Two days later, the Flower Capital welcomed another challenger.

"I want to defeat Caelan and rescue those people!"

Seeing the city gate, Yamato shouted with great momentum.

"Here comes another lunatic!"

The pedestrians at the gate scattered at once, fleeing far from Yamato.

After the past few days, they already believed Caelan was invincible, and anyone who challenged him would pay a heavy price.

Not only the challenger, but the entire Wano Country would suffer the consequences.

The woman about to challenge Caelan was like the plague.

"Everyone, will any of you join me? Together, let's overthrow Caelan and return Wano to the Kozuki family!"

Yamato hefted her kanabo and shouted to the people around her.

She hoped to gather followers with her charm, like Kozuki Oden had once done.

"Run!"

"Another lunatic from the Kozuki clan!"

"Don't get dragged into this!"

Hearing this, the pedestrians turned pale and ran faster than rabbits.

In an instant, the gate was empty.

The ones who had stirred up trouble for the Kozuki clan last time had just been imprisoned. No one wanted to share their fate.

"Tsk. If no one will come with me, I'll go alone."

Yamato did not mind and headed straight for the Shogun's Mansion at the highest point of the Flower Capital.

…

In front of the mansion, Yamato hesitated as she looked up at the blue dragon circling in the sky.

"Bull-headed gorilla!"

She shouted at the dragon.

"…"

The dragon did not react.

"Looks like he really is under control."

Yamato was a little disappointed.

She hated Kaido and wanted him gone, but she did not want him like this.

Just wait. I will end you soon and set you free.

Yamato looked at the dragon and steeled herself.

Then she faced the gate of the Shogun's Mansion and shouted, "In the name of Kozuki Oden, I will slay the tyrant today and rescue the six thousand people!"

Caelan walked out of the mansion and looked at Yamato.

Her long white hair shaded to green and blue at the tips. She had a pair of red horns and golden earrings.

Her skin was fair, her features beautiful, her bearing heroic.

She stood nearly 2.7 meters tall, with well-proportioned curves.

"You're pretending to be Kozuki Oden. What is the point of imitating that failure?"

Caelan looked at the aggressive Yamato and laughed lightly.

This girl was fine in every way, except she needed to think less about idolizing Oden.

"Do not slander Kozuki Oden. He is the pillar of Wano!"

Yamato glared at Caelan, ready to strike at any time.

"Really? Did he defeat Kaido? Did he kill Kurozumi Orochi? Did he found the Wano you want?"

Caelan asked one by one.

These were the things Oden, as Wano's heir, should have done most.

But he did none of them.

Yamato froze for a moment.

Oden had not accomplished any of those.

But that was not all that mattered. Oden had other heroic deeds.

She thought for a moment, then stated Oden's greatest achievement. "He sailed with the Pirate King to the end and witnessed One Piece!"

"Then have you considered this? As Wano's heir, he abandoned his country to roam with pirates. Is that truly heroic?"

"While he was gone, Kurozumi Orochi poisoned his father and seized the shogunate."

"If he had not left, this might not have happened."

Caelan was simply stating facts.

At that time, Oden was still the daimyo of Kuri. Even so, he cast Kuri aside to go to sea.

"You cannot blame him. If he had known, he would never have left!"

Yamato's faith in Oden did not waver.

"Really?" Caelan's smile was cool. "Oden returned once aboard Roger's ship during that voyage. Why didn't he solve Wano's crisis before setting out again?"

"With the Roger Pirates at his back, crushing a Kurozumi Orochi would have been nothing."

Hearing this, Yamato fell silent.

After a moment, she forced a reply. "Roger was in poor health, with only a year to live. If Oden had stopped to fix Wano, they would have missed the chance to reach the final island."

"Let's set aside whether the country or the voyage mattered more. About Roger's health, after finding the treasure he still returned to the South Blue and had a son. He was not so fragile that taking down Orochi would have cost him everything."

"In the end, either Oden felt the entire country mattered less than a short delay for Roger, or he could not grasp something this simple."

Caelan looked at Yamato and posed the choice.

"That's not true!" Yamato said loudly. "No one knew Roger's true condition then. You're just speaking with hindsight!"

"Fine, call it hindsight," Caelan said easily. "After Oden returned from his voyage, why didn't he ask Roger to deal with Orochi and Kaido? By then, the treasure had been found, and Roger was still alive."

At that time, Kaido was only a rising pirate who traded blows with the young Gecko Moria. Roger was at his peak. If Roger had helped, Kaido would have fled.

Even if Roger refused, Oden could have asked his sworn brother Whitebeard. The result would have been the same.

"He did not want to trouble his friends. He wanted to solve his own problems."

Yamato forced the explanation, her words stumbling.

"I see. So the entire country of Wano was less important than debts of friendship with pirates."

Caelan's expression turned thoughtful, as if realizing something.

"No, it is not like that…"

Yamato's eyes lost focus.

With each sentence, the image of Oden as wise and mighty fractured further.

But this was the idol she had worshiped for eighteen years. How could it break so easily?

Clutching at a lifeline, she hurried on, "Oden sacrificed his dignity to save twenty-four thousand people. In the end, he gave his life so the Nine Red Scabbards could escape."

The so-called twenty-four thousand came from Oden's diary.

It recorded that for every time he danced naked, Orochi and Kaido would release one hundred hostages.

He danced two hundred and forty times over five years, rescuing twenty-four thousand hostages.

"What you said only shows how foolish he was," Caelan replied at once. "He danced for five years to save people. During those five years, the Beasts Pirates and Orochi expanded wildly. They never stopped killing."

"And Kaido did not have the time or need to seize twenty-four thousand hostages. Most likely, he grabbed a hundred before each dance, then released them when Oden finished. That was nothing but a cruel game."

"And how many of those saved were later killed by Orochi? I have reason to suspect he mistook humiliation for strategy, and it achieved nothing."

"As for carrying the Nine Red Scabbards on his head in boiling oil to keep them alive, it was just a gesture that moved only himself. If he had the strength to duel Kaido, he had the strength to force a path for them to escape as well."

Regarding the twenty-four thousand, this was Caelan's suspicion, but it was reasonable.

How could the Beasts Pirates have captured tens of thousands of hostages eighteen years ago? They could not even feed so many.

Even if Oden truly saved that number, the deaths his choices enabled were countless, far more than twenty-four thousand.

"You are slandering him. You are lying!"

"Kozuki Oden is a pillar, Kozuki Oden is a hero…"

Yamato repeated it to herself again and again.

But the image of the wise and brave Oden in her mind had already cracked wide open.

(To be continued.)

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