The matter of the Ope Ope no Mi came to an end somewhat anticlimactically. Ortoren had arrived in a hurry and left just as quickly.
The Flamingo did not return to the New World. Instead, it sailed straight from the North Blue toward Mary Geoise, preparing to cross the Red Line and head for Marine Headquarters at Marineford.
Aboard the Flamingo, Rosinante was confined in a cabin, while Trafalgar Law and his sister, Lami, were not placed under arrest.
At this moment, Ortoren was seated inside the cabin, one hand resting lightly on Lami's wrist. A nearly imperceptible electric current flowed from his fingertips into her body.
Trafalgar Law watched the scene with deep concern.
Ortoren's expression gradually grew solemn as he focused, carefully controlling the minute current as it circulated through Lami's body. After a short while, the amber lead patches on her arm began to change. Fine traces of the metal were restrained by the current, peeled away from her body, and suspended in the air.
Seeing this, Trafalgar Law's face lit up, tears nearly spilling from his eyes.
However, Ortoren soon raised his hand and brought the process to an end. He turned to Trafalgar Law and said,
"My ability can only remove the shallow amber lead near the surface of her body. For the lead that has already penetrated her internal organs, there's nothing I can do. If I were to force it out, it would only damage her insides and worsen her condition."
Hearing this, Trafalgar Law stiffened, the joy in his eyes fading almost instantly.
"So in the end, everything still depends on you. The Ope Ope no Mi doesn't have this limitation. According to what the doctors said before, your sister has at least two years left. If you want to save her, then within those two years, you'll need to become proficient with the abilities of the Ope Ope no Mi."
As he spoke, Ortoren patted Trafalgar Law on the shoulder.
Ortoren held a fair amount of appreciation for Trafalgar Law. He was courageous, clever, and highly talented. If he truly followed Rosinante's wishes, joined the Navy in the future, and received proper training, he might well become another backbone of the Marines.
"No matter what, thank you very much, Benn-sama," Trafalgar Law said sincerely after collecting himself.
"There's no need to thank me. It was just a small favor," Ortoren replied, shaking his head.
After that, he glanced toward the cabin window, letting his gaze linger on the sea for a moment before turning back to Trafalgar Law.
"You and Rosinante are very close, aren't you?"
"Yes. Corazon-san pulled me out of that dark abyss of hatred and helped me understand many things," Trafalgar Law nodded without hesitation.
"You're part of the Donquixote family, so you should already know the current situation in Flevance. Do you resent Doflamingo?" Ortoren asked.
That question left Trafalgar Law silent.
His expression became conflicted and hesitant, clearly complicated.
After a moment, he shook his head.
"The reason Flevance ended up like that isn't because the young master did anything. Long before he was even born, Flevance was already mining amber lead. The more I learned about this disease, the clearer it became that without hundreds of years of accumulation, it wouldn't have reached this point. The real culprit was the World Government. They knew the danger back then, yet chose to conceal the truth from the people of Flevance for the sake of enormous profit."
After a brief pause, Trafalgar Law continued,
"As for the Donquixote family continuing to mine amber lead now, I don't really feel anything about it anymore. From what I know, the ones digging there are mostly criminals and pirates. When I had nothing left, the young master still chose to take me in. He helped gather my family's remains in Flevance and tried countless ways to treat my sister and me for amber lead syndrome. Even though it didn't work in the end, I truly can't bring myself to resent the young master."
In the original course of events, before Rosinante was shot by Doflamingo, Trafalgar Law had never harbored resentment toward him either. When he addressed Doflamingo, he always used the title "young master."
It was only after Rosinante was killed by Doflamingo that Trafalgar Law was consumed by hatred and swore to avenge Corazon-san.
As always, if Law had never encountered that ray of light called Rosinante, he might have remained trapped forever in the dark world Doflamingo had woven for him. But once he had seen that light and held onto it, if Doflamingo were to take it away, it would inevitably become a matter of life and death.
