Joining the Royal Family? Privilege Burned to Ash

"Bang--!!"

Fragments of the heavy glass door scattered across the floor. The elegant piano music that had been filling the main hall of the Baratie came to an abrupt halt.

Dozens of heavily armed soldiers in uniform, high-quality armor filed in, quickly splitting into two rows. Immediately following them, a bloated young man wearing an incredibly luxurious custom suit, his ten fingers covered in gemstone rings, walked in with extreme arrogance, surrounded by a group of guards.

"Hurry up! Get all these peasants who reek of poverty and these lowly pirates out of here!"

The bloated youth, the third prince of the Lubneel Kingdom, covered his nose and mouth with a silk handkerchief in utter disgust and shouted, "This is the best restaurant in the East Blue! What right do these swine have to breathe the same air as this Prince!"

Standing beside the prince was a gaunt, one-eyed swordsman with an extremely sinister gaze.

He stood with his arms crossed, a masterfully crafted sword with a cross-guard hanging at his waist. The unmasked, bloody killing intent radiating from him made the bounty hunters and pirates in the restaurant, who had originally intended to act out, go silent instantly, like ducks with their necks squeezed.

"That's 'Blood Blade' Gal!"

In the corner, a knowledgeable pirate captain whispered, his body trembling, "A terrifying swordsman who once roamed the Grand Line with a bounty of twenty-two million Beli! I heard he was later recruited by the Lubneel royal family for a huge sum; I never expected him to become this prince's captain of the guard!"

Hearing the gasps of awe from the crowd, the prince became even more smug.

His small eyes, squeezed into slits by layers of fat, scanned the hall unscrupulously until, suddenly, his gaze locked onto the round table where the Eclipse was seated.

To be precise, it locked onto Carina, who was dressed in a sharp, professional outfit and possessed breathtaking beauty.

"Oh? To think there's such a top-tier beauty in a backwater place like this?"

The prince's eyes lit up, and the fat on his face trembled with excitement. He pointed his ring-covered finger at the round table with extreme arrogance and ordered his guard captain, Gal: "Gal! Throw those three men out the window into the sea to feed the fish! As for that purple-haired woman, bring her to my private booth and have her serve me my meal properly!"

"As you command, Your Highness."

The one-eyed swordsman Gal curled his lips into a cruel sneer, rested his right hand casually on the hilt of his sword, and walked toward the round table with a swaggering gait.

"Hey, you pieces of trash."

Just as Gal approached the table, an icy voice filled with extreme rage suddenly rang out.

Sanji, holding a tray, blocked the path. His eyes, usually filled with infatuation, were now hidden by the shadow of his bangs, and his black leather shoes had already ground deep indentations into the wooden floor.

"Causing trouble in the old man's restaurant and daring to speak so disrespectfully to such a beautiful lady." Sanji took a deep drag of his cigarette, the muscles in his right leg instantly tensing. "Even if you are royalty, I'm going to kick you into..."

"Swish."

Before Sanji could finish his sentence, a deep blue figure suddenly swept past him with extreme lightness.

Sabo had already blocked the path in front of Sanji before anyone noticed.

He was still wearing his impeccably tailored tailcoat, and not even the top hat on his head was tilted by a fraction. However, those blue eyes, which usually carried a gentle smile, were now surging with terrifying, palpable, icy killing intent.

No one understood better than Sabo just how disgusting these corrupt nobles, who fancied themselves the masters of the world, truly were.

Back off the coast of the Goa Kingdom, if not for Ace, he would have been wiped out by the cannon fire of these very people.

"Oh? What's this? A lowly peasant dressed like a circus magician wants to play the hero saving the damsel?"

Guard captain Gal stopped in his tracks, looked at Sabo blocking his way, and sneered with extreme disdain.

Ace, sitting at the head of the round table, didn't even turn his head. He poured himself a glass of juice with extreme leisure, a faint curve appearing at the corner of his mouth, as if everything happening behind him was nothing more than a meaningless farce.

"Captain, the air here is too foul."

Sabo ignored Gal's mockery and tilted his head slightly, asking for instructions from Ace with extreme calmness.

"Then clean it up." Ace drained the juice in his glass.

"You're courting death, brat!! Such insolence!"

Gal was completely enraged by this total disregard! He roared, and the explosive power of a twenty-two-million-level powerhouse was fully revealed in that moment.

"Clang!"

His sword left its sheath, bringing with it a piercing, shrill blade light capable of cleaving steel in two, as it slashed viciously toward Sabo's neck!

"Watch out!" Sanji's pupils constricted, and he instinctively wanted to kick out to save him.

However, facing this lethal strike that could walk sideways through the East Blue, Sabo didn't draw the alloy staff at his waist; instead, he reached out his right hand, covered in a black leather glove, with extreme composure.

His index and middle fingers were pressed together, while his ring and little fingers were curled.

