Less than ten minutes later, several dozen men had personally verified the truth of Makino's words - the drinks in her bar really were exceptional. None of them would ever have imagined that they could find alcohol of such quality in a backwater village like this. And the selection! Not just the usual beer and rum, but wines of all kinds as well. A bar offering such a variety of high-quality liquor was difficult to find even along the busiest trade routes. Difficult if only because ordinary sailors rarely cared about the quality of whatever booze they were pouring down their throats. Against that backdrop, it was rather strange to see such an impressive selection in the tavern of a remote little village. Not to mention the difficulty of transporting so many varieties of alcohol to such an isolated corner of the East Blue. And the cost couldn't have been small, either. Before long, in the eyes of the pirates - those who hadn't figured it out on their own had it explained to them - the pretty bartender became almost as peculiar as little Luffy. On any other day, everyone would have focused on getting drunk off the free booze, but not this time. Curiosity had gotten the better of them.
"So what's the story with this Luffy kid?" Shanks asked casually while sitting at the bar, his black cloak gone but his straw hat still on his head.
"All those mines, explosives, poisons, fake fangs, talking like an adult... where the hell did he come from?" he added as Makino reached over to refill his empty mug.
Shanks's merry crew pretended not to hear their captain's question. They kept drinking, laughing, and carrying on as though they had already forgotten everything that had happened earlier. But had Makino looked more closely, she would have easily noticed how hard they were straining their ears and sneaking glances in her direction. Their conversations, meanwhile, had instantly devolved into complete nonsense:
"You've got to admit, the beer here is fantastic!"
"Yeah, you're right. That Sea King was really huge!"
"Tell me about it. What an amazing ass!"
Fortunately for the pirates, there were several dozen of them in the bar. Amid the jumble of voices, it was difficult to tell what anyone was actually talking about, so from the outside it all looked more or less normal. Though Shanks's smile had become somewhat strained. Unlike Makino, he knew his bunch of idiots inside and out and would have gladly strangled them with his own hands at that moment. The only one who remained calm was his first mate - though when had that ever been otherwise? - Benn Beckman, who sat beside him at the bar. What also helped preserve the fearsome reputation of the fearsome pirates was the fact that no one else was in the tavern besides them and Makino. Every other villager had hastily gone about their business, shamelessly leaving not only the care of the pirates, but also the entire mess created by Luffy, on the young woman's shoulders. It was enough to make one wonder who the real village chief was.
"Our Luffy has always been different from other children," Makino began after a brief pause.
At once, all the 'conversations' around the room dropped to barely audible whispers.
"He learned everything incredibly quickly and was always astonishingly intelligent and resourceful. By the time he turned one, he was already speaking and reasoning at roughly the level of a four-year-old child.
"At three, Luffy could easily compare with elementary school students, and by five he was on the level of a fifteen-year-old teenager."
"So he's a child prodigy," Shanks said with a faint chuckle before taking a drink from his mug.
The rest of the pirates finally stopped making fools of themselves and listened with bated breath. Luffy's unusual nature had captured everyone's interest without exception.
"Maybe that's how it looks from the outside," Makino replied, shaking her head slightly, "but I'm not sure 'prodigy' is the right word for Luffy."
"Luffy isn't just intelligent - he learns at an unbelievable rate. If he can't do something on the first try, he'll almost certainly manage it on the second and definitely succeed on the third. He learned to read in a week, to write in three days, and mastered speed-reading in two hours. These days he can read a book as thick as my arm in an hour and then recite it back almost word for word. That's why I'm not sure the term 'prodigy' fully conveys just how intelligent Luffy is, or how much he knows - especially for someone his age. Because more than anything else in the world, he loves learning new things…"
A fond smile touched her lips.
"...and money. Never forget about the money when it comes to Luffy."
"I don't know about knowledge and money," Shanks remarked after another sip from his mug, "but the bloodlust that brat showed could compare to an enraged Sea King."
Makino let out a heavy sigh.
"Luffy used to be completely different," she said after a moment. "Until he was five, despite his intelligence and curiosity, he was probably the sweetest, most obedient, and most charming child in the world. I taught him how to weave baskets, and he made one for nearly every villager. I taught him how to make flower wreaths, and every woman, girl, and little girl in the village received one as a gift from him."