Rowan turned to look at Nami and saw that beneath her confused expression, there was also a trace of unease, as though being left out had made her a little anxious.
He let out a sigh and was just about to explain.
But suddenly…
A commotion broke out inside the restaurant.
"It's Krieg's pirate ship!"
"The skull on the flag has an hourglass painted on each side—that's their mark."
"Oh no, it really is the Krieg Pirates!"
Rowan's explanation was interrupted by the uproar, and he looked out the window.
Sure enough, he saw a massive sailship. Its prow was shaped like a black panther, and the skull on its flag had an hourglass painted on each side. It was none other than Krieg's flagship, the Dreadnaught Sabre.
Rowan paused for a moment. He'd only been away from the Baratie for a few days, and the plot had already advanced to this point?
Not long after, the captain of the Krieg Pirates and his subordinate Gin boarded the Baratie.
But unlike what everyone had imagined—
Krieg wasn't swaggering in with his usual tyrannical arrogance. On the contrary, he looked utterly wretched. The moment he entered, he dropped to his knees with a thud and begged the restaurant's chefs for a bite to eat.
Seeing how pitiful Krieg looked, the people present felt no sympathy at all. Instead, they all started cheering.
The reason was simple: when Krieg was still active as a pirate in the East Blue, he was a complete piece of work.
He had originally been a prisoner. Later, he broke out of jail and became a sailor.
Then, on a Marine ship, he turned on his commanding officer, killed him, stole the ship, and fled—becoming a pirate.
The Dreadnaught Sabre itself was a Marine battleship he had stolen.
After becoming a pirate, he would hang a Marine flag on his ship, and once he entered a port, he'd immediately turn into a pirate and start burning, killing, and looting.
If he ran into someone he couldn't beat, he'd raise a white flag. Then, once the enemy lowered their guard, he'd attack by surprise.
In short, he would use absolutely any method that might help him win.
It didn't matter how underhanded or inhumane it was—Krieg didn't care in the slightest.
He didn't even care about the lives of his own men.
And it was precisely by relying on that shameless, despicable, utterly unscrupulous mindset that he had succeeded, even thriving in the East Blue and becoming one of its top pirates.
At his peak, he had over five thousand men under him.
Sure, most of those five thousand were little more than rabble, but that didn't change the fact that in the East Blue, Krieg really had been a tyrant.
No one knew how many people had suffered under him, or how many families he had ruined.
Now that he had fallen into disgrace, most of the people present didn't pity him in the least. Instead, they were all cheering, talking about handing him over to the Marines for the bounty.
The most enthusiastic of them all was Patty, one of Baratie's chefs.
Bang!
With a dull thud, Patty—who was in the middle of contacting the Marines—was kicked flying.
The one who did it was none other than Sanji.
After kicking Patty away, Sanji still had a bowl of seafood fried rice balanced steadily in his hands, which he set down in front of Krieg and Gin.
"Here. Eat this."
"Mr. Sanji…" Gin was so moved he was nearly in tears. Not long ago, when he had been on the verge of starving to death, it was Sanji who had given him a bowl of rice and let him live.
And now, when everyone else was avoiding them like the plague, it was Sanji again who was willing to help.
He truly had no way to repay that kind of kindness.
"This won't do. Minato, move."
At that moment, Rowan suddenly spoke.
Hearing the order, Minato Namikaze flicked out a kunai, knocking over the bowl of seafood fried rice on the floor. The fragrant rice spilled everywhere.
Before Sanji could explode in anger, Minato vanished and reappeared between Sanji and Gin.
With his right hand, he grabbed Sanji by the collar, twisted his wrist, and slammed him into the floor with a heavy crash.
At the same time, his right leg lashed out like a venomous snake and smashed into Gin's jaw.
Bang!
With a dull sound, Gin flew out like a cannonball and crashed straight into his captain, Krieg. The two of them tumbled into a heap.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!!!"
By then, Sanji had finally reacted and roared at the top of his lungs.
"Exactly what it looks like. Stopping you from doing something stupid."
Minato said it with a completely serious face.
"They're pirates. If they eat and recover, they'll attack this restaurant. They may even drag innocent people into it."
"I know you have your own principles, Sanji. But I'm sorry. I have to stop you here."
The other customers in the restaurant snapped out of it and started shouting as well:
"That's right! You can't trust a pirate!"
"Especially not Krieg! That bastard will use every dirty trick in the book!"
"We should tie them up and hand them over to the Marines!"
Sanji shouted back, "They just want to live! What's wrong with that?"
Rowan replied calmly, "The people they killed also wanted to live, and Krieg still murdered them. What did they do wrong?"
"If everyone else can die, why can't Krieg?"
"I know about your past, Sanji. Because you went hungry, you don't want anyone else to suffer like that."
"It's good to have compassion. But compassion can't be limitless. You can't pity everyone."
"Especially not someone like Krieg."
He turned to Minato.
"Kill them both."
At Rowan's order, Minato moved without hesitation. "Yes, sir."
Krieg and Gin immediately sensed danger. Supporting each other, they scrambled to flee.
But there was no way they could outrun Minato Namikaze.
This was the man known as the fastest shinobi in the ninja world—the Yellow Flash.
A streak of golden light flashed by.
Krieg sensed what was coming and, without hesitation, threw Gin at Minato as a shield.
In Gin's disbelieving eyes, his head flew off.
Even in death, he hadn't expected that his captain, just to save himself, would throw him out as a human shield.
But in the very next second, the expression on Gin's face relaxed.
Because he saw that even after using him as a shield, Krieg still hadn't escaped. His own head had been severed too and rolled to the floor.
Come to hell with me, Captain.
With that, Gin's consciousness vanished completely.
Sanji climbed back to his feet and stared at the two severed heads in silence, saying nothing for a long time.
At the same time, the pirates aboard the Dreadnaught Sabre saw that Krieg and Gin were dead and immediately tried to flee in the huge warship.
But before they could get far, a dazzling flying slash came cutting through the air, cleaving the mighty Dreadnaught Sabre clean in two as easily as a hot knife through butter.
The moment Rowan saw that, he knew who had arrived.
One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
The greatest swordsman in the world.
Dracule Mihawk.
He had officially entered the stage.