The Reverie Begins

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Within Pangaea Castle, the Socialising Plaza has fallen quieter after the earlier disturbance, and someone notes, "This place isn't as lively as it was before..." Another answers, "That's because of what happened earlier." Shirahoshi is already smiling again while Mansherry heals her bruises. People call, "Shirahoshi-san!!" and "How do you feel-resu?" Shirahoshi answers, "My bruises have fully healed!" and thanks Mansherry: "Thank you very much, Mansherry-chan-sama! That ability of yours is so lovely." Mansherry blushes and calls Shirahoshi "the largest princess in the world," while pointing out that the largest and smallest princesses in the world are meeting face to face. Shirahoshi apologizes for being scared of her at first, restoring warmth after the violence.

Saint Donquixote Mjosgard stands beside Shirahoshi's group and turns his apology into a promise. He says that because of his own actions, they were able to resolve the dispute without giving up what they wanted, and he tells Shirahoshi, "For the next seven days, I will stand alongside Princess Shirahoshi." He accepts full responsibility if protecting the princess becomes useful to her and her people. The Ryugu family processes the meaning of that protection: there are good humans and bad humans, just as there are bad fish-men and good fish-men. Manboshi asks whether this means they can beat up anybody with Mjosgard's permission, and Mjosgard answers that he will take full responsibility if it is to protect the princess. Vivi apologizes to Pell for making him stand by her side, while Rebecca explains that earlier Pell received a letter from Admiral Fujitora and is now meeting him and King Riku.

Meanwhile, at the main entrance to the Pangaea Castle grounds, the narration explains that there are three heavily guarded gates, and this one is the Celestial Dragon Gate, the entrance to the domain of the gods. An elderly woman is identified as Queen Dowager Connie of the Sorbet Kingdom. She chuckles, "Uehe hehehe!" and the guards recognize her, but they refuse to let her pass: "Queen Dowager Connie... the domain of the gods is through this gate. I can't let you pass, so please return to the main castle. It's dangerous here!!" From nearby, a wounded Saint Charlos howls in rage about Mjosgard: "Oww!! It hurts!! Oonforgivable!! Damn youuu, Mjosgard!!" The gate scene places Connie's quiet infiltration next to the Celestial Dragons' arrogance and pain.

The guards are forced to open the gate because Saint Charlos is injured and must be treated immediately. Charlos still rages, "I will nawt let him get away with dis..." and threatens, "You'll open up your wounds if you don't!!" As he crawls forward, a heavy footstep stops the scene. Saint Rosward arrives and shouts, "Are you all alright?" He explains that he heard what happened and was on his way to pick them up. Charlos recognizes him with relief, "Fa... father...!! Saint Rosward!!" Rosward's arrival confirms that Charlos's humiliation has become a Celestial Dragon family matter, and the guards' obedience makes clear again whose pain the Holy Land treats as urgent.

Saint Rosward discovers the real reason Charlos is being transported: his "invincible slave," Bartholomew Kuma, has returned to Mary Geoise as a degraded mount. Rosward calls Mjosgard an odd man and complains that the Don Quixote family is full of oddities, while Charlos wails over his precious son and demands to know what was done to him. Kuma, once a Warlord of the Sea, former executive of the Revolutionary Army, and former king of the Sorbet Kingdom, is chained and hollow-eyed beneath the Celestial Dragon. Charlos says, "Father, dat's...!! The invincible slave, Kuma!!" and declares, "It is!! It was finally my turn to rent him again!!" The horror is that Kuma's body still moves, but his dignity has been reduced to a rental object for the nobles.

From nearby, the disguised Queen Dowager Connie reacts with fury to what she sees. The old woman's face gives way to Jewelry Bonney, a pirate of the Worst Generation and captain of the Bonney Pirates. She had successfully infiltrated Mary Geoise, thinking, "My infiltration mission is a success!!" but the sight of Kuma breaks her composure. Others casually say that hitting him, stabbing him, or even killing him is fine because he is a top-class slave who does not scream or cry. Bonney is horrified and mutters, "Unforgivable...!!" while one Celestial Dragon child envies Charlos: "Ooo, I'm sooo jealous, daddy! Wait, dat doesn't matter, cuz I'm aboot to die!!" Bonney's anger makes clear that Kuma is not just a political symbol to her; seeing him enslaved is personal.

