The time for the banquet arrived swiftly. A great bonfire had already been lit in the town square, and the townsfolk trickled in, one family after another, bringing young and old alike.
"Saaral looks especially handsome today."
A few of the ladies sidled up to Saaral as he was cooking, their eyes practically throwing themselves at him.
"Thank you."
Saaral accepted the compliments but ignored every other message those gazes were sending. The women were disappointed, but they recovered quickly. They were used to it by now.
To put it bluntly, those ladies had no shame. They were just lusting after his body.
As the crowd grew, Saaral's dishes were laid out in abundance: all manner of poultry, fish, meats, pastries, and beverages. Every single item had been made by Saaral's own hands, with no help from anyone else.
Around that time, a squad from the Self-Defense Force ambled over. They didn't look like they were there to keep order; they looked more like they were there to mooch free food and drink.
The man leading them approached Hakawa with a cup of wine in hand. "Hello, allow me to introduce myself. I'm the captain of this town's Self-Defense Force. Name's Lane."
"Lane? Like a lion?"
Hakawa sized the man up. The name certainly fit his appearance. The man's hair and beard were so intertwined that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.
"I'm Hakawa."
"I know. I've been keeping an eye on you these past few days."
"I know. Your tracking skills leave a lot to be desired." Hakawa wasn't sure if anyone else would have noticed, but he could always tell the moment someone was tailing him. Probably a perk of his overwhelming strength.
"Ha. Well, my men are all ordinary folk. No formal training whatsoever."
"Saaral's about to make his move, isn't he?" Lane asked suddenly, steering the conversation in a different direction.
"You know about that?" Hakawa looked surprised. He hadn't expected this man to be in the know.
"Of course. I doubt there's anyone in this world who knows Saaral better than I do."
Lane's gaze drifted toward Saaral, his eyes taking on a distant, profound look, as if he were revisiting the days they had spent together long ago.
"I was the one who taught Saaral how to fight. Though the student has long since surpassed the master. His strength has reached a level I can only admire from afar."
"Is that so?" Hakawa glanced from Lane to Saaral, a hint of disbelief in his eyes. While a fighter's strength in this world wasn't determined by size alone, he still found it hard to picture Saaral besting a man like Lane.
"Absolutely. Don't let Saaral's appearance fool you. He's an extremely dangerous individual."
As he spoke, Lane's expression softened with a touch of pride. After all, he had raised Saaral with his own two hands. Even if his own strength ended up falling far short of his disciple's, which was admittedly a bit embarrassing, not many people knew about it. In fact, Hakawa was the only outsider who did.
"If you knew what Saaral was planning, why did you teach him to fight? Aren't you just pushing him into the fire?"
In this world, a commoner who dared to oppose a nobleman had only one possible fate: a swift death.
"I know. But every time I saw that unwavering resolve in Saaral's eyes, I'd abandon any thought of trying to talk him out of it. Because even if I refused to teach him, he'd just find someone else. Better it be me. At least then I could be sure he was learning properly."
"It sounds like you and Saaral are truly close."
"Yes. I've always treated him as if he were my own son."
Lane had once been one of the many men smitten with Saaral's mother. But after that incident, he never once looked down on her. Instead, he took Saaral in and raised him like his own flesh and blood.
You could call a man like that magnanimous. Even noble. He had loved a woman from afar his entire life, and then he'd taken on the responsibility of caring for her child.
If not for his duty to his squad and to the people of this town, Lane would have gone after that nobleman himself long ago.
"Are you certain you can succeed? Can you guarantee Saaral's safety?"
Hakawa responded with a confident smirk. "Take a good look at who you're talking to. A mere noble is nothing. We wouldn't bat an eye even if it were a Celestial Dragon. Besides, Saaral is a full fledged member of our crew now. I won't let any harm come to him."
"That's good to hear." Lane felt a weight lift from his shoulders at the reassurance.
He had no real concept of how powerful a pirate with a four hundred million berry bounty truly was. But he knew one thing for certain: a pirate worth that much was bound to be exceedingly dangerous.
"Well then, I'll leave you be for now. I'm going to go see Saaral."
Watching Saaral, still busy preparing the feast, Lane realized this would be the last time he ever saw him cook.
"Of course. Go ahead."
"Captain, what were you two talking about? Looked pretty intense."
As soon as Lane departed, Riddle sauntered over. He was dressed in formal attire, but nothing could hide that inherent air of mediocrity he carried.
"Nothing much. Just talked about Saaral."
"Oh. Did he spill any embarrassing stories about Saaral?"
Riddle still harbored a grudge over the time Saaral had held a blade to his throat. If he could get his hands on some dirt about Saaral, he'd have ammunition for endless teasing.
"No."
Disappointed, Riddle slouched away. Looked like he'd have to dig for embarrassing Saaral stories elsewhere. He set his sights on the other banquet guests.
After the festivities ended, both Saaral and Lane vanished without a trace.
On a hill behind the town, the two missing figures stood before a simple grave.
"When... when did this happen?" Lane's voice trembled as he stared at the mound of earth. Tears streamed unchecked down his cheeks.
"A few days ago." Saaral's own eyes glistened. The person buried here was his mother.
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to burden an outsider."
"But I'm not an outsider." Saaral fell silent at Lane's words.
Lane had never once considered Saaral and his mother as outsiders. Yet, in the end, he was not Saaral's father.
"Before she passed, my mother told me not to hold a grudge against that bastard. But I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint her. If she knew what I'm about to do, I'm sure she'd be deeply disappointed in me."
"No. She wouldn't."
Saaral blinked, caught off guard. "Why do you say that?"
"Your mother may have loved that scoundrel once. But you are her son. She could only offer you advice. The decisions, however, are yours to make. Whatever path you choose, your mother would never blame you. You are the flesh of her flesh."
Hearing those words, Saaral's carefully restrained tears broke free. Silent weeping was the mark of the deepest sorrow.
It took a long while for him to compose himself again.
"My mother also said... she always knew how you felt. She hoped that after she was gone, you would find a woman who truly loves you and live out your days in peace."
A rare blush crept onto Lane's weathered face. He managed a faint, somewhat helpless reply. "I will."
But the tone of his voice made it clear he was just going through the motions.
The night passed, and the sun slowly climbed over the horizon. Its rays illuminated Lane's face as he sat beside the grave and cast a long shadow behind Saaral as he descended the mountain path.
Everything seemed filled with hope.
/-\
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