Garp gave a cheerful greeting, his massive figure casting a large shadow.
"We meet again, Frost Boy."
Lorne had just finished the last bite of the sweet and smooth pudding and set down his spoon with satisfaction.
He looked up at this legendary marine hero.
"I say, old man, your way of making an entrance is truly unique."
Lorne's tone betrayed no emotion.
"The little things I've done shouldn't be enough to trouble you to come and catch me yourself, should they?"
"Wahahahahaha!"
Garp let out a burst of deafening laughter and, without invitation, dragged over an empty chair and sat down heavily across from Lorne.
"This old man followed the scent! Whether I catch you or not is one thing, but a meal must be eaten!"
He yelled toward the kitchen at the top of his lungs:
"Boss! Give this old man the same dish that kid just had!"
At the kitchen entrance, Zeff's face was so dark it could drip ink, but he didn't lose his temper after all, simply gesturing coldly to the stunned Sanji to go and prepare it.
Garp's gaze fell upon the particularly conspicuous Bounty Poster on the table, printed with the number 180 million.
"Oh? It's risen to this amount already?"
He muttered a sentence and suddenly reached out, so fast he left an afterimage, grabbing directly toward Lorne.
"Let this old man have a good look~"
Although this grab carried no killing intent, its speed and power were enough to ensure that 99% of pirates wouldn't be able to react.
Lorne's body, however, eerily shifted backward; beneath his chair, a layer of tiny Ice Tracks, almost invisible to the naked eye, instantly froze and then melted, sliding him back half a meter.
This allowed Lorne to precisely avoid the grab and even skillfully dissipate the impact that might have followed.
Almost simultaneously, the air temperature within a three-meter radius centered on the table between them suddenly dropped by at least five degrees.
An invisible chill spread out, yet it was precisely controlled within this small circle, not affecting the kitchen or other areas further away.
Garp's hand, having caught nothing, stopped in mid-air. He slowly raised his head, his eyes, which always held a hint of cynicism, narrowed slightly as a sharp glint flashed through them.
"Oh-ho?"
He withdrew his hand, casually scratched his short gray hair, and grinned.
"I didn't see that coming! You kid, you actually have such a slippery move!"
Lorne controlled the chair to slide silently back to its original position and sat upright, shrugging with composure.
"You flatter me, old man. After being beaten enough times, one naturally learns how to dodge."
He said this nonchalantly, but it made Zeff, who was eavesdropping, feel a chill in his heart. What kind of existence could make this monster use the words "being beaten"?
The smile on Garp's face grew even wider as he suddenly threw a punch without any warning!
This punch was not infused with any Haki, it was purely an explosion of physical strength, but the fierce wind pressure it generated let out a sharp howl, causing the surviving tableware on neighboring tables to clatter and tumble to the floor.
Facing this sudden punch, Lorne also reacted immediately, lightly tapping the tabletop in front of him.
A ring of extremely thin yet incredibly tough Ice Wall rose from the edge of the table.
The Ice Wall had a clever curve; instead of choosing to block head-on, it guided the violent wind of the punch to deflect sharply upward.
"Boom!"
The wind from the punch brushed past the top of Lorne's head and slammed heavily into the restaurant's ceiling; a chandelier exploded on impact, glass shards and wood chips raining down.
Lorne brushed a bit of dust off his shoulder and sighed helplessly.
"I say, old man, this habit of yours of suddenly attacking to test someone isn't very good!"
He looked up and calmly gazed at Garp's face, which was written all over with the word "interesting."
"You have the Marines backing you, a vast enterprise, and don't care about this little bit of loss. But I'm just a destitute traveler; if things here get broken, I can't afford the compensation!"
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