Don't just pop up like that, you potential final boss! As for guards... I can sense someone!
It's probably Mr. Sengoku or Mr. Zephyr.
I recognize this aura and pressure.
"The Ohara issue is the very symbol of the Government's failure," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Blaming only Ohara is barking up the wrong tree."
Mr. Spandine is quite skilled.
He is bowing with his head on the floor, but he twists his neck to glare at me... What is he mouthing? ...'Go easy on him, you idiot'?
I refuse.
I ab-so-lute-ly refuse.
....
Actually, if I think about it, the biggest reason I couldn't live a peaceful life is this guy right here!!
If you have a fancy title like 'Warrior God of Justice', you should at least keep a tight leash on things so unreasonable demands aren't made within the member nations!
"The Government's failure, you say?" Saint Topman Warcury asked, his voice low.
"Yes. Why do you keep the Void Century a void?"
...For now, I'll pretend I don't know about... what was it, the Poneglyph that tells the location of Laugh Tale.
I just need to limit my knowledge level to... right, about the level of the Enies Lobby arc in the original story.
"If people know something is hidden, they will search for it. You can see that just by looking at this Great Pirate Era."
"You wouldn't understand," Warcury dismissed, "but hiding the Void Century is important for the Government."
"It's impossible."
Absolutely impossible. No matter how you try.
"This time, you researched the Poneglyphs and wiped Ohara off the map. But in these 800 years, has a similar incident really never happened before?"
He closed his mouth just as he was about to speak.
Well, I thought so.
Actually, it's more natural to think that because it happened in the past, Ohara's researchers started hiding their work more thoroughly.
The places where Poneglyphs were hidden in the manga were quite elaborate, after all.
"The Ohara matter isn't a problem of the last few decades. It is a problem spanning 800 years... from the very moment the World Government was established."
I've thought this for a long time, but they are really bad at hiding things.
Just because something is dirty, sweeping it under the rug or shoving it in a closet doesn't make it go away. The stain just spreads where you can't see it.
In fact, because you can't see it, the fear only grows.
It's like piling things up in the four corners of a room and feeling like there are bugs or something living in there.
"I could understand it when the Government was first formed. I don't know what it is, but it must have been something that threatened the standing of the 20 Kings who became the ancestors of the Celestial Dragons. But somewhere in these 800 years, you should have changed direction."
"Changed direction?"
Are you okay, Mr. Spandine? Your face is pale and you're sweating bullets... Wouldn't it be easier to stand up like Hina? There's a chair right there, you know?
"I've been thinking about this since the naval battle at the District HQ, but the cost is simply too high."
"Cost?"
"Yes," I nodded. "Keeping it hidden means you have to search forever for people who might be snooping around or traces they left behind. You have to constantly spend human resources on that endless task and keep paying the various costs to support it. ...Plus, carrying the risk that the secret might come out at any moment is terrible for operational efficiency."
He looked grumpy when I brought up the Void Century with a half-disgusted look, but he got a little interested when I mixed in talk about costs.
....
Come to think of it, this is the first time I've spoken to one of the Five Elders without all of them present.
This might be a chance to... probe into their internal situation a little.
"If that is the case," I continued, "instead of suppressing it, I think you should have spent time preparing to make it public."
Well, it really depends on the content, though.
"...Fake history?" Warcury surmised.
"Not just that, but yes. First, I would release academic theories to buy time."
If I were the World Government, I would have released all sorts of theories to confuse the information, making it a hot topic.
I would have messed up the methods for deciphering Poneglyphs and created multiple fake deciphering methods.
"I would gradually mix the truth into various academic theories. ...The Void Century that you fear so much. If it has such a huge impact, the content must be quite wild. I would use that."
The public usually jumps at things that are interesting and easy to understand.
And in this world, censorship and suppression by the Government are normal.
Unconsciously, people develop a reason that wants to believe in "safe" things, and a gut feeling that "maybe something wild did happen."
"Safe theories to buy time, wild dummy theories, and weaving fragments of the truth into both," I explained, gesturing slightly. "By staging a debate, I would steer the public towards thinking, 'It's interesting news, but ultimately it's just a thing of the past' when it is finally revealed. If I were on the Government's side, that is the strategy I would have planned."
Considering how much people trusted the Government's announcement during Dressrosa, information manipulation isn't impossible.
It would depend on how well the various CP branches could coordinate, since the information needs to be spread quickly and widely.
Just have the news debate a few safe theories and a few wild theories mixed with the truth. Let them have an entertaining academic wrestling match, and let the truth gradually win.
If the World Government's politics are decent when they reveal it, something from 800 years ago is too distant to shake the current situation.
