Sea Circle Calendar 1498
East Blue, Pudreina Island.
The salty wind crashed over the harbor, carrying the ocean's damp vastness and whipping Ra Tenji's bone-dry white hair into a wild tangle.
A boy of barely seventeen or eighteen half-carried the old man, stumbling down the narrow quay.
Night pressed like ink; only a distant lighthouse swung a faint beam across the waves.
"Old man, faster! The kingdom troops could sweep this pier any second!"
Young pirate-captain Kanesu Shiji urged him on. His voice was still bright with youth, yet tight with alarm.
Scanning every shadow, he cinched an arm around Tenji's shoulders and all but dragged the elder's failing body.
HAA … HAA …
Ra Tenji panted, beyond words. Bones felt ready to rattle apart, lungs scorched, every step stabbed like a blade.
Damn it, what rotten luck.
One moment he had been a twenty-first-century office drone marathoning anime; he shut his eyes, opened them—and woke up here.
Fine, transmigration happened. But why into the corpse of the freshly executed Pirate King Gol D. Roger's father?
And not just any father, either: an eighty-year-old relic so frail a breeze could knock him flat.
Roger's final shout in Logue Town—"Want my treasure? Find it!"—had detonated the Great Pirate Era and, conveniently, nailed a Marine bounty to his dad's forehead.
One hundred million beli. Enough to turn every hunter in East Blue, and half the small nations, into sharks scenting blood.
The body's original owner must have expired from the shock, leaving Tenji to move in uninvited.
With this wreck, resistance was nonsense; running hurt enough.
So where was the transmigrator bonus? The system? The cheat?Was he meant to carry the title "Father of the Pirate King" only to be caught and die in some forgotten dock?
"Don't worry, sir. We cut across the port, trek west to a hidden cove, board my Golden Dream, then we're safe!"
Kanesu's optimism bordered on blind worship. "Once we're at sea, no Navy frigate can catch us—my navigation's that good!"
Tenji glanced sideways.
The kid was a full-fledged Roger fanboy. The moment he learned Tenji's identity, he'd sworn lifelong protection.
In those eyes, sparkling even in darkness, burned bright hopes and … a reverence Tenji found unbearable.
To Kanesu, a man who sired an era-shattering Pirate King must once have been a legend in his own right, now only weakened by age.
Each time that awe hung on him, guilt pricked Tenji's skin.
Legend? He merely wanted to find a bed and hope he didn't keel over en route.
"Cough … Good kid … counting on you …"His voice rasped like a cracked bellows.
WHIZZ WHIZZ WHIZZ
Knives shrieked through the night, killing intent riding the air from the alley ahead.
"Look out!"
Kanesu yanked Tenji behind him. Steel flashed; CLANG! The blade drew a bright arc, batting aside the flying knives.
The true danger had just begun.
"Heh-heh … Fast for an old fossil."
More than a dozen figures oozed from the shadows and fanned out, blades and pistols gleaming like wolf fangs.
At their head stalked a scrawny man with a sleazy twin mustache, triangular eyes cold in the lighthouse glow. He twirled a short, wickedly curved blade that shimmered blood-red.
"Quick Blade" Mōdai Tōru.
Kanesu stiffened. Even a rookie like him had heard that name. He raised his sword, shoving Tenji farther behind.
Mōdai licked cracked lips, gaze sliding past Kanesu to Tenji as though counting stacks of cash. "So this is Gol D. Roger's old man? Looks half-dead. Doesn't matter. That head's worth a fortune."
Hunters chuckled, weapons twitching.
"You'll face me first!"
Kanesu planted his stance, no fear in his eyes.
Tenji's heart plummeted.Spirit aside, Kanesu was still green. Against Mōdai's veteran crew, the odds were grim—especially with Tenji as dead weight.
Was tonight the end?
Helplessness, anger, and frustration churned. He had crossed worlds for this? To die before tasting the Grand Sea, before meeting the legends he knew?
Teetering on the cliff of death, something yanked at his consciousness—an unseen force dragging him into darkness.
To be continued …
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