The Qualities of a King, Awakened in Hell!

The Qualities of a King, Awakened in Hell!

After going out once, Tsugikuni Yoriichi had returned with two tiger legs. He did not know their exact weight, but judging by their size alone, so long as the meat did not spoil, he would not have to worry about food for quite some time.

However, to keep the smell of blood from attracting other predators, Yoriichi did not carry the beast legs directly to the cave entrance. He merely left them at the foot of the mountain, some distance away from the cave.

At the same time, he roasted a small piece of meat to taste first. Although that bird had indirectly proven that the meat should be edible, it was safer to try a small piece first.

Well! There was no poison, at least. As for the taste, it could not exactly be called terrible—it simply had nothing whatsoever to do with delicious. The blood had not even been washed clean, the meat was tough, and the gamey stench was overpowering.

Still, Tsugikuni Yoriichi was immensely satisfied. After all, this was meat—far better than that unidentified paste by who knew how much!

Once he confirmed the meat was edible, Tsugikuni Yoriichi immediately spent over an hour roasting several pounds of it to fill his stomach. He did not know what kind of body this was, but even after several pounds of tiger meat, he was only half full.

Still, Tsugikuni Yoriichi restrained the urge to keep roasting and eating. At the foot of the mountain, he built a simple smokehouse, cut off dozens of pounds of meat, and prepared to preserve it by smoking it.

After spending half a day "processing" some of the meat, Tsugikuni Yoriichi decided to put these matters aside for now and investigate the surrounding terrain some more.

Though the food problem had been temporarily resolved, the greatest problem Yoriichi faced now was not food, but water!

Fortunately, this most pressing issue of water was also resolved when Tsugikuni Yoriichi went out a second time to survey the surrounding area.

After filling his stomach, Tsugikuni Yoriichi took his sword and examined the area once more. This time, rather than continuing outward along the forest path, he carefully observed the terrain before plunging into the dense woods in the direction where the land lay lowest.

"These trees are incredibly tall."

"If I don't leave some markers, it'll be easy to get lost!"

Dense jungle could easily make one lose their sense of direction. To prevent that from happening, Tsugikuni Yoriichi moved briskly along, freely swinging the long sword in his hand. Any flowers and grass growing too close were ruthlessly cut down.

Having been given a second life, Tsugikuni Yoriichi's mindset had become much younger as well.

"Babble, babble..."

Deep within the island, after following the terrain for nearly forty minutes, Tsugikuni Yoriichi finally discovered a stream. Looking up, it resembled a silver serpent winding through the mountains.

Lush green grass lined both banks of the stream. Beyond them stood thick, verdant woods filled with enormous trees Yoriichi had never seen before.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi stopped by the bank and looked around. He swung his sword, cutting down a massive tree thick enough for one person to wrap their arms around. Then he cut off a section, hollowed out its core, made a simple container, and submerged it in the water to fill it.

"Hm?!"

"Why is this water this color?!"

"And why does it smell faintly of blood?!"

After scooping up a bucket of stream water, Tsugikuni Yoriichi suddenly noticed that, against the natural color of the wood, the water in his container appeared pale red. Startled, he looked toward the stream and realized that at some point, its water had also turned pale red—and as it flowed onward, the pale red deepened into crimson.

A thick stench of blood flooded his nostrils.

"This..."

"What happened here?!"

The water source had been contaminated. Tsugikuni Yoriichi frowned slightly and looked upstream, trying to spot something. After some thought, he casually tossed the bucket onto the bank, tightened his grip on his sword, and decided to follow the stream upstream in search of the source of the contamination.

He had finally found a water source, so he had to investigate why it was polluted. As long as he traced the stream upstream and found and removed the contamination, flowing water like this would become clean again in less than an hour.

Then his greatest problem—the water supply—would be solved as well.

He followed the stream upstream.

After walking for an unknown length of time, Tsugikuni Yoriichi's view suddenly opened up. Once he climbed a slope, the dense forest was left behind him.

But the sight before him made Tsugikuni Yoriichi hold his breath.

Upstream was a broad stretch of flat land. Yet it was now covered in corpses—several hundred at a rough estimate. Blood had gathered into rivulets that flowed into the stream.

