The banquet lasted until midnight, ending amid laughter and cheerful voices. Afterward, Shanks went to find Ryan.
The two walked along the beach, the sea breeze brushing against them.
"Time really flies!" Shanks said with a deep breath as he faced the wind.
Thinking back, when he first met Ryan, Ryan had only been an eight-year-old child. Yet in just seven short years, fifteen-year-old Ryan had become the undisputed emperor of these seas.
It all felt like a lifetime ago.
Ryan's journey had simply been too dreamlike, like the protagonist of a novel. Though there had been some hardships along the way, no one had been able to stop him. Everything that stood in Ryan's path had been shattered.
"Yeah! So many things feel like they happened yesterday!" Ryan said with a smile.
"Ryan, do you know? You actually aren't the person Captain Roger was waiting for. But whether it's Senior Gaban or Senior Rayleigh, they both think highly of you!"
"Including you?"
"Of course!"
"Ha ha ha!" The two exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.
"Do you know why, Ryan?" Shanks asked with a blink.
"First, eliminate all the other answers. That leaves only one—I'm handsome!"
"Ahem, that's not it!" Shanks coughed dryly. Without hiding anything, he said, "It's because of your ideas, which are beyond this era!"
"So even though we know you aren't the person Captain Roger was waiting for, Gaban and Senior Rayleigh still placed their hopes on you!"
"Didn't you make two preparations? That boy in Foosha Village in the East Blue!" Ryan glanced at Shanks and smiled.
"Ha ha, nothing can be hidden from you!"
"Unfortunately, I'm still a little lacking in strength. Otherwise, I wouldn't have let you pass so easily!" As though he had thought of something, a trace of regret