The dim passage looked less like a route to survival and more like a stagnant pool. Fish-Men could carve underwater passages, but they were hardly environmental designers.
Fishman Island had the light of Eve illuminating the deep sea, and even in places beyond Eve’s reach, they could understand the underwater environment through sensing water currents.
As a result, they never considered such things when excavating tunnels.
“This is Bubbly Coral. It stores a large amount of air and can be used like an oxygen tank. Follow this tunnel and swim outward. Once you reach the outside, someone will naturally be there to receive you.”
Near Fishman Island, Bubbly Coral could directly generate durable bubbles that could be used as small submersibles.
But this place was too far from Fishman Island, or rather, too far from Eve. Whether it was the bubbles made from Yarukiman Mangrove resin or those produced by Bubbly Coral, the result was the same.
In places too far from Eve, durable bubbles simply could not form. The gas inside could only be used as an oxygen supply.
“Those books… they are treasures of the world’s culture. We can’t let them be destroyed like this. The lake may be able to protect some of them, but…”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I have my own way of dealing with it. What you need to do now is leave this place as quickly as possible.”
Although most of them were historical documents, they truly held extraordinary significance. After all, the highest level of technology in this sea was ancient technology.
Who knew what might be unearthed through archaeology?
Storing those things within the Blood River was no difficult task. For Nereus, taking them away was merely a matter of convenience.
Though it was only a temporary passage, it was actually quite spacious. If it were too narrow and someone got stuck, that would be troublesome.
After briefly explaining how to use the Bubbly Coral and watching the last person enter the tunnel, Nereus had Big Pan follow behind and gradually seal the entrance.
Even if someone sliced this island apart for examination in the future, they would never discover that a tunnel had once existed here.
Humans could not swim as fast as Fish-Men. Even with a fixed tunnel to follow, their progress was slow. Combined with the constant tremors from the bombardment above, their fear only continued to grow.
Their decision to trust Nereus was not because they had great faith in him, but because they had no other choice.
The books they wished to protect had already been thrown into the great lake. The rest was left to fate. If they did not want to die beneath the artillery barrage of the Buster Call, all they could do was take this chance.
Meanwhile, in Ohara above, Nico Robin successfully escaped the island with Saul’s assistance and Kuzan’s deliberate leniency, beginning her life on the run.
Kuzan himself had no objection to carrying out the Buster Call. No matter how one looked at it, the people of this island had violated the World Government’s laws in a legal sense.
Even if the World Government had effectively entrapped Ohara into committing the crime, that fact could not be changed.
What Kuzan could not accept, however, was his colleague Sakazuki ordering the evacuation ship to be shelled in order to eliminate every possible threat.
Of course, if Sakazuki knew that even after doing all that, the Five Elders would still consider him incompetent in the future for letting Nico Robin escape, he would probably find that hard to accept as well.
The discord between ice and magma had already begun at this moment. Among those who remained on the island, Saul was the only survivor. Although Kuzan had frozen him solid, he had not shattered the ice.
As long as the ice melted, the person trapped within could still be saved. Because Saul was near the edge of the island and a warship was stationed nearby, the Buster Call’s bombardment did not destroy his ice sculpture.
After the World Government forces departed from the island that had been reduced to ruins, Saul remained upon the scorched land, gradually melting the frost covering his body by borrowing the power of the sunlight.
……
After a long journey, the group left Ohara through the underwater passage. The silt kicked up by multiple people swimming through the tunnel made it incredibly murky.
Combined with the silt already mixed into the seawater, they could barely keep their eyes open.
The only thing they could rely on was the guide rope left behind when the tunnel had been excavated.
As they swam farther away, the icy seawater around them suddenly became warm, and its flow slowed considerably.
From a god’s-eye view, one would see that the scholars were currently inside the mouth of a gigantic pelican-like creature. Although its head resembled a pelican’s, its body was that of a standard Sea Beast—a characteristic feature of Sea Kings.
Occasionally borrowing the strength of one or two Sea Kings, rather than controlling large numbers of them, was not the sort of thing that attracted attention.
Aside from the super-large Sea Kings, which carried a different significance, ordinary Sea Kings were nothing more than common maritime threats in the eyes of most people.
“Medic, treat Professor Clover’s wound.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
If the average physical constitution of people in this world were not so absurd, someone Clover’s age should have bled to death long ago from a gunshot wound to the chest. Yet here he was, after carrying who knew how many books and then going for a long swim, still not even panting heavily.
Perhaps it had something to do with the physique he had built through training in his younger years.
“Fish-Men… Merfolk… You’re from Fishman Island. They call you ‘Your Majesty’… You’re that king of the Ryugu Kingdom… Ugh…”
“Show some respect when you speak, old man. If not for His Majesty Nereus, fools like you would already be dead!”
The medic suddenly increased the pressure of his hands, causing a fresh wave of pain to erupt from the wound that had begun to go numb.
“My apologies… I should have realized it sooner. Many of the documents you brought back then were about ancient Fishman Island, and there was also that letter of apology written by Joy Boy to the Mermaid Princess…”
“Your Majesty, his pulse is stable. This isn’t a final burst of vitality. His physical condition is quite good.”
While Clover was muttering about these matters, the medic leaned close to Nereus and quietly reported his diagnosis.
“You brought us out here… because you have your own objective as well, don’t you? Looking for the Ancient Weapons?”
Hearing Clover utter the words “Ancient Weapons,” Nereus felt a slight headache. These scholars might have put all their intelligence points into researching history.
To bring up those words at a time like this, they truly weren’t afraid that he might decide to silence them all.
“Looks like you really did discover something unusual while studying those Poneglyphs. But has anyone ever told you that what you’re doing is incredibly stupid?
“If you wanted to conduct research, then just conduct it in secret. Why make Ohara into a holy land of history? Were you that afraid the World Government wouldn’t notice what you were doing?”
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