A violent shockwave blasted countless precious pages up into the sky, and they fluttered back down like snow.
Shh, shh, shh…
A line of uniform boots marched over scattered pages and splintered doorboards, the sound alone making hearts sink.
Agents in pure black suits, expressionless, poured into the Tree of Knowledge at speed.
"Don't move! Drop everything in your hands!"
"Robin!" Dr. Clover's face went bloodless. Instinctively, he yanked the stunned Robin behind him, shielding her with his aging body.
Robin clutched the hem of his robe, peeking through the gap to stare at the intruders, eyes wide with fear.
"Forget that waste paper!" the lead agent rasped. "All of you—assemble on the open ground outside the library immediately! Resist, and you'll be executed on the spot!"
The agents moved like wolves, brutally driving the scholars out of the sacred Tree of Knowledge.
The scholars were shoved and herded into the open space before the tree.
The wind picked up, whipping at their clothes and dragging in cold, damp sea air. At some point the sky had turned a terrifying, heavy gray.
As panic spread through the crowd, it suddenly parted. A man in a suit with a drooping mustache and a smug, arrogant expression walked in. Two agents followed behind him, hauling a woman who was barely conscious.
Thud. She was tossed onto the muddy ground like a sack.
She was tall, with rare pale, almost white long hair—now smeared like a mop with blood and mud.
Her coat was in tatters. A savage gash across her abdomen still seeped blood, and every breath forced fresh, foamy red to spill from the corner of her mouth.
Robin stared at the woman, unable to look away.
She'd never met her before—but her heart felt like an invisible hand had clenched around it. A sudden, sharp pain stabbed through her chest, and an indescribable sadness threatened to swallow her whole.
"Olvia…" Dr. Clover saw her and all color drained from his old face, leaving only shock and agony.
"D… Doctor…" Olvia struggled to lift her head. Her unfocused gaze swept over the scholars, and then—stopped on the black-haired little girl hiding behind Dr. Clover.
Her pupils shrank violently. Tears mixed with grime carved two pale tracks down her face.
"Ro… bin…" Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
"Doctor!" Spandine strode in, bursting with triumph. His polished shoes stopped beside Olvia, and he couldn't even be bothered to look down at the dying "criminal." "This woman is a fugitive. A few days ago, all of her companions were executed for the crime of decoding Ancient Text."
"If you've got any connection to her… well, that'll make things easy."
Dr. Clover understood instantly.
He saw the unbreakable line of sight between Robin and Olvia—and he saw Spandine's grin.
"Robin!" Dr. Clover's face changed in horror. He shoved Robin hard toward another direction and roared with everything in his frail body, "Run! Don't look back! Go to the evacuation ship at the port! Run!!"
"Oh? And where do you think she's going, Doctor?" Spandine let out a sharp, vicious laugh. "Too late. Everyone's here. Now we just need one result."
The moment he finished speaking, a deep boom shook the ground.
A violent explosion erupted at the basement entrance of the Tree of Knowledge.
The scholars cried out in despair, "What are you doing?! That's the Tree of Knowledge—what do you think it is?!"
"Found it!!"
A CP9 agent burst out through smoke and rubble, ignoring the burned, blackened edge of his suit, and held something up in wild excitement.
"Sir!" he shouted, voice warping with joy. "We found it! Evidence they were researching Ancient Text—found it!!"
"Hah… hahahaha! The credit is ours!!"
Spandine could no longer hide his glee. He threw his head back and laughed, his face twisting with triumph as he strutted to the center of the clearing.
Under the scholars' desperate, furious, terrified stares, he slowly pulled from his coat the symbol of absolute annihilation—
The golden Den Den Mushi.
"All ships, heed my order!" Spandine howled into the receiver, spit flying. "This is CP9 Commander Spandine! Ohara's crime of researching Ancient Text is proven beyond doubt! In the name of the World Government, I hereby declare a Buster Call on Ohara!"
He slammed the golden button.
BOOOOM—!!!!
Far out at sea, the warships roared as one.
Terrifying shells tore through the dark sky with shrieking death, arcing over the coastline—several slammed directly into the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge.
Flames exploded upward.
"No—!!"
"The Tree of Knowledge is burning!"
The scholars wailed like their hearts were being ripped out.
The knowledge they had guarded all their lives was being swallowed by fire.
"Spandine!!" Dr. Clover's eyes went blood-red.
He forced his way past the agents and shouted at Spandine, "I don't care what you plan to do to us! But before that—let me speak to the Five Elders!!"
Spandine didn't want to waste time on an old man; his mission was already complete. But after a beat, he sneered and patched the line through anyway.
He wanted to watch the old man's final performance.
The Den Den Mushi connected. A voice came through—old, authoritative, and cold with lofty indifference.
"So it's Clover… at this point, what last words do you have?"
"Five Elders!" Dr. Clover gripped the receiver like it was Ohara's last hope. "We studied the Poneglyphs only to learn what happened in the past. We never intended to oppose the World Government."
"Even innocent curiosity can sometimes bring irreversible disaster," the voice replied, still ice-cold. "For the stability of the world, some things must remain buried forever."
"Absurd!!" Dr. Clover roared. "History is the shared wealth of all humanity! No matter what happened, it is the road humanity once walked! If we refuse to face the past, how can we ever move toward the future?!"
"The future does not need dangerous noise. Ohara's thirst for knowledge has crossed the line."
"Whatever happened, it is history forged by human hands—humanity's wealth! You have no right to erase it!"
After a brief silence, the voice seemed to lose patience. "If that is your last word, then you may go."
"Wait!!"
Hearing the line about to cut, Dr. Clover knew he couldn't persuade them. He could only throw out his final card. He drew a breath, and in the storm of cannonfire his voice rang unnaturally clear:
"If you insist… then at least listen to our final conclusion!"
"We already know why you fear the 'Void Century'!"
The breathing on the other end seemed to stop for an instant.
"…Within that history, there existed a 'Great Kingdom' that stood against you!!"
"Silence!!"
A cold, authoritative bellow slammed through the receiver. The pressure in that roar made Spandine's ears ring.
"You filthy insect! You know too much!!"
"Spandine! Kill him! Now! Immediately!!" The line went dead.
"Y-yes, sir!" Spandine was so frightened his soul nearly left his body. He yanked out his pistol and, in a panic, aimed straight at Dr. Clover's head.
"Die, devil!"
Bang—!!
The shot rang out.
Firelight, wind, cannonfire, screams—everything seemed to be muted in that instant.
But the expected spray of blood never came.
Spandine's eyes widened in shock, his gun hand frozen in midair.
Dr. Clover slowly opened his eyes, the ones he'd closed to die.
A tall figure had appeared in front of him.
Simple black clothes, back straight like a pine.
Long-limbed and lean, short black hair neat and sharp.
The figure slowly raised his right hand—the one held in front of Dr. Clover's forehead.
Between his index and middle fingers, he was calmly pinching a slightly deformed lead bullet, still smoking faintly.
The bullet's remaining force made a soft, sizzling sound against his fingers.
"I'm just saying…"
His voice was so calm it sounded almost like a complaint.
Yet that calm voice cut cleanly through wind, fire, and cannon thunder, carrying across the suddenly dead-silent clearing:
"Isn't it a bit rude… to pull a gun every time you don't like what you hear?"