Flower Capital.
"Is this the place? That ancient weapon Pluton is really hidden beneath this cavern?"
Caesar looked at the pitch-black, bottomless cave entrance before him and asked Hiyori beside him.
Hiyori nodded like a chick pecking rice.
"Mhm, I'm certain. The day before yesterday, they brought me deep into this cavern. When I woke up, I saw a spacious hall.
Inside was a red Poneglyph stone tablet.
The Fish-Man under the Revolutionary Army said they discovered a massive steel warship at the bottom of the sea.
Dragon later confirmed it was definitely Pluton.
Perhaps they thought I couldn't escape, so they didn't avoid speaking in front of me."
"Heh, this Dragon fellow doesn't know how to keep such important matters confidential."
Caesar sneered and immediately walked toward the pitch-black cave entrance.
Hiyori quickly ran up and clung to Caesar's arm, panicking.
"Husband, wait for me, I... I'm afraid of the dark..."
Caesar had currently shrunk his body to only two meters tall.
Since the cave entrance wasn't large, his original over-nine-meter height couldn't possibly fit through.
Caesar snorted impatiently: "Hmph, such a useless woman."
Hiyori wasn't angry either.
With a happy smile, she was practically carried off her feet by Caesar as they descended into the cavern.
The passage was very dark, pitch black where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
But this kind of environment was nothing to Caesar.
Not to mention his Observation Haki that had reached the level of foreseeing the future.
Just relying on his extremely powerful physique, his eyes could penetrate the darkness and see very far distances.
In the darkness, only Caesar's heavy footsteps could be heard.
Hiyori held Caesar's thick arm and softly laughed.
"Husband, husband, do you think our child will be a boy or a girl?"
"How would I know?" Caesar said indifferently.
"Don't you have very strong Observation Haki? Sense it for me."
Hiyori pouted and rubbed Caesar's arm with her chest.
"Woman, you're playing with fire. You're only one month along, how could there be a gender yet?"
"Oh..."
Hiyori fell silent, and quiet returned between them.
After a while, Hiyori spoke again.
"Then... husband, have you thought of a name for our child? If it's a boy, what name? If it's a girl, what name then?"
"No."
In the darkness, Caesar's voice remained equally indifferent.
"Hmph... husband doesn't care about the child in my belly at all..."
Hiyori's voice came through pitifully and hesitantly, making Caesar furious.
Immediately...
Slap slap slap
A series of crisp slapping sounds came through the darkness.
"I was wrong, husband, don't hit me, it hurts..."
"Hmph, if you keep nagging, I'll pull your pants down and spank you!" Caesar viciously put Hiyori down and withdrew his repeatedly raised large hand.
Hiyori's tears came out from the pain as she gently rubbed her buttocks.
Caesar moved very quickly. In less than ten minutes, they reached a spacious hall.
As soon as Caesar and Hiyori entered, they frowned.
The large hall was completely empty, with no red Poneglyph in sight.
Hiyori immediately widened her eyes, searching all around.
The two searched for a while but could not find any trace of the stone tablet.
But just as Hiyori had said, the center of the hall clearly once held a massive stone tablet.
Deep indentations remained on the ground, marks left by something heavy pressing down over time.
"Could the Revolutionary Army have taken it? That seems impossible. The red Poneglyph is enormous—there's no way they could have transported it up through these narrow passages."
Hiyori was utterly perplexed, unable to fathom how the stone tablet had vanished.
Caesar frowned. "If it couldn't be moved through the passages, how was it brought down here in the first place?"
Hiyori fell into deep thought as well.
Suddenly, Hiyori slapped her forehead and hurried over to the wide passage on the right.
Pointing at the water ahead, she exclaimed.
"They said this leads to the sea. I think the stone tablet was originally dropped into the sea at this location and then transported inside through here. Husband, do you think it's possible they took the tablet out this way?"
Caesar's brow smoothed as he smacked his lips and nodded.
"That makes sense. But do those guys have that capability? As for Dragon... hss... it might actually be possible."
Caesar thought about the numerous mysteries surrounding Dragon.
Like how he maintained his consciousness while awakening his Logia Devil Fruit powers without being assimilated by the natural wind element.
Like how he possessed the Destructive Power.
And also, that slip of the tongue Dragon once made, which still gnawed at Caesar's mind.
"This is the power deeply hidden within the bloodline of the D clan. Eight hundred years ago, Joy Boy used this power to resist the celestial..."
The celestial?
What celestial?
Caesar didn't know whether Dragon had misspoken about the Celestial Dragons, or if he knew something else entirely.
In any case, the Revolutionary Army's secrets ran deep.
Hiyori walked to the water's edge, crouched down, and peered into the depths.
The water appeared dark and profound. Despite the torchlight illuminating the hall walls, nothing was visible below.
Suddenly, a massive dark shadow swam past beneath the surface, startling Hiyori so much she stumbled backward several steps.
"Husband! There's a monster in the water!" Hiyori pointed at the water, her face pale with fright.
Caesar remained expressionless.
A monster?
Give him a break.
He'd devoured countless deformed Sea Kings in the waters outside Wano Country.
That dark shadow was just a "small" carp in the water.
Only about a hundred meters long—was that really worth making a fuss about?
"I can believe Dragon might have been able to take the stone tablet. But Pluton is enormous—there's no way he could have taken that. If he could have, he wouldn't have needed to negotiate terms with me."
With this thought, Caesar plunged into the dark water with a loud splash.
Hiyori rushed to the edge crying, "Husband, don't leave me behind!"
She glanced around at the dimly lit hall with its flickering torchlight and the pitch-black water surface, feeling chills running down her spine.
She definitely didn't want to stay here alone.
Caesar frowned slightly.
"You want to come? Fine, I'll take you down for a look."
"Ah? But... I can't swim..." Hiyori said somewhat embarrassed.
Caesar rolled his eyes.
"Stupid woman, what good would swimming do? This is several thousand meters underwater. Unless you're a Fish-Man, you'd be crushed by the water pressure the moment you left this culvert."
Hiyori was about to ask more when she saw Caesar extend his hand and exhale a frosty white mist onto it.
The frost slowly coalesced and took shape, forming a massive ice sphere five meters in diameter.
The outer layer of the ice sphere was composed of densely compressed, hardened ice—stronger than steel and a full foot thick.
The large ice sphere automatically cracked open an entrance facing Hiyori.
"Get in."
"Okay."
Hiyori obediently slipped into the ice sphere and peered curiously through the ice at Caesar.
Though the ice was thick, it was transparent, much like the glass wall at the end of the passage on the left side of the hall.
Caesar flicked a few drops of his essence blood into the opening.
The drops landed inside the ice sphere and quickly transformed into sparkling, perfectly round rubies, more exquisite and beautiful than genuine gemstones.
"If you feel cold, eat one. Don't let my child freeze!"
Caesar resumed his original form, grabbed the sealed ice sphere, and plunged into the water.