Chapter 670: The Key Figure is Caesar

Chapter 670: The Key Figure is Caesar

Looking out the window, another corner of the castle was brightly lit, with a large number of figures rushing toward it, seemingly all subordinates of the Big Mom Pirates.
As they hurried along, they were loudly discussing something. Ian and Capone Bege listened quietly for a while but could only catch fragments like "intruder" and "treasure room."
Since they were too far away, the sounds were unclear, but it was certain that some kind of commotion had occurred.

"A great opportunity!" Capone Bege, though unaware of the specifics, realized that the guards near the cake workshop warehouse seemed to have disappeared as well. He immediately recognized this as a golden chance and said to Ian, "There's no time to waste. Now is the best moment to plant the bomb in the wedding cake. I'm going first!"
With that, he hurried out of Ian's room.

Ian watched his departing back and shook his head, feeling that Capone Bege was truly a ruthless character. Who would plant a bomb in their own wedding cake at their own ceremony? That was essentially sabotaging their own wedding!
Regardless, as Capone Bege had said, this was indeed a good time to strike. The commotion had drawn most of the castle's guards away, and the cake warehouse was now at its most vulnerable.

But what was this commotion about? It seemed someone had broken into Big Mom's treasure vault?
Who could it be? Ian stroked his chin, pondering.
At this moment, Ian had no idea that this incident would involve him. He knew clearly that the intruder wasn't himself, nor could it be Reiju, so his first suspicion fell on the guests invited by Big Mom.
Among these guests were not only greedy underworld bosses but also covert CP0 members like Stussy. In Ian's view, any of them could be suspects.
Don't think these guests wouldn't dare cause trouble out of fear of Big Mom. As long as they weren't caught, anyone could deny it.

"Heh, what a turbulent time!" Ian sneered, dismissing the thought and closing the window.

Meanwhile, Perospero and Katakuri had also arrived at the corridor leading to the treasure room upon hearing the news.
As soon as they got there, they smelled a strange odor.
"Damn! It's sleeping gas!" Katakuri was the first to react, covering his nose with his sleeve.
The guards in the corridor were already lying unconscious on both sides, snoring loudly, and even the surveillance Den Den Mushi placed there had fallen asleep. Seeing this, Katakuri and Perospero knew something was wrong and immediately led their men toward the treasure room.

"Don't worry," Perospero said as he ran, reassuring Katakuri. "The chess guards in the treasure room are toys infused with Mother's soul. They're not living creatures, so the sleeping gas won't affect them."
"I hope so," Katakuri replied. "Better not be anything serious, or no one can withstand Mother's wrath."

However, when they reached the treasure room, they found the door wide open, with all the guards lying on the floor, missing limbs.
Although the room was also filled with the smell of sleeping gas, as Katakuri had said, the chess guards weren't real living beings, so the gas shouldn't have worked. But what they saw now told Katakuri that these guards had been directly taken down.

"What happened? Tell me quickly!" Katakuri crouched down, grabbing a toy guard and demanding answers, while Perospero directed their subordinates to check if anything had been stolen.
"An intruder!" The toy guard, though its limbs were broken and unable to move, couldn't die and quickly replied, "A man in a cloak broke in, cut down all the guards with a sword, and took a rubbing of the Road Poneglyph!"
"What!?" Katakuri and Perospero were stunned.

"Didn't you see the intruder's face?" Perospero pressed.
"No, but... his right wrist was wrapped in something like bandages," the guard recalled.

Katakuri dropped the toy guard and exchanged a glance with Perospero.
"A man with a sword, and his right wrist wrapped in bandages..." Perospero gritted his teeth. "It's that bastard Ian! Damn it, I didn't think he'd dare go after the Poneglyph!"
Perospero turned around and said, "I'll go arrest him right now!"

"Wait!" Katakuri suddenly spoke up. "Peros big brother, don't you think there's something suspicious about this?"
"Suspicious? What suspicion!?" Perospero shouted. "My brother, what are you thinking? If we don't catch him quickly, how will we answer Mother when she asks!?"
"No... it doesn't add up," Katakuri said, crossing his arms in thought. "The timing is off. Peros big brother, don't forget, Pudding was sent by Mother to Ian's room. If Ian had gone to steal the Poneglyph, he wouldn't be in his room. Pudding would have reported to us. But we haven't heard anything from her, which means she's already met Ian. Under those circumstances, how could Ian have left!?"
"This..." Perospero calmed down a bit after hearing Katakuri's reasoning.

