55 While you talk, I use my secret technique!

|A few minutes later...|

...

"How can you get to decide something like that?!"

"I get to decide because I got you into this castle as you asked, despite it just making it more probable for problems to come to haunt me later"

"Kh... You... How self-centered can you be?!"

"Alright, I'm not hearing any more of this"

A few minutes passed since Farid had saved Robin from being crushed under the debris of the falling floor/ceiling of the Tomb of Kings. And since then, both of them had been arguing, with the conversation going nowhere no matter how much they talked.

It seemed that, despite being saved, Robin was not too pleased with that fact.

Farid, on the other hand, was not the type of person to just allow someone to drown in despair and kill themselves because of it. He had seen a few people like that in his trips across the Grandline, and it was left to say, he didn't like their actions.

He had managed to save a few. However, there were a few that still accomplished their wish before he was able to do anything. And honestly, he was not about to have another one of those do as she pleased in his presence.

Plus, he was now even more of a criminal than before. So at the very least, he was going to keep his accomplice with him so that she would share some of the blame with him if he was to be discovered.

Though, he would probably run away from Arabasta if that were to happen.

Suddenly, as their discussion seemed to have finally calmed down a bit, Farid noticed something as he looked at Robin before soon he frowned slightly and then asked her something.

"Hey, where is your mask?"

Hearing him, Robin touched her face with a surprised expression, before she then looked away as she spoke in a low voice.

"... It probably fell while I was down there"

"Oh, come on... You gotta be kidding me"

Massaging his temples through the mask, Farid then sighed, as he immediately started looking for a way out of there. Not wanting to continue dealing with more troubles.

His plans were destined to go awry, though.

"You... what did you do to the Tombs?!"

At that moment, the grave voice of the king reached Farid's ears and made him turn around with an irritated expression on his face.

'What now...?'

In the direction where the angry voice of the King had sounded, he saw an enormous group of people approaching. In there, Pell and Chaka, as well as the four Elites of the Royal Guard were walking beside the king and guarding him with upset expressions on their faces.

And they weren't alone, as behind them, he then Saw Vivi being followed by the Straw-hat crew, who were looking curiously at the destruction that his visit to the Royal Castle had caused.

'These guys are here as well?'

Raising an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of the only pirates he had left uncaptured since a long time ago, Farid then shook his head briefly, before he then looked back towards the king and prepared to speak.

Of course, he knew that if he spoke as he was right now, Vivi and the Straw-hat crew would immediately recognize him without a problem. They already knew about his voice, after all.

Thus, changing a little bit his posture, and focusing more on his vocal cords as well as the vibration of his chest, Farid then coughed at a low volume for a moment, before he then turned to look back at the king and raised his voice without hesitation.

"We meet again"

His voice now sounded several times deeper than before.

All that, was a trick he learned during the six years he had traveled the Grandline capturing pirates. One that, thanks to his stat of Phsycomotor ability, had allowed him to control much better his own voice, and his vocal cords. Granting him a much wider range of voice than before.

Of course, it wasn't to the point where he could perfectly copy the voice of anyone. However, he still had enormous control over it, and the range of his voice was wide enough so that he could make his own voice sound very different.

"...?"

Hearing him, the king furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered that his voice was different from when Farid had infiltrated the castle and threatened to kill him. Fortunately for Farid, knowing that the matter at hand was much more important than that, the King decided to ignore that matter for now and instead focused on asking him his reason for infiltrating the castle once again.

"What happened to your voice...? No, never mind that, what are your intentions in coming here and destroying the place where my ancestors rest peacefully?"

Then, as he finished talking, the king glared at him and at Robin, who was without her mask, and squinted his eyes in suspicion.

Of course, he knew very well about her. As a child that had been labeled as one of the survivors of the devils from Ohara, she was supposedly also one of the people that wanted to end the world using the Poneglyphs to discover where the Ancestral Weapons laid dormant.

As a king, and as a leader whose country was part of the World Government, it was obvious for him to know who she was, even if her face looked more mature than the image in her wanted poster. Though, it had been a tad hard to recognize it at first.

'Why is he with her...?'

