Before long, Olvia and Robin arrived together at the Tree of Knowledge.
From the looks on both their faces, they had clearly been crying. Robin had endured so many grievances over the years, and she looked exhausted now. But the happiness radiating from deep within her couldn't be hidden no matter how hard she tried.
Today had been an unbelievably happy day for her. First she'd scored perfectly and become a doctor, and then she'd met her mother. It felt like a dream.
"Mr. Baal, thank you for saving my mom." When Robin saw Ren, she immediately bowed to the friend she'd only known for a short time.
Even though she now knew Ren's true identity and understood he'd come to Ohara for the scholars and their knowledge, this exchange of interests didn't matter much to the young Robin, who hadn't experienced much of the world yet.
All she knew was that Mr. Baal had kept her company during this time, become her friend, and saved her mother.
And the scholars of Ohara had been rescued because of his help.
In the eyes of a child who had always lacked love, that was more than enough.
Compared to Robin's warmth toward her friend, Olvia was far more reserved: "General… sir, what should we do about the civilians on the island? If the Marines really carry out a Buster Call…"
"Don't worry. We'll prepare evacuation ships to get them out in time." Ren didn't elaborate. Instead, he slowly opened a World-Crossing Gate and gestured for the two of them to step through.
He wasn't exactly lying, either. The Marines and World Government had indeed prepared several evacuation ships for the civilians. Anyone who could present proof that they weren't a scholar would be allowed to board and leave before the Buster Call was truly unleashed.
He didn't know whether the World Government had contacted Sakazuki behind Sengoku's back, but at least on the surface, even the World Government hadn't planned to slaughter ordinary people along with the scholars.
After sending Robin and Olvia through, Ren first broke off a branch from the Tree of Knowledge, then waited with Jasmine and Iris for the World Government's arrival.
Three days later.
In the waters near Ohara, aboard a warship that had been anchored for several days, a Marine soldier hung up a Den Den Mushi and shouted toward a man sunbathing on deck with an eye mask:
"Vice Admiral Kuzan! Commander Spandine has arrived at Ohara!"
"You woke me up just for something this trivial?"
The booming voice jolted Kuzan from his nap. Disturbed from his sleep, Aokiji's face was written all over with displeasure, and he shouted back even louder.
He'd been on standby here for days now. Ever since his good friend Saul had captured Nico Olvia several days ago, he'd lost contact and hadn't heard a thing for days.
At first he'd assumed Saul had simply been hit by a rescue operation. But then he'd heard from surviving sailors that Saul had sunk two warships and let Olvia escape before the rescuers even arrived.
That was very telling indeed.
Aokiji knew his friend's character well, so he didn't believe Saul was the type to betray the Marines. Something must have happened.
The problem was, he couldn't even find Saul himself right now, let alone ask what had actually gone on.
One puzzling detail was that the Marines had never been big on making Vivre Cards. Even after Aokiji left the Marines and joined Blackbeard, the Marines didn't seem to have used Vivre Cards to hunt down the Blackbeard Pirates.
Or perhaps Aokiji's own identity had truly been that of a mole?
In any case, Saul had explicitly stated that the Marines didn't have a Vivre Card for him. Maybe it was a matter of his race.
Although Saul was a giant, he wasn't from the Elbaf branch. And the guy had some prejudice against Elbaf's giants at that — he always called them "barbaric" whenever the topic came up.
At this moment, the CP agents had arrived at Ohara's port under the World Government's cross emblem, filing off the ship one by one in black suits.
The lead agent, Spandine, didn't look much like his son Spandam. On the contrary, Ren thought the guy looked a bit like the king of Alabasta.
"I don't know why the World Government sent me to a place like this, but completing this mission should get me a promotion, right?" He glanced down at the sleeping Den Den Mushi, then imperiously directed the agents under his command.
The number of agents following him was considerable. Besides the CP0 operatives directly serving the Celestial Dragons, every other agency had sent a sizable contingent — all to make sure not a single scholar escaped.
After landing on the island, Spandine dispatched a team to rush to the Tree of Knowledge at full speed, while the rest were responsible for guiding civilians onto the evacuation ships. They also had to prevent any scholars from sneaking aboard.
A huge mob of gun-toting, black-suited, sunglasses-wearing agents swarmed in — if you didn't know better, you'd think the North Blue mafia had crossed the Red Line and the Calm Belt to come charging over!
The island's residents grew tense one and all, but quite a few dared to stand up to the agents. Not because they were especially brave — they'd simply spotted the World Government's flag.
"Attention all residents! The scholars on this island are all demons who seek to destroy the world!"
"Therefore, we are now conducting a large-scale search of the entire island!"
"During this time, all personnel unrelated to archaeology, please take proof of your identity and proceed to the evacuation ships!"
In truth, although the agents' attitude toward the civilians wasn't exactly warm, it was still reasonably polite. After explaining the situation in a few sentences, they began carrying out their superior's orders with an unquestionable air.
"How can this be? These scholars are outstanding throughout the world — they're the pride of our Ohara!"
"Evacuation ships? Why does it have to go this far?"
"If it's about the scholars, then it has nothing to do with us, right?"
The townspeople spoke up one after another, voicing their dissatisfaction with the agents' rather heavy-handed approach.
Being suddenly driven from their homes like this — no one would willingly accept such a thing.
"Notifying you is simply our duty. If you ignore our warning and something happens to you, that's on your own heads."
Faced with the questioning voices, the agents' response was cold.
They were machines executing a mission. They didn't care about civilians' feelings or anything like that. If someone had a complaint, fine — they could voice it directly to the guns in their hands.
Hell, they didn't even need to use those weapons. They could just let the people who refused to leave die in the Buster Call's bombardment. That worked too.
[
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