Chapter Cover Side Story: The Days of Kuja's Eastern Route – ??? New Treasure Island ???
Whether it was their looks, figures, or how faithfully they recreated the dance, the four girls before him could only be described as perfect. Hancock and Robin were perfection among perfection, and Liam thoroughly enjoyed the show.
When it was Seraphine's turn to appear, the music suddenly fell silent. The four women gracefully stepped aside. In the snowy ground at the center, countless flower petals burst upward and gathered together, forming a Snake Princess with golden hair, Tulip.
With "Flower Tulip" in the center, Hancock and Sandersonia on the left, Robin and Marigold on the right, the five of them completed the dance.
As the music came to an end, they finally noticed that Liam had neither applauded nor whistled for quite some time.
Turning around, they discovered that at some point, Liam had taken off his shirt. His upper body leaned slightly backward, his arms crossed horizontally before his chest, his expression unusually serious and focused. When his eyes met theirs, it seemed as though he was inviting them to dance.
The girls all shook their heads repeatedly. Even Robin declined with a smile.
Just then, an energetic New Treasure Island BGM began playing from inside the Stand's helmet.
The girls immediately scattered and fled.
...…
"Bian, stop!"
As the female Dwarf, her two pairs of transparent wings vibrating rapidly, led a swarm of bees to rescue her captured compatriots from the giant humans, she suddenly heard a familiar voice calling out from one of the giant's shoulders.
Startled, she looked carefully and discovered that standing on the giant human's shoulder and waving at her were the very people she had come to rescue, Leo and Wicca.
Bian, wearing a veil like a human noblewoman, called off the circling bees and hovered in front of Liam's group.
"Leo, Wicca, but they..."
Standing on little Rebecca's shoulder atop Liam's shoulder, Leo waved and laughed.
"They're good people!"
"Oh, they're good people? Then everything's fine."
Relieved, Bian waved happily, and the surrounding bees buzzed away.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Kyros muttered in surprise,
"A flying Dwarf..."
Bian lightly landed on Robin's shoulder.
"That's because I ate the Bug-Bug Fruit, Wasp Model. That's why I can fly."
Wicca, perched on Liam's other shoulder, said excitedly, "They're coming to Green Bit as guests!"
Bian worriedly asked,
"But can they cross the bridge? Those Fighting Fish..."
Just then, the group arrived at the enormous iron bridge they had spotted from afar long ago.
As they approached, Robin realized that the massive steel bridge was covered in rust and scars left by countless years of wind and rain. More importantly, the entrance was piled high with barricades, warning signs, sandbags, and other obstacles.
King Riku explained, "Ever since large numbers of Fighting Fish appeared in these waters two hundred years ago, the bridge became far too dangerous and was abandoned. No human has set foot on Green Bit's shores for a very, very long time..."
Robin, Scarlett, Kyros, little Rebecca, and the others gazed toward the far end of the long red bridge.
Leo, Wicca, and Bian smiled.
"That's right! We haven't had guests for hundreds of years!"
"Let's go. Time for an adventure."
Stepping over the barricades, Liam strode onto the red iron bridge.
Little Rebecca, sitting on his shoulder, raised both tiny fists and cheered.
"Shhh, don't be so loud!"
Wicca tugged at Liam's cheek from one side.
"You'll attract the Fighting Fish beneath the bridge. We Dwarves, are agile, but you giant humans… ah! A Fighting Fish is jumping over here!"
Before she could finish speaking, a black Fighting Fish nearly ten meters tall crashed toward the bridge like a small mountain. At that size, even the pair of massive horns atop its head measured over ten meters long. The bridge's iron framework offered no protection whatsoever.
Kyros wasn't carrying a weapon and was anxiously wondering what to do.
Then he saw Giorno casually grab one of the Fighting Fish's horns with his bare hand, despite the impact bending the bridge's steel frame, and immediately knock the giant fish unconscious with a single punch.
"We're having fish today." Liam turned back and announced to the group.
Robin smiled and nodded.
