Chapter 405: Not Worthy of Forgiveness

Sky City, Heavenly Prison.

The moment he saw Shanks appear, Garin’s face flushed with excitement; he was about to enact the scene of father-son reunion when he suddenly noticed Shanks’s bloodshot eyes.

Realizing Shanks already knew the truth, Garin Sheng didn’t waste a moment—he supported Lan Shan and knelt directly on the ground.

“Child, I never wanted this either.”

“It’s all Yimu’s fault.”

“Yimu forbade the Holy Land’s Heavenly Dragon clan from marrying women from the lower realms—if I brought your mother back to the Holy Land, she’d only suffer more.”

This scene finally made Shanks understand what Seven had once said.

Some people are just curses.

To a mother he’d never met, this monster before him—this man with a human face and beastly heart—was her curse.

Shanks’s silence only strengthened Garin’s belief: if he cried even more pitifully now, Shanks would surely forgive him.

After all, they were father and son.

“Child, I’ve wronged you.”

Garin wept uncontrollably, tears and snot streaming, slashing both cheeks with furious slaps—each crack sharp and brutal—as if only such self-punishment could buy him a sliver of mercy.

He could never meet Seven Saint, so he could only hope Shanks would forgive him, letting him continue to cling to life.

And with his abilities, one day he’d rise under Seven Saint’s command.

“You haven’t wronged me,” Shanks growled, every word trembling with suppressed rage.

“You wronged your mother—the woman you murdered with your own hands.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Garin nodded frantically. “I wronged your mother, I wronged her, I’m an animal, I’m a scumbag, I deserve to die.”

“You truly do deserve to die,” Shanks said coldly.

He longed to kill this man instantly, to avenge his mother—but standing face-to-face with him, Shanks simply couldn’t bring himself to strike.

After all, this was his... father.

This only gave Garin renewed hope for survival.

“Yes, yes, I deserve to die, I deserve to die, it’s all my fault, child, it’s all Father’s fault.”

Shanks found it laughable—how could he, Shanks, have such a father?

“You don’t realize you’re wrong—you realize you’re going to die.”

If he weren’t Seven’s brother, if Seven hadn’t overthrown the World Government, if Garin hadn’t been imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison awaiting judgment and execution, this scumbag would never have recognized his own guilt.

Under Garin’s tearful gaze, Shanks asked, word by word:

“Father… do you want to live?”

“I… I do,” Garin hesitated. “But if my death would bring you peace, I willingly accept it, child—do it.”

Hearing this, Shanks felt sick.

“Do you remember your mother’s name? If you can say it, I’ll beg Seven to forgive your sins.”

Shanks’s voice trembled slightly.

It was his last, pitiful hope—even fooling himself into believing this scumbag had once felt even a shred of genuine feeling for his mother.

But Garin only looked panicked, eyes darting away, lips quivering yet unable to utter a single word.

He didn’t remember.

The woman he’d murdered with his own hands—the woman who bore his child—wasn’t even worth remembering by name in his eyes.

“She… she… she…”

The chance to live was right before him, yet Garin couldn’t recall anything—only that the woman had long red hair and lived in the Valley of the Gods.

He remembered she lived in the Valley of the Gods

Because years ago, Garin had been crippled by two slashes from Rocks in the Valley of the Gods—but afterward, he became its king.

Garin had never regretted so much in his life.

Damn this brain—why couldn’t he remember that woman’s name?!

Was it because he’d had too many women around him these years?

Seeing this, Shanks’s last faint hope vanished completely.

So his mother’s brief life meant nothing to this scumbag—not even a name to remember.

Worse than hatred was the icy, soul-deep sorrow.

Glancing at the twin brother in the prison cell—silent, weeping, his own face mirrored—Shanks turned and walked away without hesitation.

Left behind, Garin screamed at the top of his lungs:

“Child, I remember!”

Shanks stopped—but heard Garin babbling on: “Your mother… her name was Emily, right?”

Seeing Shanks lift his foot without reaction, Garin panicked completely.

“America? Sophie? Margaret? Isabella? I remember now! It must be one of them!”

Shanks didn’t look back. He tossed one final line over his shoulder:

“I once thought blood was an unbreakable bond—but now I know: someone like you, even with the same blood, isn’t fit to be a father, and certainly doesn’t deserve forgiveness.”

“You don’t even deserve for me to lift a hand against you.”

“Killing you would only sully my hands.”

Leaving through the Heavenly Prison’s array, Shanks saw Beckman, Buggy, Rayleigh, and Jaba waiting at the gate—and smiled.

He wasn’t alone.

His family had always been beside him.

Buggy cautiously slung an arm around Shanks’s shoulder: “We’re leaving—let’s have a couple more drinks?”

“Alright, I’ll go get Seven.”

Hearing this, Buggy exhaled in relief.

“Then I’ll go tell Lachi Lu to prepare the feast.”

Shanks’s origins made Buggy strangely uneasy—hadn’t he, too, grown up with Roger? Might he, too, have some hidden past Roger had revealed to Seven?

That’s why, over the years, Buggy had never asked Seven about his own origins.

He feared Seven might reveal some earth-shattering secret and force him to inherit some unknown legacy of grudges and blood feuds.

As he watched Shanks leave, Buggy muttered under his breath: “Roger really is something—always whispering secrets to Seven.”

Hearing this, Rayleigh and Jaba exchanged glances—something about Buggy’s “Captain Roger” felt deeply off.

Did Roger really know these secrets?

They’d sailed together for years—they knew Roger’s underwear color—how could they not know what secrets he truly held?

As for the secret of Shanks’s mother, Rayleigh was certain: Roger had no idea.

According to Seven’s account, Shanks’s mother had been killed a full year before the battle at the Valley of the Gods—Roger’s crew had only just arrived then.

How could he have known a secret from a year prior?

No, it wasn’t Roger who was strange—

It was Seven, this kid, who was deeply unnatural. How did he know every secret?

Meanwhile, in the Sky City’s Administrative Hall.

Shanks entered Seven’s private office.

“Seven, I need a favor.”

“Sigh,” Seven sighed. “Everyone says being King of the World is great—but why am I already a lonely old man? With us like this, you actually use the word ‘beg’...”

“Spit it out.”

“Seven, my brother, Shamrock… can you forgive him...”

Seven’s good son Luffy had once said: Shanks’s brother? If Shanks really had a brother, he must be a good man.

So Seven chose to believe Luffy.

“No problem.”

“Good—I’m short a chief guard.”