Chapter 876 - 876: An Inescapable Fate

The Hoof of the Soaring Dragon.

Even Kuro didn't have much of a memory of it.

The mark had become widely known more than a decade ago.

During that dark age when the Celestial Dragons ruled, the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon was specifically branded onto slaves as a symbol of humiliation.

Ever since Rosse, the supreme ruler of the world, came to power and the old world collapsed, the mark's original meaning had long since been abolished along with the near-extinction of the Celestial Dragons.

By now, the Celestial Dragons had long since lost the noble status they once possessed.

In the world today, there was only one noble surname.

Jaygarcia!

Aside from some elderly people who had lived through the great upheaval of the old era, the younger generation on the seas had never even seen this symbol.

And in Rosse's new era, this mark had been given a new meaning.

A mark of punishment for those who disobeyed the gods and, even after being defeated, continued to resist, the most evil of criminals.

As well as a symbol bestowed upon those favored by Rosse.

As far as Kuro knew, Marco, the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' First Division in the New World, had once been branded with this mark of humiliation on his face.

'But... why?'

'Why would someone of Robin's status have it branded on her chest?'

She had just personally admitted that her mother was Nico Olvia, the current head of the history department at Mary Geoise University and the world's most authoritative historian.

And that dignified and noble Ms. Olvia had another identity on these seas, one that, although no one dared discuss openly, was tacitly understood by nearly everyone who knew her.

She was Rosse's mistress.

The daughter of Rosse's mistress had the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon, a symbol of ownership, branded onto her body. And as she grew and matured, the mark had completely fused with her body.

On these seas, who would dare place such a mark on Olvia's daughter?

And who would dare leave such an indelible mark on someone favored by the god?

There was only one answer, and it could only be that one person.

The instant he thought of this, Kuro's body trembled slightly.

He immediately lowered his head. Even the fingers he used to push up his glasses were trembling uncontrollably. He no longer dared let his gaze linger on Robin for even the slightest moment.

He didn't believe that this beautiful female scholar, who had been branded with such a mark and had it embedded in this highly secretive location, was merely a simple scholar.

This woman was clearly that god's forbidden possession.

"Are you questioning my identity? Or is it because of my mother's special status that you no longer have the courage to look directly at me?"

Robin slightly turned her head. Her eyes, originally as gentle as water, were now like a frozen deep sea, coldly looking down at Kuro, whose head was hanging lower and lower.

Her slender fingers lightly ran across the book cover, her voice filled with undisguised sarcasm, "If you're worried that I'm like the queen outside, the one who rides on the heads of commoners, then there's no need. I have no blood relation whatsoever with that person who sits high above the clouds."

The moment she said this, the reactions of the people around them varied.

Koza's brows immediately furrowed, and obvious hostility and displeasure appeared in his eyes as he looked at Kuro. He would never allow anyone to question this beacon that had guided them on the path of resistance.

Crocodile, leaning against the bookshelf in the back, meanwhile exhaled a thick cloud of cigar smoke, a deeply amused smile appearing on his stern face.

He had worked with Robin for quite some time. Normally, their relationship had been limited to superficial exchanges of benefits, and as far as strength was concerned, he admitted that he was inferior to her.

Crocodile knew Robin's identity very well, and he also knew that because of the relationship between her mother, Olvia, and Rosse, she harbored a deep-seated hatred for the World Government.

But on these seas, where the strong preyed on the weak and betrayal was everywhere, those who trusted others too easily had long since gone to feed the Sea Kings.

So, when it came to the hatred Robin showed, Crocodile had always believed only thirty percent of it.

"I have no intention of questioning you, Ms. Nico."

Kuro continued to keep his head slightly lowered, but he forcefully suppressed the trembling in his voice and maintained his composure, "It's just that there's one thing I really can't understand."

Kuro took a deep breath of the air carrying the smell of paper and said word by word, "From what I know of that man's way of doing things, since you have that mark on your chest, how could he possibly allow you to leave Mary Geoise? How could he simply let you go?"