King Riku, Kyros, and Scarlett wore expressions that clearly said: "We already knew you were ridiculously strong, but seeing something this absurd in person is still shocking."
Only little Rebecca seemed not to fully understand what had happened because of how casually Liam handled it.
She happily raised both fists.
There would be fish to eat!
The journey continued without danger or incident.
They harvested three or four Fighting Fish along the way.
Leo and the others were astonished by Liam's strength, but soon happily went about collecting the prey.
Unfortunately, they had not brought fishing nets, so they could only carry one of the fish back together.
The Fighting Fish were enormous. A single one was enough to feed their entire tribe for more than a month, and certainly enough to entertain guests.
The group crossed the bridge and landed on the opposite shore.
Although the two islands sat right beside each other, Green Bit's ecology was completely different from Dressrosa's.
Gigantic plants flourished everywhere, towering into the clouds.
To Liam, it felt somewhat like arriving in Shandia on Skypiea from a manga.
Kyros, Scarlett, and King Riku were all astonished by the spectacular sight before them.
Little Rebecca was so captivated that stars seemed to shine in her eyes.
Leo proudly declared,
"This vast forest was planted by our people. There isn't a plant in the world we can't grow! Beneath these plants lies our Tontatta Kingdom."
Although Robin had seen many bizarre islands in the Calm Belt, she still viewed the Dwarves in a new light upon hearing that the entire forest had been cultivated by them.
The wasp-powered Dwarf Bian suddenly remembered something.
"Oh right, Leo. Did you get the dessert the Princess asked you to bring?"
"No!"
Leo looked distressed.
"When the giant humans in town were talking, I heard them say that the place producing that dessert was called something like the 'Devil... Devil Luo Royal Palace'?"
King Riku thought for a moment and corrected him.
"You mean the Mogaro Kingdom?"
"That's right!"
Leo nodded.
"They said it was attacked by pirates, so they haven't been shipping desserts anymore..."
Wicca comforted him.
"It's okay. Princess Mansherry is so kind. She'll forgive you."
Leo frowned.
"How is she kind? She's obviously spoiled and bad-tempered..."
"Oh my, oh my. Have guests arrived?"
In the underground Tontatta Kingdom beneath Green Bit, a Dwarf wearing a tiny crown and sporting a thick white beard greeted them while leaning on his staff.
"Welcome, welcome..."
Throughout the underground city, numerous Dwarves popped their heads out, smiling brightly as they welcomed Liam and the others.
Even the Dwarves' Princess, the sweet and adorable young girl Princess Mansherry, lifted the hem of her skirt and curtsied gracefully, wearing an expression of gentle elegance.
That was, until Leo told her that he had failed to bring back the dessert she had asked for.
She immediately changed expression on the spot, grabbing Leo by the cheeks and shouting through clenched teeth:
"What pirate attack? That's obviously just an excuse! Honestly! I only asked you to do one tiny thing, and you couldn't even manage that? I'm so disappointed in you!"
The princess who had seemed so refined a moment ago looked ready to start punching and kicking Leo.
Scarlett laughed.
"They have such a good relationship."
Everyone else was speechless.
Does that really count as a good relationship?
At that moment, King Riku spoke up.
"My friends, this is our first meeting..."
Ever since leaving the Corrida Colosseum, he had been wearing a headscarf to conceal his face, lest the citizens mistake the situation for their king being kidnapped by pirates and panic unnecessarily.
Now he removed the cloth covering his face and smiled at the white-bearded king of the Tontatta Kingdom.
"I am the King of Dressrosa, Riku Doldo III."
Liam set little Rebecca down from his shoulder.
Squatting down, Rebecca gently cupped Princess Mansherry in her hands and said innocently:
"Hello, my name is Rebecca."
"My name is Mansherry."
The Dwarf Princess gave an elegant curtsy in Rebecca's palm.
So she's only violent toward Leo...
Everyone silently reached the same conclusion.
"Another civilization with nearly a thousand years of history..."
After chatting with several Dwarves, Robin revealed a thoughtful expression.
The underground Dwarven Kingdom became especially lively thanks to the arrival of its giant human guests.
