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Hody felt fear when the gazes of so many fell upon him, but since he had already admitted his true nature, there was no room for retreat anymore. So, he did as Rob told him, sat alone at a table not far away, and continued reading the chapters.
The next scene represented a moment of confession…
'He admitted the crime so directly…'
Hody felt conflicted. He truly hadn't expected his counterpart to actually be the one who killed the queen, but when it was confirmed, he wasn't surprised.
She deserved to die, since she almost led the Fish-Man race to its ruin. One must never trust humans or put the lives of the entire race into the hands of humans.
At that moment, a familiar woman came out of the private section of the Art Store. She walked slowly, smiling warmly at her people, as the fish-men stood frozen in shock.
Especially King Neptune, whose eyes widened in that instant. But soon after, the strange feeling disappeared, leaving only astonishment.
Rob looked at Otohime, who had come here as he expected, and smiled.
'Perhaps she worried I might do something harmful for her sake…' Rob thought with a smile.
Otohime approached the place where Rob was, then nodded to Fisher Tiger and Jimbei with her gentle smile. Both men stood up and greeted her warmly.
"Why have you come here, my dear?" Rob asked curiously.
"Am I not allowed to return to my homeland?" Otohime replied with a smile.
"Of course, you have every right to go wherever you wish in this world."
"I came here to see Hody Jones…"
"Alright." Rob nodded in understanding and stopped asking questions.
Fisher Tiger wanted to say something, but in the end, he refrained and stayed silent.
"So you are Hody Jones…"
Otohime gracefully reached Hody's table and sat quietly before saying this.
Hody stared at the woman who looked exactly as she did in the manga, then turned back to the manga page. His eyes darted between the page and the woman who smiled softly at him. His face began to sweat.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Chapter's Events:
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"No way…!!"
"But what about the human assassin…?!!" Hearing Hody's confession left the Fish-Man civilians utterly shocked.
"Hahahah…"
"Kyakyahh!! You're all idiots for not realizing sooner!!!" By contrast, Hody's followers laughed mockingly, for they had known the truth all along.
"That day… I paid a human pirate to set fire to that box of signatures." Hody admitted with his own tongue that he had hired a human to burn the signatures, drawing him into his conspiracy.
("It's on fire!!!")
"While everyone was distracted by the blaze, I murdered Otohime!!" This was the entire hidden truth.
"..." Jimbei was left speechless.
"And finally, I shot the human pirate I'd hired dead…" he added.
("This human has murdered our queen!!!") he remembered.
"…and framed him as the killer!!" The act of confession itself made him feel a twisted sense of relief.
"Curse you, Hody!!!!" Neptune's eyes burned red. If he hadn't been bound, he would have torn Hody apart right there.
But Hody attacked him with a powerful water shot.
"Uurghh!!!"
"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" a citizen screamed at the horror of the scene.
"She was in my way!!! You hear that, Shirahoshi?!!" Hody glared at Shirahoshi and spat out cruelly.
"That filthy whore who thought taking revenge on humans was 'wrong'!!"
"The one who preached to the whole damn island about peace with them, and even came close to achieving it! I hated everything about her!!" Since he despised humans so deeply, of course he wanted no chance of reconciliation between the races.
"How dare you talk to her highness like that!!!" The citizens boiled with fury. The late queen had meant so much to them.
"This is too cruel!!!" Some broke down in tears at the cruel reality.
"Your mother was a worthless wretch who deserved to die!!"
"So I killed her!"
"I'm the one who took her filthy life!!!" Hody continued speaking with brutal cruelty, trying to shatter Shirahoshi mentally.
"…I knew it was you…" But to his shock, Shirahoshi had known the truth all along and remained silent.
"Shirahoshi…?!!" Neptune could not believe what he heard.
"What?!!" Jimbei was equally stunned.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Otohime saw Hody's unease, but she still smiled without saying a word. She, too, looked at the same manga page Hody was staring at.
