Inside the Room of Flowers.
Imu stood silently among the sea of flowers, confusion clear on his face.
He had attempted to establish contact with Harald to gauge the situation, only to find that the giant king had "read and ignored" him, utterly failing to offer any response.
Then Imu attempted to descend through Harald's consciousness—
but all he encountered was darkness.
There was no feedback.
He could see nothing.
Hear nothing.
It was almost as if Harald had fallen asleep.
To be honest, in all these hundreds of years, this was the first time Imu had ever encountered such a situation.
As a result, he was genuinely puzzled.
What exactly had happened?
From what he remembered, Harald had gone to confront Shiki in the final moments.
But Shiki was supposed to be nothing more than a minor figure.
"Shiki..." Imu softly muttered the name, his brows tightly furrowed as he continued thinking.
That man wasn't a D, was he?
No... no, he couldn't jump to conclusions like that.
Come to think of it, even now, Imu didn't actually know Shiki's full name.
Before this, Imu had never truly cared about Shiki at all.
Some great pirate of the New World? Over the centuries, Imu had seen far too many ambitious monsters like him.
They were all merely heroes of their era.
In the end, they all sank into the sea of history.
Nothing worth caring about.
But now...
He had no choice but to pay more attention to Shiki.
Could that brat also belong to the ancient D clan? Or perhaps he had hidden his true name all along?
Maybe his real name was something like "D. Shiki"?
He had followed Rocks for many years.
Did he know some hidden secret?
Or possess some unknown method?
Was that why Harald had suddenly gone out of contact?
Just as Imu was thinking about all this, the Five Elders arrived together.
The moment they entered the room, all five immediately knelt on the ground.
Imu did not turn around.
He continued staring at the flowers before him.
The Five Elders did not dare speak either.
They kept their heads lowered while kneeling silently, even controlling their breathing carefully.
More than half an hour passed before Imu finally seemed to emerge from his thoughts.
Without even turning around, he asked calmly, "What happened in Elbaf?"
Saturn swallowed nervously before speaking in a low voice.
"Our crimes deserve death. The Elbaf plan has failed. According to the Marines' report, Shiki led the Flying Pirates in an invasion of Elbaf, causing an extremely intense battle. In the end, Harald's whereabouts became unknown, and the Marines were forced to withdraw from Elbaf..."
"How was Shiki able to defeat Harald and cause him to lose contact?" Imu asked coldly.
Saturn felt nervous inside, but he still forced himself to answer.
"We are unable to determine the exact circumstances."
After hesitating briefly, Saturn took the initiative to continue.
"I have already ordered the Marines to remain on standby in the New World. We can reinforce our forces at any time and return to Elbaf under Sengoku and Zephyr's command—"
"There is no need for that for now!"
Imu immediately rejected the suggestion.
Saturn quietly relaxed inside. As expected. His centuries of testing had been correct all along.
Imu-sama was an extremely cautious person—
perhaps even somewhat cowardly.
Whenever something appeared that could threaten him or something he could not understand, Imu's first instinct was always to avoid direct action, investigate everything thoroughly, and only then make a decision.
Right then, Imu finally turned around and looked toward the Five Elders.
"What information do you have regarding Shiki?" he asked. "What is his family name? What are his origins? Which sea was he born in?"
The Five Elders exchanged glances with one another, and every single one of them looked somewhat awkward.
Just like Imu, they had never truly taken Shiki seriously before, even if he was one of the great pirates of the New World.
As a result, their understanding of him had always been very shallow.
"It seems Shiki originated from the Grand Line, but as for the specific island he came from, we do not know," Saint Warcury said nervously. "Regarding his full name, ever since he first appeared on the seas, people have only referred to him as 'Shiki' or 'Golden Lion.' There has never been any detailed information about him..."
Imu's brows tightened, and a dark look appeared in his eyes.
"The next time," he said coldly, "Mu does not wish to hear such an answer again."
After saying that, he turned his gaze toward Saint Saturn. "The Marines and Cipher Pol are both under your authority. Do you have anything to say?"
Saturn remained silent for a moment before slowly replying,
"Imu-sama, among the younger generation of my family, there is one individual currently infiltrating the Roger Pirates. His name is Jaygarcia Valthior. Regarding Shiki, he once reported a certain rumor to me."
"A few years ago, after the God Valley Incident in West Blue, the Roger Pirates encountered Shiki's crew and shared drinks together. During that gathering, Shiki accidentally let slip that he too was 'Davy D.'"
"Davy?" A sharp light instantly flashed through Imu's eyes.
Now this made sense.
Imu simply could not accept that his carefully prepared plan had been ruined by someone he had never considered important.
