"Let's go."
After Luffy's battle ended, Roman immediately took down his opponent with a few punches and kicks. Then he called for Nami to leave—while also "gallantly" picking up the bag full of Buggy Pirates' treasure for her, making the orange-haired girl smile on the surface while inwardly...
For the sake of money, it looked like she had no choice but to keep playing along with them for a while.
Soon, the three of them arrived at the town's harbor. Besides the ships belonging to the Buggy Pirates, there was also a merchant ship slowly approaching.
"Huh?"
"Zoro, you actually managed to sail the ship here?" Roman looked at the green-haired Three-Sword Style swordsman standing at the bow and rubbed his chin. "Looks like I misunderstood you. Your sailing skills..."
"No."
Zoro pointed his thumb behind him.
"I wasn't the one sailing. Those three guys did it."
"Lord Zoro..."
"Look, we've reached the harbor."
"C-can you let us go now?"
The three battered pirates nodded and bowed obsequiously to Zoro at the bow. Once they received his approval, they immediately jumped off the merchant ship without a moment's hesitation.
Weren't those the three unlucky guys who had fallen into the water on the way here?
Whatever. At least they had regrouped safely. So then:
Before the merchant ship could dock, Roman directly grabbed the bag of treasure in one hand and Nami in the other. Amid the girl's cries of "Hey, hey, hey," he first crouched down as if preparing to jump. Then:
Boom!
A ring-shaped shockwave exploded across the ground, instantly shattering bricks and stones as the earth trembled faintly. The spot where he had stood on the dock was left with only two "footprints," cracks spreading outward in every direction!
Roman and Nami had already vanished from where they stood. The two flew toward the merchant ship in a long arc like boulders launched from a catapult! With a thunderous crash, they landed on the deck, making the entire merchant ship shudder violently.
"H-hey, hey, hey—?!"
After landing, the girl named Nami had yet to recover from that "swift" mode of transportation when a pair of long arms had already grabbed the rail. Then, the next second:
"Gum-Gum—"
Whoosh—
"Rocket!"
A straw-hatted figure shot into the air above the merchant ship with a snap. After several somersaults to bleed off the momentum, he landed on the deck as well.
"Hahahaha, Zoro, you were way too slow."
"We not only found a navigator, but we also sent a guy named Buggy and his pirate crew flying~~"
"Oh? Is that so?"
However, Zoro, with three swords at his waist, cared about something else.
"Were the enemies strong? Were there any swordsmen?"
"Uh... I guess they weren't that strong?" Luffy thought for a moment. "Didn't see any swordsmen, though there was an acrobat..."
Then never mind.
The man named Zoro immediately lost interest and leaned against the rail to rest with his eyes closed.
"Come on, Nami."
Roman warmly patted the orange-haired girl on the shoulder, nearly making Nami, who had just experienced "aerial flight," collapse onto the deck.
"You'll be in charge of sailing the ship from now on."
Finally, he could free up his hands to continue his Devil Fruit development! Instead of spending every day steering the ship and...
"Roman, I'm hungry~~"
?
"Didn't you eat at the Buggy Pirates' place just now?"
Don't think I didn't see it. Nami clearly fed you...
"I just had a fight. My stomach's already empty~~"
Looking at Luffy sprawled across the floor, then at Nami, who had dutifully begun steering the ship, and then at:
"Hm? You want me to cook—"
"No!"
Zoro's cooking... was only at the level where it wouldn't kill anyone. For the sake of his stomach, Roman felt it was better to do it himself.
Inside the merchant ship's dining hall,
Chew, chew...
"So, we need to recruit a cook as soon as possible!"
"Huh? Roman, you're not cooking anymore?"
Luffy's face turned pale with shock. The chunk of meat in his hand fell onto the plate as he threw himself at Roman and wailed.
"No, Roman! Your cooking is so delicious. I've never had anything this good before..."
"Don't wipe your tears and snot on me!"
Pushing the clowning Luffy away in disgust, Roman rubbed his temples.
"I'm curious what you used to eat. Garbage, maybe..."
"My cooking is only average at best. Besides, I need to make time to train and develop my Devil Fruit abilities. Oh, right—I want to ask you all something."
Faced with Roman's serious expression, Luffy could only pout and sit back down to gnaw on his meat. Even Zoro and Nami sat up straight.
"Do you really want to go to the Grand Line?!"
For an instant, all three of them wore serious expressions. Then:
"I heard there are many master swordsmen in the Grand Line." Zoro's face was filled with fighting spirit. "If I want to become the World's Greatest Swordsman, there's one person I must defeat!"
