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The West Blue was unusually calm and peaceful.
A news bird called out, spread its wings, and flew, spotting a ship in the sparkling sea below.
The white sails with the “JOJO” emblem billowed, moving steadily forward.
Rustle Rustle…
The news-bird shook its wings and landed on the ship’s railing.
“Huh?” The news bird tilted its head in confusion; there was not a single person on the deck.
Normally, someone would have noticed it on a pirate ship like this, right?
Could it be a ghost ship?!
A hint of fear appeared on the Newsbird’s face.
Just as it was about to flap its wings and flee, not wanting to deal with this situation, it saw a pile of coins floating towards it from the deck…
“Huh?!”
The pile of coins floated up to the news bird. Terrified, it fluffed its feathers and dared not move.
As if realizing that the news bird wasn’t going to act, it counted the coins itself, and a few pieces were placed in the small pouch around its neck. Then a newspaper floated out of the pouch by itself…
“Huh?!!!!!”
Scared out of its wits, the news-bird dropped feathers everywhere as it shakily took flight, fleeing in terror.
…
There wasn’t a soul in the captain’s quarters.
Tap, tap… The ship’s wheel turned gently.
A compass lay on the table, the Pose trembling and shaking.
The compass pinned down the freshly purchased newspaper.
The sea breeze blew in through the window, lifting a corner of the newspaper to reveal a photo of Crocodile, reporting on his exploits as a Shichibukai pirate hunter…
Tap, tap, tap… The ship’s wheel turned in the opposite direction, steering the ship.
…
A half-drunk cup of fresh flower tea sat on the table, steam rising from it.
The green Den Den Mushi nestled nearby, dozing.
Liam with legs crossed, glanced at a nautical chart in his hands.
His pen traced a route on the nautical chart, leading to the destination of this voyage: Lasgap Island.
When he had heard the pirates mention this island, which had a geographical position equivalent to East Blue’s Loguetown, his mind flashed back with fragments of memories of the body’s original owner, especially about the mother…
Liam speculated that this body’s hometown was probably on Lasgap Island.
The boy’s home was right at the entrance to the Grand Line, but he chose to be a pirate in the West Blue. Talk about lacking ambition.
Liam’s pen slid from Lasgap Island to the edge of the West Blue chart, marking the center of the thick red line.
A thin line, representing a canal, extending from the West Blue into the Red Line… symmetrically mirrored by the other three seas, East Blue, South Blue, North Blue.
The four canals converged at the top of Reverse Mountain and merged into one, straight into the Grand Line.
Countless pirates from all four seas set sail from here. Either they made a name for themselves and appeared in the newspapers, or they disappeared without a trace, swallowed by the vast ocean…
How could one set out on a journey to become a pirate king without entering the Grand Line?
Liam twirled the quill in his hand.
“Robin…” He called out, noticing her delayed response, “Hmm?”
He turned his head to see the girl sitting next to him staring blankly, as if in a daze.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
Liam waved the pen in front of Robin’s face.
“…”
Robin didn’t even blink.
Liam leaned closer and stared into her dark green eyes, “Why did the light in your eyes go out…”
Plop!
The dark green eyeball fell out…
Plop, the pen in Liam’s hand fell to the ground.
Upon closer inspection, he noticed that Robin’s eyes had opened like trap doors, revealing an entrance.
“You scared me!” Liam rolled his eyes looking at this scene.
A faint laugh seemed to emanate from inside the eyehole.
Liam moved closer and was suddenly pulled into the orifice by a strong force, his body rapidly shrinking…
…
In a massive room.
Curved walls surrounded the room, about ten meters high, with rows upon rows of bookshelves filled with countless books.
In the center of the room was a huge model of a planet, with several satellites orbiting it.
Robin sat on the floor, hugging her knees, staring silently at the book-lined walls for a long time.
“What a renovation!”
Liam entered, looking around curiously at the fortress-style townhouse, which was completely different from before.
Robin whispered, “This is what the inside of the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ used to look like…”
“Ah, I guessed that.” Liam sat down next to Robin, leaning on the floor with one hand.
“Kids my age used to think I was a monster because of my Flower-Flower-Fruit (Hana Hana no Mi) abilities…” Robin murmured, recounting her past without revealing any forbidden details, just everyday trivialities. “Only Professor Clover and the others treated me well, letting me borrow books for free, teaching me to read, tutoring me, helping me with learning history…”
Liam followed Robin into the underground room on the next level.
The same four walls of bookshelves filled with books.
The desk was also covered with disorganized documents and research materials.
But unlike the upper level, this floor had a large square stone on the floor.
The stone was inscribed with mysterious square characters…
“…Ohara is gone. The Tree of Knowledge that stood for thousands of years has been destroyed…” Tears welled in Robin’s eyes. “Liam, why? Why were we killed just for wanting to uncover forgotten history? My mother, the professor, everyone on the island…”
“How am I supposed to know the answer to that?” Liam said with his hands in his pockets.
Robin fell silent.
Liam said, “If I were the ruler of the world…”
Robin looked up in surprise.
“I would deliberately erase a significant period of history,” Liam said, walking leisurely around the “Poneglyph” stone. “And I would be fully aware that there will always be intelligent, curious people in this world with a desire to explore history and uncover the truth. And I wouldn’t want them to appear; I would want them to disappear completely and permanently…”
He took Robin to the next level.
“So the West Blue’s Ohara, with its Tree of Knowledge, slowly became a holy land for historians worldwide… Maybe it always was, maybe not, but eventually, it became one. If you gather such people on a single island, with plenty of research materials, how likely is it that they won’t be curious about the lost hundred years? I was well aware of that, but I waited patiently…”
Robin’s eyes reddened and she bit her lip.
Liam walked to the next level, looked at the towering walls of books, and spread his arms as he continued, “I waited for the right moment to catch all these people in one sweep… to extinguish this so-called flame of uncovering the truth once and for all…”
“Could it really be like that?” Robin’s voice seemed to come from the depths of her heart. “Did the world government intentionally…”
“I don’t know,” Liam said. “But the result is that the only one who can read the Poneglyph is you, right? And if it wasn’t for the Navy Vice Admiral who spared you, you would have been completely wiped out as well…” Seeing that Robin remained silent, Liam patted her head and then tapped the “earpiece” in his ear.
…
‘B.I.B.’ temporarily released the wheel of the ship and made its way through the ship, arriving in front of the motionless Robin at the table and punching her in the chest.
……
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