A layer of Armament Haki, as hard and dense as obsidian, instantly covered his three fingers, transforming them into a Dragon Claw capable of crushing anything!

"Dragon Claw."

A piercing sound of metal clashing exploded through the hall!

Gal's strike, a blow he was certain would succeed and could even sever a giant tree in an instant, stopped abruptly less than five centimeters from Sabo's neck.

Sabo had used only three fingers to clamp onto the razor-sharp blade as if it were forged of iron! No matter how much Gal strained, his veins bulging as he pushed down, the blade couldn't advance even a single millimeter!

"This is impossible!! You actually caught my White Blade with your bare hands?!" Gal's single eye was filled with extreme shock and disbelief. He was a veteran swordsman who had been through countless battles!

"A sword stained with the stench of nobility is too dull."

Sabo lifted his eyes coldly, the muscles in his right arm tensing instantly.

"Crack!!"

Before the horrified eyes of everyone in the hall, the cross-guarded masterwork sword was snapped into two pieces by Sabo's terrifying finger strength!

"What?!" Gal was terrified out of his wits and instinctively tried to retreat.

But Sabo's speed was more than ten times faster than his.

The moment he crushed the longsword, Sabo's right hand lunged forward, moving with the precision and brutality of a true dragon hunting its prey, and clamped firmly onto Gal's face.

"BOOM!"

A surge of violently raging orange flames erupted from Sabo's palm without warning! The searing heat instantly drowned out Gal's screams.

Sabo grabbed the flame-engulfed Gal with one hand, pivoted at the waist, and whipped him violently to the side.

"CRASH!!"

The captain of the royal guards, a man with a bounty of 22 million, flew like a lit cannonball, smashing straight through the thick wooden wall of the Baratie. He and his sword were sent hurtling out of the restaurant, falling into the sea outside, charred black and with his fate unknown.

One strike, one kill!

The entire restaurant fell into a deathly silence.

Sanji stared in disbelief at the tall, blonde man, not even noticing that the cigarette between his fingers had burned down to his skin.

"Captain Gal... was actually taken out in one hit?!"

The dozens of royal guards turned deathly pale, their legs trembling uncontrollably.

"W-what kind of joke is this!! You lowly pirates, how dare you attack the royalty of a World Government member nation!!"

The Third Prince collapsed to the floor in terror, a foul-smelling liquid leaking from his pant leg. He shrieked hysterically, "Fire! Shoot them all into beehives!!"

"BANG BANG BANG BANG!!"

Paralyzed by fear, the royal guards immediately raised their flintlocks, closing their eyes and firing wildly at Sabo.

Dense lead bullets poured onto Sabo like a rainstorm.

Yet, the moment those lethal metal projectiles touched Sabo's body, they passed through him with eerie ease. Sabo's form was like illusory orange flames; no matter how the bullets tore through him, they didn't leave so much as a scratch.

"A Logia-type user?!" Zeff, the head chef hiding on the stairs, felt his pupils constrict.

"I told you."

Sabo calmly brushed off his tailcoat, which had restored itself after the bullets passed through, and slowly clenched his right hand into a fist in front of him.

"The stench coming off you people has seriously ruined our captain's appetite."

"HUM!"

A manic, orange flame that seemed capable of incinerating everything instantly compressed and condensed upon Sabo's right fist! The blinding light illuminated the entire Baratie hall, and the terrifying heat caused the surrounding wooden furniture to begin smelling of char.

"Fire Fist!"

With a low shout from Sabo, he threw his right fist—wrapped in terrifying, destructive fire—straight at the group of royal guards and the screaming prince!

"RUMBLE!!!"

A massive pillar of fire, over five meters in diameter, roared like a rampaging flame dragon, sweeping away everything in its path with unstoppable force!

Whether it was the sturdy steel armor or the guards attempting to block with their muskets, they were instantly swallowed by the violent heat and impact the moment they touched the pillar of fire.

"AAAAAAH!"

Amidst the shrill, agonizing screams, the massive pillar of fire not only reduced the dozens of guards and the arrogant prince to charcoal, but continued on with unabated momentum, shattering the front glass doors of the Baratie and blasting a massive, charred hole straight through the center of the luxurious royal sailing ship moored outside!

The soaring flames dyed the surface of the East Blue red.

In less than ten seconds.

The incredibly arrogant royalty of the member nation and their dozens of elite guards had been wiped out by Sabo like autumn leaves in the wind.

Sabo retracted his right fist, the flames on the back of his hand slowly extinguishing.

He elegantly straightened his slightly disheveled collar, turned around, and bowed slightly toward the man at the main table who hadn't even lifted his eyes once.

"Captain, the trash has been cleared."

Ace picked up the exquisite chopsticks on the table, plucked a piece of premium roasted meat brought over by a waiter who had been scared witless, and calmly placed it into his mouth.

"Mm."

Ace nodded in satisfaction. "Hurry up with the food, chef of the Baratie. I'm starving."