Glaring at the still-masked Farid with a suspicious gaze, Cobra's suspicions soon started growing larger.

Then, as if cementing his suspicions, Farid soon opened his mouth and told him the reason he was there. Making Cobra's eyes widen in shock as his mind started connecting dots.

"I came here to fulfill her request" Was what Farid said as he signaled with his hand at Robin, who was looking at him with squinted eyes.

"The Poneglyph... Is that what you are after?"

Asking that, Cobra looked from the corner of his eyes at the place where the secret entrance to the Poneglyph chamber was supposed to be before he then frowned even more deeply as he noticed how everything had collapsed. Knowing that probably the Poneglyph was now buried under all the rubble.

After hearing his question, Farid was about to say something. However, before he had the chance, Robin took a step forward and rose her voice.

"It was. However, its contents were of no use to me. I'm already tired, so you can arrest me now and hand me to the Marine if you want"

"You were able to read it?" Chaka exclaimed as his eyes widened. Surprised at the revelation.

"This chick..."

On the other hand, Squinting his eyes at her answer, Farid groaned mentally, before he then took a step forward as well, and spoke to the king while shrugging his shoulders.

"Don't mind her. It seems like the contents of that Poneglyph messed her head up a bit, and now she is speaking incoherencies"

"You, stop...!"

Glaring at Farid with a ferocious expression, Robin was about to say something, but the King interrumped her.

"What do you plan to do with the contents of the Poneglyph now that you have them...?" Said Cobra as he looked at the pair in front of him with an uneasy expression on his face.

Ancestral weapons were said to be capable of destroying the world, after all. If they had somehow managed to discover the location of one of them, then it would mean big problems for the whole of mankind.

Cursing at himself for not putting enough security and for letting the secret of its publication leak, Cobra then glanced at Robin and waited for her answer.

However, unlike what he expected, Farid answered instead of her as he shrugged his shoulders while speaking with a helpless tone.

"Nothing. It was not what we were looking for. We will just leave quietly now if you don't mind"

"I won't allow it!" Yelled Chaka as he glanced at Farid with a hateful expression.

"Father, what is this Poneglyph you are talking about?"

As Farid and Chaka began glaring at each other in silence, Vivi took a step forward and glanced at her father with a confused expression.

Noticing that she had followed him, Cobra shook his head with a helpless expression, before he then glanced at her and began explaining to her what it was. All the while, the straw hats just listened from the side with surprised expressions on their faces.

"Ancestral weapons, such a thing can exist?"

"I feel like we have gotten ourselves into an even bigger mess out of nowhere..."

"Sounds boring~"

As the straw hats talked to each other about the thing they had just discovered, suddenly a voice called out to them and made them all look around.

"Straw-hats, you are Vivi-Sama's allies, right!? Then help us defeat that man! He is an opponent we can't defeat alone!"

Chaka, who by now had already morphed into his hybrid form once again and was pointing his sword at Farid, yelled at them as he looked with a furious expression at Farid.

Hearing him, Vivi's eyes widened for a second, before she frowned at immediately turned to look at Luffy and the others to tell them that it was not necessary and that they had done enough already.

However, before she had the chance to do so, suddenly Luffy spoke up, and an annoyed expression appeared on his face.

"Ehhhhh...? Don't wanna..."

Hearing him, Chaka became astonished. As he had not expected him to refuse so blatantly to help them out.

The king also looked at him slightly surprised. However, considering that they were pirates, his surprise didn't really last long.

He had thought that they and Vivi were close friends judging from how they acted around each other, but judging by his nonchalant response just now, it seemed that he had been mistaken.

It was then, however, that Luffy opened his mouth again, and made both Chaka and the King widen their eyes in surprise.

"I mean, he hasn't done anything really bad, right?"

"..."

Hearing him, Chaka was about to refute him. However, before he had the chance, Pell took a step forward and glanced at him as he spoke.

"He is saying the truth Chaka. I talked with some of the soldiers to know how grave the situation was with those injured, and surprisingly, every one of them is only knocked out and with just a few bruises over their bodies"

"What...?"

Muttering in a surprised tone, Chaka widened his eyes as he glanced at Farid.

