"Bang!!"
Shards from the heavy glass doors scattered across the floor. The elegant piano music in Baratie's ground-floor dining hall came to an abrupt halt.
Dozens of fully armed soldiers in matching, finely crafted armor filed inside and quickly formed two rows. Then an obese young man, dressed in an exceedingly luxurious tailored suit and wearing gemstone rings on every finger, strode in with an entourage of guards, his manner utterly haughty.
"Move it! Get this lot of poor-smelling commoners and lowly pirates out of here!"
The obese young man—the third prince of the Lubneel Kingdom—covered his nose with a silk handkerchief, looking utterly disgusted. "This is the finest restaurant in the East Blue! What right do these pigs have to breathe the same air as me?"
Standing beside the prince was a gaunt, one-eyed swordsman with a sinister gaze.
He stood with his arms crossed, a finely crafted sword with a cross-shaped guard hanging at his waist. The undisguised bloodlust radiating from him silenced the bounty hunters and pirates who had been about to protest. They fell quiet like ducks with their throats squeezed shut.
"That's Gal, the Blood Blade!"
In the corner, a Pirate Leader who knew a thing or two trembled as he whispered, "A terrifying swordsman who once roamed the Grand Line, with a bounty of twenty-two million Beli! I heard the Lubneel royal family later recruited him for a fortune. I never thought he'd become this prince's captain of the guard!"
Hearing the crowd's awed exclamations, the prince grew even more smug.
His tiny eyes, squeezed into slits by folds of fat, roamed the dining hall without a shred of restraint. Suddenly, his gaze fixed on the round table where the Eclipse was seated.
More precisely, it fixed on Carina, whose beauty was stunning and whose attire was sharp and practical.
"Oh? A gem like her, in a backwater place like this?"
The prince's eyes lit up, and the fat on his face quivered with excitement. He pointed at the table with a ring-covered finger and ordered Gal, his captain of the guard, "Gal! Throw those three men out the window and into the sea for the fish! As for the purple-haired woman, take her to my private dining room and have her serve me while I eat!"
"Yes, Your Highness."
The one-eyed swordsman Gal curled his lips into a cruel smile, casually rested his right hand on his sword hilt, and strode toward the round table.
"Hey, you lot of scum."
As Gal approached the table, a frigid voice, brimming with anger, suddenly rang out.
Sanji, holding a serving tray, blocked the way. The eyes that were usually full of lovestruck delight were now hidden beneath the shadow of his bangs. His black leather shoe had ground a deep dent into the wooden floor.
"You dare cause trouble in the old man's restaurant, and you dare insult such a beautiful lady." Sanji took a deep drag on his cigarette, the muscles in his right leg tensing instantly. "Even if you're kings, I'll kick you into—"
"Whoosh."
Before Sanji could finish, a deep-blue figure swept past him with effortless grace.
Sabo had somehow appeared in front of Sanji.
He was still wearing his impeccably tailored tailcoat, and even the top hat on his head hadn't shifted. But his blue eyes, usually full of warm smiles, now seethed with a terrifying, palpable killing intent.
No one knew better than Sabo just how nauseating these decaying nobles, who fancied themselves the rulers of the world, could be.
Back then, off the coast of the Goa Kingdom, he would have been blown to pieces by their cannons if not for Ace.
"Oh? What's this? A lowly commoner dressed like a circus magician wants to play hero and save the beauty?"
Captain of the guard Gal stopped and let out a scornful laugh at Sabo, who stood in his way.
Ace, seated at the head of the round table, didn't even turn around. He leisurely poured himself a glass of juice, a faint smile curving his lips, as if everything happening behind him were nothing but a meaningless farce.
"Captain, the air here stinks too much."
Sabo ignored Gal's taunt. Instead, he turned his head slightly and calmly sought Ace's permission.
"Then clean it up." Ace drained his glass of juice.
"Brat, you're asking for it! What a big mouth!"
Gal was completely enraged by the sheer disregard! He roared, unleashing the full explosive power of a twenty-two-million-Beli fighter.
"Clang!"
His sword leapt from its sheath, flashing with a blinding, shrill gleam powerful enough to cleave steel in two as it slashed viciously toward Sabo's neck!
"Look out!" Sanji's pupils contracted, and he instinctively tried to rush in with a kick.
Yet against this lethal slash, enough to let its wielder dominate the East Blue, Sabo didn't draw the Alloy Staff at his waist. Instead, he calmly reached out with his right hand, clad in a black leather glove.
He pressed together his index and middle fingers, curling his ring and little fingers.
A dense, obsidian-hard coating of Armament Haki instantly covered his three fingers, turning them into a Dragon Claw powerful enough to crush anything!
"Dragon Claw."
A shrill metallic clash rang through the dining hall!
Gal's blade, which had been certain to strike and could have felled a great tree in an instant, came to an abrupt stop less than five centimeters from Sabo's neck.
Sabo had clamped the razor-sharp blade between just three fingers, holding it fast as if his fingers were forged from iron! No matter how hard Gal strained, veins bulging as he forced the sword down, the blade wouldn't move another millimeter!
"That's impossible!! You caught my blade with your bare hands?!" Gal's single eye was wide with shock and disbelief. He was a battle-hardened swordsman!
"A sword tainted by the stench of nobles is too dull."
Sabo raised his eyes coldly, and the muscles in his right arm flexed.
"Crack!!"
To the horror of everyone present, the famous sword with a cross-shaped guard, crafted by a master swordsmith, was crushed in two by Sabo's terrifying grip.
"What?!" Gal was horrified and instinctively tried to retreat.
But Sabo was more than ten times faster.
The instant he crushed the sword, Sabo reached forward with his right hand, like a dragon seizing its prey, and roughly clamped it around Gal's face with pinpoint accuracy.
"Boom!"
A burst of violent orange-red flames erupted without warning from Sabo's palm! The scorching heat instantly drowned out Gal's screams.
Sabo gripped Gal, whose entire body was engulfed in flames, with one hand. He twisted at the waist and hurled him sharply to the side.
"Crash!!"
The captain of the royal guard, with a bounty of twenty-two million Beli, shot out of the restaurant like a blazing cannonball, smashing through Baratie's thick wooden wall. He flew out into the sea, charred from head to toe, his fate unknown.
One strike. Instant kill!
The entire restaurant fell into deathly silence.
Sanji stared in disbelief at the tall blond man. The cigarette between his fingers had burned down to his hand, and he hadn't even noticed.
"C-Captain Gal was taken out in one hit?!"
The dozens of royal guards turned pale with fear, their legs trembling uncontrollably.
"W-What kind of joke is this?! You lowly pirates dare attack the royal family of a World Government Member State?!"
The third prince fell to the floor in terror, a foul-smelling liquid running down his trouser leg. He shrieked hysterically, "Shoot! Shoot them all full of holes!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The terrified royal guards immediately raised their flintlock rifles and fired wildly at Sabo with their eyes shut.
A hail of lead bullets rained down on him.
Yet the deadly metal pellets passed right through Sabo's body the instant they touched it. His form became a mirage of orange-red flames, and no matter how the bullets flew through him, they left not the slightest scratch.
"A Logia user?!" Zeff, the head chef, stood on the stairs, his pupils contracting sharply.
"I told you."
Sabo calmly patted his tailcoat, which had been pierced by the bullets and then restored, and slowly clenched his right hand into a fist in front of him.
"The stench coming off you has ruined our captain's appetite."
"Vwoom!"
A frenzied, all-consuming orange-red blaze instantly compressed and gathered around Sabo's right fist! Its dazzling light illuminated the whole dining hall, while the terrifying heat made the nearby wooden furniture begin to smell of scorched wood.
"Fire Fist!"
With a low shout, Sabo swung his right fist, wrapped in a terrifying blaze of destruction, straight at the royal guards and their shrieking prince!
"Rumble!!!"
A massive pillar of fire, more than five meters across, swept forward like a roaring Flame Dragon, laying waste to everything in its path!
The sturdy steel armor and the guards who tried to block it with their rifles were swallowed by the pillar of fire, consumed by its savage heat and force the instant it reached them.
"Aaaah!"
Amid their agonized screams, the pillar of fire burned the dozens of guards and their arrogant prince to blackened husks. It then tore through Baratie's front glass doors without losing any of its force and blasted a huge, charred hole straight through the middle of the luxurious royal ship moored outside!
Flames blazed high, turning the surface of the East Blue red.
In less than ten seconds, the arrogant royals of an Affiliated Nation and dozens of elite guards had been swept away before Sabo like leaves in an autumn gale, utterly reduced to ashes.
Sabo lowered his right fist, and the flames on its back slowly went out.
He calmly straightened his slightly rumpled collar, turned around, and bowed slightly with a smile toward the man at the head of the table, who still hadn't even lifted his eyes.
"Captain, the trash has been taken care of."
Ace picked up the exquisite chopsticks on the table, took a piece of premium roast meat brought over by a server who had only just recovered from the shock, and calmly put it in his mouth.
"Mm."
Ace nodded with satisfaction. "Bring out the food already, Baratie's cooks. I'm hungry."
Before you continue