“She’s given birth! Queen Estrid has delivered twins!”
“Bring them here. Let me see them.”
“If they’re twins, they’ll be named Thor and Loki. I’ve already discussed it with the king.”
In Elbaph, the kingdom of the Giants, Queen Estrid had just given birth to a pair of twins.
She ordered the servants to bring her newborn children to her.
Rather than a mother eager to see her babies, Estrid looked more like someone waiting to admire her own handiwork.
But the moment the servants brought the twins before her and she saw what they looked like, Estrid’s face turned deathly pale, like the wicked queen from some fairy tale.
“Aaaah! Monsters!”
“Y-Your Majesty?”
“Terrifying! What are those things?! I don’t want them! Those aren’t my children!!”
“Please calm down, Your Majesty!”
The servant’s words did nothing to calm Estrid.
Instead, the vicious woman made the most abhorrent choice possible.
“Tell the king… they were stillborn…”
“Your Majesty, what are you saying?”
“They’re cursed! Look at these two! Aren’t they obviously monsters?!”
As twins born together, Thor and Loki shared the same eyes—pitch-black, terrifying serpentine pupils reminiscent of Jörmungandr.
Rejected by their own mother from the instant they were born, the two infants were subjected to an utterly cruel decision by Estrid, the woman who had given birth to them.
“Throw both of them into the Underworld!”
…
“Holy shit. This is one hell of a high-difficulty lobby!”
Thor plummeted from Elbaph’s Heaven World toward the Underworld.
Glancing sideways, he found another unlucky brother falling right alongside him—Loki.
This starting point was even more hellish than spawning in a toilet.
Perhaps because they had inherited the blood of the Ancient Giants, the fall from the Heaven World into the Underworld failed to kill either Thor or Loki.
It merely left both newborns battered from head to toe.
So this was what the world of One Piece was like?
Even newborn babies had absurdly monstrous vitality.
The twin brothers had been cast into the Underworld by their own mother.
Loki wailed loudly as he began climbing the Treasure Tree Adam, desperately trying to return—to get back to his mother.
As for Thor…
Nope.
He was getting the hell out of there.
He started crawling toward Elbaph’s coastline.
Obviously, Thor was a reincarnated transmigrator.
As someone who had somehow hit the jackpot and been reborn in another world, he had never expected to end up in the world of One Piece.
Even less had he expected to become a Giant.
Still, being a Giant wasn’t bad.
They had enormous potential and long lifespans.
The only problem was that outside Elbaph, going anywhere would be inconvenient as hell.
It would be like Gulliver’s Travels, except everywhere he went would be Lilliput.
No sunlight reached Elbaph’s Underworld.
It was a frozen wasteland perpetually engulfed by blizzards.
Countless enormous beasts known as “Mountain Lords” inhabited the Underworld.
Even the Giants of Elbaph rarely dared venture near them.
This place was a land of exile for criminals.
And now, newborn Thor was crawling through the snow while several red-eyed beasts trailed behind him, drool dripping from their jaws as they slowly closed in.
“Damn it! I should’ve climbed the tree with Loki!”
Thor had only just been born and couldn’t speak yet.
All he could do was cry at the top of his lungs while crawling desperately through the snow.
The giant beasts behind him immediately gave chase.
At that moment, an incredibly bizarre scene unfolded in Elbaph’s Underworld.
A pack of gigantic beasts was chasing a baby…
Déjà Vu?
How far had Thor crawled?
He had no idea.
No matter how powerful the blood of the Ancient Giants was, he was still only a newborn infant.
Crawling frantically through the frozen Underworld had gradually left his arms and legs numb and weak.
He was running out of strength.
To think he had only just transmigrated into the world of One Piece, only to end up dying in the jaws of wild beasts.
Thor didn’t even want to crawl anymore.
He was exhausted…
Screw it.
Just end me.
Just as Thor was about to become food for the beasts, an immensely powerful Giant technique came crashing down.
“Hakoku Sovereignty!”
A sword and axe struck together, unleashing the Giants’ mighty combat technique, Hakoku Sovereignty.
The single attack blasted the entire pack apart.
Three beasts in the center were killed instantly, while the rest tucked their tails between their legs and fled.
“Jorul, look! It’s a baby.”
“Jarul, that baby’s pretty big. He’s already five meters tall.”
Even in Elbaph, the land of Giants, the differences in height between individual Giants could be enormous.
Ordinary Giants generally stood around twelve to twenty-two meters tall, while Giants carrying Ancient Giant blood could grow to heights of sixty to eighty meters.
“Hmm…”
At the impressive age of 345, Elder Jarul’s eyesight was no longer particularly good.
He picked up the battered Thor and brought the infant closer to his face.
Only then did he notice the two pitch-black horns growing from Thor’s head.
“This is… This is King Harald’s child!”
King Harald of Elbaph was not only the strongest Giant in the kingdom, but also possessed the purest Ancient Giant bloodline.
The pair of horns on his head were the unmistakable mark of that lineage.
“How did Harald’s child fall into the Underworld?”
“Come on, Jorul. Let’s take him back.”
Elder Jarul carried Thor while Elder Jorul shouldered their prey.
By sheer coincidence, the two legendary heroes of the Giants had saved Thor’s life and brought him back to a Giant village.
When Thor finally regained consciousness, he found himself inside a warm wooden house.
The moment he opened his eyes, he was greeted by an enormous, pancake-like face with snot running from its nose.
“Sister! The baby’s awake!”
