Parting Ways

A Marine warship, its broad deck.

Garen wore a crisp white suit with sleek lines. His knotted, bulging muscles stretched what should have been a refined suit into sharp, powerful contours.

Paired with Garen's handsome, masculine face, he exuded an exceptional charm.

The suit looked no different from the ones worn by ordinary elite professionals. Unless someone specifically pointed it out, there was nothing unusual about it, but it was actually the formal uniform issued by the Marines to officers at Marine Headquarters.

Put on this white suit with a Marine Justice Cloak, and anyone could reach new heights of handsomeness.

The suit's original owner was Marine Headquarters Colonel Smoker.

Smoker had always been the sort of bold man who would throw on a biker jacket and head out half-naked. He never touched such troublesome, restrictive formalwear, so when one of his soldiers asked about it, he casually gave it to Garen.

Smoker was slightly taller than Garen, but their builds were roughly similar.

Once Garen put on the already exceptional suit, he immediately displayed an imposing aura completely different from when he wore armor and carried a greatsword. He possessed both a warrior's masculinity and a gentleman's elegance.

There were simply too many strange-looking people at sea. For the young Nami, it was rare to encounter a man close to her age who was handsome and possessed a fairly decent character like Garen.

Standing beside Garen, Nami gradually found herself staring at him in fascination. There were no romantic thoughts behind it; she was simply appreciating the sight.

"Nami?"

Garen suddenly turned around and called her name.

"What?"

Nami abruptly snapped back to her senses, yet she showed no trace of panic.

"How old are you this year?"

Garen then asked this somewhat private question out of nowhere.

"Sixteen."

Nami answered instinctively. Once she realized what she had said, a faint blush immediately colored her usually calm face.

She pouted in mild embarrassment and irritation. "Why are you asking that?"

"Just asking."

Garen brushed Nami off casually, then frankly voiced his thoughts.

"You developed pretty well for sixteen."

"You!"

Miss Nami simply stopped responding to Garen's harassment and turned her head away in a huff.

Garen, meanwhile, quietly began calculating the timeline—

He remembered that in the original story, Nami had been eighteen when she boarded Luffy's pirate ship.

This year, Nami was only sixteen. That meant he had arrived roughly two years, or perhaps less than two years, before the original plot began.

No wonder Smoker had only just been assigned to Loguetown.

Having sorted out the timeline, Garen continued watching a group of Marine logistics soldiers busy themselves on the deck out of boredom.

They were assembling some sort of mechanism to help Garen and the others transfer to a smaller ship.

After waiting for quite some time, the Marine soldiers finally erected a large piece of equipment resembling a crane on the deck.

What happened next left Garen clicking his tongue in amazement.

The rear deck of the massive warship suddenly split open down the middle, then slowly spread apart under the operation of some mechanism, eventually revealing the spacious hold concealed beneath the deck.

The hold was enormous, like a large military warehouse.

And within that warehouse rested a seafaring vessel that looked exceptionally tiny compared to the giant Marine warship.

The newly assembled crane lowered hundreds of thick ropes, which the Marine soldiers operated to bind around the ship's hull one by one.

"Board the ship!"

Smoker, a smoking cigar clenched between his teeth, called out to his subordinates and Garen's group of three.

The soldiers of Marine Headquarters were all elites and also the Marines' future talent pool. Naturally, they would not send large numbers of them to the weakest sea, where nothing major ever happened.

Thus, Colonel Smoker had brought only thirty elite trusted subordinates from Marine Headquarters in total.

The rest of the personnel assigned to him as a colonel would only be filled after he arrived at the Loguetown Marine base and took over the East Blue headquarters garrison from the previous commanding officer.

That was also why Smoker had decided to first go to Loguetown for the change of command before heading to Cocoyasi Village to suppress the bandits.

Once the more than thirty people, including Garen's group, boarded the small vessel, they practically packed it to the brim.

Before Garen could even comment on it, the pulley system slowly began to turn. The enormous crane arm pulled hundreds of towing ropes taut, lifting the ship from the warehouse and steadily lowering it into the sea as though dropping dumplings into a pot.

Before long, a small seafaring vessel had seemingly "multiplied" from Garp's giant warship.

Standing aboard that miniature vessel, Garen looked up once more at the colossal warship beside them, which resembled a mountain rising from the sea.

Compared side by side, it was like a grandson standing before his grandfather.

"Smoker."

Garen could not help complaining.

"Is the difference in treatment between Marine officers really this huge?"

"Your flagship as a Headquarters colonel feels smaller than the anchor on Vice Admiral Garp's warship."

Two veins instantly bulged on Smoker's forehead.

He said nothing, but the ember of the cigar in his mouth suddenly glowed brighter.

"Senior Garen."

Tashigi, however, failed to notice her superior's ugly expression and proactively stepped forward.

What puzzled Garen was that this beautiful swordswoman, whom he had never met before, treated him with exceptional respect and immediately addressed him as "senior."

Tashigi earnestly explained to Garen.

