"Ah, time really flew by..."
His thoughts returning to the present, Aokiji gazed quietly at Noah across from him.
"Back then, I said that for a firefly like you to become the sun wouldn't be easy. You'd still need a little star like me, one that had almost reached the horizon, to keep going further and see if I could shine even brighter..."
He shook his head with a laugh. "But in the blink of an eye, I'm still drifting around near the horizon without much change, while you've already surpassed me and become the brightest sun."
"The sun?"
Noah looked up at the full moon in the night sky. "I'm nowhere near that yet. At most, I'm just a somewhat larger star, able to bring a little light to the people around me."
"To truly become the sun, there's still one final step."
The final step?
Aokiji instinctively glanced in the direction of Holy Land Mary Geoise.
"There were a lot of people at my house today."
Noah turned to Aokiji again and smiled.
"Teacher Zephyr, Mr. Sengoku, and the others all think I submitted my resignation because I couldn't stand Vail's scolding and sarcasm. But you should understand the real reason better than they do."
"You want to take that step?"
Aokiji's heart skipped a beat, and the words slipped out before he could stop them. But then he realized something and rubbed his temples with a bitter smile.
"This is really... a little too sudden. You never seemed this impatient before... Did those slaves during this operation stir something in you?"
"Yes and no."
Noah shrugged. "Flevance, Hot Nest Peninsula... I've endured it for many years. This incident didn't even count as the spark. Perhaps... it barely counted as the final straw."
"After I rescued those several