Chapter 26

Although Robin has already sensed the two fish-boys following her, she did not pay too much attention to it and continued to towards the ship. It went without saying it was the largest wooden ship that Robin had ever seen in both her lifetimes combined. According to her estimation the ship that size could only be pulled by some powerful sea kings that would be a challenge to current Robin. It had several winches jutting out from holes in its hull on either side. It seemed to be held in place by large chains on the winches.

Even though she explore the entire ship she couldnt find any information regarding it, only thing she did find was the "Noah" written in ancient text in the captain's cabin. What she found interesting was despite the size of the ship, most of the rooms in it were seemed to be made for regular human sized passengers.

Although slightly disappointed that she couldnt find any leads to the poneglyph, Robin was excited by the fact that the ship did belong to the void century and knew the poneglyph present on the island must be related to the ship.

Before Robin could leave the two shark fish-boys that were following her earlier blocked her path and looked at her with disdain and said "We would have taken care of those human scum yet stuck your nose where it did not belong, we fish-men dont want your fake pity. We are the supreme race and we rules the entire world eventually. Now since you defeated those human scum I will give you a chance serve me the great Arlong as my maid for next 10 years and I will let you leave and refuse you will die here."

Robin chuckled , then quickly her demeanor changed, she was now oozing with heavy killing intent and channeling her air Qi she accelerated towards the two fish-boys with a punch ready to strike. The two boys were locked in their place by fear, fear due to the killing intent, it was as if their body refused to move no matter how hard their tried. They saw the incoming attack, Arlong panicked as the punch was directed towards him and his instincts were screaming that if that punch connects he will be dead, under the pressure and extreme fear both of them had long wet their pants. Robin stopped the punch right in front of Arlong's face and withdrew her killing intent and said " You wet yourself seeing just 10% of my power and you want me to be your maid? Kid never get too cocky cause as the saying goes there is always bigger fish in the sea."

Robin left the two fish-boys ad headed towards mermaid cafe and call it a day, she did not want to worry others too much and the food mermaid big sisters brought for her. After some time the two fish-boys looked at each other, Aarlong said " We need to train more Hody , As much as I hate to admit it although she is younger than me she is far stronger than me or anyone I know, If she wants she can destroy the entire district on her own. I cannot feel this helpless again I need to get stronger, strong enough so that I can return this humiliation back to her tenfold"

When Robin reached the cafe, she saw a platoon of royal guards at the entrance. The head of the guards saw Robin approach and immediately signalled the trumpet bearers, the trumpet bearers blew their trumpet catching everyone s attention around them instantly formed a crowd around the platoon and Robin. Satisfied with the result the head guard announced " Queen Otohime has invited Lady Nico Robin to the Ryugu Palace as an esteemed guest, Should she choose to accept the invite she will be escorted to the palace in a royal procession tomorrow morning." The guard then looked at Robin waiting for her reply, Robin of course accepted the invite as she had no reason to refuse. As she knew that by rescuing the kidnapped mermaids its the royal family that owed her a favor which she was willing to exchange for location and information about the poneglyph.

This event caused an uproar amongst the crowd that had formed as unlike Robin all the residents knew that being invited to the palace as an esteemed guest was one of the highest honor a normal citizen can get.Soon the found out that Robin had rescued couple of kidnapped mermaids and caught a notorious pirate crew all by herself, and this was the main reason why she was being invited.

But the uproar caused by the crowd was nothing compared to the high pitched squeals and screams of excitement by the mermaids who were running around like headless chicken trying to dress Robin up for the upcoming palace visit. Each one of the mermaid had her own idea and were debating amongst themselves who would get to dress Robin up. Finally they decided that each person would get 1 hour to dress Robin up and then decided which suited her the best, hearing that she would have to loose sleep Robin's lip twitched, but luckly she had eaten the perfect the devil fruit for this situation, as she created a clone of herself for each mermaid and said they could compare it by dressing up her clones and pick the best one out for her which she will wear in the morning.

Seeing the Robin clones there were stars in the eyes of each mermaid and dragged their Robin clone to their room to dressup while Robin went to sleep. She had the weirdest nightmare on which the cross dressing Ivankov, was chasing behind her to wear a very pink princess style dress and pads to not appear flat. When she woke up the next day her nightmare somewhat came true the dress that was selected was a bubble gum pink colored princess style dress, with flowers as decorations. But the worst was yet to come, last night instead of deciding one single winner they had compartmentalized the process of getting Robin ready and they selected best one for each role like hair, makeup etc. So after a grueling 4 hours Robin was deemed acceptable enough to enter the palace by the mermaids.

When Robin saw herself in the mirror she was equally surprised, she had to admit in both her lifetimes never had she looked this good. She looked like a princess of flowers out to spread sunshine and happiness to her loyal subjects. Seeing this she made a mental note to dress up properly and not like a tomboy.

When the Royal guards arrived, even they were awestruck by the transformation Robin had undergone overnight, Robin looking at their dazed expression rolled her eyes and coughed twice, they quickly recovered from their shock and led Robin to the palace. Robin bid adieu to the now completely exhausted mermaids and followed the guards to an elegant and beautiful carriage.

As she was approaching the palace the she noticed the multiple layers of bubbles surrounding it, seeing the curious gaze the head guard explained that the bubbles around the palace were impenetrable and the only way to enter was through a corridor that was always manned and could only be opened from the inside.