"The ship we're riding isn't even a standard Marine warship. It's an ordinary civilian armed vessel."

"A Marine Headquarters colonel should be assigned a third-rate warship with two combat decks and room for sixty cannons."

"It is only because Colonel Smoker was assigned to the East Blue, a region that has always been peaceful, and also because—"

Smoker's face darkened several shades, turning the White Smoke Hunter into the Gray Smog Hunter.

"Because what?"

Garen paid no attention to Smoker's attitude. After all, he was a man who could go toe-to-toe with Garp.

Tashigi hesitated, but she still told the swordsman she admired about her superior's glorious exploits.

"When Colonel Smoker was at Marine Headquarters, he got into several fights with the head of the logistics department."

The more Tashigi spoke, the more absorbed she became, adding even more colorful details on her own.

"Actually, our garrison was originally supposed to have more than thirty people, but—"

Before she could finish, Smoker's pitch-black face blocked her view.

"Mm."

Without Tashigi finishing, Garen could already guess what Smoker had done.

He roughly understood why Smoker had been assigned to the East Blue countryside to serve as the chief of a local security force.

Someone capable but hot-tempered like him really did need to be sent down to the grassroots level for some polishing.

"Colonel Smoker, you should be the future commanding officer of the Loguetown Marine base, right?"

As he listened to Garen and Tashigi's conversation, Wallace suddenly asked an unrelated question.

"That's right!"

Smoker himself answered. He had been standing not far from Garen's group, smoking his cigar into the wind.

"In that case, if Lord Garen wants to collect the bounty..."

Wallace suddenly said with meaningful intent.

"Can't he just collect it directly from Colonel Smoker here?"

"That's right!"

Garen's eyes lit up. Wasn't the NPC he had planned to visit for the mission reward standing right beside him?

Nami's eyes also shone with excitement. She had long wanted to exchange the heads in that box for hard cash.

"Wait."

Smoker said in a deep voice.

"I don't have any cash on this ship."

"A Marine colonel doesn't have any money on him?"

Garen showed an openly disdainful expression.

"Normally, a Marine ship should carry emergency funds when it sets sail, but..."

Tashigi appeared at just the right moment again, preparing to explain Smoker's glorious accomplishments to Garen.

Smoker was so angry that white smoke rose from his head—actual smoke.

Tashigi could only avoid her superior's gloomy gaze and explain quietly.

"If you want to collect the bounty, you'll have to wait until we reach Loguetown and complete the handover with the previous commanding officer."

"Fine."

Garen had no objections. There was less than a day's journey remaining to Loguetown anyway, so there was no need to rush.

"The commanding officer stationed in Loguetown?"

Wallace muttered quietly to himself with a strange expression.

"What is it?"

Tashigi asked curiously.

"Nothing."

Wallace shook his head again and said meaningfully, "Nothing should happen."

The small ship carrying the Loguetown garrison finally raised its sails, while Smoker and the other Marine soldiers stood on deck and saluted Vice Admiral Garp aboard the giant warship.

As they parted, Garen also waved goodbye to Garp, who had treated him quite warmly.

The two ships finally moved away from one another, sailing toward completely different destinations.

"That clown, Buggy."

"He actually became Garp's lackey."

Thinking back to the clown Buggy he had seen shortly before their farewell, Garen could not help feeling a strange sense of absurdity.

Buggy had tied his hair into a neat blue ponytail and changed into a white Marine shirt and Justice Cloak. He somehow even looked rather righteous.

"Ha! Who cares?"

Nami smiled in relief and said without concern.

"Luckily, that red-nosed idiot isn't very smart. In the end, he never asked us for his treasure."

"Uh?"

Garen froze slightly, only then remembering that he had extorted quite a bit of money from a newly appointed Marine officer.

"How much did we make this time?"

Garen immediately moved closer to Nami and enthusiastically began discussing how to divide the spoils.

"We made a fortune!"

Nami's face was filled with happiness and satisfaction, and golden Beli practically danced in her eyes.

"That big red nose wasn't like penniless Steel Cutlass. The large chest alone contained eight million Beli worth of treasure."

"And I carefully appraised the jewelry and gemstones in the small box. If we sell all of it, it should fetch thirty million Beli!"

The excitement in Nami's voice grew stronger as she began counting on her fingers in front of Garen.

"Plus the twenty-five million Beli bounty we can claim after reaching Loguetown—"

"In just two days, we've earned a full sixty-three million Beli!"

That sort of earning speed was something Nami had never been able to imagine before.

Following this big dummy Garen for two days had earned her assets that might otherwise have taken her four or five years to gather.

"Wait."

Garen noticed something was wrong. "Where did the twenty-five million Beli bounty come from?"

"How could there not be?"

Nami had calculated that number long ago and replayed it happily in her mind countless times.

"Steel Cutlass was worth ten million, and the clown—"

The smile on Nami's face instantly froze.

Nami, who had just been rejoicing that the foolish red nose had not asked her for his belongings, immediately put on a heartbroken expression.

"Fifteen million."

"Gone."