"What are you trying to do!?"
Vinsmoke Judge was shaken by the overwhelming fury in the eyes of the clone soldiers. His voice trembled slightly.
"Damn it! How dare you look at me like that! You're all clones! Clones that I created! I'm your creator! How dare you glare at your own creator... No, wait! How can you even possess emotions!? How can you disobey my orders!?"
In a panic, Vinsmoke Judge suddenly calmed himself.
Then he looked up at Michael, who hovered in midair.
"It was you! The rain just now... it contained diluted high-potency drugs, didn't it?"Judge took a deep breath.
"Spare me! If you spare me, I can give you all the technology I've developed to create clones!"
"That's right. When cornered, you actually calm down. In terms of intelligence, you really are something..."
Michael shook his head.
"But I don't need that kind of technology—something that invites disgust. And I have no intention of sparing a man who could experiment on his own wife and children... So instead of begging me, why don't you try begging your wife, the Queen of the Germa Kingdom?"
Judge trembled from head to toe when he heard that.
He couldn't help but glance at another cat vehicle where Sora sat, composed and upright.
Her expression hadn't changed from beginning to end.
The hatred brimming in her eyes was unmistakably directed at him.
"So... Sora, listen to me..."
"No, Vinsmoke Judge. This time, it's not your turn to talk—it's mine."
Sora shook her head.
"Tell me—those four sons you modified—what are they to you? Your own children? Or the finest war machines?"
"Of course they're our own children!"
Judge looked at her pleadingly.
"They're the crystallization of our bloodline!"
"Really? Then why was Sanji, who never awakened his lineage factor, so often punished by you—and even thrown into the dungeon…? Did you really treat him as your son?"
"I..."
Vinsmoke Judge opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word for a long time.
His face gradually turned ashen.
The answer to that question—both Sora and Judge himself already knew it.
The answer was...
No.
"Ara ara... Looks like you've received your answer from Queen Sora."
Michael's voice suddenly came from behind Judge.
He instinctively turned his head, only to find his field of vision plummeting toward the ground.
In the final moment before death, the last shred of his consciousness scanned the surroundings.
Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji stared at his decapitated body with expressionless faces.
Niji even yawned with boredom.
It seemed that the lineage factors he had specially modified had not restored their emotions with diluted high-potency drugs.
Instead, it was Reiju and Sanji—whose lineage factors had been suppressed—who now looked at him with eyes full of pity, but not sorrow.
So this...
This death that everyone had hoped for...
Was this painful?
In the next moment, his consciousness fully sank into darkness and fell silent.
Sora looked at the man with angelic wings, his face now stained with some blood, as he sheathed his cruciform longsword at his waist.
He immediately sensed her gaze and gave her a small nod.
Sora returned the nod, then stood up from the cat vehicle and declared loudly to all the clone soldiers who had witnessed Vinsmoke Judge's death:
"From today onward, I, Maria D. Sora, will take Vinsmoke Judge's place as the new Queen of the Germa Kingdom!"
"I declare that, as of today, the former Germa 66 is completely disbanded!"
"You are no longer clones endlessly controlled by the Vinsmoke family. From now on, you are citizens of the Germa Kingdom—with full human rights!"
"I will lead you to rebuild Germa into a nation in the truest sense!"
"Of course... all of this is based on your own free will."
Free will.
That unfamiliar phrase echoed in the minds of all the clone soldiers.
They had existed in a state of newborn confusion and chaos.
But Sora's words were like sunlight piercing through dark clouds—dispersing all shadows and doubts.
For the first time, the clone soldiers acted on their own emotions and gathered around the cat vehicle.
"Long live Queen Sora!"
"Long live Maria D. Sora!!"
Vinsmoke Sora—no, Maria D. Sora—shook her head and declared with a firm voice:
"Long live the Germa Kingdom!"
"Long live all of you!"
...
At that very moment, while the people were bursting with passion and the new Germa Kingdom was being born, Michael kept his gaze fixed on Sora.
After Judge's death, this woman did not continue using the name Vinsmoke.
Instead, she returned to using her own family name.
Not only did it carry the mysterious "D," but the surname itself was "Maria."
And Michael would never forget—
In his unhappy childhood, he once had parents who died young...
And their surname was also...
"Maria."
...
The coup launched by the new Queen of the Germa Kingdom, with the assistance of Rear Admiral Michael, ended with lightning speed—swift as thunder and as noisy as a jingle bell.
Aside from Vinsmoke Judge's corpse being buried in the palace, Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji—those three still emotionless children—were also brought back to the palace.
Although the diluted version of the drug wasn't strong enough to restore their emotions, the undiluted high-potency version was.
However, the powerful drug would damage their genetically modified lineage factors.
Only Michael's Holy Light could neutralize the drug's side effects while also restoring their emotions.
At first, the three kids resisted and struggled.
Michael simply knocked them out with ease.
After administering both the drug and Holy Light healing, he handed the three over to Ebony for placement.
"If it's possible to restore Ichiji and the others' emotions… then what about Sanji's lineage factor? Can it be restored too?"
Sora looked at Michael with hopeful eyes.
"I wanted to preserve their emotions, but I never expected his body would be affected too—he's grown so weak."
"That's certainly not a problem... But why should I continue helping you?"
Michael's words made Sora fall silent in an instant.
He had a point.
Helping was a favor, not an obligation.
"You don't need to look so serious, Your Majesty."
Michael sat on the sofa in the royal bedroom, gazing at Maria D. Sora across from him.
"As it happens, I have a question. If you can answer it, I'll help you."
"A question? What kind?"
"Maria—was that your original surname?"
"Yes."
"And... did you ever live in the South Blue?"
"Yes, on Angela Island in the South Blue."
After hearing that, Michael shot to his feet and stood before Sora.
Lowering his head, he smiled gently.
"Pleased to meet you."
"My sister... whom I've never met."
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