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Yet here they were.
"I was just enjoying myself in my palace!" Wapol's thoughts spiraled, face drained of all color as sweat beaded his round cheeks. "Eating well, drinking well, writing whatever laws I felt like! I wasn't bothering anybody! So why… why the hell did monsters like this suddenly show up at my doorstep, screaming for my head?!"
It made no sense. None at all.
Wapol clutched his chest as though his very heart were bleeding. "Damn it! Protect your king!" he howled, his voice cracking with desperation. "Get down there and stop them at all costs! Don't let them reach my palace!!"
His shriek rattled through the icy throne hall, echoing off the palace walls. And so Dalton had left, his face grim, leading the kingdom's strongest soldiers down the slope.
,
Now, outside the gates of Great Horn, Dalton stood before Liam, Robin, and Kureha, snow swirling in the wind around them. His expression was carved from stone.
"Just over a month ago," Dalton said, voice taut but steady, "you competed in the Sword Hero Tournament on Holiday Island. And now… you appear here, in Drum? Why? What business could pirates of your stature possibly have on this island?"
Though his words were firm, his chest tightened. Dalton knew his own strength, yet against pirates of such notorious bounty? There was little chance.
"There is nothing here worth your notice," Dalton pressed, determination barely masking dread. "Turn back now. Spare this country. There's nothing here for you."
"Oh, but there is."
Liam's grin broke across his face, sharp as the winter wind. "Didn't I already say? I'm here to kill Wapol. And his Munch-Munch Fruit… it's caught my eye."
Dalton froze. The words hit like a hammer to the gut.
"W-what…?!"
Kureha raised her brows in surprise. Even she hadn't expected that declaration.
Dalton's breath came out in two thick streams of white mist. His body tensed, then swelled, muscles bulging beneath his fur-lined cloak. Coarse black hair rippled over his arms and back, his frame twisting into the form of a beast. Two jagged horns pushed up from his brow, and his eyes gleamed in the shadow like burning embers.
His beast form, proof of the Zoan Fruit he carried.
"If it's a Devil Fruit you want…" Dalton's voice rumbled low, filled with a primal growl, "…then take mine. Just leave this country in peace."
Liam tilted his head, almost innocently, then turned to Robin. "I'm speaking the common tongue, right?"
Robin's eyes sparkled with amusement, and she gave a small nod.
Liam returned his gaze to Dalton, feigning curiosity. "Then which word tripped you up? I said it plain."
His lips shaped each syllable deliberately, slowly, almost kindly.
"I. Want. The. Munch-Munch. Fruit. And I'm going to kill Wapol to get it."
The words rolled out like a death sentence across the snow.
Dalton's bull eyes burned red, his breath steaming in fierce bursts. His voice sank into a low growl.
"Then… there's nothing left to discuss?"
"You're the one who thought there was something to discuss in the first place." Liam spread his arms casually, mocking exasperation.
Dalton's jaw clenched. His command bark split the air like thunder.
"Fire!"
Dozens of rifles roared in unison, unleashing a storm of bullets.
"Hah!"
Liam stepped forward, palm extended as though daring the hail of lead to strike him.
Kureha's eyes narrowed. Idiot… is he really going to try and stop them all barehanded?
But no, he didn't need to.
The barrage struck full force, pitter-patter, crack-crash, heavy rounds slamming into chest, arms, and legs. And yet… the storm fell flat. The bullets bounced back, smoke curling at each impact as spent casings tinkled into the snow.
Liam remained standing, untouched, not a scratch to show for it.
Robin stepped gracefully past, calm and unflinching.
"They're… unharmed?" one soldier whispered, his voice cracking. "N-not even a mark…"
The firing line trembled, fear spreading as fast as frost across glass.
"Is… is that even human?" another choked.
Dalton's massive frame shadowed them, his face darkened in beastly wrath. He roared and charged.
Boom!
The ground quaked as his bulk slammed headlong into Liam, his Zoan-powered strength enough to flatten boulders and splinter stone. But instead, Dalton rebounded violently as though colliding with an unbreakable wall, flipping backward through the snow. Blood streamed from his forehead, his pupils wide with disbelief.
I'm an Ox-Ox Fruit user… a bison-man! My power should crush mountains… and yet when I struck him… it was like ramming steel. No… worse. I'm not a beast, I'm an ant kicking at a tree!
