Just as Nami was explaining things to Zoro.
Down in the square, Pell also let out a mocking laugh, "Koza, not only are you an ungrateful bastard, you're also an idiot who doesn't even understand the most basic laws of the country!"
Pell tapped the duck's head with the flat of his sword and mocked him with almost exactly the same words Nami had used, "Who the hell do you think you are, trying to use your age to challenge our country's rightful princess?"
Having been publicly humiliated with basic legal knowledge, Koza's face instantly flushed red, like a piece of liver.
"Then... then there's reason as well!!"
Seeing that he couldn't win on legal grounds, Koza immediately shifted his argument and shouted in grief and outrage, "Who doesn't know about that filthy history from back then? It was that woman, Queen Dowager Titi, who secretly conspired with the World Government and had King Cobra killed, and then gave birth to you, you wretched bastard, in that disgusting way."
"Isn't that the greatest betrayal of Arabasta and King Cobra? How can someone born carrying such a sinful bloodline possibly be qualified to rule us?"
Those outrageous words echoed across the square, frightening many civilians into retreating, afraid that they might get caught up in the consequences of such suicidal accusations.
Yet in the face of an insult that would have made any royal family furious, Vivi merely turned her head slightly. Her beautiful face even showed clear boredom and annoyance.
"You say my mother conspired to kill the late King Cobra. Where's your evidence?"
Vivi looked at Koza as if he were an idiot, "The World Government already reached a clear conclusion regarding my birth. Back then, while my mother was recuperating on Drum Island, my father took good care of her, and the two fell in love. That's how I came to be. You can say that my mother betrayed Cobra, but where does the claim that she conspired to kill the late king come from?"
"As for Cobra's death..."
Vivi paused, her tone turning cold, "That tragedy happened in front of the entire public. He was killed by the legendary pirate Red Count."
"Koza, are you saying that Red Count, who could even defeat a Yonko, was a puppet controlled at will by my father or the World Government? If my father and the World Government were guilty, then their only fault was failing to stop him."
"But you're not someone without strength either. Given what happened back then, stopping someone at the peak of S-rank and preventing the aftermath from killing an ordinary person was almost impossible."
"What's more, Red Count's main target at the time was my father."
This argument was a dead end.
No matter how Koza answered, there was no way for him to explain what had happened back then.
Cobra wasn't the only victim of that incident. Rosse had been one as well.
Rosse and Red Count had fought each other, and in the end, killed one another. That was something everyone knew.
If Red Count had really been working for Rosse and the World Government, there was simply no explanation for why he would have done that.
Because even today, an S-rank powerhouse comparable to Red Count was worth far more than Cobra.
To have Red Count trade his life for Cobra's just to kill him, anyone with even a little sense would know that was impossible.
"Cobra's death was an accident. That's a fact known throughout the entire world," Vivi announced the conclusion from above.
"Then... then there's still something wrong with you! They made you so they could scheme against Arabasta!"
Koza was completely speechless. His mind went blank, and he could only make one last feeble rebuttal like a cornered thug, "They... they just want to use you to control Arabasta! They'll make Arabasta slowly lose its sovereignty! They'll turn us into the World Government's dogs! The country will only get worse and worse!"
Looking at Koza, who had been reduced to a cornered stray dog barking wildly, Vivi slowly shook her head, disappointment flashing in her eyes.
'This really is too boring.'
But for an ordinary person raised under ordinary education, this was already the limit.
Even someone like Kuro was rare.
Unfortunately, Arabasta had no one more suitable.
"Queen Vivi, I don't recognize you! And no one behind me will recognize you either!", Koza made his final declaration.
But both the content and the tone were so weak, even he doubted himself.
To Koza, this attempt to seize the throne was nothing more than being pushed onto the stage. He was relying entirely on a surge of passion and a few slogans fed to him by others.
The scene Koza had imagined was that he would deliver a speech for justice, the queen would be ashamed and surrender the throne, and the civilians would turn against her.
