“Hm?
Where did you go?”
“Nowhere important.
By the way…
is this really what you people do every day?
Sit around and drink?”
“What are you talking about?!
Of course we’ve got things to do!
We’re keeping Shakky company!”
“Ohhh!
Shakky is so beautiful!!”
After that brief exchange, Hua Ye returned to his seat in the tavern.
He looked around at the pirates openly drooling over Shakky and fell silent.
So circling around Shakky was basically their daily assignment?
He couldn’t understand them at all.
“Hahaha!
That’s what it means to be genuine!” Rocks slapped Hua Ye on the shoulder.
“If you love someone, love them fiercely!
If you hate someone, hate them openly!
The greatness of humanity lies in expression.
A person’s will isn’t something meant to be suppressed!”
“You could become a philosopher.”
Hua Ye glanced at Rocks, then turned toward Shakky.
“A drink, please.”
“Whiskey all right?”
Shakky leaned over the counter and placed a glass in front of him.
Hua Ye took it and had a taste.
He had never been much of a drinker.
His attitude toward alcohol had always been simple—if he felt like drinking, he’d have a few sips.
If he didn’t, he wouldn’t.
At that moment, Shakky noticed something unusual about Rocks.
He was drinking with a thoroughly satisfied expression, but unlike the others, he wasn’t staring at her beauty.
He seemed to be happily lost in his own thoughts.
“What’s with that look, Rocks?
You seem awfully pleased with yourself, but your heart isn’t here with me.” Shakky leaned a little closer with a smile.
“She got you there!
A woman’s intuition, maybe?” Charlotte Linlin burst into laughter.
“Mamamama!”
“You’re noisy!
Shut up!
This is top-secret information!” Rocks shouted.
“What’s going on?” Newgate asked, genuinely confused.
“You’re way too dense, Newgate.” Stussy gave him a knowing grin.
“Rocks definitely has a woman somewhere.
Hell, he might even have a kid already.”
“Oh.”
Newgate clearly couldn’t care less.
He simply kept drinking.
Hua Ye’s thoughts stirred as he remembered Blackbeard.
What kind of expression would Rocks make if he knew that Blackbeard would eventually be responsible for Whitebeard’s death?
Now that Hua Ye thought about it, he was genuinely curious.
BANG!
The tavern door suddenly flew open as a group barged inside.
“Shakky!
We’re here to see you!”
Hua Ye turned his head.
So that was who it was.
Roger had arrived with his crew.
“Roger!
How many damn times do I have to tell you?!
This is my territory!” Rocks immediately stood and marched over until he was forehead-to-forehead with Roger.
“But this is Shakky’s bar!
You don’t want to fight me in here either, do you, you damn porcupine?!” Roger shouted right back, refusing to give an inch.
“Wasn’t there a huge line outside?” someone in the tavern asked curiously.
“Everyone outside was already lying on the ground when we got here.
We figured you guys did it.” Scopper Gaban spread his hands.
“Is that so?”
Newgate glanced toward Hua Ye.
“Roger!”
Gloriosa launched herself across the room and latched onto him.
“Perfect timing!
I’m getting on your ship today!”
Roger looked disgusted and tried to shove her away, only to discover that she refused to budge.
Shakky asked where Rayleigh was.
Roger told her Rayleigh had stayed behind on the ship.
At that, longing appeared on Shakky’s face.
Then suddenly, she swayed.
A wave of dizziness hit her, and she collapsed forward, startling everyone.
“Whoa!
Shakky collapsed!”
“Shakky!
Are you okay?!”
“Move!
I’ll carry her to a doctor!”
“Get lost, you bastards!”
The moment Shakky fainted, the room descended into total chaos.
None of these people looked remotely like the terrifying great pirates who roamed the seas.
Only Hua Ye understood what had happened.
Shakky’s lovesickness had flared up.
She must have missed Rayleigh too much.
After a frantic commotion, Gloriosa—who also came from Amazon Lily—eventually carried Shakky away.
The atmosphere inside the tavern immediately changed.
The pirates who had been full of energy moments earlier now looked like frostbitten eggplants, slumped over with no enthusiasm whatsoever.
Roger was the worst of them.
