"As expected, these two Devil Fruits were already in Moria's hands."
"Would not be surprising if he dug them up from some grave somewhere."
Hiruto Blake set the boxes down and gave Aramaki an approving nod.
"Not bad. Did you end up fighting Moria?"
A faint note of disdain flashed across Aramaki's face.
"Yes, Your Highness. There was a small conflict, but that guy's combat strength was nothing special. He could not even use Haki. This subordinate beat him in two moves."
That was honestly a bit unfair to Moria.
No matter how washed up he was, he was still a great pirate who had survived in the New World. There was no way he did not know Haki.
It was just that the way Haki worked in this world was a bit… contrived.
After getting his crew clubbed to death by Kaido, Moria's will had completely collapsed, so of course he could not bring his Haki out.
Looked at like that, "Teacher Kaido's" lessons were not something ordinary people could endure.
"Moria only lost his will because Kaido killed his crew. That does not mean every great pirate is that weak."
Blake reminded him once. Seeing that Aramaki seemed to take it to heart, he did not keep lecturing.
After that, life returned to a quiet rhythm. Blake went back to his usual habits of training, getting stronger, and touring the local customs wherever they stopped.
The next day, before dawn, soft breathing sounded in Stella's room.
Suddenly, the door creaked open. A pink haired head popped out. Perona looked furtively left and right. Only when she confirmed there was no one in the corridor did she finally exhale in relief.
"I finally waited until there was no one around."
She clenched her tiny fists.
"That hateful guy wants to make me his slave. I have to escape while they are not paying attention."
She hoisted a small bundle onto her back. Wherever she had gotten it, it was clearly too heavy. Her foot slipped and she almost fell flat on her face.
"Ugh. Why is this so heavy?"
The bundle was stuffed with all the little trinkets Stella had used to coax and entertain her that afternoon. Perona had picked over them one by one and found she could not bear to leave a single one behind, so she simply packed everything.
Gritting her teeth, she tiptoed out of the room and gently closed the door.
"Huh? Why is my shadow suddenly so big?"
Moonlight spilled across the deck, projecting Perona's shadow onto the door. Just as she closed it, she noticed her shadow suddenly swell in size.
She turned around very slowly.
Blake was standing right behind her in his sleepwear, smiling at her with an expression that could only be described as pure mischief.
"I… I was just going to the bathroom…"
Perona could not think of anything clever to say on short notice, so she decided to treat a dead horse as if it were still alive and bluff it out.
Blake nodded cheerfully.
"Guess whether I believe you or not."
What a joke.
He grabbed Perona by the back of her collar, lifted her easily, and headed back into the room.
"Let me go, you jerk."
Perona dangled in midair like a kitten caught by the scruff, flailing her arms and legs in protest.
Her panicked shouting woke Stella. She opened her eyes to see Blake walking over holding Perona one handed.
She was just about to get up and salute when Blake ignored her completely, slapped Perona down on her bed, raised his hand, and landed a few sharp smacks on her chubby backside.
Perona's eyes instantly filled with tears.
"Uuu… you jerk… I will definitely escape one day…"
Smack. Smack. Smack.
"Uuu… stop hitting me… I will not dare do it again…"
Two months later, on Ohara, inside the Tree of Knowledge.
"Honored Saint Blake, this is the Tree of Knowledge. It holds hundreds of thousands of volumes, all the important works deposited by scholars from across the world."
Walking beside Blake was a short man.
He looked middle aged. The front of his head was shaved smooth, leaving a cap of green hair on the top and back. Combined with the exaggerated mass of facial hair, he looked just like a three leaf clover.
He wore a red and white vertical striped shirt and broad belt with matching trousers, topped by a blue black coat.
He was the leader of the Ohara scholars, Clover D. Clover.
Better known as Professor Clover.
Sunlight filtered evenly through specially treated glass onto the bronze shelves. One hundred thousand ancient tomes were categorized by discipline. Each spine was set with a bronze tag whose lettering gleamed softly.
The suspended spiral stacks were forged from a special metal and coated in a matte, anti corrosion finish.
In his previous life and this one, it was Blake's first time seeing the interior of the Tree of Knowledge, and he could not help feeling curious.
To be fair, under a million volumes would not even compete with an average city library.
But the sheer scale of the Tree of Knowledge and the generations of remodeling done by the Ohara scholars still gave one a fresh sense of awe.
If even Blake felt that way, there was no need to mention Stella and Perona, who had come along with him.
"Wow. There are so many books."
Perona dangled from Blake's hand. At not even one meter tall, she looked like an oversized hot dog being held by a three meter tall Blake.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked around, shouting in excitement.
After two months of wits and will against Blake and still failing to escape the Sanctum, Perona had completely lost her fear of him.
She even provoked him regularly now, leaving the ship's servants on edge every day, terrified that one day she would actually anger Blake and he would vent his fury on them instead.
Blake pinched Perona's cheeks, making her puff them out in indignation once more.
"This is probably the largest library in the world aside from Mary Geoise. There should be a lot of books on history here, right?"
As he spoke, he glanced sidelong at Professor Clover.
Cold sweat instantly beaded on Clover's forehead.
"What does he mean by that?"
"Has the World Government already discovered what we have been doing?"
"No. If what Olvia and the others are researching had really been exposed, there is no way they would send a Celestial Dragon personally. Calm down. Calm down."
A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind, but outwardly Clover remained composed.
"May I ask which field of history Your Highness is interested in? These books were all entrusted here by scholars from across the globe."
"To be honest, even I have not read through the entire Tree of Knowledge. There are indeed some works on history, though I am not sure whether they would meet your needs."
Blake chuckled.
"In that case forget it. I was only asking casually."
Inwardly, however, he thought,
"In the original story this old man looked like a complete bookworm. I did not expect him to have this much presence of mind."
After all, before the Buster Call was launched, the World Government had arranged evacuation ships and allowed the island's civilians to flee.
Yet when Clover spoke to Saturn, he had gone on at length, practically self reporting all of Ohara's research results.
Saturn listened and realized, good grief, you people already know this much?
That will not do. They all have to die.
So he ordered the Navy to destroy the evacuation ship too.
Because of that, Blake had always thought of Clover as an honest, overly straightforward sort.
It did not really matter though. Blake had not come here for him anyway.
It was now the year 1499 of the Sea Circle Calendar. There was less than a year left before Ohara's destruction.
Nico Robin should have basically completed her study of the ancient script by now, so Blake had decided to take her away in advance.
First, having someone by his side who could read ancient characters would save him a lot of trouble.
Of course there were definitely people inside the World Government who could read the ancient script, but a deadweight Celestial Dragon like him had no business getting near that inner circle.
Second, Blake genuinely liked Robin's personality in the original story.
Third, Perona was still only a child. If she did not have a friend her age, she would very likely grow into that slightly neurotic girl from the original.
She was, after all, his little slave now.
If she developed psychological problems, it would be a real hassle.