The Game Has Just Begun

"Lady Shirahoshi was looking at me as I sobbed by the bed back then, and she only said three things."

Usopp drew in a deep breath, as if he had returned to that storm-lashed night.

His back straightened of its own accord, and he repeated the oracle from that year in an exceedingly solemn tone:

"She said, 'I will save your mother's life. I will give you a chance to take revenge on that man. In exchange, you sell me your life, and everything you have.'"

Those three simple sentences, to the Usopp who had now seen his share of great storms, perhaps did not seem all that brilliantly worded. They even carried a hint of the condescending charity Those in Power so often used.

But to that orphan, only seven years old at the time, who had fallen into utter despair because his mother was already terminally ill...

The Shirahoshi who had stood before him then was like a light of salvation tearing through the endless night, illuminating his already shattered world completely!

Forget trading away his worthless half-life.

Even if she had asked him to sign a contract of servitude for all eternity, to trade away his next life and the one after that, he would have kowtowed in gratitude without the slightest hesitation!

Of course, he felt no romantic love for Shirahoshi as a woman.

In his faith, a god and the master who had granted him new life were absolutely inviolable.

To covet her with that kind of worldly emotion was itself a blasphemy worthy of ten thousand deaths.

"What happened after that? Shirahoshi cured your mother's illness?" Sanji suddenly understood.

"Mm. But it wasn't that simple."

Usopp nodded, then shook his head again with a somewhat dim expression.

"Palace Shirahoshi kept her promise. She personally