The fighting between revolution army and cipher pol was over.
In just a few hours all the puppet revolutionary soldiers in all four kingdoms were gone. Their dead bodies still lies in the streets, in the fields, in the mines, and in the factories. The Cipher Pol agents who wore white suits and moved like silent assassin had done their job perfectly.
Now, a strange quiet came over all the lands.
It was not the quiet of being scared. It was the quiet of waiting. The people, who had been hiding or working in their forced jobs slowly started to come out. They saw the dead bodies of the revolutionary soldiers everywhere. They saw the serious and watchful people in white uniforms. They were scared. They were confused.
What would happen next? Were these new people just another group of monsters? these are the questions asking people of these four kingdom in their minds.
Then the CP0 agents started to work on something else.
In the main town square of Fresta, Lvneel, Sortis, and Balsamico, they set up strange black snail-like machines. These were called Speaker Dials. They could carry a voice of the person all across a whole island.
And soon a voice began to speak through them.
It was a calm and very powerful voice.
It was the voice of IMU and everyone in every small corner of the four kingdoms could hear him.
"Citizens of these kingdom…" the voice began.
It sounded so full of a strange and gentle sadness and a strong power that everyone stopped what they were doing and listened.
"My name is Umi and I am from the World Government. First of all I would like to express my deepest apologies on behalf of the World Government. If I had come earlier, something like this would have never happened to you."
In the Fresta Kingdom, the blacksmith stood in the doorway of the forge. His eyes were wide.
'Sorry?' he thought. A tiny spark of something he hadn't felt in days. 'A leader is saying he is sorry? I have never heard anything like that.' he thought.
Imu's voice continued and it sounded so sad and so full of feeling as if he had seen all their pain himself.
"I walked your streets yesterday. They were quiet… very quiet. Doors were closed. Curtains were pulled shut in every home."
"I saw children were longing for their parent's hands but their parents were gone. There were no parents with them Because they were forced to become Revolutionary army's youth brigade they were taken away from their parents."
In the farming kingdom of Balsamico, the old farmer Hopium listened, and his heart felt a deep ache.
'He knows,' he thought. 'He knows about the children. He knows about the quiet streets.'
He thought of his neighbors whose children were taken away by the revolutionary army and the terrible feeling of being surrounded by food they couldn't eat.
The people listening all over the four kingdoms knew exactly what he was talking about. They all felt like that they will cry but they had no more tears left to cry.
The emptiness in their hearts was as deep as the emptiness in their stomachs.
"But words are dangerous, aren't they?" Imu asked, it was a soft, sad question like he was telling them a secret truth.
"All it takes is a whisper a story that is told over and over again… and soon, the man who fed you becomes the man you believe is starving you. Monkey D. Dragon and his so called Revolutionary Army did this to you. They are the true monsters who hurt you."
Then Imu's voice became even more serious and even more accusing towards the Revolutionary army.
"They did more than just steal your food and your children. They stole your trust. They made you spy on your neighbors. They made you accuse your friends in front of everyone. They forced you to lie about your loved ones just to get a piece of bread or to save yourself from their guns."
"They poisoned the trust between you. turning brother against brother, friend against friend. This is what their 'freedom' truly meant - the freedom to betray each other."
When the blacksmith heard this he thought about his first son, the one who had believed in the revolution. He had been so full of those dangerous words and stories. He had died for them. And now he knew they were all lies. He felt a new hot anger for the man in the portrait.
A feeling was starting to grow in the hearts of the people. It was a feeling of anger, but this anger was not for their old king or the World Government. It was for the revolutionaries who had lied to them and who had twisted everything good into something evil.
"Tell me…" Imu asked, and it was so soft now, it was like he was whispering a secret to each and every one of them.
"When you close your eyes at night do you still hear the shouting of their fake promises? do you remember what your kingdom used to be like?"
Yes. They all remembered.
They remembered everything they had lost. Every cruel rule. Every stolen meal. Every missing child.
"Perhaps one day," the voice said and now it was full of a gentle and full of hope, "the kingdom will be full of food again. Perhaps children will laugh and play in the streets again."
"But… that day can only come when the heartbeat of your kingdom returns. When your hope and your trust return. And only you the citizens of this kingdom can decide when that happens. The World Government is here to help you to achieve that."
The voice stopped.
For a long moment there was a deep and thoughtful silence all across the four kingdoms. The speech was over. But the work of the saviors had just begun.
Just as the people were trying to understand the powerful words they had just heard, something new and wonderful began to happen.
The men in white, the Cipher Pol agents, started to move again.
But they were not fighting. They went to the big storehouses, the ones where the revolutionaries had locked away all the food and treasure.
They kicked the doors open.
And then, they started to give everything back to the rightful owners of these things.
In the Lvneel Kingdom, which had been empty and sad for days suddenly became a place of wonder.
Big wagons full of food crates of fresh fish, barrels of sweet fruits and vegetables, sacks of flour were rolled into the town squares. The Cipher Pol agents with their serious faces started handing out the food to the stunned and crying people.
