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"It's you!"
Everyone tensed immediately, but then they saw a group of people disembarking from Wapol's ironclad ship on the shore.
"The 20-Doctor Medical Corps..."
The people wore masks and operational uniforms. They were the only medical team legally allowed to remain in the royal palace after Wapol expelled the country's doctors.
"We are just doctors, no more, no less. That's all," the twenty doctors sighed. "We do our best to help those in need. That's all."
"... " The Snow Country residents' feelings toward the doctors were complicated. Once a source of national pride, the doctors had later become associated with Wapol's tyranny. Everyone instinctively looked at Dalton. He fell silent and stepped aside.
"Thank you." The doctors passed by, carrying professional surgical instruments, and immediately began treating the more than three hundred critically injured soldiers.
As a handpicked medical team allowed to stay in Wapol's palace, their surgical skills were nothing short of miraculous. They pulled over three hundred soldiers back from the brink of death quickly.
…
The residents of Big Horn City grabbed their hunting rifles and prepared to rush to the coast. Suddenly, a dense line of black silhouettes appeared through the white snowstorm. They exclaimed, "Dalton and the others are back!"
"What's going on here?" Many of Dalton's group carried heavily wounded soldiers while the less injured walked with the twenty doctors through the snow.
"We heard so many gunshots. We thought it was Wapol!" As the residents rushed from the city, they saw over three hundred bloodied, bandaged soldiers. "Wapol's soldiers?! They really..."
"They're fine now," Dalton muttered.
When the crowd parted and the stiff bodies of Wapol, Jess, and Crow Marimon were brought before them, there was a brief silence. Contrary to what many had expected, however, no one cheered.
"Do we really need a king?" Dalton thought about the pirate's words as he looked at the complex expressions of the Snow Country residents. In a low voice, he said, "Everyone, this country is entering an even more difficult time."
...
"It was a pirate who defeated Wapol and saved this country."
When Dalton recounted everything to the Snow Country residents, they were initially incredulous and unwilling to believe it.
It wasn't just Dalton and the patrolling residents either; over three hundred soldiers and twenty palace doctors all confirmed the same story.
"That person could have killed Wapol directly over two months ago," said Dalton, holding a cup of hot tea as he sat down. "But he chose to alarm Wapol deliberately, so we could see his true, wicked face. After killing Wapol, I asked him why he did that. Do you know what he said?"
Everyone was silent.
"Do we really need a king?" he said. Dalton looked up. Outside, the wind howled, but a strange smile crept across his face. "Yeah... Why had I never thought about it? Why must there always be a king? Why?"
Everyone remained silent.
"Naturally, there must be a king!"
Someone shouted.
All eyes turned to one of the doctors who had removed their mask, revealing an aged face. They sighed. "Dalton, the Drum Kingdom...the former Drum Kingdom was one of the fifty Levely seats and an allied kingdom of the World Government. If we lose that in this pirate-infested age with no Marine support, what will become of our small island?"
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and murmured in agreement: "Yes," "Exactly," "It would be terrible..."
"..." Dalton's smile grew stranger as he listened, but he said nothing.
The doctors clasped his hands and said solemnly, "Dalton, you served as commander, guarding two generations of kings. The people of this country trust you. Take up the burden of the king."
Facing the countless eager and earnest gazes around him, Dalton stood silently for a long time. Then, he slowly nodded.
"Hooray!" Everyone cheered.
"Dalton! Dalton! Dalton! ..."
The shouts rang in his ears, gradually blending into the cries of "Wapol! Wapol! Wapol! ..."
"Do we really need a king?"
The image of the pirate holding the dead Wapol in one hand and looking free and radiant flashed before Dalton as he stood amidst the cheering crowd.
He gazed at the old doctor among the celebrating people.
But the World Government...isn't it made up of hundreds of so-called kings?
Do we really need a king?"
Dalton lowered his gaze, sighed in resignation, and raised his fists, swinging them twice with force. The crowd erupted in joy, cheering: "Dalton King! Dalton King! Dalton King! ..."
"Huh, who's that?" An old doctor caught sight of a figure at the edge of the crowd and exclaimed, "Ros, is that you?"
The girl was startled and tried to slip away but was caught.
"It really is you. You're still in this country." The doctors surrounded her. "A year and a half ago, you came here to study medicine, but we couldn't help you. Now, though, everything is different. Wapol has been overthrown, and this country won't disappoint you anymore..."
The doctors smiled warmly. Yet Ros said nothing. Suddenly, she lunged toward them.
No real collision occurred. Her body passed through the crowd as if opening circular tunnels in the people around her. She ran through them, accelerating with each step. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared into the swirling snow in the distance, leaving everyone stunned.
The old doctors stared dumbfounded at her vanishing figure, muttering, "Wasn't she here to study medicine...?"
...
"Did Ros really come to this country just to study medicine?"
Robin gazed at the endless snowfall outside the window of the City Castle and whispered to herself,
"Ah?" Liam didn't catch her words.
Robin shook her head and looked back to see Liam packing. By "packing," he meant putting the Shiro Shiro no Mi (Castle-Castle Fruit) chip back into Little Green and carrying the "Little Green Space Bag," which contained miscellaneous items that he was transferring from Stand City Castle to Den Den Mushi City Castle one by one.
Chopper sat dumbfounded on the living room sofa, staring blankly as if he had just realized what had happened.
Weakly, he asked, "You're leaving?"
"..." Robin looked back at the little creature.
Liam ruffled the reindeer's head and said bluntly, "Don't try to look pitiful and get away with it. You'd better honestly follow the old lady and learn medicine."
Whiz!
A book flew from the staircase. Liam calmly crouched down, dodging the over-a-hundred-year-old elder's attack. Without missing a beat, he pressed down on Chopper's head and continued, "Next time we come, if your skills aren't up to par, we won't let you on our ship."
Under Liam's rough hand, the little reindeer lowered its head and bit its lip. Hot tears streamed down in big drops, pitter-pattering onto the floor before he finally nodded heavily.
"Mm!"
Liam smiled and turned to ask Kureha, who had just come down from the "library" at the staircase, "Have you finished all those medical books and research materials?"
"If you mean the medical texts from Bird Kingdom, I finished them a month ago," Kureha said, weighing the thick book in her hands.
"Ah?" Liam was surprised. "Then what have you been reading for the past month?"
Kureha's wrinkled face broke into a sly grin as she waved the book. "Bird Kingdom has other... 'specialties,' doesn't it?"
The book's cover read, "Improvements on Rocket Spear Guns..."
Liam was speechless.
(End of chapter.)