"Mr. Kairos, I apologize for the misunderstanding earlier."
Cobra walked up to Kairos and lowered his head.
Beside him, Princess Vivi also bowed her little head and apologized.
Cobra had not brought the army with him.
He had only brought his daughter and approached Kairos directly.
He knew very well that if Kairos wanted to kill them, no army could stop him.
This was sincerity.
A gesture of goodwill.
"It was only a misunderstanding. There's no need to apologize."
Kairos shook his head lightly.
Deep down, he actually wanted to say, Good thing it was a misunderstanding.
At the same time, he could see Cobra's goodwill.
There was no need to make things difficult for him.
"Mr. Kairos, I will hold a banquet in the royal city tonight. Please attend."
Cobra's voice was sincere and solemn.
"A banquet?"
Kairos glanced sideways at the royal capital.
Most of its walls had already been battered into ruins.
Could a city in that condition really hold a banquet?
Kairos seriously doubted it.
But in the next second, he thought of something else.
"King Cobra, there's no need for the meal, but I do have one request."
Kairos looked at Cobra seriously. A faint glint passed through his eyes, and his voice carried a pressure that made refusal difficult.
Well…
mostly because of his strength.
"Please speak!"
Cobra answered at once, without the slightest hesitation.
He had already prepared himself to pay a price.
Even if Kairos asked for an astronomical amount of Berries, Cobra would agree.
After all, they were the ones who had disturbed Kairos first.
Strictly speaking, if Kairos had been more ruthless, Igaram and the two guardian deities would already be dead.
But the next moment—
Kairos said something that almost made Cobra wonder if he had misheard.
"King Cobra, spar with me."
Cobra: "…"
Stars filled the night sky.
Kairos had finished dinner in the royal city.
Host: Kairos
Weapons: Wooden Sword, Sandai Kitetsu, Demon Sword Thousand Blades
Skills: Qi Manipulation, Tsubame Gaeshi, Sword Pressure, Armament Haki, Observation Haki, Spear of Elbaf: Hakoku, Assassin's Mind Technique, Sword Star: Mirror Sword, Sword Star: Hidden Sword Art, Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū Ultimate Technique: Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki, Unlimited Blade Works
Cards: Assassin Wu Liuqi (Permanent), Kenpachi Zaraki (3 minutes), Ichigo Kurosaki (1/1), Sasaki Kojirō (5/6), Himura Kenshin (Permanent), Fei Yangyang (1/1), Pleasant Goat (7/7), Killer B — Tailed Beast Version (1/1), Miyamoto Musashi (1/2), Zenitsu Agatsuma (1/1), Gilgamesh (1/1)
The numbers in brackets referred to current usable copies and total accumulated copies.
For example, Sasaki Kojirō had been obtained six times in total, but one use had already been consumed, leaving five usable copies.
Kairos stared at the card section of his system panel and let out a long sigh.
The bright red number seven behind Pleasant Goat…
meant he had caught yet another sheep in Alabasta.
After Kairos proposed a spar, Cobra had immediately surrendered.
And so, Kairos had successfully pulled another sheep from Cobra.
Thinking of that, Kairos shook his head.
Forget it.
Since the system clearly wanted him to gather a permanent Pleasant Goat card, he might as well collect it.
Maybe something good would really happen once it became permanent.
By now, Kairos had already fought all the original characters and strong figures in Alabasta.
It was time to leave this "Qingqing Grassland" in his mind.
Kairos had already reached the port.
He planned to set sail that very night for his next destination.
But at that moment—
the waters where his small boat was moored suddenly trembled.
A huge white object slowly broke through the surface and rose from the sea.
"Hm?"
Kairos raised a brow.
For some reason, he suddenly thought of the Scammer Bird he had eaten earlier.
It had tasted pretty good.
He wondered how this big fellow would taste.
At the same time.
Alubarna Royal City.
Cobra was not inside the palace.
He was walking through the sand while holding Vivi's hand.
The badly damaged royal city was being repaired overnight by workers.
Given enough time, it would surely return to its former appearance.
"Father, will Brother Kairos come back?"
Vivi held her father's hand and looked up at the round silver moon, her eyes filled with lingering emotion.
Although she had only spent a short time with Kairos, the memory of playing make-believe with him still remained in her heart.
Now that Kairos had left, she inevitably felt a little sad.
"He will."
Cobra nodded.
He also felt somewhat emotional.
At first, he had thought Kairos was a walking disaster.
But after spending time with him at tonight's banquet, Cobra found that Kairos was actually rather decent.
He was polite.
He did not seem brutal at all.
Could it be that people had misunderstood him?
Cobra could not help wondering.
Then he remembered something from the banquet.
Before leaving, Kairos had given him several pieces of information about the future as thanks for the meal.
First, he told Cobra to pay attention to Rainbase, especially a casino called Rain Dinners.
Second, he said Alabasta would begin suffering a severe drought in the year 1517 of the Sea Calendar, and that the drought would last for three full years.
Cobra was doubtful, but he still remembered every word.
There was no harm in being cautious and prepared.
He just could not understand how Kairos knew the timing so accurately.
Had he calculated even the exact year and month of the drought?
Was Kairos not only a swordsman, but also a prophet?
Overall, though, Kairos did not seem frightening.
He seemed like a powerful person worth befriending.
Just as Cobra thought that—
a soldier suddenly hurried over from nearby.
His face was tense. He quickly knelt before Cobra and reported,
"Your Majesty! Some residents saw Kairos eat… eat the Sea Cat!"
"…"
"Wait. What did you say? The Sea Cat?"
Cobra froze.
His expression stiffened.
He ate the Sea Cat?
"Y-Yes! Many residents saw it with their own eyes. It's absolutely true!"
The soldier was clearly stunned too. His tongue nearly tied itself in knots as he reported.
"…"
Cobra fell silent.
Kairos…
had really eaten the Sea Cat.
But the Sea Cat was as huge as a small mountain.
How long had Kairos been gone?
And he had already eaten it?
No.
More importantly, how could he bring himself to eat something as adorable as the Sea Cat?
At that instant, Cobra suddenly remembered his earlier conversation with Vivi.
Forget it.
Maybe Kairos should not come back after all.
He was so brutal it left people speechless.
Late at night.
This should have been the time when everyone relaxed and sank into dreams.
But the Holy Land of Mary Geoise was different.
The government machine known as CP was still quietly turning.
Inside a silent room—
"Kairos… as expected, you would never stay quiet for long."
The silver-masked man leaned back in his chair.
His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest, producing dull sounds that made the heart uneasy.
On the desk before him lay a stack of reports.
All of them concerned Kairos.
They recorded everything Kairos had done in Drum Kingdom, as well as the intelligence that he had defeated Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The silver-masked man's fingers continued knocking softly.
The rhythm made the subordinate kneeling before the desk break out in cold sweat.
"Pass down the order."
The silver-masked man finally spoke.
"Add another three hundred million to Kairos' bounty."
Every word landed like a hammer against the subordinate's heart.
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