How long ago is 800 years in Japan...
...Around the Kamakura period... right? If it's 100 years before that, it's the Heian period.
New facts about the Heian period might make the news, but if modern Japan started moving drastically because of it, I'd just laugh.
Well, sure, the foundation of this world is different... but if you Celestial Dragons run the world properly, it won't collapse from something minor.
Probably.
"In addition, I would use the fact that the Void Century is a void," I added. "I would claim that the records were lost due to some accident or disaster, separating the responsibility of the past from the current World Government. You just need to manipulate the impression that the nature of the Government was different before and after the loss."
"...Interesting. It is interesting, but could you create such a theory?"
Why do I have to make it?
"Besides," Warcury added skeptically, "no matter how well-crafted a fictional theory is, those archaeologists would notice it quickly."
"Yes. They probably would."
"That is why you should have had the archaeologists make it."
--
(POV Shift: Spandine)
T-This kid! It was like this in Mogwa too, but there's a limit to being fearless!!
"Ridiculous!" Warcury scoffed. "There is no way archaeologists would cooperate with such—"
"If I were in the Government's position, and had the power and manpower of someone like Chief Spandine, I would first split the archaeologist forces into two factions," Kuro interrupted.
The child pirate, who had been dragging Spandine around every day since coming to the Holy Land, was now facing off against one of the Five Elders.
I knew he talked to the Five Elders every now and then, but this kid is really...
Spandine thought he had acknowledged him, but he had to admit his understanding was still too naive.
And he had to admit it once again.
This pirate is the real deal.
"Mainstream archaeologists and a faction that sides with us, the Government?" Warcury asked. "But even taking their families hostage wouldn't probably sway them!?"
"Of course," Kuro replied. "Their obsession with the past has many sources, but dissatisfaction with the current World Government, the feeling of entrapment, and rebellion against those things are likely part of the cause."
"...Then what would you do?"
"Yes. I would show them that I am prepared to make the history public, and request their cooperation for that. Something like... 'If we announce the Void Century as it is now, it could cause chaos. We want you to help us prepare to reveal it in the future.'"
The pirate was talking to the man in charge of Justice among the Five Elders—someone Spandine couldn't even look in the eye—in the exact same tone he used with Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
"Dr. Clover and the mainstream faction would oppose it," Kuro continued, "but I believe there would definitely be a few scholars who would think it's better than the current situation. You increase the collaborators little by little from there."
No, wait. It's weird in the first place that Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the Hero Garp come to a pirate's office for work consultations and chats... Why is there a pirate's office in the Holy Land!!?
"Archaeologists know very well how heavy-handed the World Government is. That is exactly why they went underground with such determination."
"Hmph. Criminals are meant to hide."
"True. But the quality is different. A group like them, without military power like the Mafia, still had the obsession to continue their investigation systematically while underground. To think you can crush that perfectly with just military force is far too optimistic."
The women assigned to Kuro, who must have come back to check on the situation, were frozen, peeking in from the entrance.
All of them were terrified of the Celestial Dragon in the room and couldn't move a muscle.
Number 3 and Number 5 were called to the Holy Land after the attack, so they don't know Kuro. They probably underestimated him. They likely thought this was just another sudden order from a Celestial Dragon...
It was pitiful seeing these women, faces pale, unable to grasp the situation or measure the pirate's ability despite watching Kuro's command so far.
Both Kuro and Saint Warcury glanced at them, and Kuro beckoned them to come inside.
You idiot Kuro! Don't drag them into a quarrel between monsters! Isn't that too cruel?! ...Ah, no. This guy is using them as a normal gallery to stabilize his own mind, isn't he?! What a nasty kid!!
Spandine hadn't been watching him work up close for nothing.
He was starting to understand the tricks behind Kuro's efficiency little by little.
"However, conversely," Kuro said, drawing Spandine's attention back, "if the Government had presented a possibility that history could be revealed in the future, there was a chance to break down the situation from there."
This man's greatest weapon wasn't his martial prowess or his brain, but his observational skills and his method of precisely controlling the minds—the psychology—of himself and his subordinates.
Even knowing it, it's hard to analyze, let alone imitate...
"The scholars of Ohara wanted to solve history with their own hands and leave it for future generations. If you had created a faction that used the Government's proposal to leave history behind more surely, a conflict of opinion would have arisen. If you used that conflict, there might have been a chance to negotiate with the Ohara mainstream faction."
"Taking time might have led them to the content of the Void," Warcury countered. "Immediate action was necessary."
"I think it would have been far better than the current situation."
"...What?"
"Can you say for sure... that every archaeologist in Ohara died, except for Robin?"
--
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