He had specifically come here to drink with Shakky.
Now he was sprawled over a table, trying to drink from an empty bottle with dead, unfocused eyes.
He looked borderline braindead.
Hua Ye watched everyone sighing miserably and suddenly said,
“If Shakky ever got kidnapped, I’m guessing half of you would lose the will to live.”
The room ignited.
It was an impressively low-EQ remark.
Everyone was already depressed, and Hua Ye’s words immediately earned him furious glares from several members of the Rocks Pirates.
“Don’t get cocky, brat!” Shiki snapped.
“Don’t think you’re special just because you traded a few blows with Rocks.
This isn’t your place to run your mouth.” Marlon’s face turned cold.
“Hehehe…
Nobody even knows where this guy came from, and now he’s saying things like that.” Ochoku grinned, though a drop of sweat hung from his forehead.
“Maybe he’s a Government spy.”
“No!
From a certain perspective, I think he just stated an undeniable fact!” John clutched his head with both hands, looking as if he’d suddenly imagined something horrifying.
More voices joined in.
Most were openly unhappy with Hua Ye’s remark, and a few pirates even reached for their weapons.
“Know why nobody fights in here?”
Rocks was still smiling, but his eyes had turned vicious.
“Because Shakky made the rule.
Everybody here wants to drink at this bar, so fighting inside it is forbidden.”
His grin widened.
“So don’t disrespect someone I like.”
A terrifying burst of Conqueror’s Haki erupted from him.
Black-red lightning cracked through the air.
Several pirates went deathly pale, their knees buckling beneath them.
But Rocks’ Haki wasn’t aimed at Hua Ye.
It was directed at the people who had just shown hostility toward him.
Hua Ye turned to look at Rocks.
Rocks grinned back.
“You’re here drinking because I brought you.
If you can’t afford the bill, put it on my tab.”
“The freedom of a pirate…
means saying whatever you want to say?”
A low laugh escaped Hua Ye, as though he had suddenly learned something new.
“Exactly!” Rocks laughed with delight.
“Say whatever the hell you want!
Do whatever the hell you want!
Don’t care about rules, don’t care about anyone else!
The person who lives the most freely and does exactly as he pleases is the freest man on these seas!”
Rocks seemed genuinely happy that Hua Ye was beginning to understand.
His words presented an idea Hua Ye had never really considered before.
This world was fundamentally different from the one he had lived in before—both in its values and in how people thought.
Here, the power someone could display was directly tied to the strength of their will.
The more unwavering and extreme a person’s will became, the stronger their Haki seemed to rise with it—by several whole stories, if Hua Ye had to put it that way.
And if someone suffered a severe psychological blow, the consequences could be equally dramatic.
At best, their strength might decline.
At worst, they could collapse completely and never recover.
Hua Ye could think of an obvious example close at hand.
Decades from now, Shakky would still look surprisingly young.
Gloriosa, who belonged to the same generation, would become Elder Nyon—a tiny old woman walking around with a cane.
The difference between them?
Shakky ended up with Rayleigh, the man she loved, and the two remained together for decades.
Gloriosa, meanwhile, loved Roger obsessively.
Roger didn’t love her at all, and would eventually find a woman he truly loved.
In Hua Ye’s view, losing that love meant Gloriosa lost the fire in her heart.
Once that spirit disappeared, everything about a person changed.
Their vitality faded, they became uglier, and they aged faster.
The One Piece world was full of examples like that.
Maybe it was idealistic nonsense.
Maybe there was some other explanation.
Either way, the phenomenon clearly existed.
Before accomplishing anything, a person first had to believe.
Believe it could be done.
Believe they themselves could do it.
It was something Hua Ye had never really thought about before, yet now instinctively understood.
“Rocks.”
A faint smile appeared on Hua Ye’s face.
“I’ve decided not to take your life for the time being.”
“Want me to keep it safe for you, then?” Rocks burst into laughter.
“Don’t change your mind that easily!
At least come try and see if you can actually take it!”
The two looked at each other.
Nobody else in the room understood what exactly had just passed between them.
But Rocks and Hua Ye both knew one thing.
Their meeting would only make the future more interesting.