"Also! When the conflict broke out during the day, Ian seemed intent on leaving," Katakuri continued. "If he really wanted Mother's Poneglyph, why would he be so aggressive in clashing with us? Shouldn't he have tried to stay?"
"Maybe... maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment decision?" Perospero was less certain now but still voiced his doubt.
"If it was spur-of-the-moment, how could he know the exact location of Mother's treasure room?" Katakuri countered. "And look closely at the wounds on these guards. While they were indeed cut by a sword, the technique is clumsy. Ian is a grand swordsman—how could he be so sloppy?"

Katakuri, truly worthy of being called "perfect" by his siblings, was remarkably calm and sharp-witted. In just a short time, he had spotted the flaws, showing his top-tier intelligence.
"You mean there's a traitor?" Perospero narrowed his eyes.
"That's a possibility," Katakuri said. "And don't forget, Ian isn't the only guest on this island."
"Then who could have done it?" Perospero asked, puzzled.
"That needs investigation," Katakuri replied. "For now, Ian is just a prime suspect. We can't focus solely on him. It would be disastrous if we fell for the real culprit's diversion tactic."

"Lord Katakuri, we found this in the corridor!" A guard ran in breathlessly, holding a charred, semicircular object.
Katakuri took it, sniffed it lightly, and said, puzzled, "This... is the remains of a gas bomb? Maybe we can start from this clue."
"Heh, I've thought of someone," Perospero suddenly sneered.
"I've thought of someone too," Katakuri said, standing up.
They looked at each other and said in unison, "Caesar!"

Meanwhile, the Caesar that Katakuri and Perospero had mentioned was completely tied up!
His mouth was sealed with tape, preventing him from making a sound, and he was bound with a pair of Seastone handcuffs. Caesar looked sickly and weak, staring at the two masked figures in the room.
This wasn't Caesar's room—he didn't even know where he was—but he knew that the two people before him were likely from the World Government, probably CP agents. Caesar had dealt with CP before and could "smell" the unique scent on one of them.
But what good did knowing do? Caesar could only silently weep. He shouldn't have come to this tea party. Not only had he run into Ian, who was openly clashing with the Big Mom Pirates, but now CP agents had appeared. Could the situation on Whole Cake Island get any more chaotic?
And to make matters worse, Caesar knew he was about to be dragged into this bizarre vortex. After being brought here by these two, they had forced him to make simple sleeping gas bombs.
Once they had the bombs, one of them left. When he returned shortly after, a commotion broke out in the castle. If nothing had happened, Caesar absolutely didn't believe it.

At that moment, the two masked figures were gathered by the window, looking down. The taller one spoke in a disguised voice, "Do you think it worked?"
The shorter one replied in a similarly altered tone, "It should be fine."
Then they both turned to look at the bound Caesar. The taller one asked, "What about him? Should we kill him?"
Caesar's heart turned cold. Just as he thought he was about to die, he heard the shorter one say, "No. If we kill him, the body will be hard to dispose of. If it's discovered, it might backfire. It's better to hide him for now, making it look like he escaped or disappeared... Once we plant that thing in the target's room tomorrow, the job will be done. He won't be able to deny it."

Needless to say, the tall and short figures were Arest and Stussy. They had used Caesar's abilities but weren't foolish enough to reveal their faces to him.
According to their plan, they had also targeted the Poneglyph. However, to their surprise, the sleeping gas Caesar made was useless in the treasure room, as the guards there weren't living beings. This caught Stussy off guard, but fortunately, Arest's blood puppet had some combat ability, and the guards weren't particularly strong. So the blood puppet successfully made a rubbing of the Poneglyph and escaped, ensuring the guards saw its general appearance.
At this point, if nothing unexpected happened, the suspicion could have been squarely pinned on Ian.

But as fate would have it, Arest and Stussy had no idea that Big Mom had sent Pudding to Ian's room at the same time. Although they hadn't received a report from Pudding, this had planted a seed of doubt in the meticulous mind of Katakuri.
Arest and Stussy had schemed to provoke a conflict between Ian and the Big Mom Pirates, hoping to use Big Mom to eliminate Ian. Little did they know, they didn't need to stir things up—another group with their own agenda on the island had already contacted Ian.
The wedding cake that Arest had initially planned to tamper with was abandoned after Stussy's appearance, but now Capone Bege had planted a bomb in it instead. This chain of events was beyond ironic.
And as dawn approached, all the drama was about to unfold...