As Kuina let out a grief-stricken cry, a gentle voice came from ahead.
"This is a long story. Do you want to hear it?"
Kuina knew without looking up that the voice belonged to her teacher.
After discovering that Apophis was her father, Kuina understood one thing: her teacher was definitely not the kind of bad person she had initially imagined.
"I want to know everything."
Longinus walked over from a distance, stepping across the shattered island until he reached Kuina. "This story can be divided into two parts. The first part is the story between Apophis and me."
"He should have risen to prominence on these seas around the same time as I did. I fought him a few times back then, but neither of us could defeat the other." Longinus spoke as if "reminiscing." "Of course, that was also because he was a bounty hunter at the time. I didn't fight him with all my strength, only because I was curious."
My father used to be a bounty hunter...? Kuina was puzzled, but she did not ask. She simply listened in silence.
"Then, nineteen years ago, there was that war atop the giant elephant. It made him famous across the seas, but also earned him a five-hundred-million-Beli bounty. This change in status directly led to the government and the Marines joining forces to capture him."
"I actually didn't take part in that operation. After all, I was only a Marine Captain at the time. An operation to capture a Great Pirate with a five-hundred-million-Beli bounty naturally wouldn't involve a captain." Longinus chuckled, seemingly lamenting the passage of time.
"However, what I never expected was that I would easily run into Apophis, whom everyone else was trying to capture. At the time, I thought it was fate guiding me,