But he had no idea that on the political stage, victory had never been decided by who had the louder voice.
"Sigh!"
Vivi let out a long sigh.
The last trace of amusement in her noble eyes disappeared completely, leaving behind absolute coldness, as if she were looking at a dead thing.
"Koza, you've really disappointed me. How boring. This is simply too boring."
Vivi raised her chin slightly and spoke softly, "Whether you're trying to buy time for your accomplices on the other side, or trying to use your self-righteous theories to incite more people to follow you to their deaths, your performance just now was an absolute failure."
Under the bewildered gazes of tens of thousands of people.
This daughter of Rosse slowly raised her right hand.
She pressed her index and middle fingers together and pointed them toward Koza from afar.
A soft yet oppressive voice rang out across the square, "Come. Let me teach you."
The instant he heard those words, Koza's heart clenched.
An ominous feeling beyond words instantly froze the blood in his entire body.
Before he could react, a miracle, or rather... a divine miracle. descended.
Boom!
A pure, dazzling golden light erupted from Vivi's body without warning and shot straight into the sky.
The light was not blinding. Instead, it carried a warmth and holiness that made people want to bow down and worship.
Then, within Koza's shrinking pupils, under the horrified gazes of tens of thousands of people, eight pairs of illusory wings slowly spread open behind Vivi, formed entirely from pure holy light. Amid the countless feathers of light drifting down, a gigantic golden divine figure, a hundred metres tall, took shape in the sky above Vivi.
The divine figure had exactly the same appearance as Vivi, but its enormous eyes held an extreme compassion that looked down upon all living things without the slightest emotional fluctuation.
The divine figure held both hands forward, carrying an enormous golden set of scales.
However, the scales were not balanced at this moment. The left pan had sunk heavily to the bottom, releasing a rumble that shook the soul.
The next second, Vivi's holy and ethereal voice, carrying absolute authority, did not travel through the air. Instead, it ignored every physical barrier and rang directly throughout all of Arabasta.
From the bustling royal capital to remote oases, from cities above ground to underground tombs.
The voice simultaneously exploded deep within the soul of every person: "People of Arabasta, you were born and raised on this land. From birth, you were meant to be the masters of this land."
"Today, someone has questioned the royal authority."
"I, Jaygarcia Vivi, am not the daughter of the late King Cobra, but the daughter of Jaygarcia Rosse, the world's supreme ruler. Yet I believe that in the ten years since I took control of Arabasta's royal authority, I have brought widespread benefits to the people and have never once wronged this desert."
"But since Minister Koza, who carries the late king's bloodline, has questioned my legitimacy, I hereby acknowledge that challenge."
The golden divine figure lowered its head slightly, its grand voice carrying the coldness of judgment over all, "Therefore, today, I hereby make this declaration to the entire nation."
"All native people of Arabasta, that is, the first-class citizens of this land, are qualified to participate in this judgment of the royal authority."
"Those who believe that I am worthy of wearing the crown of Arabasta, raise your right hands and point them toward the sky."
This vast and mighty divine voice was like a spiritual storm sweeping across the entire country.
Not only did civilians resting inside their homes walk into the streets in shock, even the group that was sneaking into the underground royal tomb came to a stop under this voice that struck directly at their souls.
In the dark underground corridor, the torchlight flickered.
Luffy, who had been swaggering along at the very front, stopped.
Behind him, Shanks and Juste, who had openly followed them in to protect Luffy, instantly looked extremely grim.
Crocodile bit through the cigar in his mouth, the veins on his forehead bulging.
There was a piece of knowledge on the sea that wasn't exactly common knowledge.
On this sea, if someone could send their voice into your mind from a great distance, it also meant that their Observation Haki had already locked onto you.
Clearly, Vivi's Observation Haki, or rather her special ability, could cover the entire country and precisely lock onto every living being on this land.