"There are pirates everywhere in the Grand Line. As long as I... we steal... take their treasure," said Nami, looking like a total money-grubber, "I'll quickly be able to gather one hundred million Beli..."
"Roman, what are you talking about?"
Luffy pressed down his straw hat, unusually not fooling around.
"I'm the man who'll become the King of the Pirates!"
"If I don't enter the Grand Line and find One Piece, how can I become the King of the Pirates?"
Just as expected.
Roman nodded and suddenly threw out a question.
"Do you think I'm strong?"
Uh...
"Very strong."
Zoro was the first to nod, his face brimming with battle intent.
"It's a pity you don't use a sword. Otherwise, I'd really like to spar with you."
"Of course you're strong, Roman. We all kno—"
"You're wrong, Luffy."
Roman waved a hand to interrupt him and seriously looked around at everyone.
"I'm weak—extremely weak!"
What?!
"Strength and weakness have always been concepts that exist only through comparison."
"Like a frog in a well. To little fish and shrimp, it seems 'very strong.'"
"But compared to the world outside the well, how strong can a frog really be? It is utterly weak, nothing more."
"You mean..."
Zoro, with his short green hair, bared his white teeth in a grin. Blade-like light shone from his eyes, wild as a beast's!
"'We' are all weak?"
"Yes."
Roman nodded without hesitation and continued.
"As everyone knows, a pirate's level of danger can be seen from their bounty."
"Although bounty doesn't entirely equal strength, pirates with higher bounties are generally stronger." Roman looked around. "You have no objections to that, right?"
Nod ×3
After all, the three people present all dealt with pirates and understood the relationship between bounties and strength very clearly. Though there were exceptions, a pirate with a ten-million bounty would never be the match of one with a twenty-million bounty!
"By my estimate, the people sitting here... excluding Nami, have bounties around twenty to thirty million."
As Nami muttered, "Why am I excluded?" Roman dropped a bombshell.
"In the Grand Line, pirates with bounties over one hundred million are everywhere!"
Silence—
"You might not have a clear understanding from that alone."
"Zoro."
Roman first looked at the short green-haired Three-Sword Style swordsman.
"Can you cut through steel with a sword?"
As Zoro shook his head, Roman tapped a finger against the table.
"In the Grand Line, swordsmen who can cut through steel are as common as carp crossing a river!"
?!
"And even being able to cut through steel only puts you at the level of a fifty-million bounty."
Strength—!
!!?
"Nami, as for the wealth of pirates in the Grand Line... to put it simply, I know several pirate crews that possess their own 'countries.'"
The implication was clear: the girl's goal of "one hundred million" was laughable before pirates whose wealth was measured in "countries," like a farmer imagining that an emperor ate two buns per meal!
Wealth—!
"Lastly, Luffy."
Ignoring the other two, who were too shocked to move, Roman looked at the straw-hatted boy.
"If your goal is to become the King of the Pirates, then your opponents will be Great Pirates with bounties of hundreds of millions, over a billion, or even several billion!"
"Every one of them commands thousands upon thousands of subordinates, and possesses the strength to split mountains, part seas, and destroy nations alone! With our several tens of millions' worth of strength, it wouldn't be strange for us to be instantly killed by a single glance from them."
An absolute gap—!
Dead silence—
After a long while,
"I... I want to get off the ship..."
Nami was almost in tears, her whole body limp. She felt like she would need to crawl if she wanted to move.
"Hahaha, too late! Nami, just be our navigator like a good girl."
Facing Roman's laughter, Nami, whose soul had nearly shattered from the terrifying future he described, slumped over the table with a tearful expression.
"You can still laugh?"
"By your logic, aren't we just going to the Grand Line to die?"
"Yeah, theoretically."
Facing Nami's questioning, Roman spread his hands, then pointed beside him.
"But do they look like they're about to back down?"
"Heh heh heh, Roman."
Zoro's eyes burned with battle intent as his hand instinctively rested on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
"You mean we're all frogs at the bottom of a well?"
"But when I think about how there are so many powerful swordsmen in the world, I'm so excited that I'm shaking all over!"
"If I can defeat them, won't I be one step closer to the throne of the World's Greatest Swordsman?"
"That's right!"
Luffy grinned on the other side, not the slightest bit afraid. His face still wore his trademark bright smile.
"It's precisely because there are so many powerful enemies competing that finding One Piece has meaning! The title of King of the Pirates is definitely going to be mine!!!"
Just as expected. Even if you knew beforehand how difficult the Grand Line would be, you would never back down...
"Then let me tell you about the powerful enemies we may encounter in the future."
"So you don't end up dying without even knowing why~~"
Though his words showed no mercy, the smile on Roman's face was unmistakably:
He was enjoying this.
Before you continue