In truth, Michael had always been deeply intrigued by Joy Boy.
After all, whether in Kozuki Toki's accounts, the Poneglyphs, or Joy Boy's diary left in Elbaf, the relationship between Michael and Joy Boy was described as exceptionally close.
This naturally led Michael to regard Joy Boy—a man born over 800 years ago who possessed the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan: Nika—with great significance.
According to the giants' records, they considered Joy Boy one of their own.
Initially, Michael had no reason to doubt this.
Given that the legend of the Sun God Nika was passed down among the giants and the half-giant Baccarat Tribe, it seemed reasonable that Joy Boy was a giant.
But from the intelligence Donquixote provided about this era, Michael learned that the upper echelons of the Great Kingdom were not ruled by a so-called "king" or "ministers," but rather by a "Council of Gods"—a body that consolidated military and political power, composed of representatives from various powerful races.
And among the races in the Council of Gods, there were no giants.In other words, the Giant Tribe was not part of the Ancient Kingdom.
So if Joy Boy was a member of the Giant Tribe, then there would have been no need for him to oppose the Twenty Kings as "recorded in history."
However, the next piece of information struck Michael as odd.
Before the Ancient Kingdom, there had actually been a king.
But this king was purely symbolic, holding no real power—essentially a puppet of the Divine Council.
Several years ago, this "king" disappeared.
Yet the Ancient Kingdom remained completely unaffected.
From then on, the lofty but utterly useless throne was simply left vacant.
Michael had even laughed to himself about it, thinking it was a kind of "Empty Throne" in a way.
But when he saw Joy Boy standing before him, Michael suddenly connected the dots.
The timeline of the former king's disappearance and the initial formation of the rebel army...
roughly coincided.
So this Joy Boy before him...
"Uh, why are you looking at me like that?"
"Joy Boy... tell me, were you the former... king of the Ancient Kingdom?"
Michael cut straight to the point without giving Joy Boy or Donquixote any time to react.
Neither of them had expected Michael to be so blunt.
Without any preamble, he went straight for the heart of the matter.
Donquixote glanced at Joy Boy with concern, then gave Michael a troubled look.
Now caught between two people, he was truly feeling overwhelmed.
He was afraid that the leader would clash with Michael, and even more afraid that the two would fight to the death.
After all, the identity of Joy Boy, the king of the Great Kingdom, could never be erased.
He never expected that Michael could connect Joy Boy's identity to the original king of the Great Kingdom just by the various background information he provided about the Great Kingdom and the rebels...
"Um, Michael, is there some kind of misunderstanding here?"
"Donquixote, there's no need for that." Joy Boy sighed and then smiled, waving his hand at Donquixote.
"Do you see his eyes? Do they look like they would listen to your arguments? For truly intelligent people, once they understand the context, deducing my identity isn't very difficult... Well, Mr. Michael, whom I meet for the first time, I am that unfortunate mascot king."
There was a hint of helplessness in Joy Boy's expression.
It wasn't helplessness about his identity being exposed.
It was the helplessness of having to acknowledge this unfortunate identity once again.
"I see, that makes sense, it makes sense..."
At first glance, upon seeing Joy Boy, Michael was puzzled, especially when he realized that Joy Boy was the leader of the rebels, who historically was in opposition to the Twenty Kings.
However, considering that the Celestial Dragons had a history of erasing and altering history, it suddenly made sense.
After the Twenty Kings overthrew the Great Kingdom, they likely clashed with Joy Boy while dealing with those races in the Divine Council...
In other words, after the rebellion succeeded, the division of spoils failed to meet their expectations, leading to a natural split.
This situation could only be described as...
Too normal.
Of course, this was probably the direct cause.
But the fundamental reason was still Joy Boy's identity as the original mascot king of the Great Kingdom.
It was as absurd as Chen Jialuo, the leader of the Red Flower Society, being the brother of Qianlong.
The rebels themselves were people from the previous dynasty; how could the Twenty Kings feel at ease?
Thinking of this, Michael raised his head, and in his gaze towards Joy Boy, there was an added hint of pity.
From this perspective, this person's misfortune was indeed considerable.
It seemed that he was still the leader of the rebels now.
But in the future, it was likely that both the Twenty Kings and the Great Kingdom would not regard him as one of their own.
No matter how one looked at Joy Boy's character, it was destined for him to walk this path.
"Whether you are the original king of the Great Kingdom is not the most important thing." Michael shook his head.
"What matters is whether you will truly lead the rebels to completely overthrow the decayed Great Kingdom."
"I won't say that I can definitely do it," Joy Boy said with a smile, "but I will do my best to fight for the freedom and smiles of everyone in this world."
"Is that so."
Michael didn't say much more; he just turned back and looked at Lily.
"Can you accept such words?"
Donquixote looked at Lily, the orphan of the Nefertari family, with a complex expression.
Indeed, for children, these identity politics were completely outside their consideration.
The Great Kingdom had killed the vast majority of the Nefertari family, so as the original king of the Great Kingdom to say he bore no responsibility... even if that were true, no one would believe it.
But what surprised him was that Lily, with her red eyes, stared at Joy Boy for a long time before finally saying something he never expected.
"What's there to not accept? This so-called original king is essentially no different from those who were killed from the Nefertari family, just a victim of the decay of the Great Kingdom."
Michael nodded; since Lily had this attitude...
"Then until the Great Kingdom is overthrown, we must begin to cooperate sincerely, original king, Mr. Joy Boy."
"If possible, could you refrain from mentioning that title again?"
Joy Boy grasped Michael's hand.
The Sun God and the Archangel of the End held onto the future.