He set down his palm-leaf fan and stood up, his voice carrying irrepressible excitement and solemnity. "You might not believe me when I tell you this, but in all my years, this is the first time I've ever seen anything so strange."
"After I finished picking the tomatoes, one of them changed right before my eyes. It grew bigger, and patterns appeared on it. It turned into a kind of fruit I'd never seen before."
When he finished, he added solemnly, as though afraid they would not believe him, "Rest assured, I'm not making any of this up. I saw it with my own eyes."
Roger's gaze lingered on the fruit for a long time before he looked up and asked calmly, "Old man, is it for sale?"
The old man's smile faded a little, as though he had been asked a question whose answer he had considered long ago.
He shook his head. "No. I have a feeling this is a lucky fruit God bestowed on me. I'm going to take it home and keep it as a family heirloom."
Standing beside him, Rayleigh slowly shifted his gaze from the fruit's patterns to that weather-beaten face. He spoke unhurriedly. "Such a strange occurrence-what if it's an ill omen? What if this oddly shaped fruit brings utter disaster upon your entire family?"
Of course, this was not entirely a scare tactic. It really could happen. After all, if an unarmed old man had a Devil Fruit, anyone who recognized it was bound to rob him.
The old man was clearly wavering at Rayleigh's words. If it really was a lucky fruit, that would be fine, but if it was an evil fruit that brought utter disaster, it truly would not be worth it.
After hesitating for quite some time, the