The gap between them was immeasurable.
"Captain," Liam murmured to Robin.
She lowered her gaze knowingly.
A heartbeat later, Dalton's soldiers collapsed, their screams muffled by snow as unseen force drove them all to the ground. Even Dalton himself staggered, a searing pain spiking through his chest as his knees buckled.
"See you around," Liam's voice faded, already brushing past him with Robin at his side.
Smack!
Dalton's massive arm snagged the boy's trouser leg, his body battered, beaten, but his will unyielding. With ragged breath he forced himself upright, blood thick on his furred face.
"Hh-hhuhh… I, I am commander of the royal guard… If you mean to harm the king…" His legs shook, but he held steady, voice breaking into a roar, "…then you'll have to… kill me first!!"
The defiant bellow echoed across snowy cliffs, the trembling powder above threatened to avalanche at the sound of it.
"Keep yelling like that and you'll bury half the city," Liam sighed, pressing two fingers gently over Robin's ears as though bored. "And if you keep crawling back up like this… you really will die."
Dalton's chest heaved, bloodshot eyes blazing red. "Then I'll die a worthy death!"
"Oh, really?" Liam's grin curved like a blade, taunting, sharp.
Dalton froze as though his spirit itself had been pierced, his pulse hammering in his ears.
And then,
"Dalton."
Kureha's cutting voice broke the tension. The old doctor planted her fists on her hips, her glare heated but pragmatic.
"Face reality, you can't stop him. So why not come along? We'll settle this at the palace. He said it himself, it's the fruit he's after. Maybe… maybe it won't even come to killing Wapol if things are handled right."
Dalton's breath trembled. His great shoulders sagged under the snowfall. His teeth remained clenched, but words no longer came.
Silence.
For the first time, his immovable will wavered.
"She's right," Liam added cheerfully, his grin sharp as the winter wind. "Tag along. Relax, I'm pretty good at what I do. If I truly wanted Wapol dead, do you honestly think you could stop me? If you want to die, then at least die standing before the king you swore to protect. That'd be honorable, wouldn't it?
"And if by then…" his tone dipped lower, almost playful, "…you can still manage to die at all."
Dalton said nothing, but the words burned in his chest like frostbite.
,
The four of them reached the cliffside cable car station. The wind howled over the cliff edges, sharp and biting. Dalton remained in his bison form, silent, tense muscles coiled like springs, his crimson animal eyes never leaving Liam or Robin. His oath bound him, but so, too, did his dread of the two pirates.
Yet Liam's words gnawed at him.
What did he mean, 'if by then you can still manage to die'?
From the station, a single steel cable stretched skyward like a thread to heaven, leading to the distant silhouette of the Drum Castle, half-swallowed in gray clouds.
The gondola creaked and swayed as it lifted into the snowy expanse.
Inside, the air was heavy with unspoken tension. Robin sat near the glass, her eyes watching the white void outside. Dalton hunched forward, the wood groaning beneath his weight. Kureha sat with her usual swagger, kicking her boots up onto the bench.
Liam broke the silence, lounging carelessly. "That girl they caught earlier… she was a doctor too?"
Kureha gave a raspy laugh. "That little one? Hah! Nowhere near qualified enough to call herself a doctor."
Dalton's gaze lowered. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, in a low, gravelled tone, he spoke. "If you mean the girl called Ros… yes, I know her. She came from abroad a year and a half ago. Bright-eyed, hoping to study medicine here. But by then…"
"By then, Wapol had already issued his 'Doctor Hunt,'" Kureha interrupted, her mouth pulling into a sly grin beneath the shadow of her glasses. "Bad timing, eh? Poor girl. Bet she regretted that choice."
Dalton's jaw tightened. He looked away, unwilling to say more.
Robin, who had remained silent, suddenly raised a hand and pointed out the frosted window. "Is that her?"
Three heads turned in unison.
There, carved into the sheer face of the snow-blanketed mountain, was a perfect circular hollow, like a pocket dug into the ice itself.
Sitting at its edge, knees hugged tightly to her chest, was the girl. Ros.
She wasn't running, wasn't hiding. She simply sat against the endless white, eyes lifted to the horizon.
And then, her gaze shifted. She saw them.
Her eyes met Liam's through the drifting snowfall and the thin glass of the gondola.
(End of Chapter)