Chapter 8

"Growing more than ten centimeters in a week, how on earth did you do it?"

"What kind of physical technique is it that makes such a big movement when practicing?"

"Do you think I still have a chance to learn?"

In the restaurant, Siano was sweeping away the food like a whirlwind, with the plates next to him piled into two mountains; in the gaps between the mountains, the wrinkled old man was like a curious baby, pestering him with questions.

The previous questions were all brushed off by him with various vague reasons.

Until he heard the last sentence, he finally raised his head from the plate, speechless:

"You're almost seventy, right? Do you really want me to tell the truth?"

"..." Gatto sighed, "Forget it, I still want to live a few more years; I don't want to shake these old bones apart."

"Let's talk business." The old man smacked his lips, "The voyage these past few days has been very smooth; at most two hours, that is, before sunset today, we will be able to reach Asakura Island."

"..."

Siano was slightly startled and nodded, not surprised.

If it hadn't been for being tossed around by the Sea King, which caused the Gatto to anchor for repairs for a whole day the next day, they should have arrived at this time yesterday.

"Thank you for taking care of me these days."

After he completely swallowed the food in his mouth, he looked at Gatto and said very sincerely, "If it weren't for you providing an environment where I could practice in peace, I wouldn't have been able to make a breakthrough in these few days."

"What silly things are you saying! Compared to your life-saving grace, what do these count for!"

Gatto laughed heartily, "But hearing you say that, I feel quite good, haha!"

"Oh, by the way, from now on, the Gatto will always reserve the most luxurious room on the ship for you and your family for free! Food and drink are also all covered by us! This is a decision supported by all the crew members; you have no qualification to refuse!"

"Only an idiot would refuse."

Siano was someone who would never spoil the fun, so he laughed along.

"Then it's a deal. When you come to Cocoyasi Village again next year, I'll bring my whole family to freeload! Fortunately, my two younger sisters don't eat much; if they were all like me, I'm afraid they could eat you into bankruptcy!"

"You are a bit too humble; in fact, just you alone, eating for these few days, I'm already almost bankrupt."

"Hehe..."

When the conversation reached this point, the boy suddenly remembered that he had been away from home for exactly one week.

With two hours left until landing, before getting off the ship, he could take advantage of this time to have a good talk with his family in his room.

………

"We're here, this is Asakura Island!"

"You can go ashore from here; it's too late today, you can find an inn in the outer city to rest for a night, and it won't be too late to enter the city tomorrow during the day to find the swordplay dojo you like."

"We are going to the warehouse on the north pier to unload cargo; we have to continue our journey immediately after unloading, so I'm afraid the next time we meet will be next autumn."

At the south pier of Asakura Island, sailors crowded the railing, waving goodbye to Siano on the shore with reluctance.

Old Gatto accompanied him through the last part of the trestle.

Siano listened carefully to his instructions, but his peripheral vision noticed that at several intersections extending from the outskirts of the pier to the urban area, there were ragged beggars squatting.

Although they looked scattered at a glance, they added up to a not-insignificant number.

He couldn't help but speak:

"Strange, Asakura Island is a famous commercial hub in the East Blue and should be quite wealthy; why are there more beggars and homeless people than in my hometown?"

"Naive." Old Gatto sneered, "These are professional beggars with homes in the city, squatting here all year round. The flow of people at the pier is large, and there are many rich guys coming to the city to spend money; there will always be uninformed outsiders who get fooled."

"These people also become rich because of this; occasionally there are a few real poor ghosts, and those are beaten out after losing all their money in the casino, not worth sympathizing with."

"Alright, that's it. Let's go!"

The trestle finally reached its end; old Gatto patted his shoulder, didn't say anything more, puffed on his pipe, and turned to walk toward the bow.

Siano stood quietly in place, watching him board the ship.

And until the Gatto set sail and gradually became a small black dot in his field of vision, the boy turned around, chose the fork on the left, and headed toward the outer city.

It was already dusk, and the sun was setting.

Looking up, he could see the town with a classical temperament shrouded in twilight in the distance.

The main canal runs through the city from north to south, with cherry blossom trees planted on both sides; the buildings in the city are distributed symmetrically along the banks of the canal, neatly planned and densely packed.

