Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Issho's conflict was witnessed by the civilians not far away.
As Sakazuki left, the Marines and civilians aboard the evacuation ship erupted in cheers. The joy of surviving the disaster filled the entire deck.
Kuzan glanced at the civilians, then gazed for a long while at the Tree of Knowledge in the center of the island before letting out a soft sigh.
Although he had successfully stopped Sakazuki from attacking the evacuation ship, Kuzan had not tried to stop the Marines from carrying out the Buster Call on Ohara.
As a Marine, he had to act according to his identity and his position.
Perhaps, in many people's eyes, Ohara's scholars had merely studied history from several hundred years ago. They had not committed some heinous evil, much less deserved to bring a Buster Call upon themselves. But to Kuzan, that was not the primary conflict between the scholars and the Marines.
The main issue was that the scholars' very act of violating the prohibition could truly cause turmoil throughout the world.
The authority of the Marines and the government had been challenged, and that was no good thing. To a certain extent, this Buster Call was meant to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. Although it was led by the World Government, the Marines would benefit from carrying it out as well.
The Marines' prestige would be reinforced even more deeply under the blessing of artillery fire.
Kuzan was not a naïve man. There was very little he could do in this incident.
As for why he had helped Saron save Nico Robin, a scholar, it was simply because Kuzan had never truly believed that Nico Robin was a scholar—or rather, one of those "forbidden scholars" who had participated in researching the Poneglyph.
"Let's go back,