We smeared the cream on the soles of our shoes and continued inconspicuously toward the city.
The town was about a kilometer from Hoper's cabin and its houses were not built of wood or stone, but of pink lily pads stuck together like stone walls.
Dia: These houses look interesting, how are they built?
Biburo: They are made from steel rose petals and the glue from the water lily acts as a type of cement to hold them together.
Oliver: And what is a steel rose Madam Biburo?
Biburo: You see this gigantic water lily bud in the middle of the island, right?
Oliver: Yes, I see the bud and what about it?
Biburo: Their leaves are hard like steel, but if they are not coated with the glue after being cut, then the steel rose petals lose their strength and become soft like normal leaves after a few hours.
Terra: I think the houses are really pretty, but the fact that everyone weares these leaves on their body is pretty strange! Isn't there anyone here wearing normal clothes?
Biburo: It often happens that when it rains that people slip and then their clothes stick to the ground. The clothes we're wearing right now are very cheap and everyone in the city can handle it if they got stuck to the ground forever or If they got ruined.
Wallace: So it's to save up money, but what if you slip without wearing clothes?
Biburo: Then you have to pay at least 5,000 belly for a special cream that can then loosen your body from the ground. Inside the rosebud there is also a stone floor that was financed and built by the nobles who live there. Inside the bud there is also a separate city that can only be entered thru the Steel Rose Gate.
The Steel Rose Gate is located at the end of the outer Rose City in front of a small pond, where we should arrive at any moment. The inner Rose City is surrounded by the steel rose and is therefore a natural fortress. The Steel Rose Gate is heavily guarded at all times and it is the only access to the inner Rose City.
Dafne: And I guess we have to get your son out of there?
Biburo: Exactly, but I have prepared a plan. Since fire has no effect on the steel rose petals, we can't simply burn our way into the inner Rose City. But I found another path when I tried to free my son the last time.
Dia: And what kind of path would that be?
Biburo: You cannot enter the steel rose from the sides or from above it, but there is another way to get to the center of the steel rose. We can cut a hole from outside of the steel rose into the bottom of the lily pad and then swim into the stem of the water lily and from inside the stem we can climb up into the inner Rose City.
Dia: But you ate a devil fruit, so how could you swim into the stem?
Biburo: Under the lily pad there are several glands that produce a kind of slime under the water lily and this slime ensures that the weight of the water lily is kept above sea level. This slime creates buoyancy and stabilizes the seerose island.
Wallace: That sounds gross, do we really have to get inside the steel rose by this way?
Biburo: Unfortunately I don't know any other way to get into the inner Rose City. But first we should go to an old friend of mine, he knows the inner Rose City and he wants to help us, his name is... .
The next moment Madam Biburo was interrupted and a fat man in fine silk clothes who was about 1.50 m tall and whose upper row of teeth protruded from his mouth came onto a stage not far from us and Madam Biburo got angry when she saw him. His hair was shaped into a tulip and he began to give a speech loudly.
The stage was about 200m away from the Steel Rose Gate and was set up on a small pond. You could only reach the stage with a small boat and on it there was a loudspeaker made out of a rose petal. Next to the man stood some soldiers with swords and armor made from steel roses. One of the men was wearing a blue steel rose armor and looked stronger than the others.
Oliver: Who is this guy and why are you so angry with him, Madam Biburo?
Biburo: This is the man who took my son away from me. His name is Goppler Rosedon and he is the minister of Water Lily City and next to him stands Hyasinth, the blue Rose Guard, he is his personal bodyguard.
Rosedon: Residents of the outer Rose City! It's lovely to see so many of you gathered here today to witness our beloved King's rose ceremony and for the chance to get your hands on one of his highly coveted water lily petals!
Inhabitant: Well finally, I thought the big fat frog would never come out today.
Old woman: Youngsters fuck off, grandma needs her rose petals.
People crowded towards the pond and some guards tried to stop them from entering the water.
Rosedon: Bring the King!
The Steel Rose Gate opened and two guards brought a 3m tall chained frog with long orange tousled hair and long fingernails and toenails to the bank of the pond. He wore a crown that pushed down his tousled hair and wore a cloak made of leaves that reached to the ground.
His toenails and fingernails were at least 1m long and they curled toward his body.
Biburo: That's him, what did they do to my son?
Rosedon: Frog King, you know what you have to do!
The frog touched the surface of the pond with his hands and with tears in his eyes and water lilies began to grow on the surface of the pond.
The townspeople became more and more nervous and pushed the guards into the pond, they were desperately trying to get to the water lilies.
The minister nodded his head briefly and all the guards let the crowd thru and jump into the pond.
Some of the people were pushed under the water and could no longer move up because they were stuck to the bottom of the pond or were kicked back down by other people.
Oliver: Why do this guards just let this people drown in the water?
