In the Holy Land of Mariejois, within Cudius' grand pace, the ruler himself sat in his study, leisurely reading a book.

  To his surprise, Robin was also there, browsing through his vast colle of books, seemingly indulging her curiosity.

  A Den Den Mushi rested nearby, and Cudius, still focused on his book, was engaged in a versation through it, a smirk pying at the ers of his mouth.

  "Aren't you do? If you don't hurry back, I might have to find someone else to take your p my bed," Cudius teased.

  From the other end of the liussy chuckled. "Oh? But isn't your dear butler, Nia, more than capable of taking care of you?"

  "What the hell are you talking about?! I have airely i retionship with Nia, and you 't just make baseless accusations!"

  Stussy ughed pyfully. "Oh really? Do you not feel even the slightest twinge of guilt when saying that? I've seen you sneaking into Nia's room in the middle of the night plenty of times, Yhness."

  Cudius stiffened. "You… you knew about that?! I thought I was being discreet…"

  "I'm a professional," Stussy replied with a sly tone.

  At that moment, Robin gnced up from her book and shot Cudius a look of sheer disdain.

  Her gaze seemed to say: "I never expected you to be this kind of person, Cudius."

  For the first time in a long while, Cudius felt genuinely embarrassed. He quickly cleared his throat and ged the subject.

  "So… how much longer will this mission take?"

  Stussy, amused, answered, "Yhness, the task you assigned us is more plicated than expected.

  Trag the e between Edward Weevil and Whitebeard? There's nothing we dig up from Happy Street alone.

  Holy, Yhness, you might as well go down to Impel Down yourself and ask Charlotte Linlin. She used to sail with Whitebeard ba the day maybe she knows something."

  Cudius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Like that old hag would ever tell me anything useful, even if she did know."

  They tinued chatting for a while before Stussy suddenly mentioned something else.

  "Oh, by the way, Yhness, have you heard about the Gold Gold Fruit?"

  Cudius raised an eyebrow. "Of course. Tesoro ate it, right? That means it's finally off my list of s. Now, he move forward with his grand pns… I heard he's eveing up a bank."

  Stussy giggled. "Oh, you don't know the full story, do you?"

  "What twists and turns could there possibly be?" Cudius asked curiously.

  "Hahahaha," Stussy cackled. "I k! They were too embarrassed to tell you! Let me lift the veil of secrecy for you, Yhness."

  She then proceeded to ret the ridiculous debacle involving the Fruit.

  It turned out that Tesoro and Dofmingo had teamed up to track down the legendary fruit.

  After great effort, they finally located it and arranged for its secret transport back to Dressrosa.

  And then—Enel happened.

  pletely unaware of whose cargo he was raiding, the self-procimed Thunder God intercepted the transport and stole the Golden Fruit for himself.

  The situation was beyond humiliating.

  None of the three parties involved—Tesoro, Dofmingo, or Enel—had wao admit to Cudius that su utterly ridiishap had taken pce.

  So they had all kept quiet, pretending it never happened.

  Unfortunately for them, word had somehow leaked, and Stussy had gotten wind of it.

  Cudius couldn't help but ugh and shake his head after hearing the story.

  "So let me get this straight… Tesoro and Dofmingo spent all that time trag down the Fruit, only for Eo swoop in and take it by act?"

  "That's right," Stussy firmed, still giggling.

  It turned out that Tesoro's crew had a woman named Baccarat, a beauty with an ability reted to lud fortune.

  She was in charge of making sure no one cheated at Tesoro's o.

  She and Stussy had bee close friends, and in a casual versation, Baccarat had actally spilled the embarrassi.

  Now, that secret had reached Cudius' ears.

  But in the end, it didn't really matter. The Fruit had still ended up in Tesoro's hands, so the situation had ultimately resolved itself.

  After exging a few more words with Stussy, she mentiohat she was heading to Fish-Man Iso expand Happy Street's work and gather more intelligence.

  Cudius ended her efforts, then ehe call.

  As he put down the receiver, his gaze nded on Robin, who was still engrossed in her book.

  Sensing his eyes on her, Robin looked up, her expression puzzled but silent.

  Cudius scratched his nose awkwardly. "Listen, about what you saw earlier, you misuood—"

  Robin cut him off before he could finish.

  "Why are you expining this to me? Your personal affairs don't me," she said nontly.

  Cudius froze.

  Wait. Why am I even trying to expin myself to Robin?

  For some reason, this situatio like he had been caught cheating except that made no sense whatsoever.

  Feeling inexplicably flustered, he cleared his throat and stood up.

  "Ahem. Well, whatever. You keep reading, I'm going out to get some fresh air."

  For some reason, sitting here felt awkward.

  As he was about to leave, Robin suddenly spoke up.

  "Wait. I have something to tell you."

  Cudius turned around, fused.

  "What is it? Don't tell me you blew another billion on books?"

  Robin shot him a mild gre, rolling her eyes.

  "It's not that," she said. "I actually have a deep secret… something I've old you all these years."

  Cudius, who had never viewed Robin with suspi, raised an eyebrow.

  Robin herself khat Cudius pletely trusted her.

  After overhearing his sdalous midnight visits to the butler's room, she had finally decided that she couldn't keep her ow from him any longer.

  It was only fair to share it now.

  Cudius noticed her serious expression and sat back down.

  "Alright, let's hear it."

  Robin took a deep breath, gathering her ce.

  Then, she finally revealed her great secret.

  "Actually… I'm a schor."

  She said it with full vi, expeg a rea.

  But to her disappoi, Cudius remained pletely unfazed.

  His expression didn't ge in the slightest.

  Robin frowned. "You're not surprised?"

  Cudius blinked. "Why would I be? You read a ridiculous number of books and know more than most people. It's only natural to call yourself a schor."

  Robin suddenly felt as if she had punched a pillow, her dramatic reveal had nded with zero impact.

  ***

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