Humble Freedom

Humble Freedom

"Even if you didn't eat the Nika Fruit, even if you were as brilliant as Gol D. Roger, even if you had gathered all the Poneglyph and even reached Laugh Tale,

are you still unworthy of shouldering the fate of the entire world?"

Muttering to himself, Gawain tossed his phone aside after taking a day off at home.

Lying back for a moment, he eventually picked the phone back up in annoyance.

Continuing to scroll through the latest One Piece discussion posts on Tieba, Gawain pondered for a long time before starting to type.

"What I've always wanted to see is a brash kid who claimed he would become the Pirate King constantly challenging fate, and finally truly becoming the Pirate King.

What I've wanted to see has never been a story where only this kid is qualified to become the Pirate King.

I am the man who's going to be the Pirate King!

Turned into...

I ate the sun god Nika Fruit, and only I am the man qualified to become the Pirate King!

Heh...

The sea is so vast.

Those admirals each have their own resolve and will.

Those so-called Four Emperors each have their own ideals and ambitions.

If, from the very beginning, only the owner of the Nika Fruit deserved to get everything,

were all the struggles and efforts of everyone else from start to finish just a joke?

If so, what if a dog ate the Nika Fruit and awakened the Nika form after getting beaten up continuously?

Could a dog shoulder the fate of the world too?

A dog wouldn't even eat the Mera Mera no Mi!

Others like the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, and Teacher Kaido's lifelong struggle all became a joke—you ate the wrong fruit, man!

What about the Tremor-Tremor Fruit? Was Whitebeard, the strongest man, just lucky enough not to stand in opposition to the awakener of the Nika Fruit?

Marine hero Garp, if your grandson had been born forty years earlier, he'd be the Pirate King if he became a pirate and the Marine King if he became a Marine—where would there be any room for a Marine hero like you to show off?!

Heroes of all kinds should have each had a chance to become the final future!

And now, none of them are worthy. Whoever ate the Nika Fruit, they're the worthy one!

It's truly disappointing!"

Typing up to this point, Gawain let out a breath, edited, and uploaded it.

Yet the moment he uploaded it, his vision went black, and his entire body vanished from the sofa.

Aside, Gao Wu, who was playing Elden Ring, only felt the sofa shift.

Gao Wu tilted his head, went blank, and then opened his wide mouth.

"Wait a minute, where... where's my big brother?!!"

Meanwhile.

Gawain opened his eyes to see stars dancing across his vision, and the top of his head hurt so badly he couldn't stop shivering!

"Hiss~~!"

Gawain gritted his teeth and hissed, not letting out a breath until his gums started to cool.

"Who?!"

He asked coldly while enduring the pain, squinting as he turned to look back.

In his mind, he had probably been struck by the relief background wall above the sofa.

The one who could pull off such a stunt was either the fourteen-pound fat cat at home or his stupid little brother Gao Wu!

Damn Elden Ring, did he drop his controller again or something?

To his surprise, however, the face he saw when he turned back was panicked, incredibly beautiful, yet strikingly youthful and innocent.

Instantly, his gaze traveled downward along that face.

Massive swathes of exposed, tender white skin, a blue-purple seashell that barely covered her modesty, a slender waist, a pale yellow... fish tail?!!

"A Merfolk, a Fish-Man?!!h"

Startled by Gawain's astonished glare, the beautiful merfolk who was trying to climb up from the ground abruptly collapsed flat onto the floor.

That merfolk didn't even dare to look Gawain in the eye as she stammered and muttered to herself.

"Ah, the escape failed, I bumped into someone...

I... I didn't... didn't mean to..."

Bang!!!

The merfolk hadn't even finished speaking.

A gunshot suddenly rang out!

Gawain's brow furrowed tightly as his pupils shrank violently.

In his view, the bullet first struck the merfolk's back, which was covered by long, bright-gold hair, then pierced through her left chest, and finally stained the floorboards with a small, splashing pattern of blood.

Immediately after, accompanied by the merfolk's unbearable trembling, a crimson trail of blood extended across the ground.

When the blood flowed to Gawain's feet, the merfolk's slightly trembling fish tail...

