Chapter 327: White Shadows Over Flevance

What Dragon had just witnessed was even more terrifying than hell itself.

Delicate women with fair faces were shamelessly marked with price tags.

Those who couldn’t endure the torment—driven mad or to suicide—left their broken bodies scattered across the prison.

The stench of blood hung thick in the air, but the guards outside and the king inside the royal palace turned a deaf ear to it all.

Maybe the only thing on their minds was how much these people could fetch if sold.

“The world can’t keep going on like this.”

Dragon raised his eyes to the sky.

At the heart of all this suffering stood the Celestial Dragons.

As long as the Celestial Dragons existed, tragedies like these would never end. In fact, they’d only get worse.

A gentle breeze swept by, and Dragon vanished from the top of the tower.

That was the day everything changed.

Under the banner of rebellion, the Revolutionary Army began gathering strength across the sea.

Of the eight teams, the one progress moved fastest in was the North Blue squad.

They had arrived in Flevance, a town famous for its white facade.

Everyone here was suffering from Amber Lead Syndrome.

No treatment existed, no way to prevent it. Only the power of the Ope-Ope Fruit could remove the deadly lead from one’s body.

Their skin and hair grew whiter, pain escalating until death claimed them, the disease even passing down through generations.

The World Government had realized decades ago that amber lead meant huge profits, so they covered up the truth about the toxin.

They forced everyone on the island to mine the white ore for them.

As a result, the entire island population was plagued by this disease.

Driven by a sense of justice, Borsalino, Kuzan, Sakazuki, Kuma and others joined under the Revolutionary Army’s leadership.

It was Kuzan himself who led the team arriving in North Blue.

“Go get in touch with our local contacts.”

With nearly a hundred people spread out across this ocean of white, Kuzan adjusted his eyepatch and stepped into the pale city.

“Sir, please look at my child!”

“Quick, lay her down here!”

A woman hurried up carrying a baby, barely the size of her palm, to the doctor’s side.

The tiny infant looked like a preemie, and the woman’s age suggested she was a grandmother or great-grandmother.

After a quick check, the doctor sighed. “No luck… it happened again.”

“Why has this awful sickness chosen us?”

The doctors in Flevance had all been deceived by the World Government. To them, it was just a terrifying infectious disease.

For years they hoped a newborn might emerge disease-free, offering a path for a vaccine, but every single baby got sick.

Scenes like this left even renowned doctors powerless.

Those doctors who’d discovered the true source—amber lead, not infection—were all eliminated in secret by the World Government.

Three days later, after intense preparation, Kuzan stood at a podium in a freshly dug underground hall, facing thousands of people.

“Hello, everyone!”

“I’m one of the Revolutionary Army’s leaders.”

“What’s happening to your bodies is not an infectious disease—it’s a toxin.”

As soon as Kuzan finished speaking, the crowd erupted in confusion.

“What? It’s not a disease, it’s poison?”

“A toxin? Where did it come from? Why only us?”

“So this illness in us is really a toxin?”

“…”

Kuzan quickly motioned with his hands for calm.

“Everyone, please settle down!”

“The reason I invited you here is to explain clearly where the poison afflicting you comes from.”

After joining the Revolutionary Army and seeing real suffering, Kuzan devoted himself even more fully to what he believed was right.

Seeing the World Government act like this only deepened his contempt for both them and the Navy.

“This toxin comes from your country’s unique white ore—amber lead!”

“There’s no cure, and the effects can burden your children and grandchildren as well.”

“The only hope is to stop mining the ore and gradually purify the bloodline, or use suppressants, so future generations won’t suffer the same fate.”

But that was just one method. Even with the Ope-Ope Fruit, a single user couldn’t possibly save all of Flevance’s 300,000 people, given the power’s limits.

The disease struck at random, claiming lives every moment. No one could save everyone.

Sometimes the best chance was to save the next generation, sparing them the torment, and inspiring people to fight for change.

“What about us?”

“…”

Kuzan said nothing else, but the pain in his face and his open hands made the answer clear: there was little hope.

Inside, Kuzan was wracked with grief.

This was 300,000 lives—failing to save them meant dooming the entire island.

“I’m sorry. We came too late!”

He bowed his head deeply.

He couldn’t bring himself to watch the sea of tear-streaked faces any longer.

“Then I understand. I’ll join you.”

“So my son and grandson never have to feel this pain again, I’ll do anything.”

A middle-aged man with pure white hair stepped forward.

His sunken cheeks and bent frame made it clear—he’d been a miner all his life.

“Me too, count me in.”

“No matter what, let this illness end with our generation.”

“That’s right, sign me up!”

Voices rose one after another. No one wanted their children to repeat their own fate.

The plan proceeded far smoother than expected. That day, Kuzan gave a dozen speeches like this across the island.

To make these people true fighters,

Kuzan hunted mighty Sea Kings himself and raided the homes of nobles to buy medicine and suppressants in bulk.

He distributed them among all who promised to stand with the army.

Though it couldn’t completely cure the poison, at least it could add years—even a decade or more—to their lives.

On a moonless night when the wind howled, everything was set.

Kuzan gathered the recruits and launched a covert operation no one would ever know about.

To this day, the details of what happened in Flevance remain a secret.

The amber lead trade continued, annual shipments of Heavenly Gold kept flowing, so the World Government never suspected a thing.

But the kingdom’s throne now belonged to the Revolutionary Army’s appointed division leader.

As for the miners, with the aid of machines, they left the mines behind to finally rest and heal.

Kuzan divided the island in two. One side still mined and traded,

while the other became a place for the survivors to recover. The two sides kept to themselves.

He submitted his report to Dragon, requesting permission to build a Revolutionary Army division here, and quickly got approval.

After all, nearly 300,000 people on Flevance was a force to be reckoned with.

After a short round of new bloodlines and treatments, faint spots of yellow and black began to replace some of the pure white.

But to fully rid themselves of that unnatural pallor and look normal again, they might need several more years’ care.

As it happened, that timing would be just right for a much larger event yet to come.