Ace returned home with a stormy expression, radiating a stay away aura, and walked straight into the house without a word.
Curious and concerned, Dadan and the mountain bandits dared not provoke him. Instead, they quietly pulled Luffy aside outside the house.
As Ace's foster mother, Dadan couldn't hide her worry.
"Luffy, what's going on with Ace? And where's Sabo? He didn't come back, did they have a fight?"
The bandits gathered around Luffy, anxious for answers.
"Eh? It's fine, really," Luffy said, folding his hands behind his head with a carefree grin. "They're both doing great."
Seeing Luffy so relaxed, Dadan and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's good to hear…"
SLAM!
The door suddenly burst open. Ace stepped out, fully geared for travel. A large pack was strapped to his back, packed with tools for surviving in the wild.
"Luffy," he said seriously, "I'm heading out for a while. I might not be back for a long time. Take care of yourself, alright?"
"Got it. Don't worry, good luck out there!" Luffy smiled, already guessing what Ace had in mind.
As Ace disappeared into the distance, Luffy watched silently, thinking:
"Hurry up and grow stronger, or you really won't be able to keep up with me anymore…"
─────────🏴☠️─────────
Lately, Luffy hadn't cared much about gaining experience points. His level requirements had risen into the tens of thousands, and wild beasts only gave a few hundred at most, not worth the grind anymore.
Thankfully, thanks to stat bonuses from Zoro and Nami's "passive boosts," he still gained a point or two every few days.
Currently, Luffy's Strength stat is approaching 450.
That meant even if he did nothing else, he'd reach the threshold to awaken Armament Haki in about a year.
He wouldn't even be nine years old by then.
─────────🏴☠️─────────
Nightfall.
Under his father's escort, Sabo returned to his noble family estate, a lavish mini-castle nestled on the outskirts of the city.
That afternoon, Sabo had given a statement at the town guard's office, falsely claiming that Luffy and Ace had forced him into wrongdoing. He didn't want to say it, but his father insisted it would "taint" the family's reputation otherwise.
In truth, the old Sabo would never have betrayed Luffy and Ace like that.
But after what he saw today, after witnessing Luffy's overwhelming power, Sabo finally understood:
Only the strong can truly be free.
If he were as powerful as Luffy, no amount of family pressure or class status could ever chain him down.
He recalled the day they exchanged sake and became brothers, the things Luffy had said…
Before, he and Ace had dreamed of escaping the system.
Now, he wanted to reshape the system.
Sabo's family was one of the highest-ranked noble houses in the Goa Kingdom, eligible even to intermarry with royalty. Their family library rivaled the royal archive in size, and held countless forbidden books.
There were volumes on true history, military strategy, command structure, devil fruit encyclopedias, and the mechanics of class rule, books a commoner would never see.
That was one of the reasons Sabo agreed to come back.
─────────🏴☠️─────────
The moment they reached the front gate, Sabo's father barked,
"You're filthy! You're not stepping into this house like that! Wash in the courtyard, disinfect, then bathe before going inside!"
Back on his own turf, the old noble's bluster returned.
Sabo stopped.
He slowly turned around, and an invisible pressure gathered around him, subtle, but suffocating.
"Don't give me orders."
SLAP!
The elder noble froze. It was as if unseen chains had bound his limbs. A wave of terror gripped him.
Looking into Sabo's eyes, he thought again of that boy from earlier that day… the one who'd nearly killed him with a glance.
His knees buckled. He collapsed to the ground, eyes wide, stammering,
"Y‑yes… yes…"
─────────🏴☠️─────────
After a quick rinse, Sabo made his way to the family's private library.
Gazing at the rows upon rows of bookshelves, he started scanning carefully.
He didn't have much time, he needed to leave before his engagement to the princess.
No matter what, he couldn't hurt the parents who had raised him, even if they disgusted him.
While flipping through a book on navigation,
Knock knock.
Someone rapped on the door.
Sabo glanced up, confused.
His father wouldn't disturb him here. His mother never even entered this room. The servants had no reason to come now, either.
"Nice to meet you, big brother!"
A boy with blond mushroom‑shaped hair, about Luffy's age, stood at the doorway with an exaggerated smile.
Sabo closed the book and frowned. "Big brother? Who are you?"
"I'm Sterry, eight years old. Father adopted me. I've heard all about you, big bro~!"
Sabo narrowed his eyes but said nothing, returning to his reading.
Unbothered, Sterry walked right in and kept talking.
"Everyone says you're an idiot. Hehehe. Father and Mother always talk behind your back."
He plopped into the chair beside Sabo and said smugly:
"You're lucky, though! Tomorrow's combustible trash day. If you'd stayed in Gray Terminal, you'd be dead meat!"
Sterry leaned in closer, voice dropping low.
"Honestly, it'd be better for me if the real son never came home."
Sabo slammed his book shut.
"What did you just say?" he growled, glaring at Sterry.
He grabbed Sterry's collar, voice trembling.
"Did you say… they're going to burn the Gray Terminal?"
Sterry gulped and quickly nodded.
"Yeah! It's been decided for months now! You didn't know because you were living there, but everyone in High Town knows. The World Government inspection team is touring the East Blue, and they'll arrive here soon."
He grinned, expression slowly warping into something hideous.
"There's a Celestial Dragon among them. The royals want to impress them. So they're going to burn all the filth out of this kingdom. Once Gray Terminal is gone, we'll finally be spotless!"
==========
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