It was not only the Revolutionary Army officers who found it strange; even Leo felt that this was a tremendous waste of his life. But guests were guests, and he had no good solution—so the Red-Haired Pirates spent an entire day drinking and feasting.
Given the Revolutionary Army's financial and material resources, food and banquets on this scale would not even dent one ten-thousandth of their reserves. But the time they lost could not be made up with food and wine.
Perhaps they could gain the friendship of the Red-Haired Pirates, but the Revolutionary Army had never relied on anyone else's friendship to earn respect. They stood at the pinnacle of the world through their own strength alone.
When the Red-Haired Pirates finally woke up again on the morning of the third day, Leo stood before them with the Revolutionary Army officers, his expression stern. "I'm throwing you out."
"Did we do something to make you angry?" Shanks's hair was as messy as weeds. He stared blankly at Leo. Two full days of drinking had left him completely muddled, unable to tell what day it was.
The Revolutionary Army, on the other hand, drank with them, chatted with them, and ate with them, but their commanders maintained a disciplined, regular schedule throughout.
Clearly, even if they remained friends, they were not the same kind of people. It was like going to bed at one or two in the morning and getting up at nine or ten, while your parents slept at ten or eleven and rose at six or seven. The conflict came entirely from incompatible habits. One side had to change to ease it, and perhaps it could not be reconciled at all.
This was precisely the fundamental contradiction between the Revolutionary Army and the Red-Haired Pirates—one that could