Above Merveille, inside a vast palace complex.
Shiki lounged on his throne, reading the newspaper in his hand with a delighted grin.
"Hahaha! That bastard Roger knows Kaido pretty well, doesn't he? 'Beast blood boiling'... Gahahahaha!" Shiki roared with laughter.
"That's not what I told you to pay attention to, you bastard!" Silver Axe said, a cigar clenched between his teeth as he sat to Shiki's left with his legs crossed.
"Then what? Ohara? What's that got to do with me? It's too late now that we've learned about those scholars. If this had come out earlier, I'd have rushed to West Blue, rounded them all up, and made them talk!" Shiki grumbled.
The scholars had been traveling all over the world before this.
But Cipher Pol had kept them well hidden, and rough pirates like Shiki paid little attention to academic affairs. He had never noticed them.
Now their connection to the Poneglyphs had come to light, but it was already too late.
Shiki didn't believe the World Government would show mercy. Those scholars were surely all finished.
There was no point wasting his energy on something he couldn't change.
His recent meeting with Vikengam had sparked his interest in Laugh Tale.
But a pirate overlord like Shiki wasn't about to abruptly change his plans over it.
For now, Shiki still intended to expand his forces, expand them again, and keep expanding. At the same time, he would develop a weapon of mass destruction like the Sea King, draw powerful pirates from everywhere into his ranks, and build enough strength to dominate the world.
Put simply, he was following the exact same path Rocks had taken!
Rocks had known some of history's secrets. Otherwise, he would never have charged straight into the Flower Room.
But he hadn't sought out