With the fake king's memories, Uncle Joseph's disguise was almost flawless.
Of course, Noah and the others still had one last loose end to deal with.
Disguised as the fake king, Uncle Joseph returned through Ray's wormhole to the bathroom inside the bedroom. Only about eighteen minutes had passed.
In several hidden corners of the bedroom, a few custom-made Den Den Mushi were silently at work.
In Mackerel Town in the Rum Kingdom.
A concealed private house contained an underground facility hidden within.
Inside the facility, a middle-aged man wearing a special ring-shaped collar around his neck watched the images relayed by the Den Den Mushi with sleepy eyes.
The scene on the screen was none other than the fake king's bedroom.
There was also a glass bottle on the middle-aged man's desk, containing a piece of paper.
Suddenly, a tiny wormhole opened inside the underground monitoring room, and a colorless, odorless gas seeped through from the other side.
The middle-aged man's eyelids grew heavier, and moments later he collapsed onto the desk.
The wormhole then expanded, and Ray and Lilith stepped through.
Ray picked up the glass bottle on the desk with interest. "Is this a Vivre Card?"
"That fake really did have some brains. He actually used slaves to monitor himself and left Vivre Cards behind. He was obviously very wary of Barton." Lilith searched the middle-aged slave and found another Visual Den Den Mushi.
She pressed the play button, and the Visual Den Den Mushi projected an image onto the wall.
In the recording, the fake king revealed the existence of Barton and the Money Pirates, as well as the fact that he was a puppet installed by Barton.
Clearly, this was a loose end Barton had not anticipated.
If the original plan had gone ahead,
Once the fake king's Vivre Card burned away completely, the slave would have delivered the Den Den Mushi to Morgans.
As for how the fake king had ensured the slave would obey, he had used both carrot and stick.
On the one hand, he had promised the slave a large sum of money upon his death. At the same time, the fake king alone knew the code to activate the collar bomb, so the slave would be free once he died.
But to stop the slave from taking the money without doing the job, the fake king had also left a letter and the slave's Vivre Card in the royal treasury.
The letter's contents were simple: it told Barton that the fake king had left a Den Den Mushi behind.
In other words, once Barton read the letter, the slave's fate would be easy to imagine.
Moreover, the fake king had arranged for not just one slave to monitor him, but three. Only one of them needed to deliver a Den Den Mushi to Morgans.
The three slaves knew of one another's existence, but not where the others were or what they looked like.
This created a chain of suspicion.
The fake king had also always been wary of Barton's Swap-Swap Fruit. He had never entered another exchange contract with Barton, so even if Barton killed him, he would not be able to obtain the fake king's memories.
Unfortunately, for all the fake king's scheming, he had run into Noah, who had cut the problem off at its source.
Lilith and Ray swiftly raided the three slaves' secret hideouts and destroyed all the Den Den Mushi and Vivre Cards.
As for the three slaves, Noah used Barton's Swap-Swap Fruit to exchange a silver coin for their vitality. Since the three of them had been pirates before becoming slaves, he naturally showed no mercy.
If they had been civilians with no evil deeds to their names, Noah would have sealed them in cards temporarily, then taken them in as peripheral members of the family through guidance and education.
After every loose end had been dealt with,
Uncle Joseph ordered all the nobles in the country, in the king's name, to hold a farewell banquet in Sucrose Town.
There were fewer than ten days left before the Navy escort fleet arrived.
Three days later.
Inside the Honey Palace in Sucrose Town.
Joseph exchanged pleasantries with the nobles.
After several rounds of drinks, Joseph sneered inwardly. Eat! You'll all be on your way together soon.
Suddenly, a group of punishment knights with long records of misdeeds stormed into the palace.
"What are you doing?" A noblewoman wearing black pearls harshly berated the knights who had charged in.
The next moment, her head rolled across the floor several times.
"Aaah..."
"Bastards! Are you rebelling?" Joseph immediately got into character and roared with a look of panic.
"Hahaha! Your Majesty, it's been a long time."
Noah, who had used Life Return to change his build and was wearing Powell's broad face, looked every bit a petty man reveling in his success.
"Powell, it's you? I've treated you well. Why are you doing this to me?" Joseph wailed with feeling.
"Hahaha, that's hilarious. Do you really think you're an enlightened king of the Rum Kingdom? Surely not, surely not? Want to know why? Because you've become a tyrant now, a tyrant despised by all your people."
Joseph looked incredulous. "Why? Why did this happen? This is impossible!"
"My dear Majesty, I'll let you die knowing the truth. In your name, I ordered the collection of..." Noah recounted everything in Powell's voice.
Everyone present listened in stunned silence.
"Hahaha, shocked, aren't you? I've spent three whole years preparing for this moment. Now you can die!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the punishment knights and Lilith, who had been hidden in the shadows, charged straight at the nobles with long records of misdeeds.
"Help!"
"Don't kill me, Lord Powell, I surrender..."
"Yes, yes, yes, I surrender too."
Noah sneered at them all. "Do you take me for a fool? Since I told you my plan, I never intended to let you leave here alive. Kill them!"
Joseph was leading several attendants loyal to the royal family, along with a few relatively kind minor nobles who had deliberately been spared, in holding a room as a stronghold against the attacking punishment knights.
Just then, Barton smashed through the palace doors.
Boom!
"Powell, you treacherous rebel! Die!"
"Nani? Why are you here?"
"Hmph, did you think you could kill me by colluding with pirates to lure me out to sea? Powell, today is the day you die!"
Noah, pretending to be Powell, suddenly bulked up, then grappled with Barton.
The two were stalling for time. Only after the nobles with long records of misdeeds had all been killed did Noah pretend to be knocked down, lying on the floor and playing dead.
Barton immediately unleashed his might, slaughtering every punishment knight on the scene.
The dozen or so nobles who remained were all people of decent character. Only then did they breathe a little easier, though they looked at Barton somewhat strangely.
After all, these nobles were no fools. They could naturally tell that Barton had thrown the fight, deliberately allowing Powell's punishment knights to slaughter the nobles with long records of misdeeds.
Sure enough, when Barton brought out the Recording Den Den Mushi hidden in the Honey Palace, the dozen or so surviving nobles knew that all of this had been Barton's scheme.
But when they saw the look of satisfaction on the king's face and how respectful Barton was toward him, their hearts surged with shock at this king who usually did nothing but eat, drink and make merry.
Soon, the king had people make announcements in every town across the country, using the Recording Den Den Mushi provided by Barton, along with a self-incriminating video he had recorded himself and decrees exempting taxes for a year, providing work in place of relief, and cracking down on underground loan sharks.
Public sentiment throughout the Rum Kingdom was reversed in an instant.
Powell became the object of everyone's contempt, while our King Rum VIII (Joseph) and Legion Commander Barton became great saviors.
With that, the entire Rum Kingdom fell completely into the Noah Family's hands.