Now, however, Doflamingo had not taken things that far. He held the rank of Rear Admiral in the Navy and had never truly wronged Trafalgar Law.
Under those circumstances, how could Trafalgar Law possibly resent him?
There was simply no reason.
At that moment, the cabin door was pushed open, and Doflamingo walked in.
Clearly, he had overheard everything Trafalgar Law had just said.
Doflamingo said with a teasing tone,
"I thought that Corazon guy would've filled your head with all sorts of bad things about me…"
Trafalgar Law was nothing if not straightforward, and he answered immediately,
"Corazon-san did say a lot of bad things about you, Young Master. He said you were born evil, that there isn't even a trace of kindness in your heart, that you only spread your own darkness and misfortune to others. He said you're an evil man who wants to destroy the world and take revenge on it…"
Doflamingo's expression twitched slightly. Hearing those words, he fell silent.
After thinking it over carefully, he had to admit that Rosinante hadn't been wrong. In the past, he really had been exactly that kind of person. He hated this world. He was supposed to be one of its most exalted beings, yet he had been forced to endure endless humiliation and suffering, scavenging for food like a stray dog rummaging through garbage.
He had killed his own father with his own hands, then carried that crushing burden to Mary Geoise, hoping to return to the lofty heights above the clouds, only to be coldly rejected.
That rejection made him loathe those so-called "compatriots" to the core. Why? Why should he suffer and rot in the mud while they sat above, enjoying power and privilege?
So Doflamingo decided to take revenge on this damned world. He wanted everyone to experience the same pain and misfortune he had endured.
He once believed he would remain like that forever.
But at some point, without even realizing it himself, he had begun to change. It felt like a very long time since he last thought about making others feel pain or darkness.
His life, his path, had shifted in countless ways without him noticing.
Although he still despised the trash up in Mary Geoise, the urge to destroy everything and take revenge on the world had long since faded.
He couldn't say exactly when that change had begun, but he vaguely felt that Ortoren had something to do with it.
Back then, it was precisely because he was powerless against those people in Mary Geoise that hatred and resentment kept piling up in his heart. That bitterness had made his thoughts vicious, pushing him to vent his pain on those who couldn't fight back, directing everything downward.
Now, Doflamingo finally understood why he had changed.
By following Ortoren's footsteps, he had seen hope.
He had seen the hope and the chance to turn Mary Geoise upside down, to drag those lofty bastards into the mud and drown them there.
That was why he was willing to follow Ortoren's pace, willing to walk behind him.
Because he was close enough to Ortoren, he could clearly see that every step Ortoren took placed him on a higher rung of the ladder.
And so Doflamingo believed that one day, he would stand alongside Ortoren and wipe out those nauseating pieces of trash.
With hope in his heart, a clear direction ahead, and preparations already underway, Doflamingo now realized that ever since he began following Ortoren, he hadn't felt that same sense of helplessness toward the Celestial Dragons of Mary Geoise in a very long time.
Because of that, the darkness and hatred in his heart no longer accumulated aimlessly, no longer drove him toward madness.
Those old impulses, the desire to take revenge on everything and make everyone feel his pain through vile acts, hadn't surfaced in a long time.
He had seen the hope of destroying Mary Geoise, and he poured all of his energy into that goal. He had no interest in tormenting ordinary people anymore. It was pointless, and it only made him look childish and incompetent.
From now on, he would direct his hatred and pain upward.
While Doflamingo was lost in these thoughts, Trafalgar Law continued,
"But I never felt the things Corazon-san described, and now the misunderstanding has been cleared up, hasn't it? The truth is, Young Master is a righteous Marine. There must have been reasons behind the things you did in the past, reasons others couldn't see. Maybe you were carrying justice on your back while walking through the darkness. I still don't fully understand it, but I don't dislike you, Young Master. I still respect you."
Doflamingo gave a somewhat affected cold snort at those words and didn't respond to Trafalgar Law.
Ortoren watched the scene, raised a hand to rub his chin, shook his head, and chuckled to himself, finding it all rather interesting.
...
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