One Piece: Reborn as Enel

Chapter 44: The Royal Family

__________ POV Narration__________

Rebecca was confused at first, not really knowing what the commotion was about in the arena.

She wasn't exactly liked by many people there, so no one actually talked to her.

Her lineage was actually hated due to Doflamingo manipulating everyone into thinking they had been incompetent rulers and tyrants.

She didn't expect some of the gladiators to suddenly start spewing slurs and hate Doflamingo with a passion.

But this was similar all across the city when people regained their memories of their loved ones as soon as Sugar was knocked out.

Rebecca, the pink-haired princess also received quite a few apologies from some of the gladiators, as now they knew that Doflamingo was the cause for their suffering.

The next thing that shocked Rebecca was seeing her Aunt, Viola, walk into the hall and scream out for her.

Kyros also came in, but Rebecca had some issues remembering him at first. Then all of her memories came back to her, as her eyes widened and tears started falling.

A lot of the gladiators could now recognize Kyros too, a legend that had conquered the arena at some point, his statue still standing tall in their halls.

Even when missing a leg, Kyros still had the presence fitting of a champion of the arena, and many respected him for it.

Rebecca ran and embraced her father with tears in her eyes, not knowing even what to say. Viola simply looked to the side a bit, not letting the two of them bask in each other's presence.

Then she noticed someone else walking towards them, another gladiator. She took a stance, thinking that maybe he was an associate of Doflamingo.

It was a strange assumption to make, as Doflamingo's soldiers within the arena were currently being killed by the gladiators without any mercy.

Even Spartan, one of the gladiators that had bullied Rebecca within the arena for a long time, was at the forefront of those gladiators, as he mercilessly killed as many of Doflamingo's men as he could.

Viola was still not exactly in a calm state of mind though, as everything was happening too quickly around her.

Relief only finally washed over her when the gladiator took off his helmet, revealing the aged face of an old man with greyed-out hair and beard.

Viola had a hard time while under Doflamingo's tyranny. But she could still recognize the man in front of her at first glance.

"F-father!" It was none other than Riku Doldo III, Viola's father, and she had a similar reaction to that of Rebecca when seeing her father again.

She had suffered a lot to get to that point, and finally seeing someone she could consider a parental figure made her cry, as she felt she could finally show a moment of weakness.

This was the same feeling she had felt when seeing Enel, for a large part of her life, she had lived in fear, putting up a strong face and doing her best to survive with everything she had.

Even appearing vulnerable was like asking to be taken advantage of. And she knew that from experience, as she hadn't always been as hardened as she was now.

Still, she was even forced to join Doflamingo's forces in order to get him to spare her father. So she was obviously emotional now that she got to see him again in person.

At least in front of her father, she could finally let go for a moment. The old king Doldo could only grit his teeth when seeing his daughter in such a state.

"I'm sorry dear... I wasn't a good enough father... Nor a good enough king." The old man had felt helpless for the longest of time, having his family dismantled and his kingdom usurped made him reflect a lot on his life.

It was as if he was stuck in a pit, and only now that he saw his family all gathered in one place did he start seeing some light. Now that his memories of Kyros had also returned, he was a lot happier too.

"N-no... None of this is your fault father! It's all because of Doflamingo, he was the one that caused all of this!" Viola still shivered a bit when mentioning the deceased Warlord's name.

Well, that was only because she didn't know Enel had already ended his life. She thought that Enel was likely still fighting him somewhere near the palace.

The old King simply heaved a tired sigh and started patting his daughter's head for a bit.

"Still... It was my duty to protect this country as its king. And it was my duty to protect you as a father... I failed in both regards, unfortunately. To the point where you also had to give your freedom for me to preserve my life..."

Doldo still felt ashamed when thinking of his failures. But that had been his life for many years now. Living his life in shame as he had failed to save anything that he held dear.

That was also likely the only reason Doflamingo was letting him live in the first place. To toy with him, to let him live with the shame of being useless to both his people and his family.

To Doflamingo, seeing Viola prostrate herself at his feet was likely even more entertaining, which was why he had also kept her around and enjoyed himself with her...

Rebecca was similar, she had been too small to catch the Warlord's attention at the time, so he just threw her in the arena and stopped caring about her.

It was no mistake that Doflamingo was a disgusting man, Viola herself knew that she wouldn't be able to rest properly for a long time if she didn't see him dead.

Viola wanted to open her mouth to refute her father's statements. She would never call her father useless, to her he was the only king she would ever respect. The only one she'd bow her head to willingly.

"Let's not dwell on the past anymore though... What is happening? Why is Doflamingo's grip on Dressrosa suddenly weakening?"

It made sense for him to ask this, Rebecca and Kyros's attention was also captured by that question, the two of them finally breaking the hug and looking at the exchange between Viola and the former king with curiosity.

"W-well... That's a bit difficult to say... A rear admiral appeared in the castle while Doflamingo was mistreating me... He should be fighting Doflamingo right now, but I'm sure Doflamingo has his Elite officers with him by now... Besides Diamante, I guess. And Trebol, who isn't on Dressrosa."