It happened to be the season of falling flowers, and the river was floating with millions of pale pink cherry blossom petals, flowing downstream; the evening breeze blew, and for a moment, even the pier was filled with the elegant floral fragrance like light gauze.

"Developed commerce, beautiful scenery, and spring all year round; no wonder it can become a tourist destination in the East Blue."

Walking in such an environment, Siano’s mood also calmed down a lot.

When he was about to leave the pier, he noticed the port ship management office next to him that had already closed for business.

It was indeed too late today; he would go to stay at an inn first, and come over tomorrow morning; he should be able to ask for the passenger ship information he wanted here.

Gatto still thought he came to this island to practice swordplay, but in fact, his goal had never changed, which was to use the developed shipping port here to find a ship to the Goa Kingdom.

Logically speaking...

After sacrificing Shanks’s severed arm, the points he currently had were enough, so the urgency of obtaining Luffy’s straw hat naturally decreased a lot.

But, after tasting crab once, who could refuse the temptation of another huge sum of points?

Anyway, he had a month.

It had only been a week, and there was still plenty of spare time, enough for him to run a round trip from here to the Goa Kingdom.

"Please... please be kind, I haven't eaten for two days and two nights, just give me a little money..."

A weak groan suddenly came from the side, and a dirty palm held a metal box and reached out; remembering Gatto’s words earlier, Siano couldn't be bothered to pay attention and walked directly past the other party.

But before he had walked a few steps, the sound of coins clinking into the iron box rang out from behind.

Siano subconsciously looked back and saw a thin boy wearing a ragged kendo uniform stop in front of this beggar who was about fifty or sixty years old, carefully shaking out all the coins in his cloth wallet.

His eyesight was far beyond ordinary people, and he could see clearly in the twilight; those were all small-denomination coins of 20 or 50, and adding them all up was only two or three hundred Berries.

The beggar was obviously a bit dissatisfied, frowning and glaring at the thin boy, still holding the iron box.

"I, I only have these..."

The thin boy was full of embarrassment, suddenly remembered something, and after a brief hesitation, took out a large piece of black bread from the bag behind him, tore off a large piece with force, and gently placed it on the iron box.

"I haven't eaten dinner yet, I have to save some for myself, sorry."

The thin boy didn't dare to look at the beggar, stuttering, "Don't look at it not looking good, and it doesn't smell like anything, but believe me, it's very filling; one whole piece is enough for a day."

Before the beggar could say anything, he packed up his bag and hurried up the steps toward the city gate.

Siano looked at the beggar.

Sure enough, this old guy just held up the black bread and looked at it, didn't even have the interest to taste a bite, and threw it aside with disgust.

Then he poured out the coins in the iron box and counted them, spitting toward the side: "Really bad luck, dead poor ghost!"

Siano frowned and turned his head, wanting to call out to that kid.

As a result, he didn't expect the other party to look frail, but his footwork was quite good; in the blink of an eye, his back was gone, and he didn't know how far he had run.

He stood in place for a while longer, quietly watching the beggar, and the beggar also looked at him with a puzzled face.

"Couldn't you be a bit more arrogant, for example, scolding me, 'What are you looking at, you stinking brat, if you look again I'll dig out your eyeballs' or something?"

Siano suddenly said faintly.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" The beggar rolled his eyes, "Your muscles are scary; I can tell at a glance that you're not easy to mess with. I'm full and have nothing to do, why would I threaten you?"

Siano lowered his head, only then remembering that when he walked out of the pier just now, he felt the island was too warm and sweated, so he had long ago taken off his coat and put it away.

Now he was just wearing a single shirt, and his exaggerated figure was fully revealed.

"Sigh."

Really spoiled the fun, Siano sighed, and in the beggar's unbelievable gaze, he dug those two hundred Berries out of his hand and stepped onto the road toward the city.

Can only blame himself for bad luck, not running into a larger-scale fraud scene; he had just broken through and was still a bit unaccustomed to this body, and it was hard to control his strength once he made a move.

Two hundred Berries were only enough to buy two cheap hairpins for Nami; beating someone half to death for this little thing was ultimately a bit inappropriate.

Second update, weakly asking for tickets, book friends who haven't invested can also go and invest~

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(End of this chapter)