In the New World, on an inconspicuous island among countless others, there was a tavern where a group of idle men usually gathered.
"Have you heard? Bloody Swordsman killed Whitebeard!" a middle-aged man with a deep scar across his face shouted to the people around him.
"Your news is outdated. I heard Bloody Swordsman won in just two moves!" a bald young man, not yet thirty, said disdainfully from another table.
"Really?"
"Of course. My distant relative leaked it to me. Top secret!"
"May I ask where your relative works?"
"World Economy News Paper—the Shock Department!"
The bald young man was immensely proud.
"It looks like our chance has come. What do you think would happen if we took Bloody Swordsman's head?" Without waiting for anyone to answer, the bald young man answered his own question. "We'd have fame and fortune!"
"Yeah! Why don't we form a team?" An old man with graying hair also joined in.
As they spoke, the group actually began discussing how to put to sea and claim Bloody Swordsman's head!
The tavern owner reclined sideways in his chair. He merely glanced over at them before ignoring them again, his deep, starry eyes seeming to have seen through everything long ago.
"A bunch of loudmouths!"
He looked down on them from the bottom of his heart. Take that bald young man, for instance—he had always talked about taking Whitebeard's head, yet he had never once taken action.
That scarred middle-aged man was no better. He told outsiders that the scar on his face had been left behind after he sparred with Pirate King Roger and unfortunately lost. But the owner knew the truth. Back then, a group of pirates had come to the tavern to drink, and the man, still a young fellow at the time,