Under Vice Admiral Dalmatian's lead, the three ships docked one after another.
King Outlook II of the Goa Kingdom and Princess Consort Carly Strand, surrounded by their guards, could not wait to get off the ship. They hurried toward the Bubble Cable Car at Red Port as if they were fleeing for their lives.
The sight left the nearby reporters, civilians, and merchants stunned for a moment, but they quickly understood what was going on.
No one knew who first shouted the name "Kingdom of Flevance," but almost everyone scattered as if avoiding a plague.
Of course, that did not include Morgans. After all, the World Economic News Agency had played its part in smearing Perlead Disease, a chronic heavy-metal poisoning, as a terrifying infectious disease.
Watching King Philock VII of the Kingdom of Flevance and King Cobra of the Kingdom of Alabasta slowly descend from the deck, Morgans seemed to remember something and turned to the woman in the white suit beside him.
"Stussy, has CP0 heard about this? Traces of Sword Wind Swordsman Killmonger Erik from the Sky Pirates have appeared in the Kingdom of Flevance..."
With Stussy wearing a mask, no one could see her expression.
"That doesn't seem to have anything to do with me. My mission is only to keep an eye on you, Morgans..."
"Don't be so dull, Stussy. That's no attitude to have when you're asking someone for a favor..."
"Hahaha. Let's talk about that after the Reverie is over..."
...
Red Port, at the Bubble Cable Car boarding area.
With the arrival of the Kingdom of Flevance's delegation, the royals from the surrounding kingdoms all kept their distance.
"Hurry, let me go up first! I don't want to catch an infectious disease and die!"
"Ah... I feel like I can't breathe. The air is poisoned..."
The words of these nobles left the Marines in charge of the Bubble Cable Car both embarrassed and frightened.
Everyone scrambled to board the cable car.
At that moment, a Marine slowly walked over to Philock VII and said with great awkwardness, "I'm sorry, King Philock VII. Due to the limit on the number of passengers, could you and your party wait for the next car? That way, you won't have to squeeze in with the others either..."
Philock VII gave the Marine an unfriendly look, because from beginning to end, the Marine had been holding his breath while speaking, trying his best not to inhale.
But Philock VII did not say anything more. Instead, he felt faintly excited inside, and he grew even more eager for what was coming next.
"No problem."
The Marine was delighted. Then, looking at the large group of guards behind Philock VII, he continued, "There's one more thing. For security reasons, King Philock VII, you may only bring two guards up to the Holy Land Mary Geoise. Rest assured, our people will arrange lodging for the rest."
Philock VII pointed behind him.
"You two, come with me."
But then the Marine looked at the two guards, whose entire bodies were wrapped in iron armor, with helmets covering their heads and only their eyes visible, and said awkwardly, "Um, could the two of them remove their helmets? We need to verify their identities..."
"Hey, kid. Are you suspecting me?"
Philock VII suddenly looked angry, though whether it was real or not was hard to tell.
The Marine, however, did not back down. He only said with some embarrassment, "I'm sorry, King Philock VII. This is our duty..."
"Hmph! You two, get over there. The Marine officer suspects you of being spies. But if you want to check, go ahead. Just don't blame me if you catch something because of it..."
"!!!"
The Marine, who had just been about to step forward and verify their identities, instantly froze in fear when he heard that.
"Th-this..."
After thinking it over, he finally said, "Um, I'm sorry, King Philock VII. There's no problem on our end. I'll have someone arrange things for your guards."
With that, he hurried away as if fleeing.
Philock VII snorted coldly.
The surrounding royals said nothing when they saw this. After all, they were used to living arrogantly and did not take such low-ranking Marines seriously at all. On the contrary, when they saw Philock VII lose face because of a mere Marine, mocking smiles appeared on their faces.
In this way, almost half an hour passed before the next Bubble Cable Car descended.
The three people from the Kingdom of Flevance boarded that car alone.
The royals waiting behind them would rather die than share a car with anyone from the Kingdom of Flevance.
This was treatment even the fish-men of the Ryugu Kingdom, who had just been regarded as monsters, had not received.
Inside the empty Bubble Cable Car, as it slowly rose under the buoyant force of the floating bubbles and the pull of the cables, Philock VII never stopped cursing.
As the king of a human kingdom, he was actually being treated as worse than those monster fish-men.
This was utter humiliation.
Yemu said nothing. Through the slit in his helmet, he watched the bubble-wrapped cable car gradually climb to more than ten thousand meters, and thoughts stirred in his mind.
"So that's how it is. In other words, there really is a massive Eve Tree hidden inside the Red Line where the Holy Land Mary Geoise stands?"
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why the bubbles could still be used at such a height.
And judging from the altitude, it had to be at least around twenty thousand meters.
After all, more than three months had passed, and the Rainbow Treasure Tree in Yemu's Rainbow Nation had grown to less than five hundred meters tall.
"Interesting..."
Amid Philock VII's curses, a little over ten minutes passed.
As the Bubble Cable Car reached the exit, everyone stepped off and passed through a long flight of stairs lined on both sides with statues representing the twenty kings who had once founded the World Government. At last, the Holy Land Mary Geoise, beautiful as a realm from a dream, appeared before them.
...
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Inside the Fleet Admiral's office.
As his subordinate reported, Fleet Admiral Sengoku kept nodding.
"So that means everyone will be here today?"
"Yes. Among the World Government's 134 Member Nations, the kings of the fifty representative nations, including the Fish-Man Kingdom of Fish-Man Island, have already gone up to the Holy Land Mary Geoise..."
"Mm."
Sengoku nodded in satisfaction, then asked, "Has anything unusual happened?"
"Well... nothing major. Aside from the commotion caused by the arrival of the Fish-Man Kingdom of Fish-Man Island, there was only Philock VII of the Kingdom of Flevance..."
His subordinate briefly explained what had happened that day, including the incident where the Marines failed to inspect the guards because they were worried about infection.
"The Kingdom of Flevance..."
The name gave Sengoku another headache.
There were some things one only learned after becoming Fleet Admiral.
For example, the existence of the Kingdom of Flevance, and the truth behind the so-called infectious disease.
More than ten days earlier, Dalmatian had also mentioned Philock VII's request in his report.
But at this moment, Sengoku truly could not spare the attention for it.
For him right now, the most important things were the smooth execution of the World Military Draft and the Reverie.
Of course, there was one other matter that had kept him deeply worried for the past three months.
"Have we still found no trace of Fire Dragon Yemu of the Sky Pirates?"