As Caesar continued flipping through the pages, he gradually realized that Blackbeard's life was indeed legendary, a classic rags-to-riches story.
Perseverance, patience, diligence, ruthlessness, and a disregard for trivialities—these qualities combined forged into one of the Four Emperors of the New World, Marshall D. Teach.
****
41 years ago, Grand Line, Drum Island, the Kingdom of Drum.
Night fell, and the snow-covered streets were lit by candlelight as households prepared their dinners.
In a wooden house near the shore, a woman in her twenties, wearing an apron, cooked at the stove.
Though her features were ordinary, she had gentle eyes and dimples that appeared when she smiled.
Humming an unknown tune, she cooked with a warm smile, occasionally touching her slightly swollen belly.
The door creaked open as a tall, thin middle-aged man in a white coat entered, shaking snow off his coat.
"Sally, guess who I ran into today?" he said with a grin.
The woman named Sally turned with a soft smile.
"Who else could it be, Dottore? The only person in Drum Kingdom who could make you this happy is probably that ageless witch, Dr. Kureha."
Dottore grinned, flashing his white teeth, and embraced his wife.
He then gently touched her belly, his smile fading slightly.
"Sally, don't worry too much. I spoke with Dr. Kureha. She said to bring you to the royal hospital tomorrow for a check-up. She'll be there too."
Sally's face lit up with joy. "Really? That's wonderful! Dr. Kureha is almost a hundred years old but looks no older than forty. With her medical skills, she can definitely solve my problem, right, Dottore?"
Dottore forced a gentle smile and nodded firmly.
The next day, at Drum Kingdom Royal Hospital.
Dottore, still in his white coat, walked out of the examination room in a daze and slumped onto a chair in the hallway.
Shortly after, a middle-aged woman with a voluptuous figure, dressed in a short-sleeved top and hot pants, emerged from the same room.
She glanced at Dottore and sighed, pulling a cigarette from her pocket.
Ignoring the "No Smoking" sign on the wall, she lit it and took a deep drag.
"Dottore, listen to me. Let Sally abort the child in her womb."
Dottore who's seated on the chair, trembled uncontrollably upon hearing these words.
Slowly, he buried his face in his hands and let out a howl like a lone wolf.
"Ah... why? Is there really no hope left? Dr. Kureha, even with your godlike medical skills, can you not save my three children? Teach, Jorna, and Bella... if we lose them, Sally will lose her mind."
Kureha exhaled a long puff of smoke and spoke slowly.
"You've seen the situation, Dottore. You're an outstanding doctor in the Drum Kingdom. You should understand what the outcome will be with current medical knowledge—a congenital conjoined triplet, with overlapping embryos growing as one. In my entire life, I've never encountered such a case. Ordinary conjoined twins can still be separated through surgery, but this... I'm sorry, Dottore. Even if they are born... the child you'd get would likely be nothing more than a... freak."
"No, no! NO!!" Dottore clutched his head and wept, pounding his skull in despair, his voice hoarse with anguish.
"Why? Why is heaven punishing me, Marshall D. Dottore, like this? I'm a doctor—I've saved so many people. And now, no one can save my children!"
Click.
Suddenly, the door to the examination room opened.
Sally, her face pale, forced a weak smile as she gently touched Dottore's shoulder and nodded at Kureha.
"Dottore, let's go home."
Dottore looked up, his face streaked with tears, his eyes red and swollen.
"Let's go home. Our children... will be born safely."
With that same pale smile, Sally tenderly wiped away her husband's tears.
The couple leaned on each other and staggered out of the hospital.
Kureha watched their retreating figures in silence for a long time.
A young man with a forked hairstyle suddenly appeared out of nowhere, sidling up to Kureha with a mysterious grin.
"Kureha, hehehe... I might be able to fix Dottore's little problem, you know."
Kureha shot him a glance and replied flatly, "Hiruluk, how many times must I tell you? There's no such thing as a panacea, let alone one that can cure conjoined triplets. Why won't you give up?"
Hiruluk, his face twisted with obsessive madness, chuckled foolishly as he walked away.
"Just you wait, Kureha. I will find the panacea."
...
Six months later, in the same place—the Royal Hospital.
In the hallway outside, Dottore looked haggard beyond measure, his eyes bloodshot, as though he hadn't slept properly in ages.
He paced back and forth restlessly, his gaze repeatedly darting toward the examination room door.
After a while, Kureha emerged in her white coat, peeling off her bloodstained gloves.
Dottore rushed to her, his eyes brimming with desperate hope.
Kureha stared at him for a long moment before stiffly shaking her head.
Thud!
Dottore collapsed to his knees, his body going limp, his face drained of color.
"Sally... is gone. Your children... showed no signs of life either. Dottore... stay strong."
Kureha didn't know what to say to pull this man, whose heart was filled with agony, out of his endless grief.
All she heard was a cry of utter despair before Dottore, as if gone mad, burst into the medical room.
His tall, lean frame erupted with unprecedented strength as he cradled his blood-soaked wife in one arm and what appeared to be a perfectly normal infant in the other.
Like a man possessed, he dashed out of the royal hospital and into the swirling snowstorm.
"Hiruluk! Quick, go after him! I'm afraid he might... do something drastic in his grief!"
Kureha paled, shouting urgently at the young man leaning against the wall.
Hiruluk snapped to attention and immediately gave chase after Dottore's rapidly disappearing figure.
Amid the howling blizzard, Dottore wailed mournfully as he ran through knee-deep snow with his wife and child in his arms.
He didn't know where he was going—perhaps home, perhaps into the mountains.
The storm grew fiercer, and Dottore's strength waned.
He panted heavily, his vision blurring.
Then—suddenly!
With a heavy thud, Dottore collapsed face-first into the deep snow.
His wife's body tumbled into a snow-filled ravine ahead, vanishing instantly from sight.
"No, no! Sally! Sally!"
Tears of blood streaked from Dottore's eyes as he reached out desperately, clawing at the empty air where his wife had been.
"Waaah... waaah..."
From within the storm came the sudden, piercing cries of an infant, jolting Dottore back to awareness.
Frantically, he searched around.
Finally, atop the thick snow, he spotted the wailing baby.
The infant's cries shifted strangely—sometimes sounding like a boy, sometimes like a girl, sometimes overlapping in an eerie, unsettling harmony with the howling wind.
But Dottore felt only joy.
Sobbing uncontrollably, he clutched the baby to his chest and screamed towards the bottomless ravine.
"Sally! Sally! Can you hear me? Our children—Teach, Jorna, and Bella—they're alive! They survived!"