The Fate of Betraying the Holy Land

Mary Geoise was a magnificent paradise when no one was around.

Every building was as tall as a temple, and every gate stood four or five meters high, because giants frequently came and went here. Every corner was so clean that not a trace of dirt could be found. Everywhere the eye could see was filled with beautiful gardens and palaces.

Miming sat on Cairns's shoulder with his legs crossed.

He was 1.7 meters tall, which was considered average in his old world, but sitting on the shoulder of the 3.5-meter-tall Cairns made him look like a child.

"Saint Sanming! I should still crawl!" Cairns said anxiously. Crawling was naturally no challenge for him and would let him move quickly and steadily, but Miming insisted that he walk upright.

"That way, I'm tall enough." Miming spoke arrogantly. "You understand the feeling of looking down on everyone else, right?"

"Yes! Yes, of course! But some people might get angry?"

"Hahaha! I want to be taller than those scum!" Miming laughed wildly. "Don't tell me you actually dare disobey my orders?"

"Your subordinate naturally obeys every command from Saint Sanming." Cairns instead looked somewhat pleased.

"Didn't I used to like the feeling of being high above everyone else?"

"You did, but you didn't often act that way. The slaves at Saint Charlos's house, where we played together, were very tall. Since you couldn't beat them, you simply gave up." Cairns explained, "After all, slaves look more proper crawling on the ground. Once they stand up, they look like people."

"Oh." Miming continued learning about his past and gradually remembered more. What a childhood where people truly weren't treated as people.

"What happened over there?" Miming suddenly spotted a ruined palace.

Unlike the other magnificent palaces, this enormous estate stood right beside the Bird Family's palace and looked as though it had been swallowed by a forest. Moss and vines covered it. Its open gates had rusted and collapsed, while weeds grew unchecked. The statues that symbolized its former glory had been smashed, and the giant stone heads lay half-buried in the ground as if they had been beheaded.

"That was the Donquixote Homing family's home." Cairns reminded him. "More than a decade ago..."

"The family that abandoned its status as Celestial Dragons and left the Holy Land?" Miming quickly realized.

Cairns nodded. As expected, things that happened right outside the family's door left a deep impression. With just a slight reminder, Saint Sanming remembered. Naturally, Cairns would never have imagined that Miming's memories came from animated shows in his previous life.

Miming gazed at the ruins before him. So this is the result of betraying the Holy Land?

"What happened to that family?"

"They died long ago... except for one boy." Cairns spoke with some sorrow. "Betraying the Holy Land naturally brings Heaven's punishment! I heard that after the family reached the lower world, those lowlifes learned that they had once been Celestial Dragons, and then burned the entire family alive. Sigh, being burned to death by the very lowlifes they pitied... They were truly foolish."

Miming fell silent.

In reality, the Donquixote Family's fate had been far more brutal than those few understated words suggested.

Because the incident had humiliated every Celestial Dragon, the Donquixote Family's ruins had become a festering sore in the Holy Land, serving as a warning of what happened to those who sympathized with slaves and lowlifes.

Miming was certain that if he showed sympathy for slaves in this evil place, he would suffer an ending even more miserable than the Donquixote Family's. But the Holy Land and the status of a Celestial Dragon were like a curse, even more unbreakable than the collars around slaves' necks. They were not so easy to cast off.

"Sanming?"

"Isn't that Sanming?"

Two voices suddenly sounded behind him, one male and one female. They were somewhat familiar.

Cairns immediately turned around and saluted. "Saint Charlos. Lady Shalria."

Shalria and Saint Charlos were biological siblings, while the Charlos Family was Miming's maternal family. Miming could still sort out that family relationship.

Atop the back of the towering, mountain-sized savage slave mount, Miming saw the idiotic face that had been unforgettable since his previous life. Aside from being a little younger, it had barely changed. The short, plump man still had a runny nose hanging from it, and a pistol was tucked at his waist.

"Imperial Brother Sanming, you're all right?" Shalria looked like a beautiful, fierce girl. She wore sunglasses and covered her face with a scarf. The first thing she did was boast, "Come look at the captain slave I borrowed from Father. This one is super fierce! I heard his bounty is over a hundred million!"

As she spoke, she viciously lashed the mount beneath her with the whip in her hand. It was not only a giant, but also wore a captain's coat and a huge captain's hat.

Miming, however, frowned. He could not appreciate Shalria's kind of beauty, because this was no longer mere capriciousness. It was cruelty. The captain slave looked extremely fierce and had probably once been a pirate who ruled the seas. Now he had fallen to the point of being ridden like a horse. He might have deserved his fate, but it was still tragic.

In fact, a few days ago, Miming had fallen into the sea while on his way to Impel Down to purchase a captain slave. Taming these ferocious murderers and turning them into mounts was something the Celestial Dragons were very fond of. Naturally, obtaining a notorious criminal of captain level as a slave was no easy task, and taming one was even harder.

The giant beneath them let out a pained cry. Shalria laughed loudly and swung her leather whip with all her strength. So what if he was a vicious criminal with a bounty of a hundred million?

A savage red light flared in the captain slave giant's eyes. The constant torture had already pushed him to the brink of losing his mind.

"Grrr—! Grrr—!" The captain slave suddenly frantically tried to leap up from the ground, but sturdy chains bound his hands and feet, preventing him from making any large movements, much less standing. The tall guards holding the chains immediately pinned him down.

Shalria was nearly thrown off and was startled, but she was not afraid. She immediately drew a long sword and stabbed it into the captain slave's neck.

"Take that! How dare you defy me, Lady Shalria!" As the other party screamed, Shalria's body was splattered with blood. Yet she seemed more excited than ever, repeatedly stabbing the sword into his body as punishment.

Saint Charlos refused to be outdone. He immediately drew his pistol and fired it at the captain slave's head with a bang. A huge hole was blasted into his skull, sending blood splattering everywhere.

Yet he did not fall.

"One Piece—!" He raised his head and let out a furious roar toward the distant ends of the world, probably in the direction of the sea.

Saint Charlos was terrified and kept firing his pistol until the captain slave, bound tightly by the chains, let out a mournful cry and crashed to the ground.

Something suddenly stirred in the depths of Miming's heart. That's right. This was the world where people pursued the "One Piece"!

Charlos was covered in sweat. He blew away the smoke from the barrel of his pistol, then danced around excitedly with Shalria.