Creak.
The castle door opened, and a gust of wind and snow rushed in. Leaning against the doorway with a bottle in hand, Dr. Kureha asked,
"So, what exactly is the secret to immortality? You can tell me now, right?"
Her tone sounded casual, but her eyes never left Ares for a second, waiting for his answer.
Even Olvia, still feeling weak, was hiding behind the door with only her little head peeking out.
She wanted to know the secret of immortality too.
As an archaeologist, she had read many stories in the Library of Ohara about immortality and eternal youth.
Or rather, myths.
None of them had ever been proven.
They had remained legends.
Ares smiled.
"The first method is naturally Pure Gold."
"Pure Gold?"
"Pure Gold!"
Two completely different reactions rang out at once. Dr. Kureha looked utterly confused, while the well-read Olvia clearly knew the legend of Pure Gold.
Dr. Kureha turned to look at Olvia, and Olvia explained, "Pure Gold is a special metal said to exist only in legends. It can extend a person's lifespan. According to the stories, the value of Pure Gold is enough to buy all the treasure in the world."
She immediately looked at Ares with burning eyes and asked, "Ares, does Pure Gold really exist somewhere in the seas?"
"Of course."
The moment she got a definite answer, Olvia swallowed hard, thoroughly shaken.
"I never thought Pure Gold actually existed. As long as you find it, you can extend your lifespan..."
At the side, Dr. Kureha still could not quite process it all. She quickly asked, "Then what is the other method?"
"You both know that the World Government placed a bounty of five billion berries on the Op-Op Fruit, right?"
Olvia's eyes widened, and a thoughtful look crossed her face.
"Wait... are you saying the Op-Op Fruit can make someone immortal?"
Ares nodded.
"That's right. The price is that after the user performs the Perennial Youth Operation on someone, the user dies."
"Hiss!"
Dr. Kureha sucked in a sharp breath.
"So the Op-Op Fruit hides a secret this enormous. No wonder the World Government was willing to place a ridiculous bounty of five billion berries on it."
"So that fruit can grant immortality... but the price of death is simply too cruel."
Olvia said, "Cruel? The World Government kills countless slaves every year. They would never care about someone else's life."
Now the two of them finally understood why the World Government valued the Op-Op Fruit so highly.
After all, on this sea, an ordinary Devil Fruit was only worth around a hundred million berries. Even some rare or especially powerful ones...
would never reach something as outrageous as the Op-Op Fruit.
A bounty of five billion.
That was one and a half billion more than even Ares' bounty.
Olvia spoke again, "If the World Government offered that bounty and already knew the secret of immortality, that means..."
"There must be immortals within the World Government."
In an instant, her face changed drastically.
That meant there were definitely ageless beings within the World Government.
Olvia's expression turned fearful, and her voice trembled.
"They know this secret, and they've been searching for that fruit all this time. With the power of the World Government, they would absolutely do everything possible to obtain it..."
"They've ruled the world for eight hundred years. There are probably... probably more than one immortal among them."
Hearing that, even Dr. Kureha was deeply shaken. Her hand loosened, and the bottle slipped from her fingers with a crack, shattering on the ground and spilling liquor everywhere.
She drew a deep breath.
"The World Government has ruled this world for centuries. Their methods are clearly cruel, bloody, and utterly ruthless, yet the number of kingdoms allied with them has not decreased. It has continued to grow..."
It was not hard to imagine that the World Government must possess some immense and mysterious power that kept their rule...
as stable as a mountain.
And with the Marines acting as the massive weapon that upheld that rule...
Ares smiled.
"That's all I know. Those two methods can grant immortality. Of course, as a doctor, Dr. Kureha, if you were somehow able to study the giants and figure out how to increase lifespan..."
"..."
Dr. Kureha silently turned around and walked back inside to start cleaning up the shattered glass and spilled liquor.
Ares turned to the still-dazed Olvia.
"Olvia, how much longer did Dr. Kureha say it'll take for you to recover?"
"By tomorrow, I should be mostly fine."
Olvia snapped back to herself, though her thoughts were still sluggish. The shock to her mind was enormous.
She had not fully recovered from it yet.
Ares reminded her, "Do not spread those secrets around. If you do, it'll stir up a bloody storm."
"You should go back inside and rest. Tell Dr. Kureha to pack her things. Tomorrow, we leave together."
Still, he was not too worried. Before long, Olvia and Crocus would both be arriving in Wano.
That was his territory.
Ares returned to training in the icy wilderness, not relaxing for even a moment.
He could not help but laugh at himself inwardly.
"I only planned to bring Olvia with me at first. Now the number of people I'm taking back just keeps growing. Still, every one of them can help Wano develop faster. They're all genuinely useful talents..."
"Simply making Wano's military stronger and pushing militarization alone won't be enough. Everything else has to develop too."
"That's the only way to build a truly powerful nation."
When he thought of nations, he naturally thought of Alabasta. It had tens of millions of people and a standing army of six hundred thousand.
And yet...
Crocodile still managed to drag the entire country into misery.
That proved one thing. Numbers alone meant nothing without quality.
But Wano was different.
Wano produced samurai, and powerful samurai were not rare.
And now that he had obtained the Munch-Munch Fruit, weapons and armor forged from special metals would make the legions under his command even stronger.
A few hours later, Ares stopped training and, as promised, went to bring Crocus back. As for Hiriluk, once he got paid, he immediately prepared to head into town and enjoy himself.
Living by the creed of drink today, worry tomorrow.
Ares had absolutely no intention of recruiting a quack doctor with dreams but no real ability like Hiriluk.
Crocus piled bag after bag onto the Flame Clouds and said with a grin, "Ares, Drum Kingdom truly deserves its reputation as a medical kingdom. A lot of these medical books opened my eyes. Once I study them, my medical skills are definitely going to improve a lot!"
"One day, I'll catch up to Dr. Kureha!"
Ares laughed.
"These books are treasures. Guard them carefully. Once we get back, we'll need people to reproduce copies of them."
With this, Wano's medical future would no longer be something he needed to worry about.
With the witch doctor Dr. Kureha and Crocus working together...
it would only be a matter of time before Wano became a medical powerhouse.
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