Chapter 9: Do You Think I'm an Idiot?

"Growing over ten centimeters in a week, how exactly did you do it?"

"What kind of body technique is it that makes such a huge racket every day during cultivation?"

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

In the restaurant, Siano devoured his food like a whirlwind, with two piles of plates stacked like mountains beside him, and in the gaps between the mountains, an old man with a face full of wrinkles looked like an inquisitive baby, pestering him with questions left and right.

He had brushed off the previous questions with various vague reasons.

Until hearing the last sentence, he finally lifted his head from the plate, looking speechless:

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

"..." Gatt sighed, "Forget it then. I want to live a few more years; I don't want my old bones to fall apart."

"Let's talk business." The old man smacked his lips, "The voyage these past few days has been smooth. At most two more hours, meaning before sunset today, we'll arrive at Sakura Island."

"..."

Siano was slightly stunned, nodded, and wasn't actually surprised.

If not for the King of the Near Seas causing trouble, which led to the Gatt being anchored for repairs all day the next day, they should have arrived by this time yesterday.

"These past few days, thank you for your care."

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

"What nonsense are you talking! Compared to the grace of saving your life, what are these things!"

Gatt laughed heartily, "But hearing you say that, this old man feels pretty good inside, haha!"

"Oh, right, from now on, the Gatt will always reserve the most luxurious room on board for free for your family! Food and drink will be covered by us! This is a decision supported unanimously by all the crew; you have no right to refuse!"

"Only a Bai Chi would refuse."

Siano was never one to ruin the mood, so he laughed along.

"Then it's a deal. Next year when you come to Cocoyasi Village, I'll bring my whole family to mooch a meal! Fortunately, my two younger sisters don't eat much; if they were all like me, I'd probably bankrupt you!"

"You're being a bit too modest. Actually, just you alone, eating like this for these few days, has almost bankrupted me."

"Hehe..."

While chatting like this, the boy suddenly remembered that it had been exactly a week since he left home.

With two hours left before docking, before getting off the ship, he could take this time to have a good call with his family in his room.

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

"You can go ashore from here. It's too late today, so you can find an inn in the outer district to rest for the night; it's not too late to go into the city tomorrow during the day to find the sword dojo you like."

"We are going to the warehouse at the northern dock to unload cargo. Once unloaded, we must immediately continue our journey; I'm afraid the next time we meet won't be until next autumn."

At the southern dock of Sakura Island, sailors crowded the railings, waving goodbye to Siano on the shore with reluctance.

Old Gatt walked the last stretch of the gangplank with him.

Siano listened seriously to his instructions, but his peripheral vision noticed that at several forked roads extending from the outer perimeter of the dock towards the city district, there were ragged beggars squatting.

Although they looked scattered at first glance, the total number was quite large.

He couldn't help but speak up:

"Strange. Sakura Island is a famous commercial hub in the East Sea; it should be quite wealthy. Why are there more beggars and vagrants here than in my hometown?"

"Naive." Old Gatt sneered, "These are professional beggars whose homes are in the city, squatting here all year round. The dock has a large flow of people coming and going, and there are many wealthy folks spending money in the city; there will always be unsuspecting outsiders who get tricked."

"These people have all become filthy rich because of it. Occasionally, there are a few real poor devils, but they are those who lost all their money in the casino and were beaten out; they aren't worth sympathy."

"Alright, that's it. I'm off!"

The gangplank finally reached its end. Old Gatt patted his shoulder, didn't say anything more, and walked towards the bow of the ship, sucking on his pipe with a click-clack sound.

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

Only after the Gatt raised its sails and set sail, gradually becoming a small black dot in his field of vision, did the boy turn around, choose the fork on the left, and head towards the outer district.

It was already dusk, the sun setting in the west.

Looking up, one could see the town with a rather classical atmosphere shrouded in twilight.

The main canal ran through the city from north to south, lined with cherry blossom trees on both sides. The buildings in the city were distributed symmetrically along both banks of the canal, planned neatly and standing in close rows.