The Dwarves were naturally gifted with tremendous strength, incredible speed and agility, and exceptional talent for cultivating all kinds of plants. On top of that, they were pure-hearted, kind, and lovable by nature.
Combined with the abundance of natural resources in their surroundings, especially from the perspective of their tiny size, the underground kingdom could truly be called a perfect utopia.
The Dwarves entertained their guests warmly, and the two races got along wonderfully.
King Riku III of Dressrosa sat drinking fruit wine while chatting with the Tontatta King, the old man Gancho.
Rebecca quickly made friends with many Dwarves.
These were the first friends she had ever had.
Because of her parents' identities, she had always lived in the flower-field cottage, isolated from the crowds.
Kyros and Scarlett watched as Dwarf children gathered around their daughter.
Her adorable face overflowed with smiles, and her large eyes sparkled with a light they had never seen before.
The couple felt both joy and heartache.
Wiping at the corners of their eyes, they embraced one another.
"I've never seen that expression on your face before." Robin's teasing voice drifted into Liam's ears.
He withdrew his gaze from Rebecca, her parents, and her new Dwarf friends.
Curling his lips, he said: "This is a tough man's tender side. You get it?"
After saying it, he couldn't help laughing himself.
Perhaps only B.I.B. knew this, but among all the parts of the manga's New World saga that Liam had found less enjoyable, the one story that truly moved him was Rebecca and the Soldier.
After Donquixote Family officer Sugar used the Hobi Hobi no Mi (Toy-Toy Fruit) to turn Kyros into a toy soldier, his existence was erased from everyone's memories.
Even his wife, before her death, never knew that the talking toy soldier she was looking at was actually her husband.
The irony was painful.
Kyros had once wept and asked:
"Why won't everyone just forget about me?"
Yet in the future, those words became reality.
He became a toy soldier remembered by no one.
Even though he stayed beside his lonely daughter, protecting her as she grew up and teaching her swordsmanship, he could never reveal his identity.
Even if he told her the entire truth, she still could not remember him.
Robin's dark-green eyes moved close to Liam's face as she mischievously studied him.
"What are you trying to do, fairy girl?" Liam asked irritably as he reached out to push her away,
Or rather, not at all.
Instead, he pulled the soft and fragrant Robin into his arms and squeezed her lightly.
Raising an eyebrow, he asked:
"You seem like you have something else you want to say."
Robin chuckled softly in his embrace and tidied her slightly disheveled hair.
"There was something Leo mentioned just now that interested me."
She explained.
While searching in town for the specialty dessert from the Magara Kingdom that Princess Mansherry wanted, Leo had accidentally overheard several humans whispering among themselves as though discussing some secret matter.
Naturally, Leo listened in for a while.
He only remembered fragments of the conversation:
"history,"
"cultural relics,"
"antiques,"
"stones,"
"weapons,"
"tools,"
"power..."
Words like those.
In addition, he remembered them saying that Antique's ship would dock at 4:55 PM, would wait only five minutes, and would leave immediately afterward.
"That's actually a pretty detailed eavesdrop," Liam said speechlessly. "At this point Leo might as well have memorized the whole conversation."
Then he asked:
"Want to go take a look? What time is it now?"
Robin nodded.
Taking a pocket watch from her bag, she flipped it open.
"Four twenty-three in the afternoon. It's getting close to the docking time they mentioned."
"Oh, right. There's also that thing Sentomaru accidentally let slip..."
Robin put away the watch.
She was about to tell Liam about the so-called confidential information she had casually extracted from Sentomaru earlier when she noticed Liam frowning and looking toward the "ceiling" above them, the ground surface overhead.
While speaking with Robin, Liam had casually expanded his Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) and swept it across Dressrosa, especially the harbor-like areas where crowds were gathered.
What he found was an unexpected surprise.
Observation Haki truly lived up to its reputation.
You never knew what you'd discover until you used it.
Liam stared upward with a look of utter disbelief.
"...What the hell is wrong with this?"
"Why is he here again?"
(End Of This Chapter)
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