As Promised

The next day, at the enormous concert venue.

After encouraging Uta, Louis went alone to find Gordon, the king of Elegia.

"Gordon, could you prepare an Image Den Den Mushi for us?"

Gordon, who was nervously checking the equipment, stared blankly at Louis before turning to face him.

"An Image Den Den Mushi? Mr. Louis, are you planning to record Uta's first concert?"

Louis nodded and replied solemnly, "Yeah. Uta's father might arrive late, so I want to record her performance and give it to him when he gets here."

"Uta's father?" After thinking it over, Gordon readily agreed. "Of course. I'll have someone bring an Image Den Den Mushi to you before the show starts."

Image Den Den Mushi weren't uncommon in Elegia, where music was such a big part of life. Many people used them to record themselves performing.

"Thank you very much," Louis said sincerely.

Gordon shook his head, then smiled. "We're the ones who should be thanking you!"

His eyes turned to Uta, who was getting ready, and his voice brimmed with delight. "That child's voice is a treasure bestowed upon this world by heaven."

"To bring her to our country and give us the honor of teaching her means a great deal to us!"

Then Gordon glanced at Uta again, as if casually, and ventured, "Perhaps Uta could achieve unimaginable things if she stayed here."

"She might even rival the legendary figure from Elegia's past, from several hundred years ago."

Hearing that, Louis guessed what Gordon had in mind. He smiled and shook his head. "Uta is an important member of our crew. We won't be staying here for long, and we certainly won't leave her behind on her own."

"Is that so?" Gordon sighed.

But he didn't dwell on it. Uta hadn't been born in Elegia, and he had no right to dictate the course of her life.

Providing Uta with the nourishment she needed to grow was the only thing he—and the musicians of Elegia—could do.

"..."

After a long while, night fell, and the concert was about to begin.

In the enormous bay on the outskirts of Elegia, one massive searchlight after another flickered on.

Most of Elegia's residents, along with its musicians, lined up to enter the concert venue, tickets printed with UTA's colorful logo in hand.

The crowd spread across the open ground on either side of the bay, packed tightly as far as the eye could see. Even several reefs in the water were occupied.

Louis and Yelena sat on the reef closest to the stage, quietly waiting for the concert to begin.

Time ticked by.

Soft lights came on across the stage. The specially designed set showed a painting of ocean waves, with a huge green crystal on display.

A petite girl with red-and-white hair and luxurious clothes faced the thousands of spectators without the slightest trace of stage fright. She walked gracefully across the stage.

As she moved, the beautiful songstress parted her lips. Her melodious voice rang out, entwining with the breeze.

One beautiful, tall girl after another descended from the sky, each wearing a gorgeous long dress and sporting a pair of snowy-white wings at her lower back.

Their joints had obvious mechanical fittings, and every one of them wore the same smile. They were Louis's Prototype Skywing Species, dancing to accompany the petite songstress.

The lights focused on Uta, displaying her graceful movements for the thousands of spectators.

Uta's image appeared on screen after screen, and her beautiful, captivating voice reached everyone's ears through the high-quality sound system.

In an instant, the whole concert venue seemed to catch fire. Everyone went wild over Uta's singing.

Yelena sat beside Louis and asked softly, "They still haven't arrived?"

Louis shook his head. Garp was a mad dog who'd chased even Roger all over the place. Shanks wouldn't find it easy to shake him off.

If Garp wasn't too interested in Shanks and only gave chase for a while out of respect for Roger, then maybe they'd be fine.

But if Garp got serious and tried to sink the Red-Haired Pirates in the East Sea, Shanks and the others would probably take a beating before they could get away.

Shanks was only twenty-seven. He was powerful, but he wasn't yet the future Emperor who could rely on his Conqueror's Haki alone to suppress Ryokugyu from a great distance and force him out of his Logia transformation.

If he really tried to take on Garp, who was in his prime, there'd be no suspense at all.

Uta clapped along to the cheerful beat, a serene and graceful smile on her face. Her purple eyes first settled on the nearest reef. When she saw Louis and Yelena, her smile grew brighter.

Then, still singing, Uta looked around at the thousands of people in the audience, as if searching for someone.

She sang one song after another onstage, from famous songs of Elegia and popular music from around the world to the dazzling songs she'd written herself.

She still hadn't found the people she hoped to see, but it didn't throw off her rhythm.

She was certain her adoptive father and his crew wouldn't break their promise. They would come to Elegia, where they'd agreed to meet, and cheer her on at her concert.

Because ever since she could remember, they'd always been like that. They'd never let her down.

And this time would be no different!

On the reef, Louis slowly turned to look out across the sea behind them. Beside him, Yelena seemed to guess what he'd noticed and followed his gaze.

"Boom..." The sound of cannon fire carried on the sea breeze, making the audience turn pale.

Everyone instinctively turned toward where the sound had come from.

Beyond the rocks that blocked the strait, a red Dragon Head slowly came into view. Then the sails appeared, emblazoned with a skull framed by crossed swords, billowing in the wind.

A black Jolly Roger fluttered in the air, revealing the ship's identity to everyone at the concert: it belonged to fearsome pirates.

Onstage, the young songstress smiled radiantly. She'd known Shanks wouldn't let her down!

"That's... the Red-Haired Pirates! They destroyed the most intelligent people in the East Sea!" a resident of Elegia cried out.

"They look nearly a mile away. They're probably just passing by, right?"

"Why do I get the feeling they're... running for their lives?" someone whispered to the companion beside him.

The next moment, his words were proven right.

Once the pirate ship had fully emerged, an even larger warship appeared right behind it. The dog's head with a bone between its teeth at the bow gave away its identity.

"That's... Vice Admiral Garp's ship?!"

On the other side of the stage, Gordon saw the pirate ship being chased by the warship and paled.

But soon, he remembered what Louis had said not long ago and understood everything. He instinctively looked toward Uta, who had clearly begun raising her voice.

The next moment, he ordered the staff beside him:

"Everyone, turn the volume up as high as you can without hurting anyone's hearing!"

"Make sure they can hear it out at sea!"