"...My family's future?"
Austin froze for a moment, then quickly came back to his senses.
Right.
If it was a guy like Rocks, saying something like that was perfectly normal.
And what about Rocks?
The reason he asked such a question was not because he had any other worries.
On one hand, he wanted to test whether Austin's much-vaunted Observation Haki was really as miraculous as he claimed.
On the other hand, even if he told Austin that he had family somewhere in this world, so what?
If the other man's Observation Haki was truly strong enough to see everything, then it made no difference whether he told him or not.
And if he could not see them, then even if Rocks told him his family existed, the world was far too vast for Austin to ever find them.
Still, Rocks was more willing to believe that this man, no weaker than Rocks had been in his youth, might truly possess such ability.
He poured Austin a bowl of wine as well.
Austin silently accepted it. Though he did not enjoy drinking, sharing a cup with a man like this was not something he could not accept.
Two men who had dominated two neighboring eras—one middle-aged, the other still young.
After clinking their bowls together, they drank deeply.
Austin smiled and wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth. Drinking with a monster on his own level for the first time felt pretty good.
Rocks did not seem eager for Austin to give him an answer, nor did he appear to care whether Austin could truly see the "future."
Instead, his gaze slowly lowered toward an utterly ordinary burly figure among the underlings.
"Do you know that combatant?"
Austin raised an eyebrow slightly and looked in the direction Rocks