He sheathed his blade slowly, metal scraping against the scabbard's mouth with a faint hiss.
Having finished, he turned around, the hem of his coat stirring a faint current of air.
"Rossi, you stole my prey."
Gladius's voice came from the merchant ship alongside, carrying the suppressed dissatisfaction peculiar to a boy his age.
Rossi merely lifted his eyelids and glanced that way. "With your cannonballs, both the ship and its crew would have sunk."
His voice remained level. "The family has too many mouths to feed. We save wherever we can."
He raised his chin toward the head that no longer moved. "Remember to take that and exchange it for money with the Marines."
After the Vinsmoke Family disappeared from the stage of the North Blue, the family's reach spread at an unprecedented pace.
Factory chimneys, shop signs, and the sails of merchant ships dotted the coastlines of more than a dozen kingdoms.
Wealth poured in like the tide, then became food, cloth, and medicine flowing into the lands of the sixteen kingdoms once ravaged by war.
Now, a brand-new flag had risen over that land, and people gathered around someone known as the "great mentor"-
a mysterious figure.
Their growing momentum forced even the Kingdom of Luo Xiu Wang, the strongest in the North Blue, to turn a scrutinizing eye toward them.
Naturally, none of this came from pure goodwill.
"With Armament Haki wrapped around my legs, breaking the sound barrier is no longer difficult."
Rossi flexed his wrist, feeling the invisible power beneath his skin.
After a year of almost brutal training, especially under the guidance of the man named Dragon, he had finally reached the threshold of Haki.
Although he was still far from indestructible, he could withstand ordinary cannonballs with more than enough strength to