Chapter Eighty-Four: The King's Army Surrenders

“My darling, if it is short by a year, a month, a day, or even an hour, it still does not count as a lifetime!”

The tremendous boom in the northern district finally faded with the passing of time. It was as though some signal had been given, and the King’s Army and the rebels, who had briefly ceased their clash, began a fresh round of battle.

As everyone knew, the explosion had come from the direction of the Alabasta royal mausoleum, and anything that happened there was almost certainly a matter of no small consequence.

“Listen! That blast just now must have been the wrath of the gods, descending to wipe this royal family from the face of the earth, and to turn this kingdom, rotten from the inside out, into history forever!”

“The people who have endured three years of drought at the bottom, the people who have lived all this time in misery and hardship, we will tear away the lie beneath this country’s glittering surface and expose all its ugliness before the gods! We will overthrow this nation and build a new one of our own! Return the rain to us!”

“Return the rain to us!”

Among the rebels, their leader, Koza, raised his arm and shouted, stirring every heart and sending the rebel army’s morale soaring to unprecedented heights. In an instant, they drove the King’s Army back again and again!

“Push forward, everyone! Even if the comrades in front fall, there will be countless countrymen to take their place. Victory in this war is destined to be ours!”

The King’s Army grew increasingly dispirited. Facing these ordinary civilians they had once been sworn to protect, they had never had much desire to fight in the first place, and the orders from above forbade attack; they were allowed only to defend.

Vivi stood upon the palace battlements. The savage battle between the two sides had already left countless corpses behind. In a war of this scale, the casualties of every second were a staggering number. Her vision was long blurred by tears. This war, secretly manipulated by someone in the shadows, should never have begun so easily!

She had charged the front lines several times, hoping to find Koza and explain to him in detail Crocodile’s plot, but each time she was driven back by those lost to rage in the rebel army. If not for the King’s Army soldiers who had saved her with fearless sacrifice, she might never have returned.

“My dear compatriots!” Vivi cried out at the top of her lungs. “This war was caused by Crocodile from beginning to end. The Dancing Powder incident was also controlled by him. Everything was part of his scheme to seize this nation!”

Yet even after she had cried herself hoarse, her voice was swallowed by the thunderous roars of battle, and not a single person heard her. Everything she did before the war was useless, insignificant as dust.

The entire King’s Army fell back into the palace to defend it, and the million rebels surrounded the whole place so tightly that not even water could leak through.

Slowly, a man stepped out from the rebel ranks. He rode a tall horse, had short, tousled dark tea-green hair, and a scar across his left eye. Looking up at the forces atop the high walls, he shouted, “King’s Army, surrender! You have no retreat left! The ruler who once governed with benevolence and loved his people changed long ago. From the day he first took away the rain that belonged to the entire nation, he became selfish and self-serving. We do not need a king like that to lead us!”

“Koza...” Seeing the man below, Vivi was jolted into fervor, and immediately cried out, “Koza, it’s me, Vivi!”

Koza narrowed his eyes at the figure he had known from childhood and hardened his gaze. “Vivi, stop resisting pointlessly! Give up. Surrender! The fate of Alabasta cannot be ended in the hands of that selfish king!”

Vivi’s face brightened. This was the perfect moment to deliver everything she knew: “My dear compatriots, please listen to Vivi for one moment. In this war, everyone has been deceived by one man. He grasped everyone’s weaknesses, staged and directed this conflict from the shadows, and his purpose was to seize Alabasta! Everyone has been kept in the dark. This battle should never have started so easily!”

“Then tell us, who is that man!” Koza froze. He did not truly believe a word Vivi said, thinking only that she was stalling for time. Even so, he still hoped fewer people would die.

“He is Sir Crocodile of the Seven Warlords of the Sea! From the very first time, three years ago...”

“Are you kidding me! Crocodile is the hero of Alabasta! He has stopped who knows how many vicious pirate invasions! What you just said is ridiculous. Even if you are Princess Vivi, you have no right to insult the hero in our hearts!”

“Exactly! Crocodile is our hero. You can’t insult him at random!”

“Charge them! Bring them down! To pin such baseless accusations on a hero is something we cannot accept!”

The rebel army erupted in uproar. Even the King’s Army stood stunned at that moment. If you wished to stop this war, there was no need for such a clumsy excuse; to insult a hero in the hearts of the people was tantamount to a death sentence.

Before Vivi could finish speaking, she was drowned out by a storm of curses. Bitter disappointment filled her heart. She was not even being given the chance to speak in full. Though she had already foreseen this outcome, the facts before her eyes left her no choice but to accept it.

“Vivi, you have truly disappointed me!” Koza raised his arm, and the voices of the rebels fell silent at once. Narrowing his eyes, he said coldly, “Such groundless words only make me disgusted. You have ten minutes to consider whether you will surrender. If there is no answer by then, I will launch a full assault!”

With that, Koza turned and walked back toward the rebel ranks. Vivi clenched her teeth and climbed directly onto the palace wall. One misstep, and she could fall at any moment, crushed to pieces below.

“Koza! Everyone! Please believe me. All I have left now is this one life. If there is even the slightest falsehood in what I am about to say, then let me repay it with my life!”

“Princess! No! Come down at once!”

Vivi did not budge. Endless tears streamed from her eyes as her hoarse voice rose once more. “I secretly infiltrated the Baroque Works under Crocodile’s command, and at last learned a secret unknown to the world, one that, once revealed, will shake the entire nation!”

“Three years ago, Sir Crocodile of the Seven Warlords of the Sea came to Alabasta and plotted the entire Dancing Powder affair to frame His Majesty. Recently, he kidnapped the king and had someone impersonate His Majesty to issue all kinds of false orders. On the surface, he was the nation’s hero, but in secret he had long since prepared to seize Alabasta. This war, which has driven the King’s Army and the rebel army to mutual ruin, is his true objective!”

Her words sent the crowd into uproar once again.

Koza turned to look at Vivi, a trace of mockery on his face. “Why should I believe you? You expect us to abandon the golden opportunity before us and surrender to you on the strength of your one-sided story alone?”

“Exactly! Impossible! You so-called royal hypocrites live in luxury, but have you ever understood the lives of us common people?”

“Koza!”

At that moment, a solemn voice sounded from within the palace. A towering figure, drenched in blood, stood upon the battlements like Vivi herself.

“As long as it can stop this war—”

“The King’s Army, surrender!”

Go, W.E.!