Hina, the Little Rich Girl

The two groups gradually converged into one. Walking at the front were, naturally, Commodore Adkin and Admiral Louis, who was introducing him to the local customs and the site of the alliance.

Following behind them was Longinus, meticulously observing and memorizing everything around him. Suddenly, a furtive figure slipped into the crowd and squeezed its way over.

"Big Brother Longinus, Hina missed you so much!" Hina skillfully hooked her arm around Longinus's left arm, tilting her head up as she spoke brightly.

Longinus sensed a great many heated gazes rapidly gathering behind him and felt rather helpless. His Observation Haki could even distinguish that the curious, gossiping looks came from his fellow officers, while the furious, jealous stares came from the nobles of the Hisca Kingdom.

Longinus was not helpless because he feared trouble. In fact, he did not think a few minor nobles could cause him any trouble at all. He was merely mourning this kingdom's future. Had the forces of lolicons already spread throughout the upper ranks of this kingdom's society?

Commodore Adkin, noticing the commotion behind him, turned around. With a gleam of gossip in his eyes, he asked, "You must be Hina, right? I've heard about you for a long time. There's a little girl who often comes to our naval base and brings the soldiers lots of gifts every time. I've heard many soldiers privately call you a little angel!"

Hina did not seem intimidated at all. She gave a standard military salute and said, "Commodore, it's only what I should do."

At that moment, Louis turned around as well, his "sharp" gaze landing on Longinus.

Lose your temper! Hurry up and lose your temper! The nobles of the Hisca Kingdom laughed wildly in their hearts, waiting for the moment that navy man met his doom.

Yet, beneath the nobles' incredulous gazes, that stern, intensely daughter-obsessed man stepped forward, grabbed Longinus in a hug, and laughed heartily. "Hahaha! Brother Longinus, I finally get to see you again! I knew you'd find your place in the Navy!"

"Uncle Louis, it has indeed been a long time. You look even more spirited than last time," Longinus said with a smile.

Those nobles with darker thoughts felt their worldview shatter. What was this? Wasn't this favoritism a little too obvious?

Though indignant, they did not dare voice it. One was a Navy commodore, while the other was a kingdom admiral. Neither was someone they could afford to offend.

The group soon began chatting familiarly. After entering the royal city, Hina leaned close to Longinus's ear and whispered, "Big Brother Longinus, you came at just the right time. Our kingdom's specialty food festival is famous across all of Lodestar Island. It just started yesterday, and it has gathered specialty foods from all the surrounding kingdoms. Hina will take you to try some later!"

"I think you're the one who wants to eat," Longinus said, fondly smiling as he placed a hand on her head.

"Hehe, it's both!"

"But will Uncle Louis agree? He doesn't have time to keep an eye on you right now."

"Don't worry! If it's with you, Big Brother Longinus, Dad will definitely agree."

After saying that, Hina ran ahead, grabbed Admiral Louis's arm, and gently shook it. "Dad, Hina wants to go to that specialty food festival later. Hina has been looking forward to it for a long time."

Louis frowned slightly and said hesitantly, "That place is too far from the royal city, and I can't get away right now. What if you run into danger..."

"Big Brother Longinus will go with me. Dad, don't you know how strong Big Brother Longinus is?"

"Brother Longinus is indeed very reliable. With him there, I can rest easy. It's just..." Louis looked awkwardly to the side.

Commodore Adkin said with great "understanding," "Longinus, go keep the little girl company for now. Just make sure you're back before the alliance begins."

Having been sold out just like that, Longinus said speechlessly, "All right, I understand."

Hina had not been exaggerating. This food festival truly had specialty dishes from every kingdom on Lodestar Island. For instance, Alabasta's grilled scorpion meat had quite a unique flavor.

"Mmm! Hina is so happy! After looking forward to it for so many years, Hina can finally eat food from the festival! Every year around this time, Dad always had so much to do, and he never felt comfortable letting Hina come out alone."

"Given Uncle Louis's personality, it's already quite remarkable that he let you come out," Longinus said as he sampled the various foods. He would not indulge in pleasure, but the pursuit of beautiful things had always been human nature. He had no intention of forcibly suppressing that nature and becoming an ascetic.

"That's true." Hina nodded deeply in agreement, then asked curiously, "By the way, Big Brother Longinus, the newspaper reported again a few days ago about how you put yourself in danger to rescue hostages. Can you tell Hina about it in detail? Hina really wants to know."

"You know my strength. Saying I put myself in danger is too exaggerated. Those pirates were..." Seeing that Hina was still staring at him with stubborn, unwavering eyes, Longinus could only raise both hands in surrender. "All right, all right. This is roughly what happened..."

After his vivid account, little stars sparkled in Hina's eyes. Even the grilled meat in her hand had gone cold and hard because she had forgotten to eat it. "Hina is so jealous! Hina really wishes she could become a Navy soldier who protects justice like Big Brother Longinus soon. It's just that Dad says Hina has to be at least sixteen before she can join the Navy."

"Ah!" Hina, still lost in her dreams, was knocked stumbling by a filthy child and nearly fell.

Fortunately, she had some Martial Arts training. Even caught off guard, she quickly steadied herself. Once she regained her bearings, she saw that the culprit had already vanished into the maze of alleys. She stomped her foot in embarrassment and anger. "That little beggar was so rude!"

It was not that she minded how dirty the other person was. She simply felt that being startled in front of the Big Brother Longinus she admired was far too embarrassing!

Longinus's expression turned slightly grave as he reminded her, "Check whether you lost anything. That fleeting fluctuation just now seemed to be... the aura of a Devil Fruit!"

"A Devil Fruit? How could that be possible?" Hina's eyes widened. No matter how she thought about it, she could not connect that filthy little beggar with a Devil Fruit worth over a hundred million Beli. Still, out of absolute trust in Longinus, she quickly checked herself.

"Damn it! The spending money Hina brought out today to treat Big Brother was stolen by that thief!"

"You only lost some pocket money? Then that's not too bad," Longinus said with a sigh of relief.

"Even though it was only thirty million Beli, that person bumped into Hina and even dared to steal Hina's money! Hina will definitely settle this score with her!" Hina said indignantly, grinding her little canine teeth.

"Cough, cough..." Longinus nearly choked on his own saliva. As if meeting Hina for the first time, he asked, "How many Beli did you say?"

"Thirty million Beli! Big Brother Longinus, you don't need to worry. That's only Hina's allowance for this month. Hina just can't swallow this insult."

Actually, Longinus had not cared much about money in the first place. Over the past two years, the pirates he had captured had bounties totaling well over three hundred million Beli. The Navy would not give him the bounties the way it did bounty hunters, of course, but his bonuses from one mission after another had still added up to nearly one hundred million Beli.

Still, casually taking out thirty million Beli as spare change like Hina did was something he truly could not manage.

So that was it. In those nobles' eyes, he was a kept man after all!