Xie Wen was not particularly disappointed that he had failed to get Inuarashi's consent. After all, there were plenty of other ways to get that Poneglyph. At worst, he could have Shalmeow sneak over there. Xie Wen did not believe Cat Viper and his Guardians could detect Moonless Thundercloud, which could catch even Rayleigh and Aokiji off guard.
"Then there's no problem with us looking around Zou, right?"
Xie Wen was ready to leave with the cats. After all, aside from the Poneglyph, they still had plenty to do. Robin wanted to learn about the history here, Shirahoshi wanted to try establishing a connection with Zunesha, and Ai Haibara Meow was very interested in some of the local plants, among other things.
Inuarashi nodded.
"Of course. Make yourselves at home. You can go anywhere on Zou except the forbidden grounds in the Whale Forest."
"Uh..."
Although Xie Wen had already known the Poneglyph was hidden there, wasn't Inuarashi's answer a little too obvious?
Xie Wen's little mouthpiece spoke up again. "Aren't you outright telling us that the Poneglyph is hidden there, meow?"
"That's right." Unexpectedly, Inuarashi had no intention of hiding it at all. "Even if I didn't tell you, the Guardians would warn you when you approached the Whale Forest, so there's no point hiding it. Besides, you chose not to deceive me earlier. Naturally, I couldn't do anything so dishonorable myself."
Although he had not lied, Xie Wen, who had already planned to send a cat to sneak a look, rubbed his nose a little awkwardly.
How should I put it... the Mink Tribe really is innocent...
They were making Xie Wen feel a little bad about deceiving them.
Of course, that being said, if all the other methods really did fail, Xie Wen would absolutely not hesitate