One year.
This was the time limit Silas had planned.
Too long wouldn't work. The seas had short memories. If Silas vanished for two or three years, the Marines would inevitably target Sphinx again.
But too short a timeframe was equally problematic. If the Marine Admirals hadn't left yet, they could easily detect his reappearance on Elbaf with their Observation Haki.
Admiral-level fighters weren't exactly growing on trees.
Even within the entire Marines, there were only a countable few with Admiral-level strength.
Only Admiral-level fighters could reliably capture some renowned great pirates, the most numerous and destructive group of lawless individuals on these seas.
One year was about right.
Neither the Marines nor the World Government had the patience to invest too much time on one island, and one year was enough for Giant King Harald to heal his wounds and adapt to his injured body.
By then, even if the Marines still had Admiral-level fighters on the island, Harald could provide support.
As for the possibility of Elbaf's giants being annihilated by the World Government, combined with Ripley's abilities, this possibility was infinitely close to zero.
One year was a long time, but to Silas, who had entered time travel under Kozuki Toki's ability, it felt like an instant.
One second, Kong and Grindelwald's attacks were ready to strike.
The next second, they had all disappeared.
Silas had no memory of the time travel process. Only from the changes in his surroundings and Kozuki Toki's previous explanations could he quickly understand that he had completed time travel.
He had arrived one year later.
His Observation Haki quickly swept the surroundings. After confirming there were no enemies, Silas finally breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as he relaxed, his entire body felt like it was about to split apart.
Silas collapsed directly to the ground.
"Ah!"
Then he heard a cry of surprise. He had completely forgotten that he had time-traveled while holding Kozuki Toki. She was on top of him.
When he fell, he directly pressed Kozuki Toki underneath him.
"S-Silas-san?"
Kozuki Toki wanted Silas to let her go, but when she looked up, she discovered Silas had already fainted.
To rescue Elbaf, Silas had truly given his all this time.
At Sphinx, he could at least escape if things went badly.
But at Elbaf, he had to genuinely withstand the siege of several Admiral-level fighters for at least half an hour.
So it was not just physical injuries but mental ones too.
Silas needed to rest.
But with Silas collapsed like this, Kozuki Toki suffered. She did not dare move carelessly because she could see wounds all over Silas's body. A large area on his back was particularly bloody and mangled, with broken bone fragments faintly visible inside.
Fortunately, Kozuki Toki was not exactly a weak woman. At 1.9 meters tall, she was only somewhat shorter than Silas. Even being pressed under him was not too uncomfortable.
It was just that from childhood to now, this was her first intimate contact with a male, making her blush involuntarily.
Silas-san would not be doing this on purpose, would he?
As soon as this thought emerged, Kozuki Toki dismissed it herself, because she could tell that Silas did not seem to have many thoughts about her. Though he sometimes stared at her, his gaze was always very open, more with a kind of appreciative look.
Thinking this way, Kozuki Toki's gaze suddenly became somewhat resentful.
She seemed to have heard from Ripley that though Silas had never married, he had had several intimate partners.
So he wasn't very interested in her.
Thinking this, Kozuki Toki was somewhat dazed. When had she started caring about Silas's opinion of her? They had only known each other for less than a month.
Thinking carefully, she did not know much about Silas.
She only knew Silas was a very powerful pirate who was on his way to Elbaf to pick up his crew member when he happened to encounter enemies attacking Elbaf, so he came to help.
She had originally thought this was just a small-scale conflict.
But the moment Silas began fighting the invading enemies, Kozuki Toki realized how wrong she was. That world-destroying impact made her wonder every moment whether she would die the next instant.
But she did not die.
Silas seemed to deliberately control the battle's direction, avoiding letting the combat affect her area.
Even facing three terrible enemies, Silas still had not forgotten to protect her.
He really is a good person!
Kozuki Toki suddenly felt some regret. If she had not rushed into her next time jump after her last time travel, would she have had a chance to meet a younger Silas?
Looking at Silas's face, not only handsome but also mature with traces of vicissitude, Kozuki Toki's heartbeat involuntarily accelerated.
She seemed to feel Silas's slight breathing beside her cheek.
Thump! Thump!
Kozuki Toki's heart was in chaos.
After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly noticed something in her peripheral vision.
A giant cat, massive as a mountain, suddenly emerged from distant hills. Originally just strolling lazily, but upon seeing her and Silas, its pupils immediately became sharp.
An Elbaf giant beast!
As the giants' homeland, Elbaf naturally did not only nurture giants. It also raised countless behemoths large enough to be considered prey by giants.
And over the past year, because the Marines had extensively logged large amounts of Midgard's timber, many giant beasts had lost their homes and could only roam to the Underworld below Midgard.
This mountain cat, standing nearly ten meters tall, was one of them.
In the giants' eyes, it was just a pet.
But to Kozuki Toki, an ordinary person, it was completely a monster!
"Silas-san, wake up quickly!"
Kozuki Toki wanted to wake Silas but found he was completely unresponsive. A small cat probably did not register as a threat in Silas's subconscious.
Seeing the mountain cat approaching, Kozuki Toki gritted her teeth and prepared to crawl out from under Silas. Though her strength was average, she was still a samurai. Samurai never fled with their backs to the enemy!
But the mountain cat did not continue forward.
Though only a few hundred meters away, a distance the ten-meter-tall mountain cat could cross in the blink of an eye, the mountain cat seemed to have discovered some natural enemy.
It did not dare move.
A giant over forty meters tall slowly approached from the distance.
Seeing Silas and Kozuki Toki, the giant's face showed a relaxed smile.
Behind him were figures incredibly familiar to Silas.
Ripley, Rocks, Newgate, and even Charlotte Linlin and Carmel had come.
Seeing Silas, everyone seemed to find their backbone and breathed a great sigh of relief.
Giant King Harald laughed loudly, "Tonight, prepare a banquet!"