My Brother! Champion!

One hour later, at home.

"I'll go over everything that happened during your month at sea. Help me check whether I got anything wrong. First, you suddenly grew more than ten centimeters taller?"

"Yeah. I hit puberty. It's perfectly normal."

"You won the Kendo Tournament on Asagiri Island?"

"Yeah. I won the championship by accident."

"And you also happened to uncover the island's huge conspiracy, becoming a famous figure in East Blue?"

"Yes, but I'm not that famous. The attention comes in waves, and I'll soon be forgotten."

"And then you became a billionaire!!!"

"Yeah. Four hundred million Berries. I took fifty million out, and the rest is still in the bank. Here, the card's right here."

Bellemere took several deep breaths, trying desperately to calm herself down. But when she looked up at the burly man who was now even taller than her, her vision still went black, and she fell backward.

Xia Nuo hurriedly caught her. "What's wrong, Bellemere?"

"I'm fine. Let go and let me process this by myself..."

Bellemere sat cross-legged on the carpet and stared blankly at the coffee table for a long while.

Then she took the water Xia Nuo handed her and drained it in one go. Only then did she finally begin to accept reality.

"I told you so. I told you!" she muttered. "There had to be something special about your bloodline. Once you reached a certain age, it began awakening. Your parents must have been extraordinary figures. They might even have been royalty..."

"No, I don't think this has anything to do with bloodlines, does it?"

Xia Nuo was baffled. "I only won a championship and made some money. They're all good things. Why are you having such a hard time accepting them..."

"I'm talking about your height! Your height! Growing taller during puberty is a good thing, but who grows more than ten centimeters in one month?!"

Bellemere angrily hammered Xia Nuo's calf with her fist. "What is wrong with you?! Do you know that while you were away this month, I knitted you two sweaters, three pairs of long underwear, half-finger gloves, and full-finger gloves..."

"Now you can't wear any of them. They're all useless. I can only unravel them and knit them again. Sob..."

So that was what she was upset about!

Xia Nuo rubbed his forehead. Then he noticed the thick stack of newspapers piled up on the wooden cabinet beside them and couldn't help exclaiming, "You bought newspapers every day while I was gone?"

"I was afraid you might not have bought all of them outside, and that some would be missing."

Bellemere pursed her lips. "But I didn't read them either. They've just been sitting here. When news of what you did on Asagiri Island caused such a stir recently, I only found out because I heard the neighbors talking about it. I couldn't sleep all night."

"What about Nami and Nojiko? How did they react?"

"What do you think?"

Bellemere answered grumpily.

She had been worried, but also a little relieved, and had tossed and turned all night.

Nami and Nojiko didn't overthink things like that. They were thrilled, especially Nami. She had practically wanted to jump into the sky.

Every day, she ran from one end of the village to the other, showing off. She wanted everyone in the village to know that her brother had become an incredible big shot in East Blue.

Even the big white dog at the village entrance had to listen to her grab its ears and repeat it several times a day. Eventually, whenever it saw her, it would tuck its tail between its legs and run away.

The two budgerigars raised by the neighbors next door were even worse. Their favorite phrases now were, "My brother! Champion!" and "My brother! Hero!"

Xia Nuo was sweating buckets as he listened.

For quite some time afterward, even the chickens, ducks, and geese in the village would probably look at him strangely.

He shook his head, picked up the stack of newspapers, and sat down on the sofa.

He was just about to read through them and see whether there was any news worth noting.

At that moment, the door was quietly pushed open a crack. A dirty little figure with orange hair tiptoed inside, shoes in hand, and circled around behind the sofa toward the bathroom...

"Get over here!"

Bellemere barked, "Do you think I'm blind? Can't I see a little mud monkey entering the house? Can't I see those two rows of dirty footprints on the floor?"

Oh no! One small oversight was all it took! Nami turned to look at the two trails of black footprints on the floor and smacked her forehead in frustration. She should have secretly climbed in through the kitchen window!

"Tell me the truth. Where did you go? When you left this morning, didn't you say you were going to the bookstore to read?"

"I wasn't lying, Bellemere. I did go to read at first, but that bookstore was too small. I'd already read almost everything I was interested in, like navigation and nautical charts... Huh? Big brother?!"

Nami had been walking with her head lowered when she suddenly noticed someone lying on the sofa beside her. Once she recognized that familiar face, her eyes widened, and she was overjoyed.

"When did you get back?!"

She cried out happily and threw herself into Xia Nuo's arms, raising both hands to pinch his cheeks. "You didn't even come call me back. That's so mean... Ow! That hurts!"

She had charged too hard and smashed the tip of her nose against Xia Nuo's solid chest. Her nose immediately began to ache, and the pain nearly brought her to tears.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You've turned into Buggy."

Looking at her swollen red nose, Xia Nuo teased her gleefully.

But when he looked down and saw his shirt covered in muddy spots, then turned to the mirror and saw two dirty handprints on his face, his expression darkened, and he could no longer laugh.

"Hee-hee, nyah~~"

Nami had successfully carried out her scheme. She pulled a face. "Serves you right! Who told you to sneak away by yourself that morning without saying goodbye to Nojiko and me?"

"I only did that because I was afraid you two would turn into a pair of little crybabies."

Xia Nuo vigorously wiped his face with a towel and said irritably, "Besides, I trust Nojiko. But you, you little troublemaker—if you'd followed us to the docks that morning, you might have secretly slipped onto the ship while we weren't looking. I don't want to drag a burden around everywhere."

"Who are you calling a burden?! I've grown up a lot, and I'm great at fighting now! The two monkeys in the mountains just teamed up, and I beat them until they ran all over the place!"

"Monkeys in the mountains?"

Bellemere instantly noticed something was off and became furious. "Wait! You got yourself this dirty because you went into the mountains to fight monkeys?!"

"I couldn't help it."

Nami blinked innocently. "I held up a newspaper photo and told them that my brother was a champion, but they kept eating fruit in the trees. They even rolled their eyes and ignored me completely, so I got mad and threw rocks at them. Then we started fighting."

What a troublesome child!

Bellemere ground her teeth, grabbed Nami by the ear, and dragged her to the bathroom. "Wash yourself properly! Honestly, if you do this again, just wait and see how I deal with you. I don't even expect you to be like Xia Nuo. When will you learn to be as sensible as Nojiko?"

Creak~

The door was pushed open again. Xia Nuo on the sofa and Bellemere at the bathroom entrance both instinctively turned toward it.

A filthy blue-haired girl appeared in the doorway. Her face was bruised and swollen, her pants had several tears in them, and she had only one shoe left.

Her eyes lit up with delight when she saw Xia Nuo. But then she met Bellemere's murderous gaze and shrank her neck, forcing an awkward smile.

"Well, there was a reason. I was talking to the goose at the village entrance about Xia Nuo, but it lost patience halfway through and tried to run away. So I fought it. Unfortunately, I was just a little short of winning..."