“Rocks, you bastard!”
Harald had only recently set out to sea when he received word that the Rocks Pirates had arrived in Elbaph.
By the time he hurried back, he found his son with several layers of bandages wrapped around his chest.
Harald flew into a rage and nearly drew his sword to fight Rocks on the spot.
“Hahahaha! Harald, you really did raise one hell of a son.”
“I don’t need a bastard like you telling me that!”
“All right, Dad. We fought, and now we know each other. I only suffered some superficial wounds.”
With Thor stepping in to stop them, the hostile Harald and Rocks finally lowered their weapons.
Then Rocks spoke again.
And his very next sentence made Harald swing his sword at him.
“Thor! Join my pirate crew and conquer the world with me!”
“Rocks, you son of a bitch! Die!”
This bastard actually dared to entice his son into becoming a pirate?!
Harald furiously brought his sword down, but Rocks blocked it with his saber.
One was a Giant.
The other was a human.
Their bodies differed in size by dozens of times, yet their strength was roughly equal.
“Hahahaha! Harald, you’re no good. You’re nowhere near as strong as your son Thor!”
Rocks laughed and mocked him.
Whenever Thor brought his hammer down, even Rocks had no choice but to dodge.
Harald’s attacks, however, were something Rocks could block head-on.
“Thor is different. His strength is like Oars’s.”
“Hohoho? That enormous demon from five hundred years ago?”
The title “Oars the Continent-Puller” had once shaken the world five centuries ago.
A Giant capable of moving entire islands possessed strength that was almost impossible to imagine.
Hearing Harald say that only made Rocks want Thor in his crew even more.
“Thor! Tell me what your dream is!”
“Tell me! Tell Harald!”
“A man like you—are you really going to spend your entire life in Elbaph, willingly bowing your head to those bastards in the World Government?!”
Much like Blackbeard’s famous declaration that “a man’s dream will never die,” Rocks’s words awakened Thor’s ambition.
Perhaps Thor could continue pretending to be the good son he had always been.
Perhaps someday he would become a good king of Elbaph.
But— a smile appeared on Thor’s face that Harald had never seen before.
“That’s right!”
“My dream is to bring Ragnarök upon those Celestial Dragons who dare call themselves gods!”
“If the World Government refuses to recognize Elbaph, then we’ll trample the World Government beneath our feet.”
“Warriors of Elbaph bow to no one!”
The moment Thor finished speaking, Harald’s heart sank.
Oh no.
This was bad.
Thor had spent too much time around those warriors from the Giant Warrior Pirates.
The traditions of Elbaph’s warriors had completely gotten into his head.
And yet Thor’s words resonated deeply with everyone around him.
Inside Elbaph’s royal palace, the Giant soldiers felt their blood surge with excitement.
Exactly!
This was what a warrior of Elbaph should be!
Prince Thor truly was the man destined to become king of Elbaph.
“Thor! Do you understand what you’re saying? Elbaph has only just managed to earn the recognition of human nations!”
“If you sail out to sea and become a pirate with Rocks, I will strike your name from Elbaph. You will no longer be qualified to inherit the throne.”
Harald spoke with absolute seriousness.
He wasn’t joking.
A prince of Elbaph could not be a pirate.
Doing so would destroy the diplomatic relations Elbaph had worked so hard to establish with the human kingdoms.
“Dad! The throne of Elbaph has never been something inherited. It is seized and proven through strength!”
“Have you spent so long playing house with humans that you’ve forgotten Elbaph’s traditions?”
Thor fired back without the slightest courtesy.
He wanted to go to sea and become a pirate.
He also wanted the throne of Elbaph.
Only the weak chose between two options.
The strong took everything.
For the first time in his life, Harald felt that Thor had become completely unfamiliar.
What had happened to his intelligent, thoughtful, considerate son?
Why had he suddenly become like this?
Harald’s heart broke.
The king of Elbaph lowered himself and pleaded with Thor.
“Thor, if you want to become king of Elbaph, I can abdicate right now and give you the throne.”
“But promise me one thing, all right?”
“Don’t go out to sea and become a pirate.”
As both a father and a king, Harald had lowered himself astonishingly far.
Even Rocks stared in disbelief.
He had never once seen Harald show such weakness.
But it was precisely because Harald had shown such a weak side of himself that Thor became angry.
Conqueror’s Haki awakened from within him.
BOOM!
The overwhelming pressure erupted outward, instantly knocking every Giant soldier in the palace unconscious.
“Conqueror’s Haki?!”
Harald and Rocks were both stunned.
“Dad! Tell me—how many times have you lowered yourself like this and begged those people in the World Government?”
“You are the king of Elbaph. The strongest warrior of the Giant race.”
“You shouldn’t be begging me.”
“You shouldn’t be begging anyone!”
“If I insist on going out to sea and becoming a pirate, what you should do is break my legs!”
“That is what my father—the king of Elbaph—should do!”
Harald was deeply shaken.
Perhaps he finally understood why Thor had suddenly become so rebellious and radical.
Maybe Harald really hadn’t been a good enough father.
Maybe he had failed to set the right example.
“I understand.”
“We’ll settle this the Elbaph way.”
“Dad… thank you.”
Thor thanked him sincerely.
…
Within a single day, news that Prince Thor would duel King Harald spread throughout Elbaph.
The Giants were utterly shocked.
Once they learned the reason behind the duel, Elbaph immediately split into two factions.
The warriors of Elbaph, led by Elders Jarul and Jorul, decisively supported Thor.
Prince Thor’s beliefs were their beliefs.
The World Government had always regarded Elbaph as a scourge.
How could Giants possibly bow their heads to those humans?
Meanwhile, most Giants who had enjoyed the benefits of peaceful life in recent years supported Harald.
Trade with human kingdoms had made Elbaph increasingly prosperous.
King Harald was right.
“I never expected this to turn into a battle between father and son. This is getting really interesting.”
Inside Ida’s tavern, Rocks laughed heartily.
A mug of beer immediately poured over his head, giving him the full experience of a beer waterfall.
“Hmph!”
Ida angrily slammed the empty mug onto the table and turned away.
“Hahahaha! Captain, that’s what you get for saying something like that in front of his mother.”
Seeing Rocks drenched in beer like a drowned rat, Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and the others shamelessly burst into laughter.
A sight like this was far too rare to pass up.
“Good luck, little brother! Don’t lose to Dad. I’m supporting you!”
“That’s right! Beat the old man senseless and make him understand just how stupid he’s being!”
What broke Harald’s heart the most was that both Hajrudin and Loki were firmly on Thor’s side.
Only Ida, as always, stood behind Harald.
Looking at her three rebellious sons, Ida angrily marched over and grabbed Thor by the ear.
At only fifteen years old, Thor was already a full head taller than his foster mother.
But that didn’t matter in the slightest.
In front of Ida, Thor was still a child.
He could only obediently endure her scolding.
“You idiot son! Haven’t I taught you to care more about others and try to understand them?!”
“Mom, I know everything you’re saying is right.”
Thor gave a wry smile.
“But you also know how much humiliation Dad has suffered from the World Government.”
“How many times has it been over all these years?”
“Every time he goes to the World Government, he comes back with exactly the same result.”
“Elbaph can have a peaceful future.”
“But that future cannot be something granted to us by someone else.”
“On this sea, the weak don’t get a voice.”
“Fine, fine! Everything you say makes sense!”
Ida knew there was no talking Thor out of it.
By now, every Giant in Elbaph knew what was happening.
Thor and Harald were destined to fight.
They would follow Elbaph’s tradition— and use a fair duel to prove who was right.