[Five Days Later]
[Holy Land, Mary Geoise]
The World Conference was still ongoing, though Rosse hadn't participated in any of the later sessions.
However, because Drum Kingdom had suffered a catastrophe, Saint Saturn, the "Warrior God of Defense", was called back into the meeting to discuss the matter of providing protection to the allied nations.
The Revolutionary Army was nothing but a pack of fleeing bandits, worse than pirates in some ways, since at least pirates only operated within certain regions. For the allied nations, that was no small problem.
Rosse, on the other hand, had no intention of taking immediate action. Even if the World Government searched at all costs, it would still take time.
He wasn't the type to abandon the blessings of the Holy Land just to exhaust himself chasing after enemies.
When the target was actually discovered, Vanessa and the God's Knights would pave the way, and once they had located the target, Rosse would teleport there directly.
He could finally understand why the Five Elders twenty years later loved using teleportation so much.
After two years of sailing, he was already sick of the monotonous ocean view. If there wasn't some big amusement, Rosse really didn't want to leave the Holy Land now.
But even in the Holy Land, it wasn't as if there was no fun to be had.
Today was the day Sora went out to survey the Red Line with Gancho and the others. Because Stella had to stay by Rosse's side, Moa naturally became one of the accompanying members, with Zephyr secretly acting as security.
Everything should have gone smoothly, but of course, something unexpected happened.
"You mean to say, a Fishman used his connection with the Mermaid Kingdom to get close to the group, and even Zephyr couldn't protect her in time, and Moa was seriously injured?", Rosse shot up from his lounge chair, staring in surprise at Stella, who was reporting the news.
'This script is… downright absurd.'
'Good grief, who the hell came up with this?'
"That's right. Moa's life isn't in danger for now, and Zephyr has already captured the Fishman. All this was reported back by Lady Sora," Stella said oddly.
In truth, if that Fishman had attacked Sora, Zephyr would have easily stopped him.
The main problem was, no one would have thought a Fishman would target Moa. And because Zephyr knew Moa's stance, he hadn't been particularly focused on protecting her, which led to her being seriously injured.
But no matter how you looked at it, the whole thing didn't make sense.
From any angle, Moa had no grudge against the Fishmen.
Even those who had fled Fishman Island early wouldn't have a reason to attack her.
"Come with me to see Otohime. Bring her, we'll go together."
Since he happened to be free, Rosse decided to go personally.
And since the matter involved Fishmen, it was best to let Otohime handle it.
With Otohime's special ability, there was no need to worry about the Fishman keeping any secrets.
———
Soon, Rosse met up with Otohime. His left arm wrapped around Stella, while his right hand steadied Otohime on his shoulder, and together they rushed toward Sora's group at full speed.
Although Sora and the others were traveling by dragon carriage, their speed wasn't particularly fast.
In less than half an hour, Rosse and his group arrived at the scene of the incident.
On the way, Stella had already explained the details to Otohime.
When they arrived, Otohime was the first to jump down from Rosse's shoulder, looking apologetically at Moa and Sora.
"I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you."
"This isn't your fault. The attacker seemed to be a former slave from Fishman Street, and he still bears the hoof mark of the Celestial Dragons," Sora said, shaking her head.
"Sister Otohime, you don't need to apologize," Moa said weakly, as Stella continued treating her injuries.
Having suffered such a random disaster, Moa was deeply frustrated.
But if she was to blame anyone, it would be the attacker and whoever was behind him, never Otohime.
This had nothing to do with Otohime, and Moa wasn't the kind of person to hate someone just because they were a Fishman.
In fact, after learning about Otohime's ideals and actions, Moa had grown quite fond of her.
If Otohime could become the leader of the Revolutionary Army, she would definitely be better than either herself or Dragon.
"You should rest for now. I'll go speak with the Fishman first."
Otohime didn't rush to confront the attacker. Instead, she stayed by Moa's side a while longer to show concern. Only after Stella finished the preliminary treatment did she prepare to stand and go.
"Sister Otohime, take me with you. I want to hear what really happened," Moa's complexion was much better now. Even though her wounds had been initially treated, she'd still looked deathly pale before.
But with Stella's Healing Fruit powers, she'd recovered more than half her strength in just a short time. Speaking no longer strained her.
Still, she needed to be carried or use a wheelchair if she wanted to move around.
"All right then, come along."
Otohime didn't hesitate. After glancing at Rosse, and seeing that he had no objections, she decided to bring Moa along.
After all, she had nothing to hide. She wasn't afraid of Moa hearing the truth.
"Let's go. We'll talk once we've seen him," Sora said, clapping her hands.
Under her lead, the group moved to the rear of the caravan, where Zephyr was sitting atop a large Fishman, restraining him firmly.
Since they didn't have shackles on hand, and to prevent suicide, Zephyr chose to subdue him physically.
"Fisher Tiger?"
The moment she saw him, Otohime exclaimed in shock. Clearly, she knew him.
"Princess Otohime? Hah! So you too have chosen to side with the Celestial Dragons?", Tiger's brows furrowed deeply, his tone dripping with resentment.
'Tiger, huh?'
Rosse gave the restrained Fishman a quick glance, then looked away just as casually.
As far as he knew, at this point in time, Tiger should still have been a slave of the Celestial Dragons.
He had originally assumed Tiger was already dead. But apparently, he had escaped during the Holy Land incident.
If Rosse hadn't orchestrated that incident himself, then according to the original timeline, Tiger would have escaped by coincidence later, climbed the Red Line with his bare hands, freed countless slaves, and set fires everywhere, throwing Mary Geoise into chaos.
His deeds would have far outshone both Dragon and Luffy by hundreds of times.
But now that he'd been captured, Rosse immediately lost interest.
If the man couldn't bring him any amusement, then the only fate left for Tiger was death.
Attacking his maid, that was a capital crime.
"What do you mean, 'siding with the Celestial Dragons'? With Mr. Rosse's help, both merfolk and Fishmen can now live freely under the sunlight. That's something we've never had before," Otohime said, frowning slightly.
She couldn't shake the feeling that Tiger had been disconnected from reality for far too long.
"Hah! False dreams. You have no idea how vile the Celestial Dragons truly are. They commit every imaginable evil, treating neither merfolk nor Fishmen as people. I've seen them torture slaves for fun. Just a few days ago, they even murdered a queen and princess from an allied kingdom," Tiger sneered, his eyes burning with undisguised hatred.
At his words, several people instinctively turned to glance at Rosse.
Good grief, the villain was standing right among them. Hard to argue with that one.
The Celestial Dragons didn't just see Fishmen and merfolk as subhuman, they didn't even see humans as human.
"That's not true!"
Moa couldn't hold it in anymore and snapped, "You hate the Celestial Dragons? Then go attack them! Why did you attack me? I'm not a Celestial Dragon!"
Moa just felt so wronged.
He went on and on about how evil the Celestial Dragons were, and yet, instead of attacking them, he came after her, the Revolutionary Army's leader.
Was there still any justice in the world?