A Star Falling into the Desert
When Pell burst through the study window, Cobra was already standing up.
"What happened."
"CP0." Pell returned to human form, his voice panting.
"At least three people. Chaka stopped one in the garden, but I haven't confirmed the locations of the other two."
Vivi's fingers gripped the armrests of the chair tightly.
What is CP0 doing here?
"Princess, there is no time to explain." Pell extended his hand.
Please follow me to the underground passage.
"I'm not leaving," Vivi, looking at her father.
Cobra walked up to his daughter, reached out his hands, and placed them on her shoulders.
His hands were large, covering Vivi's entire shoulder; his fingers applied pressure gently but steadily.
"Vivi."
"Father, I've already said that."
"Let me finish," Cobra said in a low voice, but every word was enunciated clearly.
"The Sky Screen reveals the Nefertari Family's uniqueness; we are the only family among the twenty first kings that did not become Celestial Dragons."
"This means that our ancestors knew something they shouldn't have known, so they chose to stay."
"The Five Elders sent CP0 here tonight to destroy any information our family might possess before the list of the Twenty Kingdoms Alliance is released in the Sky Screen."
His fingers gently squeezed Vivi's shoulder.
"If the information is contained in an object, they will take it away."
"If the carrier of information is a person."
Cobra stopped there.
Vivi understood the unspoken second half of her father's sentence.
Her hand covered Cobra's hand; her fingers were cold, but not trembling.
"Father, you intend to stay."
"I plan to talk to them." Cobra's lips curved into a very faint smile, so faint that it was almost invisible under the study light.
"I am the king, and it is my duty to negotiate face-to-face with the envoys of the World Government."
"This is not negotiation." Vivi's voice steadied, but there was something swelling beneath the surface, a suppressed tension.
This is an assassination.
"So you're leaving." Cobra removed his hand from his daughter's shoulder.
"Alabasta needs a living heir more than a living king."
Pell stood by the window, his ears catching the clanging of metal outside—the sound of Chaka's knife clashing against something hard.
The frequency of collisions is increasing.
Chaka is going all out.
This means he is under increasing pressure.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness the Princess," Pell's voice was a notch more urgent than before.
"Chaka won't last much longer."
Cobra glanced at Pell, then lowered his head and took a thin chain from his neck.
A bronze key hung from a thin chain; its color had darkened, and the patina on its surface had accumulated into a fine, intricate pattern. This key was far older than Cobra himself.
"This is something passed down through generations of the Nefertari Family." He placed the key in Vivi's hand.
"I don't know what it opens, my father doesn't know, and neither does his father."
All I know is that it must be passed down.
"If one day the secrets of the Nefertari Family are Sky Screen, perhaps you will know where the key corresponds to the lock."
Vivi grasped the key; the warmth of the bronze body mingled with the warmth of her father's hand.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but Cobra pressed his finger to her lips.
"Walk."
"Pell, take her away."
Pell transformed into a falcon, its enormous wings unfurling in the study, its sharp talons reaching for Vivi.
Vivi did not struggle.
She let Pell's claws grip her shoulders, and as she was lifted up, she turned back to look at her father one last time.
Cobra stood under the study light, one hand on the table, his posture upright.
His lips moved slightly.
Vivi read the lip movements correctly.
Take good care of this country for me.
Then Pell flapped his wings, flew through the study window, and carried Vivi into the night, swooping down towards the underground entrance of the Royal Palace.
Cobra looked out the window at the night sky. Pell's figure became a tiny dot in the moonlight and quickly disappeared behind the outline of the Royal Palace.
He closed the window.
Then he turned around and faced the study door.
Footsteps could be heard in the hallway outside the door.
It's very light and very stable.
The spacing is almost perfectly consistent.
Cobra sat back down in his chair, pushed the now-cold cup of tea aside, and picked up the hot cup of tea that Vivi had just brought him.
He took a sip.
The tea is still hot.
The door opened.
A white mask appeared in the doorway.
"King Cobra."
The voice behind the mask was like a piece of cold metal.
"An envoy from the Holy Land, visiting in the dead of night, without even needing to announce himself?" Cobra's tone was calm, his fingers resting on the rim of his teacup.
"World Government Plenipotentiary Representative, Number 003," the voice behind the mask said.
"Supreme Command."
"Neferutari Cobra, you and your family are required to hand over all artifacts and information related to the Void Century."
What if I say no?
The mask tilted slightly.
"Then the second directive will take effect."
"What is the second point?"
There was a moment of silence behind the mask.
"Eliminate hidden dangers."
Cobra's hand holding the teacup didn't tremble.
He looked at the lifeless eyes behind the mask, and the corners of his mouth deepened slightly.
"Then go ahead and do it."
"But before you kill a helpless old man in this study, answer one question for me."
The mask did not move.
"The truth about the Void Century has just been displayed on the Sky Screen, and the whole world has seen it."
"You're here to kill me because you're afraid of the list that will be released in 24 hours."
"But if you kill me, kill your whole family, will that list not be released?"
Cobra tapped the rim of the teacup lightly with his fingers.
"The one who set the questions for the Sky Screen is not in this Royal Palace."
"The person you're trying to kill isn't me."
"You won't be able to kill the person you really want to kill."
"So you killed me simply because you were powerless and could only vent your anger on a target you could hit."
The breathing rate behind the mask changed.
The speed increased from twelve times per minute to fifteen times per minute.
"The World Government will not be swayed by the words of a dying man."
"I know." Cobra's gaze pierced through the mask.
"But you will."
The hand behind the mask rose.
The fingers came together in a sword-like shape, and the Armament Haki at the fingertips concentrated on a single point.
The air in the study tightened.
Then.
The ceiling is cracked.
It wasn't an explosion, but an extremely precise impact that pierced through the Royal Palace roof from directly above, through three floors and the load-bearing structure, tearing a circular gap two meters in diameter in the study's ceiling.
Gravel and wood chips cascaded down like a waterfall, and the white-masked man instinctively took two steps back, his sword pointing towards the ceiling.
A person fell through the gap.
A blue overcoat, a top hat that didn't fall off even during the high-speed descent, and a metal tube clipped to his waist.
Sabo's feet slammed onto the stone surface of the study, landing between Cobra's chair and the white mask, cutting off the straight line between them.
The floorboards shattered beneath his feet, the cracks radiating outwards for three meters.
His legs bent slightly after absorbing six times the impact force, and his knees made a rather unpleasant cracking sound.
But he stopped.
He looked up at the white mask in front of him.
"Number 003, right?"
His voice was a little hoarse, his throat had been damaged by the extreme cold at high altitude, but there was something in his tone that made the fingers of the man in the white mask tighten slightly.
"Chief of Staff the Revolutionary Army, Sabo."
His right hand extended from his side, his five fingers clenched into a fist, the surface of which was covered with a thin layer of Armament Haki Armament Haki, with faint dark red patterns on the surface.
Dragon Claw Fist.
"No one will die in this study tonight." His fist stopped at his side.
"Except for you."