Finally, the silence was broken.
"Surprised, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" Hody didn't dare meet her eyes directly.
"I can feel your shock. Perhaps you're even more shaken than your counterpart, who lost his senses under the influence of drugs." Otohime added.
"You never expected that my dear Shirahoshi knew the truth the entire time, did you?"
"What shocks you is why she hid it, why she never admitted it even to her father…"
"I can feel how chaotic your emotions are right now, Hody."
"I bet you're utterly lost because of everything that happened… You hate humans, don't you? But you don't hate Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, Franky… even though they're humans too…"
"You probably even like some other characters in the manga who are humans…"
"Maybe even characters from other mangas—like Bleach, Solo Leveling… perhaps you admire humans from the world of Naruto, or HXH, or Attack on Titan too, don't you?"
The more Otohime spoke, the more conflicted Hody felt—because she wasn't wrong.
'This woman… is she trying to use Naruto's Talk-no-Jutsu on me?'
'But she isn't wrong… I don't hate every human, but the ones I admire are so few and far between… Still, my hatred for humans in general remains just as strong—'
"The humans you admire are few and far between, yet your hatred for humans overall remains the same," Otohime said, exactly what Hody was thinking.
"I can guess your thoughts easily. At this stage, you're just a lost child. You must understand: the manga world and the real world are not the same at all. I am not the queen, and you are not a pirate. I will not collect signatures, and I will not die at your hand… all thanks to the manga you hold in your hands."
"But still, the future there leaves a heavy imprint on our souls as if it had already happened. At some point, I felt anger and hatred toward you because I died at your hand. I couldn't live longer with my beloved Shirahoshi because of you…"
"But dying at your hand—as the embodiment of the dark side of hatred accumulated across generations of an entire race—was not entirely a bad thing either… That was my counterpart's mistake. She cared more for humans than for her own kind." Otohime sighed sadly.
"But now, I will correct the mistake my counterpart made… I will not allow the accumulated hatred of the race to progress any further. Here, it will be cut off."
"Shirahoshi inherited my gentle and forgiving nature, which is why she kept the heavy secret, because of her promise to her mother… It is a tragedy that Queen Otohime died at the hands of her own people, after all…"
Rob came closer, set his chair near them, and sat quietly.
His presence alone made Hody feel as though a mountain weighed on his shoulders—even though Rob released no pressure at all.
Just his being there made Hody feel like a toy in a child's grasp.
Rob noticed this, then used his authority as the store's owner to ease Hody's heart.
"What do you want from me then?" After regaining his senses, Hody asked fearfully.
"Nothing… Just watch how my dear here will resolve all the race's problems throughout history."
"Whether your hatred fades or remains, it doesn't matter. You can't do anything anyway. All the accumulated hatred will vanish with time after this. Isn't that right, my dear?"
Otohime held Rob's hand before asking.
"That's right. I'll make sure to set everything right. I promise." Rob replied with a smile.
…
King Neptune looked at the scene. He thought he would feel jealousy, or at least frustration. But to his surprise, he felt none of that. Instead, he felt a bit of happiness for Otohime.
At that moment, he felt a warm hand holding his own.
"I wonder what His Majesty is thinking as he watches his 'destined' wife with another man," Meriem said, giggling softly.
"I think my people have the same thoughts you do, isn't that right, Meriem…" Neptune sighed helplessly, but still answered honestly.
"I feel at ease because she is happy." Neptune smiled as he spoke. There was no bitterness in his heart after clearly seeing Otohime's choice.
'But… I truly want to give birth to Shirahoshi… and my other sons too…' Neptune felt deeply powerless as he looked at Shirahoshi, whose tears welled up in her eyes while being provoked by the villain Hody.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 957: The Destruction of Fishman Island?
Chapter 958: The Straw Hat Crew's Entrance.
Chapter 959: Contributions of a True Friend.
Chapter 960: Luffy's Haki Sweeps the Plaza!
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