But if the other party was a member of the D clan, then everything became understandable.
At the same time, this also gave Imu the perfect excuse to comfort himself.
It was all because that bastard Davy D. Shiki had hidden his true identity, secretly prepared for years, and used the information gap at the critical moment to destroy his flawless plan.
It was the fault of a scheming villain—
not because his plan itself had any flaws.
As for the matter of Shiki supposedly being a D, Saturn had actually fabricated the entire thing on the spot.
After all, nobody could test bloodlines or verify something like that.
Whoever controlled the narrative controlled the truth.
Could Shiki prove he wasn't a D?
And even if he somehow tried to prove it, would Imu-sama actually believe him?
At the same time, Saturn also used this opportunity to reveal Valthior's infiltration into the Roger Pirates, laying groundwork for future plans.
"That's correct," Saturn immediately continued in an extremely certain tone. "Considering that Shiki joined the Rocks Pirates very early on, remained close to Rocks the entire time, and was deeply trusted by him, while also becoming the only surviving core member to truly inherit Rocks' will after Rocks was eliminated..."
"He has repeatedly declared his intention to conquer the world. Combining all of that with this rumor, we have every reason to believe Shiki may truly be a criminal descendant of the D clan!"
These words immediately made Imu feel much better.
. As it turns out, I still have capable people at my disposal. Saturn is exceptionally competent. While the other Elders know absolutely nothing and remain entirely useless when questioned, Saturn is highly capable of sharing my burdens.
Not only had he uncovered the true identity of that damned dog Shiki, he had even secretly planted an undercover agent inside the Roger Pirates—the very crew trying to uncover the secrets of the Void Century.
What an incredibly far-sighted subordinate.
Excellent.
Truly excellent.
"Very good," Imu said with satisfaction. "It seems Shiki is indeed part of the D clan without question. In that case, add him as another light that must be extinguished."
As he spoke, his tone became noticeably more approving.
"Saturn, you have done very well. You understand how to share Mu's burdens. Your arrangement involving your descendant infiltrating the Roger Pirates was also handled excellently."
"Have you attempted to use this connection to extinguish Roger's light as well?"
"We did attempt it once, back at Whole Cake Island..." Saturn quickly brought up the matter.
"Is that so?" Imu said before waving it off. "Well, the Roger Pirates are indeed exceptionally powerful. Eliminating them was never going to be easy, even with intelligence provided by an infiltrator..."
However, midway through speaking, Imu suddenly fell into deep thought.
At this point, it was probably already too late to stop Roger's crew from reaching the final island.
But perhaps...
Could that hidden chess piece be used to turn the Roger Pirates' strength into a weapon for the World Government instead?
A sinister idea instantly emerged in Imu's mind.
A moment later, he slowly said,
"Do everything possible to help your descendant gain enough trust and prestige to seize control of the Roger Pirates. In the future, that power may be useful for purging the pirates of the New World."
"For example... Shiki."
"You mean for him to continue acting as a pirate?" Saturn cautiously asked
"That's right," Imu replied decisively. "Not only should he continue, he should do it properly. Ideally, he should gather all pirate forces together and become the supreme ruler of the New World pirates."
"When that time comes, will that force not be perfectly available for Mu's use?"
"And the New World, which has long remained outside our control, will eventually return beneath our rule once again."
From Imu's perspective, he never once doubted whether Saturn's descendant was loyal to the World Government.
What a joke.
A Celestial Dragon who wasn't loyal to the World Government?
If not loyal to the World Government, was he supposed to be loyal to pirates instead?
Just by looking at Saturn's utterly devoted attitude and his eagerness to ease Mu's burdens, it was obvious that the younger generation of his family had to be equally trustworthy and loyal beyond question.
And now, such a person had successfully infiltrated the Roger Pirates.
If he could eventually seize control of Roger's crew and then use that strength to conquer the New World from within the pirate world itself, eventually unifying all pirates under one banner—
then Imu would have nothing left to worry about.
At that point, the Marines would be his hounds.
The pirates would also belong to him.
One side righteous.
One side evil.
Yet both would ultimately become his power.
If that happened, who else but him could truly deserve the title of King of the World?
Seeing Imu-sama come up with such a twisted idea, Saturn was absolutely ecstatic inside.
Good.
Very good.
Now Valthior had essentially received official permission from Imu-sama himself to continue being a pirate.
Who would ever dare question my family's loyalty again?
From now on, whatever we wanted to do, we would no longer need to carefully hide it or waste effort inventing excuses.
If anyone had a problem with it, they could go ask Imu-sama personally.
After all, we were merely carrying out orders
Pure loyalty!
...
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