Two days later.
Without anyone to see them off, the Thousand Sunny quietly departed from Egghead Island under the relieved gazes of CP0 agents and Kizaru.
Standing at the stern of the Thousand Sunny, watching the egg-shaped laboratory gradually recede and disappear into the white clouds, Kong Tai reflected on the sights and experiences of the past two days.
Among everything he had witnessed, what had most captivated Kong Tai were the two days spent in the laboratory's junkyard, where he encountered an incredibly ancient robot.
He vividly remembered the light that swept across the jungle, illuminating the ancient machinery of the colossal robot. Its iron armor, etched with mottled green rust, exuded a sense of age that felt like it had traveled from the upper reaches of the river of time, undeniably surpassing 800 years.
Gazing at the giant robot, it was as if he were seeing the entire era of the slumbering, forgotten hundred years.
Its broken and damaged helmet, the myriad of scars etched across its metallic surface, all testified that this robot was a warrior who had endured the baptism of time and war.
Even so, it lay there quietly amidst the refuse, unburied by the ages, still immortal. It seemed that if only it were given the energy it required, it could rise again and brandish its blade against its enemies.
From this immortal warrior, one could catch a glimpse of the world 800 years ago.
It must have been a magnificently indescribable world, countless times more advanced than the present, a world that existed only in the future, even more wondrous.
Later, he learned from Vegapunk that this ancient robot was indeed over 800 years old.
Specifically, it was a machine from 900 years ago.
Following this, they heard many interesting conjectures from Vegapunk.
According to Vegapunk, during that hundred-year void, a nation with a highly developed civilization, for some unknown reason, went to war with the twenty most powerful nations in the world at that time.
Of course, the victor of this war was, as expected, the first twenty nations to establish the World Government.
These were the ancestors of the current Celestial Dragons.
Kong Tai and the others had vaguely suspected this when they saw the robot, so they weren't particularly surprised.
However, Vegapunk's subsequent words greatly astonished them.
It was regarding the reason for Ohara's annihilation.
According to Vegapunk, he only discovered this after visiting Ohara after its destruction.
At the time, he had just joined the World Government. To offer a bouquet of condolences to his old friend, "Professor Clover," he requested to be sent to Ohara, and the World Government agreed.
Hearing Ohara mentioned again, Robin was greatly surprised, and Kong Tai and the others were also somewhat taken aback.
According to Vegapunk, his understanding of Professor Clover was clearly more extensive than what Robin remembered.
Professor Clover was an adventurer who obsessively researched the history of the blank hundred years, scouring the world for documents.
During that period, Professor Clover was repeatedly arrested by the Marines, imprisoned no less than ten times.
Yet, even so, it could not dampen his passion.
After collecting a sufficient number of documents, Professor Clover returned to Ohara. Scholars from all over the world, inspired by his spirit, gradually gathered in Ohara, bringing with them even more documents.
This was why Ohara became the world's largest repository of books.
This was also why Ohara became the archaeological holy land of the world.
The subsequent events were largely known to everyone.
That is, Ohara, through countless historical documents, had indeed uncovered the existence of that highly civilized nation.
To prevent the ideology of that nation from reappearing in the world, and to ensure it was not inherited by anyone, the World Government ordered the Navy to initiate a Buster Call on Ohara.
Was history wrong?
Certainly not.
Were the people who studied history wrong?
That should also be... not wrong!
Kong Tai could understand the scholars like Professor Clover and admire them, but they should also have known that such matters should not be pursued openly. He could understand their attitude towards history, but their lack of prudence had led to the deaths of countless people on the island. He did not agree with this.
Tragedy was never caused by a single party; it was always a culmination of various reasons. Even if one were inexplicably beaten up on the street, there were likely reasons related to oneself, or if not, then reasons of fate.
The World Government had explicitly forbidden research, and yet, after being arrested ten times, they persisted, even drawing more people into their research.
This...
Kong Tai was neither a historian nor an archaeologist, so he could not comprehend their obsession.
At times, he wondered, was history truly that important?
Important enough to make a person, or a group of people, disregard their lives to seek the truth?
Truth...
What was truth?
Truth was merely the words left behind by the victors for posterity, glorifying themselves.
It was possible that what you believed to be truth was actually a facade created by earlier rulers.
However, Kong Tai would not voice any of this, especially not to Robin.
For these matters, which seemed meaningless to him, were the very meaning of Robin's existence.
Ohara's destruction had left her as the sole survivor, the sole inheritor of Ohara, of her mother, of Professor Clover, and of the ideals of countless scholars.
This was likely why she was so obsessed with history!
When Vegapunk recounted how, upon setting foot on the scorched earth where even the Tree of Knowledge had been burned and collapsed, he saw the devastated Ohara, Robin could no longer hold back her tears and sobbed uncontrollably.
It was a pain she never wished to recall.
However, Vegapunk's subsequent words became a glimmer of hope for her to emerge from the shadows.
Vegapunk said that he had seen a large number of documents in the lake in the center of the island, quietly slumbering there.
Speaking of this, Vegapunk became quite emotional.
One could imagine how shocking that scene must have been to him as well.
After all, under the Buster Call, the scholars had not fled. Instead, to prevent these documents from being consumed by flames, they had endured the heat and explosions to transport them to this location, a feat that must have been incredibly arduous.
The thought of the human wall formed around the lake, even Kong Tai's heart was deeply moved.
"Is history really that important?"
He asked himself again in his heart.
No one answered him, and the divine being on the other shore, who blurred even time itself, would certainly not answer.
In this light, in the end, even though Professor Clover and countless scholars had perished, Ohara had won.
Because their countless histories and documents had been preserved, leaving a legacy of knowledge for future generations.
Subsequently, they learned of Vegapunk's true abilities.
He was a Devil Fruit user who had consumed the Horo Horo no Mi.
He had memorized all the books left behind by Ohara, and from these documents, he gained much knowledge and insight that he had lacked before.
However, this was not what concerned them most.
What they were concerned about was another revelation from Vegapunk that surprised everyone and brought Robin to tears once more.
Vegapunk not only found a multitude of documents in the lake but also encountered Dragon and a large number of Giants who were in the process of moving the historical documents.
From Dragon, they learned that these giants had been brought from Elbaf by a giant entirely wrapped in bandages.
And the captain of this group of giants, when Vegapunk visited Elbaf to record the Ohara documents with his Devil Fruit ability, also learned his name: it was the Giant Vice Admiral "Hagward D. Sauro," whom Robin had encountered in her childhood.
It was also at that time that Dragon, realizing the brutality of the World Government, truly established the Revolutionary Army.