Joy Boy Was the Villain, Right?

On the way back.

Homing was in a daze, feeling as though the whole day had been unreal.

Hero King Garling and the Five Elders, the entrenched powers who held real authority in Mary Geoise, were like the sun and moon high in the heavens.

In the past, they had never even looked Homing in the eye, and when they spoke to him, they were brief and to the point, mostly using little more than grunts.

They were like six cross-eyed mutes.

But what had happened today?

They had met as equals and chatted and laughed together!

Homing's back straightened involuntarily as he stroked his beard and chuckled foolishly.

After waving goodbye to Lu Ye, Homing staggered back to his palace as though drunk.

He still had to personally deliver the "Cook Street" series Lord Jupiter wanted later.

Lu Ye pressed a hand to his forehead helplessly and sent Sullivan and the Hoffman Squad after Homing to escort him back to his palace.

Lu Ye himself was going to continue his Armament Haki training for the day.

Once he saw them walk away.

Jinbao floated onto Lu Ye's shoulder. "Little Lu Ye, your blond Pops seems to be broken."

"Nonsense!"

Lu Ye pursed his lips. "He's just a little too weak to handle such a powerful tonic.

"Haven't you heard? Power is the best aphrodisiac. Even an eighty-year-old man holding the imperial jade seal can become full of vigor.

"Blond Pops is a little virgin who's never been exposed to power, and his very first taste happened to be the very best tiger-penis-and-turtle soup...

"It's gone to his head!"

"Jeez, who taught you to make comparisons like that? Putting Pops and virgin together..."

Jinbao scratched her head vigorously. "You don't find that weird at all?"

Lu Ye rolled his eyes and swatted Jinbao off his shoulder. "Mind your own business!"

Jinbao chuckled and flew back. "Little Lu Ye, is this what you meant by locking power in a cage?"

A smile touched Lu Ye's lips as he said calmly:

"That's right. Privilege isn't scary; it's the unchecked delegation of privilege that's scary.

"You see, anyone with decent aptitude will have at least some pursuits of their own in life. With a background to rely on, they're bound to accomplish something, and people like that do care about their reputations.

"Only the trash there to make up the numbers have nothing to do in the first place. Once they get privileges, they act without restraint, bullying men and women alike without any shame. Don't expect their soybean-sized brains to have anything like a sense of honor, either.

"The collective atmosphere of clan culture is a chain that binds dragons. Rules are made according to the collective's interests to restrain individual desires, and all privilege is concentrated in the hands of those at the very top.

"In the end, driven by collective interests and with my interference, the rules will leave commoners more room to survive, enough to accommodate every one of their hopes for happiness.

"If the evil dragons stay off the shore, the human world will have favorable weather and abundant harvests.

"If the evil dragons come ashore, the rules will be my get-out-of-jail-free card for killing them."

Jinbao rubbed her nose. "Don't say I didn't warn you. Imu is the big villain in the story. By helping Imu, have you made up your mind to go against Joy Boy?"

"What? You want me to go out and become a pirate?"

Lu Ye rolled his eyes.

"If the information you gave me is right, one of them holds the greatest power in the world, yet holes up in the Flower Room to enjoy old age, just growing flowers and playing with butterflies-a veteran shut-in who hasn't gone out in eight hundred years.

"What a wonderful elder!

"The biggest stain on Imu's record is using an Ancient Weapon, and even that was against a hostile force.

"And that's enough for you to call my ancestor a villain? Is there any justice in the world?

"If we don't bring up the tainted-blood Celestial Dragons...

"The former owner of an Ancient Weapon, the first pirate on the seas, who crossed eight hundred years to wage a so-called war of liberation...

"No matter how you look at it, Joy Boy was the villain, right?"

Jinbao sucked in a cold breath and said dazedly, "Jeez, you sounded so righteous that you almost convinced me!"

Lu Ye scoffed. "It's not that what I said makes sense. It's that history judges only by results. The victors are wise and virtuous rulers, while the losers are branded tyrants.

"To commoners, it doesn't matter who becomes emperor. What matters is who can truly stand on their side.

"I can do it myself, and I only trust myself, so I won't wait for Joy Boy's liberation.

"He's too late. He can't touch the World Government.

"With me, the Double-flower Red Pole, here, the outcome is already decided. He still wants to overturn the heavens? Only if Joy Boy has a third name: the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"

Jinbao made a strange face, pulled out her phone, and played an audio clip:

"Fuffuffuffu... Justice will prevail? Of course it will. Only the victor is justice!"

"Huh? There's actually someone who thinks like me!"

Lu Ye's eyes lit up, and he tilted his head in thought. "Come to think of it, that laugh sounds pretty familiar..."

"That's Doffy in the future!"

Jinbao covered her mouth and giggled. "Now I'm also wondering if someone tampered with your reincarnation. After all, what are the odds of two people in one family having chuunibyou?"

Lu Ye automatically filtered out the last sentence, snatched the phone, and held it to his ear. He listened to Doffy's chuunibyou speeches one by one, then recalled how the little blond now wore sunglasses and put on an arrogant look with his little face all stern. The man and the mouse laughed until they were bent double.

After a while.

Jinbao suddenly scratched her ear and asked, clearly concerned, "Little Lu Ye, there's one more thing I want to ask you..."

Lu Ye wiped away the tears from laughing and waved a hand dismissively. "Go ahead. Why be polite with your Sixth Master?"

Jinbao rubbed her paws together and asked quietly, "When you talk about lowlifes and things like that, I don't like hearing it. Aren't people supposed to be equal? Do you really want to help them?"

Lu Ye tossed the phone to Jinbao, knocking the little mouse sharply downward.

"I'm a cop. You checked, boss!

"A cop's job is to take down punks. I'll sink every last punk on the seas into the ocean!

"Don't you understand the secret of going undercover? You have to get completely into character!

"Everything you say and do has to be the opposite of how you normally act.

"The persona I've established now is a Celestial Dragon who's arrogant and overbearing, does whatever he pleases, bullies the weak, looks down on everyone, and is a little despicable and shameless.

"Am I not convincing?"

"You are, but..."

Jinbao rubbed the soft fur on her palms and smiled with her eyes curved. "You're usually pretty much like that too, so I'm a little unsure when you're being real and when you're acting..."

Tap-

Lu Ye suddenly stopped.

Jinbao failed to notice and bumped into his back. Before she could recover, a pair of black hands kneaded her into a ball and wedged her into the fork of a tree.

He came to the street in front of Pucout's palace.

The first thing Lu Ye saw was Charlos and his sister standing on a trailer, picking through the food boxes.

"Longinus, you're back! I've been so worried about you."

Shalria jumped off the trailer with a smile and spread her arms to hug him.

Lu Ye hurriedly raised a hand and pressed it against the girl's forehead.

"Before you say something like that, at least wipe your mouth! You've got meat juices around it, which really makes you hard to believe."

Shalria pouted. "Did my confession fail again?"

Lu Ye nodded solemnly and was about to offer the girl a few words of comfort when her eyes suddenly lit up. Looking behind him, she vigorously waved her little hands in excitement.

Lu Ye looked back. Oh, it was Sullivan and the Hoffman Squad returning.

"Sister Flora! I'm over here!"

Shalria trotted over and hugged Flora's long legs, blissfully rubbing her little face against the black stockings...

"Sister Flora, do you want to come visit my home? My bathtub is really, really big..."

Dark lines covered Lu Ye's forehead. Xia Sea Dog, it'll be hard to win yourself a hunk by simping like that...