(4 more chapters coming today.
“So, as Roger’s friend, I assume you’re going to watch the battle?” Biggs gave Kael a long look.
“A lot of pirates have already left for Edd War.” Then his expression turned serious.
“I’ll give you this much—you’ve got guts.” “And I can tell you’re strong.” “But the pirates gathering there aren’t ordinary people.” Biggs leaned forward.
“A lot of them are there because they want Roger’s bounty.” “If you go openly as his friend, you could end up facing more than a hundred powerful fighters from across the sea.” “Swordsmen.” “Snipers.” “Devil Fruit users.” “And depending on how things develop…” “Possibly the Marines too.” Biggs reached inside his coat and pulled out an Eternal Pose.
“This points to an island near Edd War.” He placed it on the table.
“Once you get close, the reefs and scattered islands there are distinctive enough that you won’t have trouble finding your way.” Kael accepted it.
Biggs hesitated for a moment.
“By the way…” “What kind of friend are you and Roger, exactly?” Kael smiled.
“Drinking buddies.” Biggs blinked.
“He paid for some wine and told me he’d collect it when he came back.” Kael’s smile widened.
“But the Ninefold Golden Nectar doesn’t keep well after the seal is broken.” “The flavor suffers.” He rose from his seat.
“So I’m bringing it to him.” Then, as though he were discussing nothing more serious than delivering a package across town, Kael added, “And we’ll have a drink while I’m there.” I’m bringing him his wine.
Such a simple sentence.
Yet the way Kael said it made one thing unmistakably clear.
It didn’t matter whether the road ahead was lined with swords, cannons, or thousands of enemies.
If he had decided to deliver that wine… He would deliver it.
Biggs stared at him for a moment.
Then nodded.
“Understood.” Kael turned and walked toward the stairs.
Everything Biggs had just warned him about seemed to roll right off him.
He never slowed.
Long after Kael disappeared downstairs, the second floor remained strangely silent.
Eventually— “Pfft.” One pirate broke into laughter.
“Hahahahaha!” “What a ridiculous guy!” “Biggs!
I never thought I’d see the day someone ignored one of your warnings that completely!” “That kid’s name is Kael, right?” “Remember it.” “This sea is going to have a place for him sooner or later.” Another man leaned back in his chair.
“The Duke of Kuraigana Island…” “So it really was him.” “People still talk about that battle in taverns.” “One boy held off more than three thousand soldiers and saved what remained of his homeland.” He shook his head.
“And the man at the center of that story is only seventeen now?” What Kael didn’t know was that being invited to Biggs’s second floor already meant something.
There were only a handful of ordinary guest seats.
The other dozen or so places belonged almost entirely to men Biggs personally recognized.
Friends.
Former crewmates.
Veterans from the previous generation.
Combined, their old bounties exceeded 6,000,000,000 Berries.
They were remnants of an era that had already begun to fade.
Because a new age was already taking shape.
An age of monsters and legends.
…
“Brother.” Mihawk followed Kael through Lucien Town.
“We’re really going to Edd War?” “Yeah.” Kael never broke stride.
Pirates along the road watched the brothers with openly hostile eyes.
But Lucien Town had rules.
No fighting inside the sanctuary.
So all they could do was stare as Kael and Mihawk walked past.
Mihawk remained quiet for several steps.
“Are we going to help Roger?” There was something unusual in his voice.
Excitement, perhaps.
Or concern.
Kael stopped beside their strange black vessel and sat down on the throne mounted at its center.
Most of their liquor had already been traded away.
But one jar remained.
It rested behind the throne inside a beautiful golden container carved with dragon patterns.
A relic of the old Shikkearu royal family.
The Ninefold Golden Nectar.
Kael looked at Mihawk.
“That’s a good question.” Mihawk waited.
“We’ll decide when we get there.” Then Kael’s expression turned slightly more serious.
“Remember this, Mihawk.” “A swordsman shouldn’t spend his life obsessed with defeating other people.” Mihawk blinked.
Kael turned toward him and gave him a playful wink.
“The person you really have to surpass…” “Is yourself.” Mihawk’s eyes sharpened.
Another lesson from his brother.
He committed it firmly to memory.
…
Edd War.
A stretch of sea infamous for its violent waters.
Some called it a Demon Sea.
Storms were common.
Waves rose without warning.
Jagged reefs and isolated islands filled the region, turning navigation into a nightmare even for experienced sailors.
And now, near one of those islands, forty-nine pirate ships had gathered.
They belonged to a massive fleet assembled from pirates across the New World.
All of them sailed beneath one man.
Golden Lion Shiki.
Among the three legendary pirates dominating the current era, Shiki might not possess Whitebeard’s overwhelming physical strength and monstrous Devil Fruit power.
Nor could he necessarily match Roger in a pure contest of individual strength.
But when it came to military power— No pirate on the sea could rival him.
Forty-nine ships.
More than three thousand pirates.
Once Shiki’s own officers and sailors were counted, his forces numbered at least thirty-five hundred men.
His empire had been built through more than brute force.
Shiki had charisma.
He rewarded loyalty.
He gave ambitious pirates opportunities.
He was willing to pull promising newcomers upward rather than crush them beneath him.
That was how he had built the largest pirate fleet in the world.
Even Charlotte Linlin, who would later create her own terrifying family empire, could not easily imitate that kind of organization.
At this point in time, Linlin was still busy expanding her family and gathering power in her own way.
Shiki’s fleet had already been waiting at Edd War for three days.
Far out across the water floated an enormous three-masted vessel.
The Great Admiral.
One of the largest pirate ships currently sailing the seas.
Its towering structure provided an immense field of view.
From the highest balcony, Shiki could look across the distant horizon.
The ship itself was so enormous that walking through every section could take hours.
Compared to it, many of the other vessels in his fleet looked like toys.
Then— “Jihahahahaha!” Shiki’s laughter rolled across the sea.
Every captain in the fleet immediately straightened.
Some of them were accomplished users of Observation Haki.
Distance meant little to their senses.
They heard it clearly.
Something had changed.
Eyes turned toward the horizon.
Was he here?
After days of waiting… Had Roger finally come?
Gol D.
Roger.
The man who stood alongside Whitebeard and Golden Lion Shiki at the summit of the sea.
Edd War lay directly along his route.
And after three long days… The wait was finally over.
Author’s Note : Want to keep reading?
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