The Execution Concludes

The crowd began to disperse.

The clamor gradually ebbed away.

The square, packed with people just moments ago, now seemed to have been slowly smoothed flat by an invisible hand.

Footsteps, whispers, and fading discussions intertwined as they gradually drifted farther away.

Loguetown.

At last, it was slowly regaining the outline of "normalcy" after that storm that had shaken the world.

But—

No one would ever regard this place as ordinary again.

That execution platform still stood.

Upon it, that figure lay quietly.

Like a period, yet also like a... footnote to an era that had just been written.

Amid the crowd, two young men stopped walking.

One red-haired, one red-nosed.

They stood silently at the edge of the crowd, only for one final time—

They looked up at the platform.

At the man who had once smiled as he welcomed death.

The wind swept past, carrying the scent of the sea.

A hat brim was gently lowered, hiding his eyes.

"Let's go..."

The red-haired youth spoke.

His voice was soft, so soft it seemed as though a gust of wind could scatter it, yet it carried an indescribable heaviness.

The red-nosed youth opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

He merely nodded.

The two turned around and did not look back.

They slowly departed with the crowd.

Like two seeds the world had yet to remember, vanishing into the sea of people.

On the other side of the square.

A cloaked figure had also turned away.

His gaze had already withdrawn from the execution platform.

He seemed ready to leave.

At that very instant.

A voice suddenly rang out, landing by his ear with absolute clarity.

His steps paused slightly, and his eyes instantly narrowed.

He shifted his gaze slightly toward