A Man's Friendship

My reason for joining the Navy?

Leon stepped forward, his gaze firm as he answered without hesitation.

"To follow your orders, sir!"

The moment those words left his mouth, everyone froze, unable to help glancing sideways at Leon.

The tough instructor stared blankly at Leon. He had led countless recruits and faced the same question before.

He'd received noble answers like "to uphold the Navy's justice," and others where family killed by pirates sought revenge.

He'd even heard simple, honest reasons like joining the Navy to get three meals a day.

But never had anyone's answer struck him straight in the heart like Leon's did!

The tough instructor took a deep breath.

"Seaman Recruit Leon! You're the best soldier I've ever met!"

"You'll definitely become a Navy Admiral one day!"

"Fall back in!"

"Yes, sir!"

Aside from Rosinante beside him, who winked and grinned in admiration, most of the squad looked down on Leon with disdain and contempt for being so favored by the instructor...

That smooth-talking brat, thinking he can become a Navy Admiral?

Dream on!

Leon had blurted out a line from a classic movie in his past life on a whim, never expecting it to have such an effect.

He took in the shifts in everyone's emotions around him, but they stirred not a ripple in his heart.

In the world of the Pirate King, power rests in oneself.

What they called the Navy was just a large-scale, regularized force kept by the World Government—far from a true military...

His reason for joining the Navy was simply to boost his own strength.

After a full day of training, Rosinante, who had been full of spirit that morning, could barely stumble back to the dormitory with Leon's help.

"Dormitory" was a generous term; it was more like a giant warehouse, with the barest of furnishings.

Rows of hammocks hung on the walls on either side—that was where Leon and the others slept, a way to get used to life at sea early.

Leon had just set the nearly broken Rosinante down on his hammock when he heard a pained yelp.

"Ah!!!"

"P-please... be gentler, Leon, my... my whole body hurts right now."

"I know..."

Leon shook his head helplessly.

Same parents, same blood—how come your style's so different from Doflamingo's...

Watching Rosinante moan nonstop on the hammock, Leon couldn't help asking, "Rosinante, if you wanted to join the Navy so badly, didn't Admiral Sengoku train you in advance?"

"I did mention it to my father once..." Rosinante said a bit sheepishly. "He said I was still too young, that it wasn't time yet. So I didn't push it..."

Well, case closed. Spoiled.

Spare the rod, spoil the child—the ancients weren't wrong...

"Oh, right!" Rosinante suddenly remembered something. "Father prepared some medicine for injuries; it should be in my bag..."

Leon sighed, pulled out Rosinante's bag, and started rummaging.

Opening the bag, he spotted an old-fashioned medicine jar right away. He lifted it—heavy, full weight.

Sengoku! As expected of you, you saw this coming, didn't you...

He opened the jar, and a thick medicinal smell burst out—one whiff told you it was a family heirloom remedy.

And Leon wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the moment he opened the jar, he thought he saw golden light radiating from the ointment!

Cooking Master Boy, is it!?

Leon's mind conjured an image of Sengoku, alone, transforming into his Buddha form, reverently and solemnly brewing that ointment...

"..."

"Leon, this time, go easy..."

Rosinante's voice snapped Leon back to reality. He looked at the jar in his hand, torn—he didn't want to dirty the bandages on his hands.

But if he unwrapped them and applied the ointment bare-handed, he'd be directly exposed to the nuclear radiation.

Might as well leave it. With the constitution of people in this pirate world, a little muscle strain like this would probably heal after a night's rest anyway.

"Le-Le-Leon!!! Leon!!!"

"What are you yelling about? I haven't even started applying it yet."

"No, it's not that..."

"There... there are zombies!!!"

"Huh?"

Leon followed Rosinante's pointing finger and saw a zombie-like human walking toward them, as if he had crawled out of a graveyard on the Thriller Bark.

Rosinante's teeth began to chatter uncontrollably, but Leon thought the man before him looked familiar.

The zombie stopped in front of them, a creepy smile spreading across his gaunt, pale face.

"My name is T Bone. If you don't mind, let me apply the ointment for this young man."

"That's not necessary..."

Even though he realized the man wasn't a zombie, Rosinante was still scared inside and wanted to refuse.

Leon had already smoothly handed the medicine jar to T Bone.

This was a Good Guy, someone who could truly be called a real Marine.

"Then I'll trouble you, T Bone."

"Haha, don't mention it."

T Bone's face broke into another smile that looked somewhat terrifying.

"We're all Marines, we should help each other! Before joining the Marines, I served as a kingdom knight and often handled injuries like this..."

T Bone took out the ointment and carefully applied it to Rosinante's body.

Contrary to the expected pain, a burning sensation spread across his body with T Bone's movements, instantly dispelling the discomfort.