This was clearly a battlefield. Not far from it stood a town filled with ruins and shattered walls, with thick black smoke still rising from several places within it.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi looked over and found nothing but deathly silence. He could not sense the presence of a single living thing. At the same time, the clothing worn by some of the corpses on the ground immediately caught his attention.

White coats stained with blood. The two bold black characters on them gave Tsugikuni Yoriichi an intense sense of familiarity.

"Justice."

"The Marines?!"

On his second day after transmigrating into the world of the Pirate King, Tsugikuni Yoriichi had personally witnessed this world's cruelty.

Judging roughly from their clothing and the directions in which they had fallen, the people on the ground appeared to belong to two camps. The Marines in uniform, and the civilians wielding "weapons" such as pitchforks, hoes, and wooden clubs—these two groups should have been on the same side.

Opposing them were strong, well-built pirates carrying weapons of all kinds.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi entered the battlefield and looked around. He found that there were far fewer pirate corpses than Marine and civilian corpses. Stranger still, there were no women or children among the civilian dead.

"Did the pirates win this battle?"

"Were the women and children taken away?"

"Or did they hide somewhere?"

Crossing the horrific battlefield, Tsugikuni Yoriichi pondered as he walked toward the town in the distance.

The once exquisite houses had become ruins, while the once fairly broad streets were now piled with wooden carts blocking the way. The carts were filled with stones.

He crossed the obstacles.

The white stone streets were splattered with shocking patches of crimson. Standing amid the ruins, Tsugikuni Yoriichi's heart sank. Even though Yoriichi had not witnessed the villagers' resistance against the pirates firsthand, he could imagine the brutal scene that had unfolded in the town.

As far as the eye could see, there was not a single place that could be called intact.

He entered a house nearby and found a chaotic living room, its furniture overturned. Pushing open the bedroom door, the reek of blood rushed into Yoriichi's nostrils. The corpse on the bed made him frown deeply. With a sigh, he covered her with a blanket and silently left the house.

"So tragic."

After a brief search, Tsugikuni Yoriichi silently passed through the entire town. He sighed inwardly, his grip on the long sword tightening again and again.

There were no demons here.

But humanity's cruelty was no less than that of demons.

At the edge of the town stood a high cliff. Looking out from it, he saw the vast expanse of the sea.

The sea breeze blew, dispersing the smell of blood from the air.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi silently drew his long sword and examined the weapon in his hand. Its matte black blade reflected his blurred face. Looking at himself in the blade, his gaze fell upon the character "Annihilate" near the hilt. Tsugikuni Yoriichi understood, murmuring to himself, "I think I already know what I need to do!"

"With you, I will bring a glimmer of dawn to this world."

"Black Blade—Dawnbreaker!"

As he spoke, dust rose from the ground around Tsugikuni Yoriichi without any wind. An indescribably terrifying aura burst forth from his body and spread rapidly in all directions.

In the distant primeval forest, rustling sounds arose. The waves crashing toward the shore were repelled by an unknown immense force and rolled back toward the open sea.

Several thousand meters away, a Dog-head Warship was speeding toward Dragon Roar Island.

A middle-aged man in a black suit with a thick beard stood at the bow with his arms crossed. The Marine coat bearing the word "Justice" draped over his shoulders fluttered in the wind.

Bzzzz!!!

Suddenly, a terrifying pulse came from afar. The sea current, which had been flowing in the same direction, completely reversed at that moment. Feeling the disturbance, the middle-aged man froze briefly before breaking into a grin.

"Conqueror's Haki!"

"To think someone like that had appeared again in the tiny East Blue!"

"Was that bastard responsible for the E-23 unit losing contact?"

"Hahahaha! Interesting. He actually dared to attack our Marines. I absolutely won't let you off!"

While the man muttered to himself, a Marine hurried to his side. After giving a standard military salute, he reported loudly, "Vice Admiral Garp, an unknown sea current has suddenly appeared. Continuing along our original course may lead to an accident. What should we do? Should we change course?"

Hearing this, Garp turned his head slightly and replied with a smile, "Don't worry about it. Maintain our course. The current will return to normal soon."