Beneath Mary Geoise, the Revolutionary Army hides in the ground. Morley, cramped in an underground space, complains, "Oh, you boys are so scaryyyy!! It's impossible not to be!!" while someone tells Sabo not to get so worked up. Sabo cannot contain himself after learning what has happened: "One of our comrades has ended up in a situation like that!! That gentle Kuma!!!" The revolutionaries acknowledge that they all feel the same way, but there is no way they can leave Kuma to his fate. The reason they came here was precisely for this. The hidden base under the Holy Land turns the Reverie into a rescue operation: aboveground, kings gather for diplomacy; belowground, revolutionaries prepare to challenge the gods' ownership of their friend.

The revolutionaries spell out the cost of rescuing Kuma. Even if they do save him, he will not return to being the Kuma they once knew, because "Kuma-chan's life itself has been sacrificed to the World Government." He had been a former king of a country allied with the World Government, and the rulers turned him into an example for the world to see: a demonstration of what happens when someone defies the gods. Lindbergh warns that the Celestial Dragons control both CP0 and Marine HQ, so if the mission is handled poorly and they are caught, the consequences will be fatal. Sabo refuses to frame it as a matter of doing well or poorly. With grim certainty he says, "No. There is no poorly. We have two options... success or death...!!"

The day of the Reverie arrives. The narration pulls back to the scale of the world itself: the seas are split into four regions by the great wall known as the Red Line, and the unforgiving Grand Line cuts across it. The Holy Land Mary Geoise sits at that center. Most countries in the world are part of the World Government, a huge entity formed from 170 allied countries across the globe. From among those countries, fifty kings and representatives are chosen to gather in the Holy Land every four years. The page strips away the character drama for a moment and presents the system behind it: the Reverie is not merely a meeting, but the formal machinery of global rule.

As the representatives take their seats, the conference is introduced as the large meeting known as the Reverie. The rulers discuss Wano's status, noting that Wano is not an allied country, or in other words, it is a lawless area. One says they do not know whether it has the proper structure of a country, while another notes that money must be involved for the Marines to move. The conversation turns back to Luffy: after the attempted assassination of Big Mom, some wonder if he will try for Kaido's head next, while others call him daring for causing world-wide disturbance over and over again. King Ham Burger laughs, "You got that right! Wahaha!!" and calls him Straw Hat Luffy, but King Riku looks uneasy, sensing the stakes behind the laughter.

The Reverie begins under a rotating chairmanship. Someone notes that the chairman changes each time, and another asks, "Who is it this time?" The answer is King Ham Burger, who introduces himself with "It's me" and greets the other rulers: "It's nice to meet you all." Kings from many nations exchange polite remarks, and one says, "Ballywood, eh... It's nice to meet you." The huge round table of the World Government fills the chamber, and Ham Burger opens the session: "All right now, kings of the world... As usual, let's carefully discuss... the matters of this beautiful world!!" The scale is ceremonious and global, but the discussion already carries the tension of pirates, Wano, and the unresolved disasters outside the room.

Outside the conference, the Five Elders discuss a separate request from King Cobra of Alabasta. One Elder says Cobra has requested a meeting with them during the conference, and another says, "Did he figure something out...? Let's hope he doesn't make things complicated." Their words reveal their suspicion toward the Nefertari family, who were one of the founding twenty members eight hundred years ago but chose to remain on the surface instead of moving to Mary Geoise. To the Five Elders, that makes them traitors. They also acknowledge the worsening global instability: the Big Mom and Kaido incident, the two years since the Summit War, and waves of disturbance that cannot be prevented anymore. One Elder concludes, "The balance of the world... cannot be maintained forever," and another adds, "It seems like there is a need for a great cleansing."

Inside Pangaea Castle's Room of Flowers, a silent figure moves through a garden while butterflies drift around. Servants announce, "Im-sama... Everyone has arrived." The figure carries or has handled images of key people: Luffy's wanted poster, Blackbeard's wanted poster, Shirahoshi's picture, and Vivi's image. The page then follows Im through the castle toward the Empty Throne, passing the great doors and the ceremonial stairway that had been described as no one's seat. Vivi is shown separately, troubled and silent, while the hidden ruler walks where no king is supposed to stand. Without explaining Im's identity, the page makes the contradiction visual: the world claims there is no single sovereign, yet someone is approaching the throne.

The Five Elders kneel before the Empty Throne and say, "We, the Five Elders... are here before you!!!" Their shock confirms what the world must never know: someone is sitting on the Empty Throne. One voice stammers, "Oh, Im-sama...!!" and the page reveals Im seated high above the weapons that symbolize the old oath. The Elders ask, "Have you decided who it should be yet?!" and "Please... tell us their name!!" Another frames the decision as erasure: "The light that needs to be extinguished from history..." The chapter ends with the hidden monarch's eye in darkness and the printed question, "Someone is sitting on the Empty Throne...?!" The public Reverie begins, but the true power of the world is shown in secret.

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