"Krieg-san! Forgive me! Have you seen my son? A boy wearing a hat like this!?"
Dr. Trafalgar called out to me, his voice frantic with panic. It was at the moment we had finished gathering the hospital patients and evacuation personnel in the palace plaza and were loading them sequentially into the carriages.
"Ah, if it's that boy, I put him in a carriage with the Sister and his classmates. He should be on his way to the ships by now..."
He was still young, but thanks to that hat, I had recognized him as Law immediately. By putting him with his friends, he surely wouldn't end up with the Donquixote Family. It might change the original story, but I'd just have to deal with that as it came.
"Is that so? Thank heaven... He was the one most worried about his sister, so I feared he might have stayed behind..."
"I'm sorry for rushing him out of the hospital, but is your daughter's condition unchanged?"
"Yes, she's stable for the time being, so she'll be fine. Still, we must find a way to treat this disease as soon as possible..."
"Don't rush yourself, Dr. Trafalgar. For now, escaping this country is the priority. Just getting away from this place where the water, air, and ground are full of 'Amber Lead' should have some effect.
We, the Navy, will provide full back-up... well, I can't say that officially, but I will personally lend you my strength."
I placed my hands on the shoulders of Luke—Dr. Trafalgar—to reassure him. It pained me that I couldn't offer the Navy's full, official support, but I wanted to believe this was better than having no support at all.
"...Still, as a doctor, it's agonizing to know I cannot save every patient," Luke confessed, looking down in shame at the thought of leaving so many afflicted people behind.
"I feel the same, knowing I can't evacuate everyone... But Dr. Trafalgar, regardless of what we do, it is physically impossible to evacuate every single person.
If we had known at an earlier stage, or if the King—no, the former King—hadn't done something so foolish, the neighboring countries wouldn't be invading, and we would have had more time. In this situation, there is nothing more you or the Navy can do.
We must at least focus our efforts on saving those we can evacuate. Besides, there are many here who refuse to leave or have given up, believing they can't be cured.
We cannot evacuate every citizen, both for physical and emotional reasons."
It was the truth. No matter what, we didn't have enough carriages or ships to get every citizen of Flevance out. We had to accept the loss.
"You're right... In any case, I will devote everything to treating Amber Lead Syndrome."
While we spoke, it seemed everyone had finished boarding. Captain Ryudo arrived to report that evacuation preparations were complete. I boarded a carriage with Luke and headed for the ships.
Farewell, Kingdom of Flevance. And I am sorry, citizens of Flevance. I cannot save you all.
Part of the reason was the lack of time and preparation, but the real reason was that I couldn't afford to be marked by the World Government right now by overstepping my bounds.
This was entirely for my own convenience—if they wanted to hate me, they were welcome to.
The carriages carrying the refugees arrived at the warships. It wasn't until several hours later that I heard from the Sister that Law had jumped out of the carriage midway.
Upon hearing her report, I had to desperately restrain Dr. Trafalgar, who tried to run off to find his son. Instead, I sent several Marines to conduct a search.
It might have seemed cold, but I persuaded him to give them one day; if they couldn't find him by then, he would have to give up.
Though devastated, Dr. Trafalgar agreed. We couldn't stay in the Kingdom of Marmassy forever; if Law wasn't found, we would have no choice but to leave him behind.
I distributed the refugees among the captured pirate ships. I was informed that the royals had been escorted to the VIP quarters of my warship.
I went to check on them, and when asked, "Where is our luggage?", I presented them with only 40% of the gold and valuables we had recovered.
"My apologies," I lied with a straight face. "Soldiers from the other countries began looting, and we could only secure this much."
I planned to put the remaining 60% to good use myself. Treating the refugees was going to be expensive, after all.
As the former King of Flevance screamed at me, spraying spit in his rage, I bowed my head repeatedly with a look of feigned remorse, thinking to myself: God, shut up.
I then consulted with Captain Jonathan and Captain Ryudo to pick a destination. We discussed several candidates and settled on our primary choice: Faus Island in the latter half of the Grand Line. It was a relatively large island with no sovereign nation, only a Navy base.
However, I couldn't just move them there on my own authority. I contacted Fleet Admiral Kong via Den Den Mushi and practically begged him on hands and knees for permission to use part of the facilities. I managed to scrape together an approval, finalizing Faus Island as the relocation site.
Captain Ryudo and Captain Jonathan set off for Faus Island first with two warships and two captured pirate ships.
I had to temporarily part ways with them to deliver the royals to Marineford, planning to rejoin the fleet later.
After finalizing the logistics, I finally managed to take a breath in my office within the warship.
"Uncle, you look exhausted. Would you like some coffee?"
"Ah, thank you, Robin."
Since there was no one else around, I used her real name instead of her alias. She offered a faint, happy smile as she poured the coffee.
I sat back in my chair and focused on the Amber Lead Syndrome. While I'd leave the technical medical work to Dr. Trafalgar, I needed to brainstorm using my knowledge of the future.
Option 1: The Op-Op Fruit. Physically removing the toxins. Since I don't know where the fruit is right now, this is on hold.
Option 2: Expert Collaboration. Enlisting Vegapunk, Dr. Kureha, or the doctors from Drum Kingdom. I might even reach out to Dr. Indigo; he's a botanist, but his expertise in chemical compounds might prove useful.
Option 3: The Hobby-Hobby Fruit. Turning patients into toys to halt the disease's progression. It sounds good on paper, but people would forget the patients existed. Plus, I have no idea where that fruit is either.
Option 4: The Modo-Modo Fruit. Reversing the body's age by 12 years. If I could return them to a pre-symptomatic state, it would buy time. But if used on someone under 12, they vanish from existence. It's useless for the children.
Option 5: Time Manipulation. A fruit that can stop or slow time... like the Toki-Toki Fruit? I haven't heard much about that in this era. (Krieg's knowledge ends before the Wano arc).
Is there any other way? To stop time... to slow it down...
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