In the first half of the Grand Line lay the Jeremiah Kingdom.
It was a poor country, and its location left it sweltering year-round.
The heat and the lack of proper medical care allowed bacteria and viruses to flourish.
Years of war had left bodies unburied in the wilderness. An epidemic was all but inevitable.
In this country, an epidemic meant death. When one broke out, the witch doctors and Doctors were the first to flee.
It was not that those Doctors lacked medical ethics. Rather, with medical care so limited, the epidemic was practically incurable.
Patients they could not save would turn the people against them. The Doctors fled to save their own lives.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
"Cough... Ugh..."
"Cough. Cough."
Inside the walls of the Jeremiah Kingdom, the old bustle was gone.
There were no hawkers calling out, no crowds milling about. All that could be heard were waves of coughing and retching.
The gravely ill slumped against buildings on both sides of the streets, making the entire country look desolate.
They were barely clinging to life, and they were begging for help.
Severe illness, hunger, and homelessness had become the norm.
Inside the city's Royal Palace, in a lavish hall, a man knelt.
"Lord Sage Doctor, please save my country. I can no longer protect my people."
Arthur Dan, king of the Jeremiah Kingdom, pressed his forehead to the floor.
He was no foolish king. His strength even approached that of a weaker Shichibukai, and he had always protected his people.
If he had not offended the World Government, bringing pirates and rebels down on his kingdom time and again, the country would likely have prospered.
How he had offended the World Government was a story worthy of respect.
Vast deposits of Amber Lead lay beneath the