Archaeologists and upright scholars had always been unwelcome in the eyes of rulers.
Everyone wanted to present their glamorous side while hiding the dark parts. The World Government was naturally no exception. On top of that, what they had done had never earned them much of a good reputation in the pirate world, so they were even more eager to promote their positive influence.
But this group of archaeologists did not care about any of that. They were a pure-minded group, unconcerned with politics, positions, or profit. They simply wanted to present the truest past to everyone.
And that... was precisely what rulers could not tolerate.
Not only in the pirate world—even in the history before Shin's transmigration, there had been countless examples. Whether wise rulers or foolish tyrants, all of them deeply detested those historians who would rather break than bend.
Even that Second Brother Li, once hailed as a wise ruler for the ages, had been so angered by historians that he cursed them aloud.
Of course, the difference between a wise ruler and a foolish one was that wise rulers could tolerate them, while foolish rulers usually just had those stubborn nuisances beheaded.
The World Government in the pirate world was not merely lacking wise rulers—they had not even firmly established the most basic legitimacy of a ruler. There were countless people across the world who did not recognize their authority, paid them lip service while defying them in secret, declared independence, or rebelled against them.
Combined with their instinct to protect the interests of the privileged classes, they maintained a zero-tolerance attitude toward archaeologists. They merely lacked a reasonable excuse for it at the moment.
It was under such circumstances that Shin arrived at Ohara.
After he came ashore, the lush green leaves naturally shrank into