"Mind your own business! I'll kill you and him both sooner or later!"
Kaido roared — the sheer force of his voice crackling through the line sent a chill down the spines of everyone standing behind Grimm.
Grimm stayed perfectly calm. "I'm offering you a chance to get your revenge. Want it?"
"Ha?" Kaido sounded wary — he knew Grimm was up to something.
But his rage toward Shanks won out, and he let him go on.
When Grimm finished his exaggerated account, Kaido hung up without a word.
Every man of the Holy Light Pirates swallowed hard.
Even Planck could not hold back: "Captain — isn't this too reckless? Drawing Kaido straight to our doorstep?"
Grimm had told Kaido about Shanks's raid — and how the island Shanks had seized from Kaido now lay almost completely undefended.
It was a perfect opening for Kaido to take it back.
But with his pride and thirst for vengeance, he was far more likely to sail straight for Artemis to settle the score with Shanks.
At his speed, it would not take long to arrive.
But… leading one of the world's strongest monsters right to their own home was terrifying to think about.
"He won't attack us," Grimm said, tucking the Den Den Mushi away.
"We'll just sit back and watch. Let Red‑Hair and Kaido tear into each other for a few days first!" He shrugged.
"What's the worst that could happen? Kaido won't kill Shanks, and Shanks can't put Kaido down. Let them fight it out."
"Captain!" A lookout hurried into the room.
"Some men calling themselves the Royal Guard of Goa Kingdom are outside. They say King Outlook III requests an audience with you!"
Over the past few days, the Holy Light Pirates had torn Trash Mountain and the kingdom's southern border apart — and the kingdom was powerless to stop them.
Desperation had finally driven the king to negotiate.
---
Goa Kingdom, once hailed as the most beautiful land in the East Blue, now looked like a burning wasteland.
This was where Luffy, Sabo, and Ace had made their names as boys — and so it had become the Holy Light Pirates' main search ground.
No one had been killed, but fear reigned; the Royal Guard and local Marines could do nothing but stand by.
For days, no one dared step outside.
Even those who did not know what an Emperor was had heard the name of the pirate "who had spilled more blood than any in history."
King Outlook III, the kingdom's highest noble, could bear it no longer.
He knew he could not fight, so he came to make terms.
He also guessed Grimm was hunting one of the two boys who had been with his own son — and that might be his only bargaining chip.
Inside the royal palace, Grimm slouched on a sofa, boots propped insolently on the tea table.
Across from him stood Outlook III — dressed in a black suit, with a thin mustache — Sabo's real father.
Outlook dabbed cold sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, forcing a smile.
"Pirate… sir. I hear you are looking for a boy. He ran with my disappointing son for a time. With my help, you will catch him for certain."
Grimm glanced up. "Oh? Is that so?"
Outlook trembled at the look in his eyes — he knew this was no petty pirate like Brujam.
He turned sharply. "Sabo! Tell this gentleman at once — where are those two filthy brats?"
Sabo glared back, his jaw set. "Why do you want Luffy?"
Grimm studied the boy. Though young, his eyes burned with a quiet, unyielding strength — the mark of someone who had already seen too much hardship.
"The three of you are close, aren't you?" Grimm asked suddenly.
Outlook hated to admit his son was friends with street rats, but fear overrode pride.
"Very close! He will tell you everything you need to know!"
Sabo shot his father a look of pure loathing — he never loved me, only his rank, his power, his gold.
"Then this is simple," Grimm said, nodding to his men and walking out of the hall.
One of the crew tied Sabo's hands and feet tight with rope.
"Hey — what are you doing?!"
Sabo struggled, but he was helpless. For all his skill, he was no match for pirates forged in the New World.
They dragged him to the palace balcony, bound him securely, and tossed him over the edge — leaving him dangling dozens of meters above the ground.
"What is this?! Stop!" Sabo twisted and kicked, drawing eyes from all over the capital.
The pirate leaning over the rail looked at him without a flicker of pity.
"You're close to Luffy, right? If he sees you like this… I'm sure he'll come running."
"Cowards!" Sabo understood instantly. He spotted Grimm walking out below and shouted:
"Do you call yourselves pirates?!"
Grimm paused, looking up at the boy swinging in the wind.
"Enlighten me — what does it mean to be a pirate, then?"
"Pirates are symbols of freedom!" Sabo roared.
The pirates on the balcony nearly burst out laughing.
There were only two kinds of people who became pirates: those who had nowhere else to turn, and those driven by greed and ambition.
Freedom? You must be joking.
Pirates were criminals who refused to bow to anyone.
The World Government was corrupt, sure — but dressing that up as some noble quest for freedom?
That was pure nonsense. Grimm pitied Shanks for it.
Even Roger had spouted the same line — but Roger had aimed to shake the world itself.
Shanks, though? He parroted "freedom" every chance he got, and called the Pirate King "the freest man on the seas."
He had filled Luffy and Sabo's heads with that dream.
If the Pirate King really was the freest man alive, Roger would never have spent half his life running from Garp.
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