"Know what? What exactly are you talking about?", Tiger furrowed his brow, not understanding what Moa was saying.
"Knowing about the Mermaid Kingdom, I learned that when I escaped to sea. After I came back I was locked up. The reason I came to you is because I heard you've been spreading that you want to kill Fishmen."
"Kill Fishmen, me?", Moa widened her eyes, pointing at herself in disbelief.
What merit or right did she have to be labeled someone who kills Fishmen?
"Let me ask first," Otohime stopped the agitated Moa and stepped forward to begin asking patiently.
After a round of questioning, both Moa and Tiger fell silent.
"What a joke, just because you heard a rumor you'd come to kill me. If I heard someone say you planned to attack the Holy Land to free slaves, would I also have to take them out first?", Moa couldn't help but snap.
Anyone falsely accused and then attacked like that wouldn't be in a good mood.
"I'd really like to do that! The slaves in the Holy Land should be freed!", Tiger said seriously.
"There aren't any slaves left in the Holy Land, what could you possibly free?", Moa scoffed.
"Then what am I supposed to be? Those I saw on the road working for the Celestial Dragons, what are they supposed to be?", Tiger had roughly heard the situation from Otohime, but stubborn as he was, he still refused to admit the facts.
"You call them captives; the rest are fools. They know the Celestial Dragons aren't good, yet they still come all the way here to serve them, hoping that by being cattle and horses for the Celestial Dragons they can become world nobility," Moa curled her lip.
There weren't many Celestial Dragons left now, and their lives did require countless servants.
But under Rosse's suppression, proper slavery had long been abolished, now most of the servants were volunteers.
After all, compared to possibly starving to death tomorrow, being mistreated by Celestial Dragons didn't seem so bad.
Except for the Figarland and Ethanbaron families, she'd personally been involved in investigating the others; almost all the servants said they volunteered.
Whether that was true or false, Moa didn't intend to dig too deep.
If people wouldn't even tell the truth when you tried to help them, not even gods could save them.
And from what she knew of Rosse, he probably wasn't really trying to free slaves. He'd likely use slaves as a pretext to test the obedience of other Celestial Dragon families.
"Hah! You really are heartless. Too bad I didn't kill you," Tiger snorted coldly, unaware of Moa's real thoughts. He simply hated her detached, otherworldly demeanor.
But what he didn't know was that Moa wasn't ignorant of suffering, she had simply grown numb.
Even she, after truly seeing the variety of the world, couldn't say whether she was right or wrong.
People living in different circumstances really do have completely different needs.
One person's honey is another's poison.
Gradually, Moa found herself agreeing with that sentence Rosse had once said.
"Say whatever you want. Your end won't be pretty anyway."
Moa turned her head and looked at Rosse.
Now the situation was clear, Tiger was just a pawn pushed out by someone behind the scenes, meant to kill her or at least warn her.
But she swore she hadn't offended anyone, why would these Celestial Dragons leave Rosse alone and come bother a small toy like her?
If they wanted a small target, Stella would've been more suitable, right?
If she really died, would Rosse mourn even for half a second?
"Master...who exactly wanted to kill me?"
"Is it hard to guess? Didn't you forget what you said a few days ago?", Rosse countered.
"Huh? The Revolutionary Army?", Moa shuddered all over.
If Rosse hadn't pointed it out, she wouldn't have allowed herself to think in that direction.
But since Rosse had brought it up, no matter how unwilling she was, she had to face it.
"The Donquixote name is a front, Tiger is a pawn. There are only a few families who could hide this from us, and one of them just happens to be cooperating with the Revolutionary Army," Rosse said mildly.
In fact, once he knew Tiger's situation, he could lock down the culprit.
It wasn't a big public incident, and the other side had made their intentions known.
Not long ago they'd beaten his real son into critical condition; this time they attacked his toy, and then shamelessly pretended everything was even.
In short, they'd been cowardly from the start.
But even so, Rosse had no intention of letting it go.
Once you acted, you had to be prepared to suffer backlash.
After Rosse's confirmation, Moa sank into silence.
She thought a lot in that moment.
It was certain that Dragon was one of the people behind it.
Rosse wasn't wrong in that kind of judgment, and there was no reason for him to deceive her.
Given the current situation, it was basically certain that because of the Revolutionary Army she had been targeted.
Her people had already contacted some folks earlier; although they were angry, since the information exposed had been about Dragon's side, it was still manageable.
If it wasn't her side acting, then it had to be Dragon's side.
And trying to contact Figarland couldn't avoid Dragon, so this matter definitely related to him.
But one point was extremely important to Moa.
Did Dragon want to kill Moa personally, or did he want to kill the Revolutionary Army leader whose identity had been exposed?
If it was the former, Moa could somewhat accept it.
But if it was the latter, she couldn't accept it.
This time she owed the Revolutionary Army, but the situation now was mainly caused by Dragon's recklessness.
Even if she didn't speak, the World Government could find that information.
Dragon couldn't possibly be unaware of that.
So if it was the latter...
"Simply not trusting me, just wanting to put me to death...", Moa's expression was complicated; she stared toward the East Blue, a hard glint appearing in her eyes.
'Dragon, you've already affected the future of the Revolutionary Army.'
.
.
.
BANG!
Five minutes later, a gunshot rang out across the wasteland.
Sora and the others had no intention of returning; they chose to take Otohime and continue onward.
Rosse still didn't follow; he left the scene with a heavy-hearted Moa.
Only Tiger's corpse remained on the Red Line wasteland, lying alone.
This time even Otohime didn't plead.
If you do wrong, you must pay the price; ignorance won't spare you.
Even if Moa was just Rosse's toy, attacking her was still a capital crime, Rosse wouldn't leave any loophole.
Anyone who dared attack someone close to him would face his revenge.
Tiger, the murderer, had learned that lesson.
Next, it would be Figarland's and the Revolutionary Army's turn.
"Master, we don't seem to have evidence...", On the way back, watching Rosse not head toward their manor but toward the Figarland estate, Moa felt uneasy.
"Judicial Island and the Navy don't require evidence, do I still need to provide evidence?"
"Whether Figarland did this or not, as long as he's a suspect, he must be made to answer," Rosse said lightly, leapt down, and stood before Figarland's lavish gate.