Alabasta, Alubarna, the former site of the royal palace.
Three days had passed since the earth-shaking battle that had almost razed the thousand-year-old palace to the ground.
For a city that had just endured conspiracy, rebellion, natural disaster, and a clash between mighty fighters, three days passed in the blink of an eye. Yet changes had already quietly begun amid the palace's appalling ruins.
The immense molten crater, once over ten meters deep and hundreds of meters across, had undergone preliminary leveling. Countless citizens, soldiers, and even able-bodied men who had still been "Rebel Army" members only yesterday worked under unified command, carrying loads on their shoulders or in their hands, or using simple machinery to clear shattered walls and fill ravines. Dust and a faint scorched smell still hung in the air, but the apocalyptic silence and despair had given way to a clamor tinged with pain and exhaustion, yet filled above all with the energy of those who had survived catastrophe.
On a hastily built wooden Lookout Tower, Zhou Yu stood at the railing, gazing down at the bustling scene below. He had changed into a moon-white scholar's robe beneath a light cloak to keep out the sand, and still held the Vermilion Bird Feather Fan. His complexion was much healthier than three days earlier, though a lingering trace of weariness remained between his brows. Repeatedly using the Ho-Oh Fruit's power to heal the injured on a massive scale and purify contaminated water and soil had drained his mind far more than his body.
"Mr. Zhou Yu, here you are again." Steady footsteps sounded behind him as King Cobra ascended the Lookout Tower, accompanied by Pell. The old king had changed into plain linen clothes. Though his face still bore the gauntness of imprisonment and the exhaustion of