That fish tail, which should have been utterly gorgeous yet was now gradually dimming, lightly brushed against Gawain's coat!

Following the merfolk's tail, Gawain looked down at his feet. Sure enough, he was no longer wearing the pajamas meant for relaxation.

Instead, he wore a set of oversized, pure white outer robes with a hem that dragged all the way to the ground.

The pretty fish tail stained the white garments with a hint of water, and the blood steadily crept up along the white hem, dyeing a small portion of it an unyielding red.

Yet all of this jolted Gawain awake as if from a dream. The pain atop his head vanished in an instant, and though he wanted to say something, he found articulation extremely difficult and could not open his mouth.

At the same time, a teasing voice resounded from the direction the gunshot had come from.

"Hmph, this is a Fish-Man slave I just had delivered, how damned hateful.

I even wanted to make her my ninth wife, but she actually tried to escape and ended up bumping into someone while running away!

Let me see who she bumped into.

Oh, it's actually a Celestial Dragon just like me? This is... Gawain?

Gawain, oh Gawain, Fish-Men really have quite a lot of strength. Just a female merfolk, and you got sent flying by her crash just like that!

You really are weak enough, hahaha!"

All around, behind that arrogant laughter, countless slaves knelt on the ground and closed their eyes in agony.

That was a Celestial Dragon, a descendant of God who had never cared for their lives!

As for Gawain, he took a deep breath to calm himself down completely.

Then, he slowly looked toward the direction of the voice.

First, he saw a patch of smoke. As the haze cleared away, an abstractly ugly face made Gawain swallow hard.

Even if it had transformed from the two-dimensional realm of his memory into the three-dimensional reality before him, it took Gawain only a single glance to recognize that fellow's identity!

Think of the merfolk who had just died, look at the guards stationed around them, and glance at the slaves kneeling and bound in chains.

Connect it all to the person standing ahead, wearing a white, big-bellied robe and possessing a face so ugly it was practically featureless.

Dream or whatever else it might be,

Gawain knew very well that he had genuinely appeared in the world of One Piece!

And the fellow who had fired the shot was naturally a so-called Celestial Dragon!

As for his own identity?

He was a peer of the Celestial Dragons, similarly a... Celestial Dragon who could act as lawlessly as he pleased in the One Piece world without suffering virtually any harm or facing any danger to his life!

Understanding his status, Gawain let out a long breath. How could a fan of One Piece like him not understand the implications behind the identity of a Celestial Dragon?

Thus, facing the terrified gazes of the slaves and guards, and facing the ugly, roaring laughter of that Celestial Dragon,

he calmly put on the expression his senior at work had deliberately taught him, proudly sweeping his gaze around the surroundings.

His previous job was worth mentioning here: he was a diplomat. Although he had only graduated and started working a little over two years ago, he had received plenty of training in terms of gaze and speech.

Precisely because of this, Gawain's well-trained, cold stare wiped the smile completely off the face of the ugly Celestial Dragon Charlos.

Charlos lowered his gun in a somewhat flustered manner and asked in a low voice.

"Gawain, there's no need to be so serious, is there? It wasn't me who hurt you.

Besides, I've already killed her—that's a slave I traded two Devil Fruits for!"

"So?"

Hearing the ugly Celestial Dragon's voice, Gawain shook his head expressionlessly.

Then, stepping past the pool of blood, he arrived in front of the slightly trembling merfolk.

Ignoring the ugly Celestial Dragon's growing frown, Gawain wore a solemn expression, looking in silence at the merfolk who had almost stopped trembling.

Noticing Gawain's gaze, the merfolk's dilating pupils shifted slightly.

"I... I'm sorry."

She forced herself to apologize, word by desperate word.

"Did I hurt you when I bumped into you? I'm... I'm really sorry.

Even while running away, I... I should have been more careful..."

The merfolk's voice finally faded away, and her pupils dilated completely, leaving Gawain with only the final trace of an apologetic smile on the corners of her mouth.

Why harbor an apology?

Because she had hurt an innocent person.

And why smile?

Because even death was far happier than living in the hands of the Celestial Dragons.

After all, death was the ultimate freedom of the humble!