Viola was rather quick to give them a rundown of the situation. The old king also noticed that Viola was wearing a marine coat, which somewhat gave validity to the whole story.

"A rear admiral?! We need to get there quickly, he will need our support!" Kyros said as he gripped his sword with an angry look.

"Indeed... If this person is even still alive... Somehow, we've been all freed, the people of Dressrosa have also started revolting.

Even if a Rear Admiral can't win against Doflamingo and all of his Cadres, we still have the people on our side, and maybe reinforcements are already on their way. Doflamingo's grip on our kingdom has already slipped."

The old king didn't have high hopes of being able to save their benefactor, the Rear Admiral that had saved Viola. He also felt indebted to him, but he knew how frightful Doflamingo was, and knowing that Doflamingo wasn't even alone made things a lot worse.

"N-no... He should be fine. Even if Doflamingo and his cadres ganged up on him, he would still be fine... A-and he's not even alone! He's got that Charlotte Oven's help too!" Viola said as she clutched onto the coat that was still wrapped around her shoulders for a few seconds.

"... You seem rather confident in his strength. I'll take your word for it, you have a better eye for people than your old man." Doldo said as he sighed a bit.

"Still, we should start gathering some fighters and heading there, we need to help with whatever we can," Rebecca said as she clenched her fist for a bit.

Kyros gave her a proud gaze, looking fondly at the woman his daughter had become.

"Yeah... No real need for that..." Every member of the Riku family heard that voice, and all of them turned their heads toward it at the same time, with Kyros quickly putting his hand on his blade, and jumping in front of his daughter.

In the corner of the hall, sat atop some boxes holding gladiator training equipment, stood a rather tall blonde man.

He was dressed in a formal costume, wearing regular black shoes. His most defining feature was definitely his long earlobes, adorned with golden earrings.

This was obviously none other than Enel, looking at the four royal family members with a relaxed gaze.

Kyros was about to ask the newcomer about his identity, but Viola was the one to open her mouth first on this occasion.

"Rear Admiral Enel! Are you ok?!" She ran towards him without much hesitation, Kyros relaxed a bit when seeing that, the old king raised an eyebrow when he heard the concerned tone in his daughter's voice.

Rebecca was only confused for a few seconds before it finally clicked in for her. "Oh! He's the Rear Admiral that's fighting Doflamingo!"

Kyros looked at his daughter with an odd gaze, Doldo simply scratched the back of his head.

Enel just gave her a strained, awkward smile.

"Y-yeah... Are there any other rear admirals on this island?" Enel asked as the smile on his face became a bit genuine.

"Enough about that! Are you ok?! Did you manage to run away?" Viola jumped in front of Enel and grabbed both of his gauntleted arms.

Enel didn't really know how to react for a second, but that wasn't due to embarrassment, he simply didn't think her reaction was going to be that strong to seeing him again.

"Umm... Why would I run away? Doflamingo is dead by the way." Enel said as he took one of his arms back and waved it in the air a bit.

"W-what!? What do you mean he's dead?! Barely 30 minutes have passed!" Viola said as she looked at a random clock in the arena hall.

"Yeah... He didn't really last more than a minute... I didn't want to interrupt your family reunion though!" Enel said with a wide smile as Doldo, the old king, sweated a bit in the background.

'So he was just waiting for us to finish?!' Was the thought going through the heads of most of the people in the room.

"W-wait! Even if you're strong... How did yo-" Enel decided to interrupt Viola, not wanting to stretch out the conversation more than needed.

"Well, I specialize in speed, Doflamingo specializes in his devil fruit usage, and I have a seastone laced staff...

Let's just say I was a bad matchup for him. Pica is also dead, and I apprehended the rest of the officers on the island." At this point, the royal family looked at Enel with a strange gaze.

"Excuse my distrust... But this is the type of thing you have to see to believe..." Kyros said as he wiped the sweat off his brow. Rebecca simply nodded her head, looking at Enel with a wary gaze.

Viola, in stark contrast, looked at Enel with starry eyes, and she seemed extremely excited, which made old man Doldo sigh a bit.

Enel didn't even look like he had been in any fight, which made Viola trust his version of events even more.

Besides, she could easily tell when someone was being dishonest with her, and she could tell that Enel was telling the truth.

In the end, the princess ended up just hugging Enel tightly, burying her face in his chest as she shed tears of happiness. This made Enel raise an eyebrow while wondering if he should return the hug or not.

'This princess is awfully friendly... I guess she's excited about finally being free, no need to discourage her now.' With that thought, he just hugged her back, not with as much passion though.

Doldo, the old man, simply looked at Enel and Viola with narrowed eyes.

"If Viola believes him, then so do I..." The old man said in the end, gaining strange looks from both Rebecca and Kyros.

Enel ended up looking at the three of them with a calm gaze, his tone was a bit strained in the following sentence, as Viola was still hugging him.

"You do realize that you don't have to take my word on this, right? You can literally go out to the palace and see them... Including Doflamingo's body."

The members of the Riku family that weren't latched onto Enel all looked at each other, then simply nodded.

And with that, they were off, and all of them started walking toward the palace.

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