Kazi didn’t say a word.
He unleashed his Conqueror’s Haki, instantly knocking dozens of villagers unconscious.
“Let’s go, let’s go inside and take a look.”
Kazi led the way inside, and Kalmande scratched his head before following.
“Captain Kazi, didn’t you say you wanted to show them our sincerity?
Why did you use Conqueror’s Haki?”
Makino trotted over to catch up.
However, the contrast between Kazi’s actions and his words was so stark that she couldn’t quite wrap her head around it.
Kazi looked at Makino and grinned.
“I clearly have the power to kill them all instantly, but I didn’t.
Instead, I’m using money to buy supplies.
Doesn’t that count as being full of sincerity?”
“Using Conqueror’s Haki was just to make them understand this logic.”
“They wouldn’t have listened to anything I said anyway, so it’s more convenient to just take action.”
“Don’t worry.
Most people fear power more than they respect virtue.
No matter how nicely we talk, someone will always object.
But once they realize the gap between us, they will calm down instead.”
“This is all based on experience.
Just learn from it.”
Makino felt like she had learned something new.
Upon reflection, she felt that what Kazi said actually made sense.
In any case, they hadn’t actually harmed the villagers, and after they woke up in a little while, they would be perfectly fine.
The trio walked into the village and found that every house had its doors and windows tightly shut.
It seemed the news of pirates landing had already reached the village.
“Nothing we can do.
Let’s go to another village; there are plenty more around here.”
The three changed course and kept moving.
It didn’t take long; after passing through some rice paddies and a forest, they arrived at the outskirts of another village.
“Little girls, could you tell me if there’s a market here where we can buy things?”
Kazi and his group noticed an orange grove nearby.
Makino saw two little girls helping their Mama sort oranges, so she walked over to ask for directions.
“Huh?”
“Are you from another village?”
“We don’t have a market for buying and selling things in our village, but you can go to Kesha Town.
There’s a very big market there.”
The little girl with orange hair wasn’t afraid when she saw the three strangers.
They often helped their adoptive mother tend the orange grove and encountered strangers when they went to sell the fruit, so they were much bolder than other children their age.
“Nami, when other adults ask us things, we should go get Belle-Mere.”
The little girl with purple hair pulled on Nami, who was about to keep talking.
Her vigilance was clearly higher than Nami’s.
“Oh, you’re right.”
“Belle-Mere, some outsiders are here!”
The two little ones didn’t even care about the oranges in the basket anymore and ran straight into the orange grove to call for Belle-Mere.
Before long, three women—one adult and two children—walked over.
The woman in front was the Belle-Mere that Nami and the others had mentioned.
She was worthy of being a former Marine; even though she wasn’t a soldier anymore, that military bearing remained.
Standing tall with a confident smile, she approached Kazi and his group and said, “I don’t know what business you have coming to our orange grove?”
Kazi was in the middle of peeling an orange.
The several orange peels on the ground proved that this wasn’t the first one he had eaten.
“Your oranges are really good.
We’re here to buy some supplies, and we happened to come across your orange grove.
We wanted to ask for directions, so we came in to take a look.”
“How much are you selling these oranges for?”
Hearing the reason for Kazi and his group’s visit, Belle-Mere relaxed quite a bit.
Even though she had some fighting skills, seeing the size of Kazi and Kalmande, she didn’t feel entirely at ease.
“Guests, I only have oranges here.
If you want them, they are one hundred Berries per jin.
If you buy a lot, I can give you a discount.”
Kazi popped the peeled orange into his mouth.
The orange wasn’t small, but compared to Kazi’s height of over three meters, it looked like he was eating a tiny mandarin orange.
“Then I’ll take one thousand jin.
If you have any left over, I’ll take it all.”
Belle-Mere hadn’t expected such a big customer.
While she was happy to sell so much at once, there were only three of them—could they really eat that many oranges?
“Wow.”
“Hey, hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a crush on Belle-Mere, would you?
You’re being so generous!”
Hearing Kazi’s inhumanly lavish statement, Nami teased him.
Thud!
“Ouch, that hurts, Belle-Mere!”
Belle-Mere gave Nami a punch, as expected.
A large bump appeared on Nami’s head, and it was so painful that tears were about to stream down her face.
“You have no filter.”
“Nojiko, watch Nami.
We have guests here; don’t let her spout nonsense.”
“No problem, leave it to me.”
Nojiko’s betrayal made Nami very unhappy.
She pouted and said, “Nojiko, even you aren’t on my side anymore.”
The current Nami was still very lively.
Having not yet experienced the suffering caused by Arlong, Nami wasn’t as obsessed with money as she was portrayed in the original story.
Kazi felt that this version of Nami was quite nice.
Since he had transmigrated into this world, it would be nice if that cat burglar who endured humiliation to earn one hundred million Berries to save her village never came to be.
Kazi wanted to help Nami, and it wasn’t for any other reason than that he admired her beauty and character.
Such a kind girl deserved to be loved.
As for the concerns many transmigrators had—that changing the fate of key characters from the original story would alter the course of the world and make the situation hard to control…
Please, he had already transmigrated; he was the biggest anomaly of all.
Why worry if other things changed as well?
Being so timid and fearful was pointless; he might as well jump into the sea and drown, then nothing would change at all.
Doing as one pleases is the true path.
Perhaps it was because he had awakened Conqueror’s Haki, but Kazi felt much more confident.
Imu or whatever—if he couldn’t beat them, couldn’t he just run away?
Besides, with Luffy around, the Child of Destiny would take action.
According to Luffy’s progress, he would awaken Nika just a few years after setting sail, and Imu wouldn’t be jumping around for much longer.
Kazi casually placed a spatial marker in the orange grove.
“Hahaha, what an interesting little girl.
You want me to pursue your mother so badly—is it because you want to be my daughter?”
Kazi was ten years older than Nami.
It wasn’t a huge age gap, but then again, Nami was too young right now, so it wasn’t appropriate for him to make a move.
He could only tease her for now and cultivate their relationship.
“No, I didn’t mean that, I just…”
“I just saw how hard it is for Belle-Mere to raise me and Nojiko all by herself.
You’re so rich; if you married Belle-Mere, she wouldn’t have to work so hard.”
Not only was Kazi surprised, but even Belle-Mere, as the mother, was taken aback.
So that was the reason.
Although the approach was unconventional, the intention was good.
Belle-Mere felt that she hadn’t raised this daughter in vain.
“I’m sorry, I’ve made a fool of myself.”
Belle-Mere apologized to Kazi.
After all, it was Nami who had been speaking without thinking, and as her mother, she felt obligated to apologize.
“It’s alright.
The little girl is very interesting; I like her very much.”
That’s right, Kazi wasn’t lying—he liked her in every sense of the word.
In his previous life, Kazi had even read quite a few Nami doujinshi.
Now that he had finally transmigrated into the world of One Piece, he didn’t want to live like a monk.
By the way, Robin shouldn’t be too young now, right?