Seeing Thor wake up, the little girl…
No, the big girl…
thump-thump-thumped away to report the news.
An elderly woman’s gentle warning came from outside.
“Linlin, slow down. Be careful not to fall.”
The wooden door opened, and an old woman dressed in a nun’s habit stepped inside.
She was a human standing 1.85 meters tall, but here in the kingdom of Giants, she looked exceptionally tiny.
After all, everything in Elbaph was enormous.
“Linlin, go tell Grandpa Jarul and Grandpa Jorul.”
“Okay, Sister!”
The obedient big girl thump-thump-thumped outside to inform the elders.
That oversized little girl was obviously Big Mom as a child.
And the nun’s identity was equally obvious.
Mother Carmel.
The user of the Soul-Soul Fruit.
“To already be as big as Linlin right after being born… As expected of the Giant king’s child.”
Mother Carmel lit herself a cigarette but said nothing more.
Jarul and Jorul would be arriving soon.
Before long, powerful tremors shook the ground outside the cabin.
The two Elders of Elbaph, Jarul and Jorul, stepped inside.
Their beards cascaded downward like waterfalls, practically burying Linlin beneath them.
“Thank you, Sister, for treating the child’s frostbite.”
“It was only right. Everyone in this world should help one another, regardless of race.”
The benevolent Mother Carmel had founded the House of Lambs in Elbaph, taking in homeless children without regard for race or background.
She was respected by every Giant in Elbaph.
As for the true face hiding behind that kindly nun…
Only the World Government knew.
“I just asked around. This child’s name is Thor. He and his younger brother Loki were both thrown into the Underworld by Queen Estrid immediately after they were born.”
“Loki’s a tough one too. To think he actually climbed all the way back from the Underworld to the Heaven World. As expected of Harald’s child.”
“Queen Estrid has truly gone too far. She keeps insisting that those two children are monsters who will bring a curse upon the entire kingdom.”
Elder Jarul was so furious that his beard bristled.
If not for Elbaph’s traditions demanding that the purity of the Ancient Giant bloodline be preserved, they might as well have made Ida the queen instead.
Ida was Harald’s beloved.
However, because she was a Giant woman born on Samuwanai Island in the South Blue and did not carry Ancient Giant blood, Elbaph’s traditions prevented Harald from marrying her.
Even so, Ida had remained in Elbaph.
She opened a tavern and had a child with Harald.
That child had continued living in Elbaph alongside the other Giant children.
“Hajrudin, come take a look at your little brother.”
“Hmph!”
A young boy wearing a helmet hid outside the cabin, visibly unhappy.
He had absolutely no desire to look at this younger half-brother of his.
“Hahaha! You’re his big brother. Don’t be so petty.”
Elder Jorul laughed heartily and rubbed Hajrudin’s head.
Little Hajrudin still looked extremely displeased, but he nevertheless glanced inside the cabin from the corner of his eye.
A horned freak with snake eyes…
That guy was really his little brother?
“Jarul, should we send the child back to the Heaven World?”
“No. Let Ida take care of him.”
Neither elder felt comfortable sending the newborn Thor back to Queen Estrid.
It would be much safer to leave him in the care of Hajrudin’s mother.
And so, despite his hellish start, Thor ended up a little luckier than his younger brother Loki.
After being rescued by Elders Jorul and Jarul, he became Ida’s adopted son.
Unfortunately, Elbaph itself was having a terrible year.
Queen Estrid’s poisonous words seemed almost prophetic.
Fires.
Storms.
Cold waves.
Elbaph was struck by one extremely rare natural disaster after another.
Crops withered, and the abnormal weather left the fishermen empty-handed.
Famine descended upon this once-bountiful land.
Rumors that Thor and Loki were cursed began spreading everywhere.
The people of Elbaph started blaming the disasters on the two brothers.
Before long, some Giants who had nowhere else to vent their anger came to Ida’s tavern looking for trouble.
The tavern door was kicked open.
A Giant carrying an axe on his back stormed inside and roared at Ida and Hajrudin.
“Hand Thor over! His and Loki’s curse is poisoning this kingdom! As long as we kill him, the disasters will end!”
“Nonsense! Thor is a good child! He is not some cursed child!!”
“Shut up, Ida! You’re nothing but an outsider, yet you dared to bewitch King Harald!”
Ida stood protectively in front of Thor.
Unable to get at the infant, the intruding Giant simply redirected his rage toward her.
He grabbed Ida with one hand and raised his axe with the other, preparing to bring it down.
“Don’t touch my mom!”
“Get lost!”
Hajrudin grabbed his sword and rushed forward to protect his mother, only for the Giant to kick him aside.
Just as the axe was about to fall—
A cannonball came hurtling in.
Thor, who had been lying on the floor, gathered all his strength and aimed himself at the Giant.
Then he exploded forward with everything he had, launching his own body like a cannonball.
BOOM!
A massive hole was smashed through the tavern wall.
The intruder was sent flying so far that he vanished from sight.
Thor sat dazed on the floor, his head spinning.
“Waaah! Thor, you’re amazing! You protected Mom!”
Ida lifted Thor high into the air.
Of course, she didn’t forget her biological son either.
She immediately pulled Hajrudin into her arms as well.
“Hajrudin was incredibly brave too. You’re Mom’s wonderful son.”
“Waaah… Mom!”
The frightened Hajrudin finally burst into tears.
At that moment, the tavern door was hurriedly pushed open.
A towering Giant rushed inside.
“Ida! Hajrudin! Are you all right?!”
“Dad!”
King Harald had returned.