The king did the same after he heard what Pell had said. Surprised by the slightly pleasant news amid what seemed to be a tragedy.

'If that's true... And considering that he saved Arabasta... Could it be really okay to trust them that they will not do anything with the information they gained through the Poneglyph...?'

Pondering deeply about it, Cobra sighed exhaustingly.

Even if he knew that it was better to not trust such a suspicious individual, it wasn't as if he could retain him. Even his strongest men were no match for him, so what could he do, aside from just hoping for the best?

'Can I really trust this man?'

In the worst case, he would need to inform the World Government eventually. However, he was still doubtful about whether it was a good idea or not.

It was then that Cobra turned around in direction of the mysterious man, hoping to be able to get a hint of his real intentions or ambitions before he noticed that both the mysterious man and Nico Robin had completely disappeared and were now nowhere to be seen.

It seemed that they had left while Chaka, Pell, and the King were distracted analyzing what Luffy had said.

Chaka also turned around at that moment as well, following the gaze of his King. And when he also noticed that both of them had disappeared, his anger exploded and he embedded his sword on the ground as he knelt while cursing angrily.

"Those bastards...!"

However, before he had the chance to get angrier, Cobra called him out and made him snap out of his enraged state.

"Enough, Chaka! There was nothing we could do to stop them anyways... We should be grateful that they left quietly without killing anyone!"

"But Cobra-sama..."

"Enough I said! Now, we need to focus on more important matters than them... My daughter has come back after two years of being infiltrated into enemy lines, I don't think I need to tell you how I feel about that, right?"

"-Sigh...- understood..."

Nodding his head with a satisfied expression, Cobra turned to look at his men, before he signaled them to follow him with his head.

"Good. Pell, Tsumegeri. Let's go!"

""Yes, my King!""

Hearing their enthusiastic yell, Cobra then turned to look at Vivi and at the straw hats, before he then smiled slightly as he spoke.

"I'm sure you are all hungry. Come on, let's celebrate with a banquet the return of my daughter"

"OOOOOH, A BANQUET!"

"MEAT!"

"What's a banquet?"

"BOOZE!"

"Hmm, I wonder what types of food they make here in Arabasta?"

Hearing him, everyone in the straw hats soon began talking enthusiastically to each other as they smiled slightly at the mention of a banquet. Vivi, on the other hand, just looked at them with a helpless smile on her face.

After that, the king started walking away as the straw hats and his men followed him. With the sound of someone yelling "Food, food, food!" coming from them from time to time.

However, not everyone actually followed the king.

"Pell?"

Vivi, who had seen that Pell had just stood quietly looking in the direction where Farid had left, raised an eyebrow and called out his name with confusion in her voice. Not understanding why he was not following her father.

"Ah, I'm sorry Vivi-sama..."

Turning to look at Vivi with a wry expression on his face after she had called out to him, Pell then patted his clothes while sheathing his sword, before he then walked towards her and looked at the sky with a strange expression on his face.

"... It's just that... That man seemed oddly familiar, and I don't know why"

"He seemed familiar to you? That's strange... He also seemed strangely familiar to me as well..."

"Is that so...? How strange"

Looking at each other with confused expressions for a brief second, soon both of them let out a short laugh, as they started walking in the direction where the King and the straw hats had left.

"It's good to have you back, Vivi-Sama"

"Thanks, Pell... I just hope that the same could be said about everyone"

"...?"

Looking at Vivi with a confused expression on his face for a second, Pell soon remembered the figure of a boy he had personally instructed into the art of combat, and from whom he had been an adoptive father temporarily, and smiled slightly.

"Hmm"

Simply nodding his head, soon, both he and Vivi disappeared into the distance. Leaving only a destroyed zone, and an intense silence behind.

...

-To be continued-

(A/N: Now begins the last arc of Farid in Arabasta (I know it is taking a long time, but bear with me for a bit, after this one, everything should begin happening at a faster pace), and also, the one I fear the most.

Why? Because the romance tag in the synopsis will finally take its place in this novel.

-Sigh...-

Let's just hope that my very extensive experience with women will be worth something...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter)