Why Be So Devoted?

Duen had no idea how long he had slept before he slowly woke up and sat up in bed. His first reaction was to feel for the storage pouch at his waist, and a sense of reassurance immediately settled over him.

Looking out the window, he saw that it was deep into the night. Specks of starlight shone through the thin window.

"I forgot to draw the curtains..."

Duen lowered his head slightly and rubbed his forehead with his index finger and thumb. He had not dreamed in a long time. Sure enough... after eating the Nightmare Fruit, he had lost the ability to dream as well. This must have been a side effect of the Devil Fruit...

He got out of bed and gently pushed open the door. The living room was pitch-black and utterly silent.

"Nami should be next door..."

Standing in the doorway, Duen took two steps forward and reached out to push the neighboring door, only to find that the lightly closed door opened at once.

"She didn't lock it?" Duen walked inside. By the light outside the window, he saw that the bed was empty, and the black bundle she had always treasured was gone from the room as well.

"Could she have... slipped away on her own?"

The thought suddenly surfaced in Duen's mind. He turned and left Woop Slap's house through the living room.

The streets were incomparably cold and deserted, with sparse starlight overhead. Everything was silent; only Duen's footsteps rustled softly.

Beside a stretch of shoreline that jutted toward the sea in an irregular semicircle, a small grove of over a dozen locust trees blocked out the cold starlight and kept the lingering chill at bay. A figure blended into the shadows beneath the trees sat cross-legged, watching the gently rolling waves as if lost in a daze.

"Whew..."

Duen let out a breath, walked over to the figure, and slowly sat down beside her. "In the middle of the night, if the waves carry your heart away, that's one thing. But if a few man-eating fish leap out, I might be looking at you with missing arms and legs right now."

"Hmph... cut it out. When was it ever that dangerous?" Nami had not wanted to speak, but she could not help retorting.

"It's not just man-eating fish. Bandits and hooligans like tender little girls like you too."

"You don't need to emphasize how charming I am."

The tide rose and fell.

Duen slowly withdrew his gaze from Nami. His lips curved into a faint, helpless smile. "Are you thinking about that boy?"

Nami gazed at the sea, faint ripples of light reflected in her pupils. She remained silent, seemingly considering how to answer Duen.

Duen continued, "Being betrayed must feel awful."

"I did drag you into this, so I do feel somewhat guilty... But don't force your own thoughts onto me. I don't regret it."

In a calm voice, Nami said, "Since he chose to do this, whatever his reason was, he must have had hardships he could not speak of. Wandering through hunger and cold, unable to feel warmth or sunlight, hated by everyone who stood above him, and having to constantly fear Death drawing near... his life was already miserable enough. Why should I pile my resentment onto him too..."

Her voice gradually faded until all that remained was a murmur. "After all... I have experienced that kind of despair too..."

The smile vanished from Duen's face as he gazed calmly out at the sea. "If you're tired... I can lend you my shoulder for a while."

Though he did not look at Nami, he could feel her body stiffen slightly.

Nami tucked back the hair at her temples that the sea breeze had tousled and said evenly, "Stop pretending to be some hero... You don't understand anything, and I don't like people who force themselves to be strong."

"...Why not give it a try?"

Duen naturally placed his right hand on Nami's shoulder and pressed down lightly. She showed a trace of resistance, but after a brief hesitation, it quickly vanished.

He removed his hand from Nami's shoulder and let it hang naturally at his side. "When you're hungry, you eat. When you're thirsty, you drink. When you're sleepy, you sleep..."

Nami leaned against Duen's shoulder, her eyes closed. She breathed steadily like a sleeping infant and said calmly, "That's just nonsense."

"You understand all of that, don't you..."

Duen said, "Then why do you keep forcing yourself to endure, treating hardship and suffering like a manual for whipping yourself onward? It's like chewing steel with your teeth to fill your stomach. It hurts terribly, yet you swallow it without hesitation. You sit in a reclining chair covered in spikes, your flesh torn and bloody, yet you smile and say, 'It's fine. It doesn't hurt at all.'"

Nami did not answer. She simply kept leaning against Duen's shoulder, and a long, long silence passed.

In the darkness, starlight dotted the gradually calming sea. The locust trees softly rustled their leaves in the sea breeze. The girl sitting quietly by the shore leaned against the boy's shoulder, and beneath the starlight reflected from the blue waves, their two long shadows stretched out behind them.

She slowly raised her head, a faint smile rising from the bottom of her heart. "Thank you for your shoulder."

"Let it slide this time, but next time, my shoulder will charge rent..."

"If the rent is cheap, I might consider it." Feeling lighter, Nami stuck out her tongue playfully.

Duen said, "Of course it won't be cheap. Something like several hundred million Beli."

"Cut it out." Nami took a fifty-Beli coin from her pocket and held it out before Duen. "This is everything I own. Consider it a deposit."

"That's some brutal haggling..."

Duen accepted the coin from Nami's hand. "Fine, I'll hold on to it for you for now." After saying that, he emphasized, "Only for now."

"I don't care, hehe..."

Nami smiled knowingly, clear and natural. Her crescent-shaped eyes carried a faintly infectious warmth.

But... there were still some things she ultimately did not say.

The rising sun spilled down layers of pale golden light. As time slowly passed, it illuminated the swaying rice in the fields, the neatly arranged roof tiles of the homes, and the faintly rippling waters of the lake.

Duen came out of his room and stretched. After washing up, he headed to the village market, bought a bag of flour, lean meat, and vegetables, then returned to Woop Slap's house.

The moment he entered, he saw Nami emerging from her room. She used a hand to tidy her slightly messy short hair, and their eyes met. After returning last night, they had each tacitly gone back to their rooms to sleep. At their first meeting that morning, there was no awkwardness. Instead, their relationship seemed to have drawn subtly closer, and everything felt natural.

"What are you going to do?"

"Make bait." Duen smiled as he answered. After greeting Woop Slap, he borrowed the kitchen.

"Bait... Are you going fishing?" Nami followed him to the kitchen door, somewhat puzzled.

"Mm... you could say that."

Duen kneaded the dough. He was not especially interested in cooking, but that did not mean he was bad at it. He had handled logistics at the One-Heart Dojo for nearly seven or eight years, so cooking came quite easily to him.

"I think I should be able to catch some fish."