They didn't just give them one small loaf. They gave them plenty of food. They gave them so much food that people could barely carry it all.
The people looked at the food, then at the agents. Was this real? this thing feels like a dream for them.
Old Man Apple, the fisherman who the baker had accused him for being lazy in the confession ceremony came forward.
A Cipher Pol agent handed him a whole smoked fish, more food than he had seen in weeks. He just stared at it, tears were starting to fill his eyes.
He took a bite, and the taste of real food after so much hunger was like a warm wave washing over his broken heart and his empty belly. He ate and ate until he felt a little bit full for the first time in last seven days.
In the Sortis Kingdom, the miners become dirty and exhausted were led out of the dark tunnels. They were met by agents who opened big chests filled with the money and jewels that the revolutionaries had stolen from them.
"This is yours," a Cipher Pol agent said, handing a heavy bag of coins to the miner Mark. "Your hard work will be rewarded again as it should be."
Mark looked at the gold in his hand. He looked at the faces of his fellow miners, who were all staring at their own returned wealth.
The greed and suspicion that the revolutionaries had planted between them began to crack and crumble. The promise of fair work for fair pay a forgotten dream suddenly felt real again. He even saw a few miners offering to share their returned money with others who had less.
In the farming kingdom of Balsamico, the granaries were thrown open.
The farmers, who had been starving while surrounded by their own crops were led inside. They saw mountains of grain, barrels of salted meat and crates of fresh vegetables, all returned to them.
"Eat," a one Cipher Pol agent told them. "Eat until your stomachs are full. This is the harvest of your hard work. It belongs to you."
The old farmer Hopium, his eyes wide with disbelief and picked up a big juicy apple. He took a bit into it and the sweet, crisp taste filled his mouth. It was a taste of pure Joy and happiness, a taste he thought he would never know again.
He saw families around him, crying and laughing, eating with a desperate joy he had never seen before.
But the greatest miracle of was yet to come.
Big wagons, the same kind that had been used to take away the food, now rolled into the town squares of all four kingdoms. But these wagons were not full of food.
They were full of children.
It was the Revolutionary Youth Brigade.
The Cipher Pol agents, led by Blueno, had gone to the secret, horrible training camps. They had killed all the puppet soldier trainers and had rescued every single stolen child from them.
The children, looked thin and scared and confused were helped down from the wagons. Their clothes were dirty and torn. They looked out at the crowd of strange thin adults.
They had been taught in the camps to forget their old families and to forget their names. They had been told the revolution was their new family.
And then the parents saw them.
A great cry went up from the crowds in every kingdom.
It was a sound of pure, heart-breaking joy that filled the air. Mothers and fathers ran forward towards them and screaming the names of their lost children which was taken away from them.
In the Fresta Kingdom, the blacksmith's wife grabbed his arm. Her eyes were wide and her hand was shaking as she pointed toward certain direction.
"Look," she whispered, her voice full of a hope which was killed by revolutionary army. "Look! It's her!"
The blacksmith looked at that direction.
And there, standing by one of the wagons was a small girl with scared eyes. She was covered in mud and her clothes were torn but it was her.
It was Elara. The granddaughter of both blacksmith and his wife.
They both started to run towards her.
"Elara" they shouted, their voices cracking with emotion and hot tears streaming down their faces.
The little girl's head snapped up. She heard her name. She saw them. For a second, she just stared like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
The lessons in the camp had tried to make her forget them. They had tried to tell her the revolution was her new family. But they couldn't. The love for her grandpa and grandma was too strong.
"Grandpa! Grandma!" she cried, and she started to run towards them too. Her small legs which tired from training moved as fast as they could.
Finally they met in the middle of the square. The blacksmith fell to his knees and wrapped his big weak arms around his granddaughter. His wife hugged them both tightly and her face buried in Elara's dirty hair.
They were all crying, big, happy, beautiful tears. The blacksmith held Elara so tightly that he never wanted to let her go again. He could feel her small, thin body in his arms. She was safe. She was real.
All around them this same happy crying scene was happening.
Parents were finding their children. Families were being put back together. The sound of happy, crying laughter filled the air. It was a sound that had been gone for seven long days. It was the sound of the heartbeat of the kingdoms returning.
The blacksmith looked up. He saw the man in the white clothes : Imu still standing on a roof of the old palace watching them all.
Their eyes met for just a second. The blacksmith's heart was filled with a feeling he had never felt before. It was a feeling of deep, powerful and absolute gratitude towards Imu.
This man, IMU(Umi) was not just a soldier. He was their savior. He was a like an angel who had come down to them.
He gave them their food back. He gave them their money back. He gave them their children back.
He gave them their old lives back.
Their old loyalty to the king was gone.
Their new, broken faith in the revolution was dead.
Now, a new and much, much stronger loyalty was being born in their hearts.
It was a loyalty born from the deepest despair and the greatest joy. It was a loyalty to the World Government and to the man named Umi who saved them from this Hell.