At the words "that mark," a crack finally appeared on Robin's flawless, icy face.

"This?"

She raised an eyebrow and slowly lifted her right hand.

Her fair, jade-like palm trembled as she pressed it hard against the center of her chest through the thin, tight-fitting clothes.

That was where the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon was, the mark that had been completely distorted and spread out as her body developed.

"This mark is the root of my hatred for her, and for that man."

Robin's voice suddenly became extremely hoarse, her eyes filled with deep hatred, "That year, I had just turned eighteen. In this new era, eighteen is the age at which the World Government declares commoners to have reached adulthood."

Her slender fingers gripped the edge of her collar tightly. From the excessive force, her knuckles had turned pale.

"Then that woman, the person the world called the greatest historian, personally treated me as a gift and gave me to her master in exchange for a piece of historical information."

"Heh... A god's gift. What an absurdly great irony that makes people want to laugh."

Two clear tears slid from the corners of Robin's eyes without warning, but under the lights, all they reflected was madness and despair.

Did she never think of taking revenge?

From the very first day she left the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, she had thought about it every moment, even if it meant dying together with them.

Even if she had to hurt herself, she wanted to tear open a wound on that man's body.

But unfortunately, she couldn't do it.

From the moment this humiliating mark was branded onto her, everything had already become beyond her control.

She retained the ability to think for herself and retained the right to speak freely.

But once any truly rebellious action against Rosse arose in her mind, or she tried to order or hint to someone else to destroy anything belonging to Rosse, that was, herself, that invisible curse would immediately descend, making her completely unable to move another inch.

What broke her down the most was that no matter whom she tried to use for revenge, the unfortunate person she chose would often die on the spot without even seeing the enemy's shadow, completely unaware of what had happened.

Escape from the Holy Land? She had indeed escaped.

But the invisible dog collar around her neck had already been locked to her soul.

To be honest, the reason she had come to Arabasta was not so much because the Poneglyph was hidden here, but because this was the first stop Luffy would make after entering the Grand Line.

As someone who understood both history and the terror of the current World Government, Robin knew very well.

If, in this desperate world, there was even the tiniest sliver of hope of overturning that man, then the only possibility was Luffy, favored by fate.

But at the same time, her constant clarity of mind coldly mocked her.

How could the World Government's intelligence network possibly not know of Luffy's existence?

And how could that man possibly not know the fate behind Luffy?

This was a dead end from the very beginning.

Robin no longer held any hope for it, but this was already the only thing her corpse-like body could still do.

If she didn't do something, she couldn't even find a reason to keep living.

"What a painful and desperate experience. I'm sorry for reopening your wounds here."

Kuro lowered his head even further, and his glasses completely lost their reflection in the shadows.

Such a secret that could cause heated discussion throughout the world had actually been revealed right in front of them.

To be honest, what Kuro felt now wasn't shock, but extreme fear.

He understood all too well the principle that the more you knew, the faster you died.

He swept his peripheral vision over the other three people beside him.

Luffy clearly had trouble fully understanding it, but he was the one who most directly felt Robin's suffocating sorrow and grievance.

This extremely righteous single-celled creature was now so angry that his entire face had turned red. His fists clenched with loud cracking sounds as he shouted, "Bastards! Whether it's that woman or that master of hers, they're both horrible! Don't cry! I'll definitely help you beat them all up!"

Crocodile remained leaning against the bookshelf without even moving his brows.

Clearly, during their previous cooperation, he had heard Robin talk about this pain more than once. He merely regarded it as Robin's weakness, without the slightest ripple in his heart.

Koza, on the other hand, despite having heard it many times, still had a flushed face from empathy, his eyes filled with pity and even deeper anger.

"It's fine. I've gotten used to it a long time ago."

Robin looked at Luffy's pure anger, suddenly laughed at herself, and reached up to wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes, "If we're only talking about hatred toward them, I'm probably among the people in this world who hate them the most. After all, when I was only eight years old, that woman was once incited by that man to point a loaded gun at me herself and pull the trigger."