It happened to be the season of falling flowers; millions of pale pink cherry blossom petals floated on the river surface, drifting downstream. When the evening breeze blew, even the scent of the flowers, light and elegant like gauze, filled the air all the way to the dock.

"Developed commerce, beautiful scenery, and spring-like weather all year round; no wonder it has become a tourist destination in the East Sea."

Walking in such an environment, Siano's state of mind became much more peaceful.

Just before leaving the dock, he noticed the Port Ship Management Office next door, which had already closed for the day.

Indeed, it was too late today. He should go stay at an inn first; coming over tomorrow morning, he should be able to ask for the passenger ship information he wanted here.

Gatt still thought he had come to this island to study swordsmanship, but in reality, his goal had never changed: he wanted to use the developed shipping port here to find a ship to go to the Goa Kingdom.

Theoretically...

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

But, having tasted crab once, who could resist the temptation of another huge sum of points?

Anyway, he had a month's time.

It had only been a week so far; there was plenty of spare time, enough for him to make a round trip from here to the Goa Kingdom.

"Please... please have mercy. I haven't eaten for two days and two nights. Just give me a little money..."

A weak moan suddenly came from the side. A dirty palm holding a metal box was extended towards him. Remembering Gatt's words earlier, Siano was too lazy to pay attention and simply stepped past the person.

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

Siano instinctively turned his head and saw a thin boy wearing a tattered kendo uniform stop in front of the beggar, who was about fifty or sixty years old, and carefully shake all the coins out of his cloth wallet.

His vision far surpassed that of ordinary people now; he could see clearly in the twilight that they were all small-denomination coins of 20 or 50, totaling only two or three hundred Belly when added together.

The beggar was obviously somewhat dissatisfied. He frowned, glared at the thin boy, and still held out the iron box in his hand.

"I... I only have these..."

The scrawny youth, his face full of embarrassment, suddenly remembered something. After a brief hesitation, he took a large chunk of pitch-black bread from the saddlebag on his back, tore off most of it with force, and gently placed it on top of the iron box.

"I haven't had dinner yet, so I need to save some for myself. Sorry."

The scrawny youth dared not look at the beggar and stammered, "Don't let its unimpressive appearance or lack of aroma fool you. Trust me, it's very filling; one whole loaf is enough to last a day."

Without waiting for the beggar to say anything, he packed up his saddlebag, hurriedly climbed the steps, and headed toward the city gate.

Siano looked at the beggar.

As expected, the old man merely lifted the black bread to glance at it, showed no interest in even taking a bite, and disdainfully tossed it aside.

Then he dumped the coins from the iron box to count them, spat a "Pah!" to the side, and said, "What rotten luck, you dead poor ghost!"

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

Unexpectedly, though the other looked as frail as a breeze could knock him over, his leg strength was quite good; in the blink of an eye, his back was gone from sight, and no one knew how far he had run.

He stood there for a while longer, quietly watching the beggar, while the beggar stared back at him with a face full of confusion.

"Couldn't you be a bit more arrogant? Like, for instance, cursing at me, 'Stinky brat, what are you looking at? Keep looking and I'll gouge out your eyeballs' or something?"

Siano suddenly said in a low, eerie tone.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" The beggar rolled his eyes. "Your body full of muscles scares the life out of people; just looking at you shows you're not someone to mess with. Am I so full I have nothing better to do than threaten you for no reason?"

Siano looked down and only then remembered that when he walked out of the dock earlier, finding the island too warm and sweating profusely, he had long since taken off his coat and put it away.

Now he was wearing only a single shirt, his exaggerated physique exposed without a doubt.

"Sigh."

What a letdown. Siano sighed, and in the beggar's incredulous gaze, he forcibly pried those two hundred Berries out of the man's hand, then stepped onto the path leading into the city.

He could only blame his own bad luck for not stumbling upon a larger fraud scene. He had just broken through and was still a bit unaccustomed to this body; once he acted, it was hard to restrain his strength.

Two hundred Berries were only enough to buy Nami two cheap hairpins; beating someone half to death over something like this was, after all, somewhat inappropriate.

Second update. Weakly asking for votes; readers who haven't invested can go invest too~

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(End of Chapter)