When Did I Become the Man of Legend?

Dusk was approaching as the sailboat slowly made its way across the sea.

Wude sat on the deck, counting his savings. After half a year at sea, he had somehow become a rich man.

He had robbed pirates along the way and turned them in for bounties. If he chose to settle down somewhere quiet, the Berry he had accumulated would last him a very long time.

"Come over here! I'm giving you some money!" Wude called out to the men preparing the ingredients.

Although he would still be the one cooking for tonight's feast at sea, these guys could at least help wash vegetables and cut meat.

"My lord, you did all the work dealing with the pirates along the way. We shouldn't take any money," one man hurriedly said, waving his hands.

"Yeah, my lord, your archery today was unbelievable. If it had been us, who knew how long it would've taken," another praised.

Jia looked at the stack of Berry in his hands, then at the companion who had stabbed him in the back, torn over whether he should return it to his lord.

"Take it. I'm letting you experience having money in advance, so that when you set out on your own paths in the future, money won't tempt you away from your original intentions." Wude handed stack after stack of Berry to his lackeys.

The lackeys looked at the large-denomination bills in their hands, each of them overwhelmed with excitement, their hands trembling.

Wude was not merely splitting the money from this haul. He had also taken a portion of everything they had gained since coming aboard over the past half year and distributed it among them.

"So much money... It doesn't even feel real." One man sat on the deck with a hand on his forehead and slapped his own face.

Jia let out a miserable scream after Yi pinched his leg.

"What are you doing!?"

"I'm checking whether this is a dream. There's so much money."

"Get lost!"

"Okay!"

Yi scampered off with a shameless grin, happily counting his money.

Jia warily watched the others creeping toward him. It was bad enough that they treated me like the ship's mascot, and now they're bullying me too... Wuwuwu...

"When we return to East Blue, I'm definitely giving some money to my parents." A young man covered his face and began to cry.

He had never expected that the first money he would use to honor his parents would come not from becoming a pirate, but from becoming his lord's subordinate.

Pirate crews were too heartless. If anyone dared say the Marine unit under his lord was bad in the future, he would argue with them to the end!

In an instant, the lackeys all transformed from Wude's ordinary fans into fanatical ones.

"My lord, if we become strong enough in the future, will we also be able to capture pirates as easily as you?" someone asked, looking up.

"Of course. The premise is that you can keep up." Wude nodded, encouraging them.

"I don't really have any great ambitions. I plan to give all this money to my wife and children. I only hope to clear away my stain before I die." At that moment, one man suddenly spoke heavily.

The others fell silent.

They could change their names, go somewhere else, and start over.

No one would go out of their way to search across regions for a few nameless pirate cannon fodder.

But the people in their villages would always remember those bastards.

"My lord, please help me send this money back to my hometown. I want to stay in the Grand Line and start over. I won't return home until I've made a name for myself and cleared away my stain." Yi dropped to his knees with a thud, pleading.

"Why?" Jia asked in confusion. His family had all died when he was young, and having been alone ever since, he could not understand Yi's feelings.

"I'm afraid of meeting my family and being spat on." Yi wiped away his tears, only for Jia to hug him.

"I still don't understand, but I'm your brother too. Stop crying. Seeing you cry makes my heart feel stifled."

"Ahhh—!"

Yi cried even harder, and Jia's face darkened.

Tonight's feast was especially somber. No matter how much the foolish Jia acted up, he could not make everyone as happy as usual.

The people present could not follow their lord forever. They all understood that clearly.

Starting over was not so easy. They were not people as exceptionally talented as their lord.

Someday in the future, when these people could stand openly beneath the sunlight, perhaps someone beside them would already have fallen along the way.

On the sands of Alabasta.

The Sandora River was not far from here.

The rushing river surged onward, while the ship was moored by the shore.

Like the river's current, their emotions surged as they stood before their lord. One after another, they shamefully dropped to their knees again, grown men weeping openly.

"My lord, all the information about our families is here. This is where we part ways. If we're still alive in the future, we'll definitely come serve under you." After Yi spoke to Wude with several others, he turned and carried his baggage toward the distant oasis.

None of them wanted to return to East Blue and join the Marines. Instead, they chose to scatter across the islands of the Grand Line, live and train locally for several years, integrate into those places, and then join the local Marine branches.

Yi and the few people with him chose to live in Alabasta and become part of the place.

There was a Marine branch not far from Alabasta.

Jia followed behind Wude alone. He had grown up without family or friends, and there was not even anyone in East Blue who would curse at him.

He was a pitiful man, yet he could start over right where he was.

It was hard to say whether that was fortunate or tragic.

"My lord, wuwuwu..." Jia suddenly began to cry.

"What's wrong, paramecium?" Wude turned around and teased him.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to see them in the future." Jia covered his face and sobbed.

"Don't worry. You'll see them again." Wude smiled and patted Jia's head.

From now on, sailing would be left to him, Jia, and Kuroh.

As for the others, in Shyarly's prophecy:

[They started over in East Blue and joined the Marines. Several years later, some of them awakened Observation Haki through Wude's methods.

They all came to Marine Headquarters and were assigned under Wude, fighting for him.

They restored their families' impressions of them, and everything was happy.

But one day, a fellow townsman of one of them, also a Marine, could only rot away in East Blue by collaborating with nobles and pirates. He even turned a blind eye as the pirate Arlong oppressed civilians.

He envied these men's bright futures and reported their former identities as pirates to his superior.

One after another, they were arrested and escorted to Enies Lobby for trial.

Wude was also implicated, drawing criticism from the higher-ups...]

Having little Shyarly as a fangirl was far too useful. It was practically like cheating.

"This guy... Hehehe..." Wude recalled the name of the person in little Shyarly's prophecy and laughed wickedly.

He would send him on his way.

"Let's go." Wude beckoned to Jia.

"Yes, my lord!" Jia hurriedly followed him back onto the ship.

One month later.

East Blue, on an island.

Shouts of slaughter, screams, and the clash of blades echoed among burning buildings.

The pirates excitedly massacred the townspeople. The master of the town's sword dojo led his disciples in desperate resistance, only to be driven into a corner with just two disciples left beside him.

"You'll die horrible deaths!" Augustus roared, his sword pointed ahead.

"Hahaha, you can't blame me for this. That creepy young man in your town sold you out!" the pirate David sneered.

"Who?" Augustus's face turned red with fury, veins bulging.

"That young man with those punchable eyes and rat-like whiskers. But he was clever enough not to tell me his name. He took the money and left." The pirate David shook his head regretfully.

He loved heartless little people like that.

"It was that bastard! I'll kill him!" Augustus roared himself hoarse with rage.

"This is bad, Captain! That terrifying man from the rumors has returned!"

"Who cares who he is? What the hell does returning to East Blue have to do with me!"

The pirate captain looked at the panicked underling running back, then immediately launched into a furious tirade.

"Captain, stop talking! He's come to this town!"

"!" The pirate David looked at his subordinate in terror and disbelief, receiving only an anxious nod in confirmation.

"Run!"

The pirate captain had been incomparably arrogant a moment ago, but when he heard that man had really come, his entire body trembled with fear.

It was said that half a year ago, a rising great pirate crew in East Blue had suddenly been wiped out by one man.

After that, the man became known to countless forces throughout East Blue.

"How is that possible? Didn't he go to the Grand Line!?" David roared at his subordinate as he ran.

"But I really saw him!" The pirate underling was only halfway through his sentence when he saw one of the two figures blocking the road ahead. He dropped onto the ground in terror, his pants already wet.

"We're dead!"