Inside the banquet hall, decadent music filled the air.
Kikkawa Motoharu, the fierce general of the Mōri Clan, dressed in a magnificent kimono, was currently beaming, holding a sake cup, and looking at the man at the head of the table with an attitude of worship.
"Teacher Jack! That KPI you just mentioned is simply brilliant!"
"I've decided, I'm going to implement it for my Ashigaru unit tomorrow!"
"Anyone who fails to complete their training tasks won't get any food!"
At the head of the table, Jack Sparrow leaned back on a cushion, his eyes hazy with drink, surrounded by seven or eight beautiful maidservants.
One was massaging his shoulders, one was feeding him grapes, and another was carefully touching up his dirty dreadlocks adorned with chrysanthemums.
He let out a burp, waved his hand, and spoke in the tone of an otherworldly master.
"This is just a fraction of my advanced management theories."
He was now too lazy to even remember Kikkawa Motoharu's name, directly giving him the affectionate nickname "Big Oaf," which Kikkawa Motoharu, surprisingly, quite enjoyed.
"By the way, to celebrate Teacher Jack's upcoming promotion to Chief Administrator of Saigoku, I've specially prepared our most famous 'Iwami Kagura' for you!"
Kikkawa Motoharu clapped his hands.
The dancers in the center of the hall immediately retreated.
They were replaced by a group of dancers wearing grotesque spirits (oni-god) masks, who, accompanied by stirring drumbeats, began to perform an ancient and mysterious dance.
The atmosphere instantly reached a climax.
However, amidst this fervor, no one noticed that the huge paper sliding door of the banquet hall was silently pushed open a crack by a hand.
Roger's impossibly handsome face emerged from behind the door.
He expressionlessly watched Jack Sparrow, who was living a life more luxurious than an emperor, in the center of the hall.
He looked at the expensive silk kimono he was wearing.
He looked at the folding fan in his hand, adorned with erotic paintings.
He looked at the beautiful women around him, feeding him grapes.
Roger felt his heart being struck hard, as if by the drumsticks in the hands of those shamanistic dancers.
Damn it.
I'm out here fighting wits with Japanese pirates for a few million copper coins, and you're in here embracing girls and enjoying fine food and drink?
I painstakingly earned those copper coins for you to upgrade your Black Iron Skeleton, and you're using it for this?
Is there no justice left?
Is there no law left?
"Boss, calm down, calm down."
The system's voice chimed in at the right moment, full of schadenfreude, enjoying the spectacle.
"How about I play 'Green Light' for you to liven things up? Or you could consider our 'Boss's Fury' package, activating berserk mode with one click, guaranteed to let him experience the harsh realities of the workplace."
"Get lost!" Roger cursed in his mind.
He didn't choose to kick the door open and go on a rampage.
He simply slowly pushed the paper sliding door completely open.
Then, he walked in with a leisurely stroll.
Behind him followed a group of Black Iron Skeletons, dressed in bizarre attire, making "clack-clack" sounds as they walked.
They tried their best to imitate their captain's nonchalant demeanor, but they looked more like a group of models who had just crawled out of a graveyard, ready to participate in a rural fashion show.
The drums in the banquet hall were too loud.
Most people were immersed in the wild atmosphere of the "Iwami Kagura" and didn't notice this peculiar group of "people" at the entrance.
Roger didn't care either.
He walked to an empty seat in a corner, sat down cross-legged.
He picked up the sake pot on the table, poured himself a cup of sake, then raised it and drank it in one gulp.
"Pah, what is this stuff, tastes like horse piss." Roger cursed under his breath, then spat it out, and sat there quietly, without saying a word.
His gaze, piercing through the frantically dancing crowd wearing spirits (oni-god) masks, precisely locked onto Jack Sparrow at the head of the table, who was drunkenly enjoying being fed by the maidservants.
That gaze carried not a trace of warmth.
It was as if he was looking at a waste (scrap) asset about to be sent to the recycling plant.
Finally, a samurai closer to the door seemed to sense something amiss.
He turned his head in confusion, and then he saw Roger.
And behind Roger, Buck the skeleton, wearing a woman's kimono, with chicken feathers stuck in his head, curiously picking at the mural on the wall.
The samurai's mouth slowly opened wide.
He wanted to shout, but found his throat choked by an invisible fear, unable to utter a sound.
At the head of the table, Jack Sparrow was squinting, enjoying a maidservant placing a peeled grape into his mouth.
The sweet juice burst in his mouth.
Ah, bliss!
What more could one ask for in life?
He felt he had reached the pinnacle of his life.
To hell with the Caribbean Sea, to hell with the black pearl, to hell with Roger!
From now on, I am Chief Administrator of Saigoku, Lord Jack!
However, just as he was about to have another one, he noticed that the maidservant feeding him grapes had stopped moving.
Her beautiful eyes were staring fixedly in one direction, her body trembling slightly.
"What's wrong, my little darling?" Jack drunkenly pinched her cheek, then, following her gaze, looked over impatiently.
At that glance.
Time seemed to stand still.
Space seemed to solidify.
Jack's smile froze on his face.
The grape in his mouth, which he hadn't yet swallowed, was stuck in his throat.
He saw it.
In that noisy corner.
In the shadow forgotten by the lights.
A figure he would recognize even if he were turned to ashes, was sitting there quietly.
That person was holding a cup of sake, smiling at him with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man.
"Hiccup." Jack hiccupped, spitting out that fatal grape.
His brain, dulled by alcohol, became clearer than ever in that instant.
His priceless silk kimono, at this moment, felt like the hottest branding iron in the world.
The beautiful maidservants around him, at this moment, seemed to have transformed into vengeful spirits coming for his life.
It's over.
This was the only thought in his mind.
"Good evening, Chief Administrator Jack."
Roger raised the sake cup in his hand, toasting him from afar, his smile so radiant that Jack felt he was looking at the fires of hell.
"It seems your work is progressing quite smoothly."
"Boom!" Jack's brain completely exploded.
He almost scrambled off the cushion, which symbolized power and status, tumbling down and knocking over a low table laden with delicacies in the process.
Soups and liquids spilled everywhere.
The music stopped.
The dancing stopped.
In the entire banquet hall, everyone's gaze was focused on the suddenly disheveled "Teacher Jack."
"Cap... Captain!" Jack's voice was as sharp as a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
He used both hands and feet, sliding across the tatami-matted floor at a hundred-meter sprint speed, finally landing with a "thud" – a perfect slide tackle – precisely at Roger's feet.
He hugged Roger's calf, raising his tear-streaked face, snot and tears flowing.
"My Captain! My Boss! My second parents!"
"You're finally here! I missed you so much!"
"If you hadn't come, I would've become a big shot!"
Kikkawa Motoharu and the other Japanese nobles were all dumbfounded.
What... what was happening?
How could "Teacher Jack," who was like a god in their hearts, kneel before a young man who appeared out of nowhere?
And cry while hugging his leg?
"Teacher Jack! What are you doing!" Kikkawa Motoharu finally reacted, he suddenly stood up, drew the katana from his waist, and angrily pointed it at Roger.
"Who are you?! Let go of Teacher Jack!"
Roger ignored him.
He just lowered his head, looking at Jack Sparrow, who was hugging his leg and crying like a three-hundred-pound child.
He slowly reached out, gently wiping away the tears and... eyeliner from his face.
Then, he softly said.
"A hundred maidservants, Jack."
"You're quite capable, aren't you."
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