Chapter 292: To Meet, like the Half-Moon Hidden by Clouds

In his homeland, the North Blue realm of Lvneel, Noland is famous for spinning wild yarns the children love even when no one can verify them. Returning from one voyage, he tells his king of a ruined city built of pure gold, Shandora. Five years afterward the king grants three vessels and insists on coming himself with his royal soldiers rather than Noland's regular crew. The crossing is savage, claiming one ship to storms and a sea beast, and on the sixteenth of November in 1127 they make Jaya. The golden city, however, is nowhere to be seen, leaving only a cliff and half a structure. Enraged, the king condemns Noland as a swindler and a fool, while the explorer can only ask where the Shandia have gone and beg Kalgara, if he yet lives, to sound the bell.

Half a year later in Lvneel, Noland stands by his account before the crowd. A stranger claiming to have sailed with him insists the whole tale was fabricated, casting Noland as a cheat, and though several of his genuine crewmen surge forward to defend him, the king has them hauled away. Noland is sentenced to die in public as a liar. A year prior in Shandora, the real story plays out: as Kalgara and Seto climb to ring the bell, the sky goes black and the Knock Up Stream erupts beneath the city, blasting all of it upward to settle atop the beanstalk on Upper Yard. The collision rings the bell, luring the god of Skypiea, who resolves to claim the place. Even as Skypiean warriors storm in, a gasping Kalgara vows to shelter the women and children, hold his home, and one day rekindle the Light of Shandora for Noland.

The chapter delivers Noland's execution, staged by Lvneel to pin the blame for a fruitless treasure hunt on him, and shows Shandora flung aloft by the great upward current. It further reveals that Seto has wed Mousse and gives the sky king's name as Nola. The cover continues Ace's hunt for Blackbeard, with a fire breaking out aboard the returning scout ship.