Chapter 34: By What Right Do You Look Down on the Celestial Dragons?
Yumesaki had initially been curious about which "Great Personage" held such utter contempt for human life. Upon hearing the name "Celestial Dragons," a look of realization crossed his face.
Of course, he thought. It would be those piles of garbage.
He looked at the wailing Old Jack with a gaze full of sympathy. A perfectly good family, destroyed entirely because of a single vacation.
The Celestial Dragons...
"They really are just a bunch of trash."
His voice was very low, intended only for Robin and Hashirama to hear.
But at that exact moment, the sound of heavy footsteps approached. A muscular young man with a full head of white hair suddenly walked over and sat down directly across from Yumesaki.
Yumesaki looked up. The white-haired man had two cigars clamped in his mouth. He wore a thick, open white jacket adorned with teal fur on the collar and cuffs, and a pair of goggles hung around his neck.
With a single glance, Yumesaki recognized the man's identity.
It was none other than the Marine Captain stationed in Loguetown: Smoker.
"Hey kid, where are you from?" Smoker asked bluntly, eyeing Yumesaki from head to toe.
Yumesaki replied with a calm expression, "Does that have anything to do with you? I'm not a criminal, am I?"
Smoker let out a scoffing laugh. He hadn't expected to run into someone so stubborn.
"You're not a criminal yet. But I should warn you: don't you dare fall into the life of a criminal, and especially don't make trouble in Loguetown. If you do, I'll be the one to hunt you down."
Hearing this, Yumesaki gave Smoker a curious look. "I have a question. In the eyes of you Marines, is everyone who isn't a Marine a criminal—or at least a potential one?"
"Hah, what kind of nonsense are you talking? There's no way that's true." Smoker knit his brows, not understanding why the kid was being so unreasonable.
"If it's not true, then why come over just to warn me?" Yumesaki countered. "We don't know each other, and you've never even seen me before. Why didn't you go warn anyone else? Why me? Does my face look like that of a villain?"
That last sentence wasn't directed at Smoker, but at Robin.
Smoker smirked. "You brat. Did you think I didn't hear what you just said?"
Yumesaki paused for a second.
Smoker leaned forward, his gaze piercing. His serious face was partially obscured by the thick cigar smoke, radiating a heavy pressure.
"You aren't the first person to call that group 'trash.'"
"But generally, people who dare to say that aren't ordinary. At the very least, an ordinary person wouldn't mutter such words." He gestured toward the other customers, whose expressions had shifted to terror just at the mention of the Celestial Dragons.
"A truly ordinary person would look like them."
"But you're different. When you said those words, your eyes remained calm. There wasn't a hint of respect—or fear."
"No... it's not just a lack of fear. From the bottom of your heart, you look down on them. You despise them. You've never once viewed them as being in a superior position. To you, they are simply garbage."
"Even the three Admirals or the Yonko wouldn't be like you—completely devoid of any fear toward them."
"A person like you is, without a doubt, a very dangerous element."
"Now, do you still think there's a problem with my warning?"
Yumesaki was genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected to run into Smoker in a bar, and he certainly hadn't expected the man to possess such sharp observational skills.
In Yumesaki's memory of the series, Smoker was a stubborn, hot-headed man known within the Marines for his unruly behavior and blunt speech. He was often portrayed as someone who lacked patience for noise and acted recklessly.
But seeing him today, Yumesaki realized the manga's portrayal was a bit one-sided. The man might be rough, but his intuition was top-tier.
"Fine, I admit you have a point," Yumesaki came back to his senses and responded honestly. "But don't worry. We aren't going to cause trouble in Loguetown. We have zero interest in doing so."
"Glad to hear it." Smoker nodded, satisfied for the moment, but his wariness toward the young man only grew. Someone who fundamentally looked down on the Celestial Dragons was an absolute heretic in this era. Such a person was far too dangerous.
If it weren't for the fact that Yumesaki didn't have a bounty and wasn't a pirate, Smoker wouldn't have let such a volatile element walk away.
Having delivered his warning, Smoker prepared to leave. But before he did, there was one question he wanted an answer to.
"You... on what basis do you look down on those people?"
Hearing Smoker's question, Yumesaki was momentarily stunned.
True... on what basis do I look down on the Celestial Dragons?
Even if they weren't good people, it didn't mean just anyone could look down on them. Moreover, not every Celestial Dragon was a useless piece of waste. The Five Elders were Celestial Dragons. The God's Knights were Celestial Dragons.
Those people didn't just have seemingly immortal bodies; every one of them was a hundred—no, a thousand times stronger than him right now. They could send any random subordinate to kill him a hundred times over.
Given that massive gap in power, how could he look down on them?
Just because he was a Transmigrator? That was part of it, but not all of it.
The reason he looked down on them wasn't just his status as a traveler, but because he came from a civilized society—a nation with five thousand years of history. He was a civilized man, raised under a set of modern morals.
The World Government claimed to be civilized, but in his eyes, they were just a bunch of arrogant barbarians. They were cruel, decadent, and utterly devoid of morality. He had every right to look down on them.
Even if he wasn't as strong as the God's Knights or the Five Elders yet, he had the ability to walk through countless worlds. He had comrades with a shared vision and the backing of infinite universes.
The Knights were strong. The Five Elders were strong. The hidden ruler of the world, Imu, was even stronger.
But so what?
In the infinite multiverse, there were people stronger than them everywhere. Just because he was behind today didn't mean he would be behind forever. Yumesaki had the confidence that, in the future, he would become so powerful that he could wipe out the Knights, the Elders, and Imu with ease.
Therefore, he was fully qualified. He had every right to look down on that pile of combustible trash.
As this realization took hold, Yumesaki felt a sudden wave of clarity. His spirit felt as though it had been washed clean.
At that same moment, an invisible power followed Yumesaki's thoughts, erupting outward in all directions.
BOOM!
A dull roar vibrated through the air. Crackles of black and red lightning centered on Yumesaki, sweeping across the room.
The atmosphere groaned, the ground trembled, and even the clouds hanging over Loguetown were instantly torn asunder. An invisible shockwave of pure pressure swept through everything, resembling a landslide or a tsunami crashing through the city.
Smoker, caught directly in the epicenter of the blast, felt his mind go completely blank. His body buckled, and he collapsed toward the floor, unable to control himself.
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