The sudden bombshell in North Blue left not only the World Government, but also Lind, far away on Oran Island, utterly bewildered.
Lind had always paid close attention to the special milestone of the year 1498 of the Sea Circle Calendar. After all, that was when Roger had been executed in the original story, and when the Great Pirate Era had begun.
Although he had already changed this world beyond recognition, who knew whether that elusive World Consciousness would step forward to stir up trouble again?
But Lind had never expected that everything would remain fine on Roger's end, with him and Rouge living a peaceful, happy life together.
Instead, it was Shiki and North Blue, whom he had felt relatively reassured about, that suddenly blew up.
Although Darren's relationship with the Oran Empire had yet to be exposed, the entire world now knew that Darren and Shiki were working together.
Black Bird had already eaten the Clear-Clear Fruit, so why had this Flame Photographer fellow still appeared?
Most absurdly, how had this guy infiltrated the heavily guarded North Blue Parliament headquarters and photographed Shiki and the others talking together?
Of course, what was even more absurd was that the Flame Photographer had taken that photograph a year ago, yet had kept the intelligence secret all this time.
It had only come to light now because the Flame Photographer had been discovered while stealing documents from Marine Headquarters, and the photograph he had so "carefully" preserved had been leaked just like that.
Lind really wanted to ask: if even the Marines could catch this guy, how had Shiki and the others let him sneak in, take a photograph, and escape without a hitch?
In short, the sudden bombshell in North Blue meant that many plans had to change.
A major