Biburo: The flowers of my son's water lilies contain a strong hallucinogen that has claimed many victims in this city. The hallucinogen is made into a drug and it makes a lot of money if you sell it, which is why my son was taken away from me.
The nobles of the inner Rose City are addicted to this hallucinogen and want to secure a constant supply for themselves by enslaving my son.
In addition, this hallucinogen is sold as a drug in the city and creates an addiction immediately after the first consumption and the addicts can no longer live without it. They go into debt and are then forced into slave labor in order to be able to afford their next dose.
When they stop taking it, warts form on their bodies and cause intense itching on the skin for months.
The itching becomes so severe that people scratch the skin off their bodies and without special restraint, some people have even died from bleeding from their scratched body parts.
Oliver: That's terrible, we have to help this people.
Lenny: What a sick country and I thought the spiders on my island were treacherous, but against this government, the spiders on my island look like good humanitarians.
Biburo: That's why we have to free my son, when they can no longer use him to produce the lily pads, then this country will finally be able to recover.
The guards brought Biburo's son back through the Steel Rose Gate into the inner Rose City and Rosedon rowed over some people back to the shore.
I snapped my fingers once and the people who were about to drown were teleported next to me.
Dia: Cornelius,they need your help.
Cornelius cleared the water from the people's lungs and we then went with Biburo to her old friend.
We arrived at an orphanage and a man who was about 1.90m tall and had a very lanky build opened the door for us. His hair consisted of brown roots that hung like pigtails from his head down to his shoulders. His eyes were green and shaped like cat's eyes. He also wore leaves as clothing, but he had black boots on and carried a sword tucked into the side of his leaf clothing. And on his root hair was a black straw hat with a feather stuck on it.
Biburo: Vegadon, you look good, let me hug you old friend!
Biburo hugged the man and he asked us to quickly come into the orphanage.
Vegadon: I thought you weren't arriving until tonight?
Biburo: The plan has changed, the mercenaries tried to kill me, but this pirates saved me and they want to help us free my son.
Vegadon: I have bad news too... .
One of the orphans came running to us and he had warts all over his body and he tried to scratch them.
Orphan: Uncle Vegadon, my arm is itching again, I can't stand it anymore.
Vegadon: Try not to scratch the warts, Moki. You know this will only make it worse and we can't afford to take you to a doctor.
The child went back to the other orphans while crying and Vegadon looked to Madam Biburo with a serious face.
Vegadon: I think my brother Rosedon is putting parts of the hallucinogen in the city's drinking water to get more people addicted to the drug.
Biburo: Do you have any evidence for this?
Vegadon: I have no proof, but you see it itself. The children who live here started getting warts all over their bodies a month ago and they don't leave the orphanage without me and I always had them in my cat's eyes. I have no other explanation for this, there must be something wrong with the city's drinking water.
You know how I get the money for the children and I often came across soldiers from the Inner Rose City near the freshwater lakes and they always had barrels with them.
Biburo: Then everything is much worse than we assumed. Have other people in town noticed it too?
Vegadon: A few people have noticed, but my brother does not allow any resistance against his rules. Just last week a group was taken to the inner Rose City and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dia: Cornelius can certainly make an antidote for the drug's withdrawal symptoms, right Cornelius?
Cornelius: Yes, but for that I would need a sample of the drug and my laboratory equipment.
I created a small laboratory for Cornelius in an empty room in the orphanage and he directly took samples of the city's drinking water.
Dia: Madam Biburo, you said that the drug is being sold in the city, can one of you take me to one of the dealers?
Vegadon: I can take you to a bar near here. But the drug is expensive, it cost's at least 20,000 belly per gram.
Dia: It's okay, just take me there, I can handle the price. Oliver and Wallace are coming with us and the rest of you will wait here until we come back.
We went to the bar and a few people in leafy cloaks followed us discreetly through the city streets, but they left us alone so I ignored them for now. Me and Wallace covered our faces as much as possible with our coats, so that no one in the bar would recognize us. There were some bounty hunters in the bar and they were probably just waiting to kill some pirates.
Vegadon went to the bartender and discreetly handed him the money for the drug under the counter. After a few seconds he came back and said: "We can go now, I have the drug."
We were about to leave the store, but two people with thornvines in their hands confronted me and Vegadon.
Bounty Hunter: Vegadon, I didn't think you'd ever buy drugs from us? Tell me, who are your two pretty companions?
Vegadon: These two are old friends of mine, so get out of our way or my sword will end up in your ass.
One of the two bounty hunters then grabbed my butt and my mind blew up.
I turned to him and hit his face with my fist. He then flew through the entire bar and crushed thru the first wall and then thru the second one, but he didn't stop flying and with each additional wall more and more steel rose debris stuck onto him until he stopped after 5 walls and the debris buried him under.
Everyone in the bar widened their eyes and one of the men shouted, "This is Blood D. Dia, she has a bounty of 20,000,000 Belly on her head, get her!"