"Damn it!", Shanks's one arm suddenly gripped the hilt at his waist, his expression dark enough to drip water, "That girl's perception has reached this insane level. There's definitely a trap prepared for us down here."
Under this suffocating and terrifying reality, Robin, who had always been taciturn, was instead the calmest of them all.
She did not even look up at the unknown thickness of earth above them. She simply continued walking forward with an expressionless face, "Keep going. Find the side hall Koza mentioned that contains the Poneglyph."
"Are you crazy?", Shanks shouted in a low voice, "Since this is already a dead end they've seen through, continuing inside is just walking into a trap."
Robin stopped and slightly turned her head. Her sea-blue eyes held a kind of heartbreaking clarity and emptiness.
"So what?"
Robin's reply was extremely soft, "If it's a trap, then we won't go? If we don't move forward, do we still have any other chances?"
One sentence left Shanks completely silent.
That's right. Even if they knew that the goddess was standing above the royal capital, watching them like insects in a glass jar, what could they do?
Their current situation and the overall state of the world had already become as bad as they could possibly be, as hopeless as they could possibly be.
This possible clue to an Ancient Weapon was already the last lifeline left in this world.
Even knowing it meant death, they could only hold on to it desperately.
"Keep moving forward!"
Shanks took a deep breath, then gritted his teeth, the resolve of a conqueror burning in his eyes once again.
"Let's go, let's go! Pirate King! One Piece!"
Luffy didn't understand any of these twists and turns, but instinctively knew that if there really was a secret hidden here that could bring him closer to becoming the Pirate King, then even if there were blades and flames ahead, he would charge straight in.
"Let's go. We'll see what happens first. At least, dying in this era won't be too boring."
Juste spoke in a low voice, clenching his scarred iron fist.
The group continued deeper into the unknown darkness, each carrying their own heavy thoughts.
———
The scene shifted back to the central square of the royal capital.
As Vivi's grand, godlike words fell, all of Arabasta had completely erupted.
This was the first time in these ten years that Vivi had revealed such godlike power without hiding anything in front of tens of millions of citizens.
In the square, the tens of thousands of rebel civilians who had just been shouting behind Koza about reclaiming their rightful legitimacy now looked up at the golden divine figure that covered the sky. Feeling the pressure that made their very souls tremble, most of them had already lost all strength in their legs and dropped to their knees one after another. Some didn't even dare raise their heads.
Koza stood where he was, his entire body rigid.
He desperately tried to stop himself from trembling, but his uncooperative throat kept swallowing.
It was impossible to say that he wasn't afraid of this unknown yet absolutely destructive power.
But in the face of overwhelming fear, Koza's brainwashed idealism took over.
Compared with dying immediately, he cared more about, and was more afraid of, seeing the ideal he had always pursued, that the country should be returned to the people of Arabasta, destroyed in this way.
"Don't listen to her!"
Koza came back to his senses. Looking at the trembling civilians around him, his eyes were bloodshot as he shouted like a desperate beast trapped in a cage, "This isn't a fair judgment at all! She's using absolute force and authority to force you! She's using this divine miracle to intimidate you into submission!"
Koza turned his head and glared at Vivi on the royal carriage, "You despicable woman! No one would dare say no under the Reaper's scythe! Don't raise your hands, everyone! This is a conspiracy!"
Yet faced with Koza's hysterical accusations, Vivi merely folded away the wings of light behind her.
Her condescending gaze carried deep pity, "Koza, you think too cheaply of a true god."
Vivi's voice was cool and carried a magnetic quality, "I don't need any threats, nor do I need false submission. My scales weigh only the weight of the soul."
She slowly raised her hand and pointed at Koza, "For everyone who raises that hand, I can use my ability to ensure that their choice at this moment is absolutely their true will from the depths of their souls, without the slightest trace of fear or coercion."
"If you don't believe me, Minister Koza, you can try it right now and see whether you can raise your right hand just to save your life."
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