As they stepped onto the broad flagstone road of Saint Mary Geoise, an armored guard beside them handed Shirahoshi and the other merfolk T-shaped rods connected to the ground.
"Please hold on to these Connection Rods."
As Shirahoshi and the others gripped the long rods, the flagstone road beneath Xie Wen and his companions began moving automatically like a conveyor belt.
But just as the first-time visitors to Saint Mary Geoise were marveling at it, Klee Meow and Shalmeow, perched on Xie Wen's shoulders, tugged on his ears at the same time...
"Xie Wen, Klee doesn't like it here. The sounds here are so full of despair, meow."
(=ω=)
"Xie Wen, dear, there are lots of people underneath this road, meow."
(=`ー=)
At Shalmeow's reminder, Xie Wen remembered this detail too-the so-called Automatic Road was actually moved by a group of slaves pulling the road surface from below.
As he extended his Observation Haki downward, although the ground obstructed it and made things rather unclear, he could still sense some weak presences moving slowly beneath their feet.
Xie Wen couldn't help frowning...
Honestly, he couldn't understand the point of doing this at all. Given the technology currently available to the World Government-or rather, Vegapunk-replacing this manual labor with an actual mechanical drive would clearly have been easy. Besides, those Celestial Dragons mostly rode on slaves when they went out, so there was absolutely no need for something like this to exist.
Even if those Celestial Dragons, who knew nothing but throwing their weight around, had never given slaves a second thought, surely the people managing the operation of all Saint Mary Geoise would think a little more normally?
*It really does live up to the name "Holy Land"... Just how low those Celestial Dragons can sink really is beyond the