Nami: Daddy~

Half an hour later.

Nojiko was still having a wonderful time playing with Sadaharu in the yard.

Meanwhile, old Captain Romanov had asked directions all over the place. After considerable effort and some help from kind passersby, he finally found his way to the house.

"You little brat!"

He jumped three feet into the air in fury. "All you care about is your mother and Bell-mère, huh? You completely forgot your old man! Do you know how hard it was for me to find this place in somewhere as big as Marineford?"

"Hahaha!"

Noah scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Pops. I got carried away and forgot... But you were wrong about that first part. How could those two be the only people I care about?"

"...That's more like it."

The old captain snorted, his expression easing slightly. "So you do still care about your old—"

"Of course I care about these two adorable little girls too!"

Noah picked up Nami, who had already woken up, and laughed as he lifted her high and spun around the room, making her giggle nonstop.

"..."

The old man ground his teeth in anger. Had this been a dozen years ago, when Noah was little, he would have kicked him already.

But now...

He couldn't bear to.

Old Captain Romanov shook his head helplessly and settled onto the soft sofa with his legs crossed. Watching his son race around the room without the slightest decorum, his eyes brimmed with pride and affection.

He was just an ordinary man.

An ordinary birth, an ordinary childhood, joining the Marines, training hard, getting married, having a child—and before he knew it, middle age had passed him by.

The years he had left should have been much like the first half of his life: spending his remaining days