The coldness of that moment still lingered in her nightmares to this day.

She had experienced the most absurd tragedy in this world.

The framework that had supported her life until now had long since been completely filled with hatred.

And the most ironic ending of all was that, most likely, she wouldn't even have the right to take revenge in this lifetime.

Instead, at the end of her despair, she might be humiliated again and again by that enemy who was like a god.

"Unforgivable!", Luffy stomped his feet angrily, making even the straw hat on his head tremble, "Where are those two big villains you were talking about? I'll go beat them up right now!"

He could sense Robin's despair, but with his straightforward nature, he didn't know how to comfort her with words. His mind contained nothing but the most straightforward form of physical help.

"If you can help us overthrow Arabasta, that would be the greatest help you could give me. Your resistance is my greatest salvation."

Robin raised her head again, her sea-blue eyes quietly gazing at Luffy, the corners of her lips curling into a sad smile, "Deep within this country, you can also obtain everything you've dreamed of as pirates."

She leaned forward slightly and said softly, "Straw Hat brat, do you know the historical road signs that lead to Laugh Tale? Do you know about the Void Century that has been hidden from this sea? Do you know what the three ancient weapons capable of destroying the world are, and where each of them is?"

Actually, Robin didn't know nearly as much about these things as she made it seem.

During her years in Mary Geoise, she was nominally at Olvia's side, but because the two were in an adversarial relationship, she hadn't actually taken the initiative to learn anything.

There was even a period when she intensely hated everything that woman liked.

She spent most of her time training her combat skills and physical fitness.

By the time she left the Holy Land, what she knew amounted to only what she had learned before the age of eight, along with some information she had overheard unintentionally in Mary Geoise.

But even that was more than enough to fool the pirates and rebels in front of her.

After all, even a speck of dust from Mary Geoise was an unreachable myth to the people of these seas.

"Eh?"

Luffy, who had been burning with anger just a second ago, instantly turned into a pair of blank, dot-like eyes when he heard this string of terms, subconsciously scratching his head, "Laugh what? What's that? Is it made out of really top-quality meat? Can you eat it?"

"What are you talking about!"

Kuro looked speechless and couldn't help blurting out, "Captain! You keep saying that you want to become the Pirate King, but you don't even know what Laugh Tale is? That's where the great final treasure left behind by the Pirate King Roger is! It's also the endpoint of his final journey around the Grand Line! That's where everything that allowed him to truly become the Pirate King is hidden!"

"Nani? The great treasure? Then I want to know! I really, really want to know!"

Luffy's eyes instantly turned into two layers of sparkling stars, and he drooled again despite himself.

The Pirate King and a barbecue party, that was the freedom he longed for.

Simple and pure.

"If you want to know all the answers, you have to enter the Arabasta royal family's mausoleum."

Robin smiled and offered the final bait, "That is where the royal family of Arabasta has worshiped throughout the generations, and it is also where the Poneglyph recording the truth of history is hidden. As long as you can get there and obtain the writing on it, you'll get everything you want."

"Wait."

Kuro, who had kept his head lowered all this time, suddenly raised it, a hint of suspicion and scrutiny flashing across his lenses, "If it's the royal family's highest-secret mausoleum, how do you know that a Poneglyph is stored there?"

It was a perfectly reasonable question.

Kuro knew the World Government's twisted sense of humor very well. It wasn't impossible for the real thing to be hidden here.

But why would Robin know about it?

"Well, Brother Luffy, Brother Kuro, I'll explain."

Koza took the initiative to step forward, somewhat awkwardly rubbing his hands, "Actually, this is information I discovered by accident last year. As the Minister of the Environment, I had the honor of accompanying Queen Vivi and the other ministers to the mausoleum for an annual ceremony last year."

"Out of curiosity, I sneaked into the side hall and saw from a distance a huge square stone tablet engraved with extremely strange square-shaped writing."

"I couldn't understand it, but my instincts told me it was important, so I memorized a small section by rote. Later, when I met Ms. Nico, I showed her a small part of those symbols, roughly copying them as best as I could."