Patrick quietly listened to Kenji's words, not angered by being underestimated.
Instead, he chuckled and said, "Heh, it was indeed my mistake not to take you seriously before."
"Fortunately, I witnessed your power firsthand when I met Roger in the New World."
"That made me realize that you are definitely a formidable opponent worth paying attention to."
At this point, he suddenly stopped speaking, a gentlemanly smile appearing on his face, and then he bowed to Kenji with classical grace.
"I am truly sorry for my past impolite behavior."
"Such conduct was indeed too disrespectful towards a strong opponent like you."
Patrick adopted a very humble posture, making it seem quite sincere. But it only *seemed* that way.
Kenji instantly saw through the arrogance in his demeanor. That ingrained haughtiness in his blood would not easily recede.
Therefore, Kenji felt even more annoyed amd said, "You've been rambling on and on for half a day, just to show off your arrogance?"
Patrick's seemingly sincere, aristocratic apology couldn't fool Kenji's eyes.
In Kenji's view, the other party's performance was childish and comical, like a superior forcing himself to shake hands and take photos with common laborers to appear approachable.
One word: disgusting!
"This kid, is he trying to make a fool out of me?"
Patrick's act infuriated Kenji, and his fists automatically hardened.
He came all this way just to disgust me? Then I must teach him a good lesson!
A lesson called 'Learn to Respect Your Elders'!
"Huh? Why is he still angry?"
After Patrick bowed, he found that Kenji, far from calming his anger, seemed even more furious.
"Truly… an unpredictable temper."
Patrick frowned slightly, feeling that Kenji was not living up to his name.
How could such an easily angered person have a good temper?
However, he then considered another possibility.
"It is said that this White Lion Admiral is already 66 years old, with a full head of white hair…"
"Perhaps after dyeing his hair, his mindset also became younger?"
Thinking of this, a hint of playful mocking smile appeared on Patrick's lips.
"Your mindset can become younger, but your body won't."
"Old geezers from the previous era are not qualified to board the ship of our era."
As the thought arose, Patrick straightened his body, placed his hands on his umbrella sword, and slightly raised his chin, resuming his arrogant posture.
Of course, arrogant as he was, he never underestimated his opponents—provided they were worthy of being his opponents.
At this moment, he quietly released his unique Observation Haki. This was a 'privilege' Kenji had not received during their first encounter.
That's right, during their brief skirmish last time, Patrick hadn't even used his Observation Haki.
His Observation Haki was rather special, similar to Roger's, capable of perceiving or 'hearing' the opponent's inner voice, and even reading their memories.
At this time, silently, Patrick's Observation Haki had already secretly enveloped Kenji in the distance.
Then, he was astonished to discover that his Observation Haki had 'failed'.
It wasn't a failure in sensing auras, but a failure in his special Observation Haki ability. He couldn't hear Kenji's inner voice, let alone read his memories.
Patrick had encountered such a failure of his special ability a few times before.
However, those opponents were Legendary Pirates: Roger! Whitebeard!
"Impossible, he shouldn't have power like Roger's…"
Patrick frowned deeply, full of doubts, but he didn't believe Kenji had used some power to block his perception.
"Last time we met, his power was still quite far from Roger's."
"Only less than two months have passed… There must be something else I haven't discovered."
Patrick's eyes became serious and stern as he meticulously observed Kenji, wanting to uncover the secret hidden within him.
Just then, Kenji suddenly stood up and slowly walked towards Patrick.
"Let's change the battlefield. Don't accidentally smash the training camp." Kenji said to Patrick in the distance as he walked, intending to find a different battleground.
Nearly two months of preparation and construction, countless financial resources expended, and they had only just managed to build the rough outline of the training camp.
And now it was all for a single fight?
It was foreseeable that the coming battle between Kenji and Patrick, given their strength, would make leveling an island no difficult feat.
As for destroying the buildings on the island, wasn't that commonplace?
In that case, the training camp, built with immense funds and effort, would become a one-time consumable.
It might become the most expensive one-time consumption in the world.
To use an inappropriate analogy, it would be like going to a pleasure house and requesting a courtesan's service, only to be scammed, and then repeating this process twenty times, which might be comparable to this expense.
Of course, Kenji had frequented pleasure houses for so many years and had never been scammed once.
Yet, at this moment, he vaguely sensed an ominous premonition. His wallet might suffer a greater damage than twenty scams combined.
And very soon, his premonition seemed about to come true.
He saw that Patrick in the distance did not get up. Instead, he slowly drew his umbrella sword with a hint of excitement.
The blade glinted with a sharp, cold light in the sunlight.
"It seems this kid is determined to cause trouble!"
Kenji realized that Patrick's talk of 'reminiscing with old friends' and 'seeking strong challengers' was all nonsense.
The man was just here to stir up trouble!
He narrowed his eyes, clenched his fists, and a powerful trace of Armament Haki instantly burst forth.
"Prepare yourself, arrogant brat!"
(End of Chapter)
New Book:
Naruto: Transmigrating With Yuta's Template
Haruki arrives in the Naruto world and before he could take a breather, a ninja, holding a sharp blade, rushes towards him.
"…"
He closed his eyes and prepared for a second transmigration.
Unexpectedly, a pair of huge claws stretched out from behind him and twisted the ninja in front of him.
"Yuta..."
"Don't hurt Yuta..."
Haruki opened his eyes and saw a face that was extremely terrifying.
Isn't this the Queen of Curses Rika from Jujutsu Kaisen?
…
[Congratulations to the host for successfully calming down the companion cursed spirit who was in a rage—Rika Orimoto!]
[The Cursed Spirit Mother Auxiliary System has been successfully activated!]
[The King of Curses Ryomen Sukuna... Waiting to be activated! ]
[Host Identity Template——Yuta Okkotsu]
[Please activate Yuta Okkotsu's main ability!]