He was a true demon.
A monster who slaughtered the descendants of the gods without hesitation.
The mutilated corpse of Saint Samit still haunted her memory.
How could she not be terrified?
"So it looks like it's some sort of instant notification ability that alerts every Celestial Dragon."
"In your current state I doubt you're capable of answering any questions."
Rowan walked up to her.
"For me death isn't the end of your punishment."
"We'll be seeing each other again very soon."
The moment his words ended Blood splattered across the floor.
At the same time the entirety of Mary Geoise erupted into chaos.
One Celestial Dragon after another screamed in panic as guards carried them away.
Powerful figures rushed in from the deepest parts of the Holy Land.
All the slaves had been freed.
Those Celestial Dragons incapable of running could only flee on the backs of their guards.
In only a few seconds Rowan sensed more than ten powerful presences surrounding the estate.
When someone invaded the Holy Land's greatest secret the Five Elders had appeared.
Now that Celestial Dragons had been killed within Mary Geoise itself the ones arriving were the Holy Knights.
Rowan calmly sat down on the sofa in the drawing room.
Beside him lay the master's corpse collapsed in a puddle of her own urine.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Through the front door which Rowan himself had left open a middle-aged man slowly walked inside.
He wore no bubble helmet.
Yet Rowan recognized him instantly.
Although the man had still been young during the God Valley Incident twenty-one years earlier even if he were reduced to ashes, Rowan would still know who he was.
Saint Figarland Garling.
Not all Celestial Dragons were the same.
The man standing before him was one of the exceptions.
Sixteen years later he would become the Supreme Commander of the Holy Knights.
He was also the one who executed the Donquixote family after they abandoned their Celestial Dragon status, even after Queen Otohime had changed their hearts.
Shanks, who had been discovered by Roger inside a treasure chest at God Valley, was very likely a member of the Figarland family.
That would also explain why the Five Elders were willing to grant him an audience.
After all, a Celestial Dragon living outside Mary Geoise was treated very differently from someone like Doflamingo.
"A survivor from God Valley?"
Garling looked down at Rowan as he spoke, but made no move to attack.
From the perspective of Rowan's Prison Space the man before him had undergone an astonishing change.
In just twenty-one years his value had risen from six digits to seven.
So it really wasn't appropriate to think of it as a "sin value."
Otherwise there was no way this man could have increased nearly fivefold in only twenty-one years.
Attribute Value: 2,750,000
Suppressing his thoughts about the numbers for the moment, Rowan looked at him.
"You maggots are still alive."
"So naturally, I survived as well."
"The day I slaughter every last one of you the innocent people who died at God Valley will finally be able to rest in peace."
Garling sneered.
"You think you're leaving here alive? Or are you relying on those high-temperature flames of yours?"
Rowan sneered back.
"It seems the Five Elders never told you what happened a few days ago."
"I've already died once."
"It's just that you people were still alive so I climbed back out of hell to drag you down with me."
As he spoke, he pointed toward the corpse lying behind him in a pool of blood and urine.
"Just like her."
"When you die do you think your corpse will look the same?"
Garling slowly shook his head.
"No matter what kind of ability you possess you will eventually die."
"I don't know why your hatred runs so deep."
"But after murdering five descendants of the gods your crimes are unforgivable."
"You will be executed."
Hearing that Rowan laughed in anger.
Scenes from those few days of the so-called hunting game at God Valley surfaced once more.
The cries of his family.
His father's brutal death.
His mother's desperate pleading.
"So you ask why I hate you?"
For a moment Rowan suddenly felt relieved.
Just as Garling had implied.
"To you we're nothing more than insects."
"It's like human children flooding an anthill with water."
"Whatever a god does you believe humans should simply accept it with gratitude and if they can't resist then what meaning does their hatred have?"
"Heh..."
Rowan looked directly at him.
"If no one could resist then what about the five so-called descendants of the gods that I've already killed?"
"Were those fake?"
Garling slowly shook his head.
"There are things you have no need to know."
"Not all Celestial Dragons are the same."
The next instant a terrifying wave of Haki erupted from his body.
"Ha!"
At the same time another figure burst forward from behind.
Through Observation Haki, Rowan sensed the blade grazing past his shoulder by the narrowest of margins.
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