New Member, Norton!

Among Vice Admirals, only Garp was an exception in terms of strength.

Relatively speaking, pirates were actually far stronger than the Marines. It was just that powerful pirates could not achieve the same cohesion and unity as the Marines.

In the New World, only Admirals could be considered a worthwhile fighting force.

Otherwise, why was the New World called a "paradise" for pirates? Because the Marines simply lacked the power to interfere.

Back in the battle, both sides remained locked in a standoff.

However, Swain had no intention of attacking Vice Admiral Momonga, while Momonga was also observing Swain's movements.

"I only want to take that boy away!"

Swain pointed at the Lunarian Tribe boy, someone of the same race as King.

Seeing Momonga hesitate, Onigumo spoke up. "Forget about me! Complete the Fleet Admiral's orders first, even if I die in battle!"

With a swish!

Swain tore off his right arm with a tentacle.

Onigumo immediately let out a scream. Cold sweat covered his forehead from the pain, and the Devil Fruit he had been carrying fell to the ground.

At that moment, several pairs of eyes in the darkness fixed on the Fruit, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to act. Naturally, they were pirates with bounties exceeding a hundred million.

Swain could naturally sense them.

With a thought, an enormous black domain spread outward!

It was unmistakably Conqueror's Haki!

All the weaker Marines and pirates within its range collapsed unconscious!

"A little warning," Swain said coldly without even turning his head.

Whether it was a warning for Onigumo or those pirates in the shadows.

Then he pocketed the Fruit.

Momonga's heart trembled upon feeling that domineering Conqueror's Haki.

Onigumo was the same, while Gray had already gone limp on the ground, his lips turning blue.

Seeing Swain break one of Onigumo's arms, Momonga was furious, but for his comrade's life, he could only lower his head to this pirate once again!

"Fine! You can take him!"

"But I will take Vice Admiral Onigumo with me too!"

"Fine."

Swain knocked Onigumo unconscious with an air-punch. He was truly getting tired of that spider's incessant shrieking.

"You!" Momonga said furiously.

But constrained by Swain's strength, he could only yield.

Swain felt that Momonga had truly been angered. His face and neck were flushed red.

"Come with me." He took the still-confused Lunarian Tribe boy and left.

After they had traveled several kilometers away from the battlefield.

Swain asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Hilary Norton." He seemed somewhat afraid.

After all, Swain's strength and decisive brutality had genuinely frightened him just now.

"My name is Swain. Don't be nervous."

"I mean you no harm."

Perhaps sensing his emotional turmoil, Swain comforted him.

The two continued walking. Only after they had left Lardo Manor did Norton ask, "Why did you save me?"

"I'm actually a monster!" Norton said solemnly.

Seeing the look on his face, Swain laughed. "You don't look any different from me."

He rejected the notion that Norton was a monster.

"But you people have said I was a monster since I was little!" Norton said irritably.

But he suddenly remembered that the boy before him was someone who killed without batting an eye! By the end, even his voice had weakened.

"Who said that? I certainly didn't!" Swain continued with a smile.

He was laughing because, as a fellow Lunarian of Kaido's right-hand man King, the latter was so fierce, yet Norton seemed so humble by comparison.

After all, King had been outrageously arrogant before Zoro.

Although Norton did not know why Swain was laughing, he felt kindness in that smile. Swain was not mocking him!

"Why did you let that Marine go just now? Wasn't he your enemy?"

Norton was referring to Momonga. He could tell that Swain was fully capable of keeping both of them there.

"Why?"

After pondering for a moment, Swain said, "Because he's much better than that big spider. He's a Marine who truly cares for civilians, so I won't kill him."

Pirates had already run rampant, but how many pirates like Swain, Luffy, Roger... truly sought only freedom?

Perhaps one in ten thousand.

Most of them sought: money! Power!

If even Marines like that were killed, then this world would probably descend into true chaos.

After all, the Marines were genuinely protecting civilians at this time, even though they had committed many wrongs under the World Government's control.

But their achievements could not be erased!

Hearing that answer, Norton was stunned.

Tears gradually filled his eyes. He had drifted through hardship all his life, yet he had always remembered the Marine who gave him a mouthful of food when he was young.

"Hey! Little brat, where's your family?"

"..."

"Alright, I get it. Then come to my home. Let me be your big brother! Hahahaha!"

"Looks like I'll have to feed you milk too, lululululu!"

That older brother, always laughing with his hands on his hips, appeared in his mind again.

But one day, his brother had been killed by his comrades over money, while they claimed his brother's achievements and continued living carefree lives.

He had lost all hope. From then on, he hated the Marines! He felt his brother's death was not worth it! He swore to kill every Marine in his lifetime.

Yet now, he had learned the answer from the boy before him.

So... there were Marines like his brother too.

And the smile of the person before him resembled that of his brother, who was already in heaven.

People who loved to laugh always looked so alike when they smiled.

Seeing Norton's tears gush out like a spring, Swain knew that this boy, whose clothes were in tatters and whose body stank from never bathing, had suffered greatly.

He gave the emotionally scarred boy a simple hug.

At that moment.

Norton could no longer hold it in and shouted his innermost wish: "I want a place where everyone is equal! No plagues! No discrimination! No war!"

At that moment, he told this stranger the dream he had hidden since childhood for more than ten years, a dream only his brother had known!

Swain faced Norton with a serious expression.

"Would you come aboard my ship? I'll take you to find a country like that."

"If we can't find one, then we'll build such a country ourselves!"

"Believe me!"

Hearing Swain's words, Norton wiped away his tears.

He nodded heavily and accepted Swain's invitation.

This was the promise between these two men! A promise that would never change until death!

Seeing Norton nod, Swain was overjoyed.

He had never wanted the World Government to obtain Lunarian Tribe genetic material and create even stronger clone weapons.

This boy, who was like him, had witnessed the darkness of this world. That was why he longed so deeply for the coming of light!

Now, their agreement had also become the bond between captain and crewman!

The Lunarian Tribe's talent also made Swain look forward even more to the boy's rise, to the day he roamed the seas.

Norton's arrival also raised Swain's strength to another level!

Only now was he truly a pirate, sincerely looking at this new member... a pirate who truly had companions!