"Have you made up your mind?"
After a while, Steel Cutlass could not help asking again.
His tone was much gentler this time.
Garen silently glanced at his system interface. His HP was just a little short of being fully restored.
With such abundant HP, it should have been more than enough for the flashy move he was about to pull off.
But Garen, with his slight obsessive streak, still decided to wait another two seconds until his Health Bar was completely full, so he did not answer.
Yet during the prolonged silent standoff, Steel Cutlass's murderous aura had already been worn away completely.
To the point that when Garen merely hesitated for a moment, he could not help becoming somewhat timid:
Had his outrageous demands been too harsh, leaving the other man with no desire to speak and ready to start cutting people down?
Thus, Steel Cutlass, who should have been an imposing kidnapper, immediately became much more amiable:
"Brother, I was just joking."
However, before Steel Cutlass could finish those conciliatory words, Garen suddenly spoke:
"I've made up my mind."
Steel Cutlass's attempt at yielding abruptly stopped, and everyone's eyes turned toward Garen.
For some reason, at this critical moment of life and death—
Nami, who had already resigned herself completely, suddenly developed an unrealistic shred of hope in Garen.
Then, that faint hope quickly vanished into nothingness—
Garen gently planted his greatsword into the ground, then smiled softly.
"You've got it wrong. She isn't my wife."
Steel Cutlass's expression froze, while the lackeys' legs trembled at those words.
"Just like that reporter, she's merely a passerby I happened to meet."
Garen's gaze was extremely earnest, and his words carried an inexplicably convincing certainty.
"Besides, I'm not the legendary Knight of Justice."
Nami's eyes immediately dimmed.
The young reporter, meanwhile, had already prepared himself to face death.
But then, the mood suddenly changed.
"I'm not the Knight of Justice because I am not worthy of that title yet!"
Garen's voice suddenly became grand and righteous, his expression as devout as Five-Bar Captain's.
"Protecting the weak and helpless is what a true knight does."
"Huh?"
No one had reacted yet.
With one hand gripping the sword hilt, Garen dropped to one knee with considerable presence, then spoke to Steel Cutlass in a calm yet powerful voice.
"I accept your terms."
"But you must promise to let those two leave!"
"Of course."
Steel Cutlass answered instinctively before belatedly coming to his senses. He asked in disbelief:
"What did you say? You agreed?"
"That's right."
Garen picked up the Flintlock Pistol from the ground with his other hand and aimed it at his own chest. "I agree."
"Garen?!"
Nami cried out Garen's name in shock.
Her deadened heart suddenly trembled.
Not long ago, Nami had thought that name was merely an insignificant passerby in her life. Yet at this very moment, it had become unforgettable.
"Knight!"
The passerby reporter's voice was also filled with shock and emotion.
In that instant, Garen's rugged, resolute face became the embodiment of the light of justice in his heart.
Garen smiled freely.
"Don't worry about me."
"If I die here, then my death will have been worthwhile."
Nami had never paid attention to the appearance of the opposite sex, but instinctively, she felt:
Such a Knight of Justice was stupid, but incredibly cool.
"Wait!"
Unable to suppress the stabbing pain in her heart, Nami cried out at Garen almost hysterically.
Garen merely smiled slightly without saying anything.
In the end, the gun still fired.
This Flintlock Pistol was a high-end weapon Steel Blade Captain carried with him, and its firepower was immense.
The instant the muzzle flashed, everyone saw the merciless bullet enter through Garen's heart and burst out through his back.
Garen's armor had long been soaked in his enemies' blood, making it difficult for everyone to see the bleeding caused by the shot.
But if a person's heart was pierced by a bullet—
That person was unquestionably dead.
Garen lived up to everyone's expectations by revealing a pained expression, clutching his chest tightly, and then—
He collapsed completely onto the ground, silent and motionless.
"Dead?"
Steel Cutlass stared in complete confusion.
Several seconds later—
"He's really dead?"
Steel Cutlass still found this turn of events rather surreal.
His grip loosened, and he could no longer even hold the large blade he had placed against Nami's neck.
And there was no need to hold it anymore.
The righteous knight had given his life to protect the weak. Everything Steel Cutlass feared had vanished with Garen's death.
The two pirate lackeys were also stunned by the abrupt change in the situation. The immense shock made them absentmindedly release the hands restraining Nami.
But Nami did not take the chance to run.
Her gemlike eyes were filled with gloom. Like a deflated balloon, Nami collapsed weakly to the ground.
In her eyes, the entire world contained only Garen's blood-soaked scarlet corpse.
"Why?"
Nami muttered to herself.
"Why did you save me like this? I was only..."
This scene made Nami think of Bell-mère once again—
Once again, she had been saved by someone like this.
The situation was the same, but the knight before her was even more "foolish," so foolish that it made her heart ache.
Steel Cutlass slowly walked over and carefully examined Garen's corpse.
Then, Steel Cutlass lightly poked Garen with the blade in his hand.
The blade cut directly into the most vulnerable part of a human body, the neck, severing the main artery that carried the highest blood pressure. Yet Garen did not move at all, and not even blood flowed out.
That was absolutely not a reaction a living person could have.
"Hahaha!"
Steel Cutlass suddenly burst into wild, crazed laughter, his ugly face twisting uncontrollably.
"He actually killed himself? He killed himself!"
"How can there be such an idiot on this sea?!"
As Steel Cutlass laughed, he laughed until tears came out—tears he had not shed since becoming a pirate.
"How could this be?!"
Steel Cutlass roared madly.
Then, driven by some complicated emotion he could not understand, he could not help stomping on Garen's corpse again.
"How can there be such an idiot?!"
Garen's "corpse" trembled slightly from the kick.
"Bastard!"
"Stop!"
Two shouts rang out at the same time.
They came from the young reporter, whose whole body was shaking violently, and Nami, whose face had somehow become drenched in tears.
"Shut up, both of you!"
One pirate lackey shouted wildly.
"That idiot is already a corpse! Neither of you will be leaving alive!"
The lackey was extremely arrogant, his ugly, heartless face practically covered in malice.
But neither the refined-looking reporter nor the seemingly weak and helpless Nami was frightened by this lackey who relied on another's power.
They glared with bloodshot eyes, their devouring gazes frightening the lackey into retreating.
The pirate lackey, who had briefly shown cowardice, flushed red and shouted in embarrassment and anger:
"What are you looking at? Believe it or not, I'll cut you down—"
"You shut the hell up!"
Steel Cutlass suddenly roared at the lackey as though exploding with rage, instantly making the swaggering lackey shudder.
Steel Cutlass turned and brought his blade down fiercely, smashing a large patch of solid floor tiles into fragments.
"I'm not so worthless that—"
"I'd even break an agreement made with an idiot like him!"
No lackey dared to speak again.
The scene fell into a silence completely different from before.
"I never expected this..."
A calm voice suddenly sounded beside Steel Cutlass's ear.
"You rob, kill, destroy, kidnap, and commit every evil imaginable, yet you're still an honorable man who keeps his promises."
Steel Cutlass's old face reddened from the jab.
"What did you say—"
He had just been about to habitually use a fierce appearance to conceal his inner weakness when his voice abruptly stopped.
A greatsword pierced into his back and burst through his chest.
Blood poured out as flesh was torn apart.
The greatsword's cross-section was exceptionally broad. Such a wound was enough to send even a pirate worth tens of millions to the end of his life in an instant.
"Sorry."
Garen tightly gripped the sword hilt and calmly added:
"I'm also a man who keeps his promises."
Before you continue