The steady rattle of the carriage wheels filled the cramped space, the rhythm so clear that any stray sound felt intrusive. Inside, the silence was tight enough to snap.
At some point, a fine sheen of cold sweat had broken out on Igaram's forehead, but he didn't even dare raise a hand to wipe it away.
Darren, a faint smile on his lips, slowly drew on his cigar. Smoke curled lazily in the carriage, his every motion unhurried as he waited with practiced patience.
Judging from his impression of Cobra in the "original story," the king wasn't much of a politician, but he was undeniably a good ruler.
And a king like that—one who truly cared for his people—would never turn down something that was unambiguously good for Alabasta.
What Darren had offered was nothing less than a guaranteed safety net for the entire kingdom. A final fallback, if the worst ever came.
"…It is, indeed, a very advantageous bargain."
After a long silence, Cobra finally let out a deep sigh and raised his head, his eyes locking onto Darren's.
"Rogers Darren," he said quietly, "you really are a devil."
"But tell me—what makes you think I would trust your promises on nothing but your word?"
Darren chuckled softly. "You've misunderstood me, Your Majesty Cobra."
"You don't trust me, Rogers Darren. You don't trust the World Government. And you don't trust the Gorosei."
"That's exactly why you didn't immediately call the Holy Land guards the moment you saw me in this carriage."
He smiled faintly.
"Deep down, you already know they cannot be trusted. Isn't that right?"
Cobra fell silent.
Seeing his reaction, Igaram opened his mouth, urgency written all over his face, as if he wanted to say something. But Cobra raised a hand, his hoarse voice cutting him off.
"Igaram, you are not to take part in this conversation with Darren-san."
"There are some secrets that would be too dangerous for you to know."
Igaram froze for a moment, then bowed stiffly.
"As you command, Your Majesty."
Once he had stepped out of the carriage compartment, Cobra turned back to Darren and spoke slowly.
"My knowledge of the World Government's secrets is extremely limited… But, Darren-boy, since you've shown me your sincerity, I'll tell you everything that I do know."
Darren smiled faintly. "Then I'll accept it, Your Majesty."
"No. As you said yourself, this is a transaction."
Cobra shook his head. "There's no need for thanks in a deal. I only hope that, if the Alabasta Kingdom or the Nefertari family ever faces a calamity, you'll honor your promise."
Darren nodded. "Relax. I keep my word."
Reassured, Cobra dipped his head slightly, fell silent for a moment, then began to speak with deliberate care.
"As I said earlier, I know nothing of the World Government's true secrets. Eight hundred years of history have eroded too many traces. If the Government does hold some hidden trump card or overwhelming power, it lies far beyond my reach."
"So what I can tell you," he continued, "are the secrets of the Nefertari family."
"As you already know, our ancestor, Queen Lily, was one of the twenty monarchs who founded the World Government. But for reasons we still don't fully understand, she declined to move to the Holy Land with the other nineteen kings… and refused to become a Celestial Dragon."
Darren exhaled a plume of smoke. "I've heard as much."
"Yes, but contrary to what you assumed earlier, our ancestors did not stay behind in order to safeguard the Ancient Weapon Pluton."
Cobra nodded. "Queen Lily made her decision for entirely different reasons."
"And most importantly—Queen Lily didn't remain in Alabasta. She entrusted the throne to her younger brother… and then vanished."
"Oh?" Darren's interest sharpened, his brows lifting slightly.
This Queen Lily was beginning to sound more and more interesting.
Refusing to become a Celestial Dragon was one thing. Remaining as the absolute monarch of Alabasta, ruling an ancient desert kingdom, might have been far more appealing than clustering with other nobles atop the Red Line.
But to walk away from her own throne and simply disappear… that took a special kind of resolve.
If she were truly so "detached," though—why had she joined forces with nineteen other kings to overthrow the supposed great kingdom atop the Red Line and help found the World Government in the first place?
"The exact reasons are unknown—even to me, as a descendant of the Nefertari line," Cobra went on.
"However, within our family, there is a letter that has been passed down. A letter Queen Lily herself left behind."
Darren's eyes brightened with curiosity. "And what does it say?"
Cobra shook his head. "The letter is written in an ancient script. The World Government forbids all research into such languages."
"After I ascended the throne, I spent many years and no small effort to learn a fragment of that script. In the end, I could only decipher part of the letter."
He paused, then said in a low, solemn voice:
"From what I could read, the gist is that all of the true secrets are hidden within the Poneglyphs… Beyond that, the letter repeats a single word, again and again."
"What word?" Darren asked.
Cobra drew a deep breath, his voice dropping further.
"D."
He straightened, his expression grave, and recited the one line that had burned itself into his memory:
"'Raise the flag of dawn, Clan of D…!' That is all I know."
The flag of dawn…
Darren frowned slightly.
On the surface, Cobra's words fell neatly in line with all the familiar prophecies and talk about the "Clan of D"—the sort of vague doom and destiny that drifted all through the seas.
What he hadn't expected was this new angle on the meaning of the letter.
D. Dawn.
But before he could follow that thread too far, Cobra continued.
"All of that is secondary…"
He paused to steady his breathing, then went on, voice weighted with significance.
"What truly shocked me was the name at the bottom of that letter."
His eyes locked hard on Darren's as he enunciated each word:
"The name signed there is—Nefertari D. Lily."
Darren froze.
One of the twenty kings who founded the World Government… had been a bearer of D?
But the people of D were supposed to be the Celestial Dragons' mortal enemies—the natural enemies of "Gods."
Could it be…?
Darren's gaze toward Cobra turned subtly strange.
Your Queen Lily… sounded suspiciously like a double agent.
To be continued...