Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Haruto glanced at the five men beside him and noticed that every one of their expressions had turned ugly.

That confirmed it.

They were pirates.

Haruto did not particularly care and continued,

"Of course, there are a handful of pirates on these seas who are less like criminals and more like adventurers chasing freedom—travelers pursuing their dreams."

"But there’s no denying that ninety-nine percent of pirates are scum who rob, burn, murder, and do whatever they please."

"They storm into villages, steal every scrap of food, burn down homes, kill anyone who resists, and drag off women and children. Countless ordinary families have been destroyed because of them."

He had witnessed it himself only a short while ago.

Pirates had cut down unarmed civilians in broad daylight, while terrified townspeople fled in every direction with fear and despair written across their faces.

That was what pirates truly looked like on these seas.

Not the romanticized legends told over drinks in taverns.

Haruto’s gaze returned to the enormous skull on the counter.

"So if someone killed a hundred pirates like that, how exactly does that make him some irredeemable monster?"

"Just because Roger killed him?"

Haruto shrugged.

"Of course, that’s only my impression based on what you’ve told me."

"For all I know, this ’Giant Slayer’ might have murdered innocent people along with pirates."

The old bartender opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

It felt as though something had lodged in his throat. He wanted to argue, to refute Haruto, perhaps even shout at him, yet he could not force out a single word.

For the first time, genuine confusion appeared in his cloudy eyes.

He had been running this tavern since before Roger ever set sail.

He had watched Gol D. Roger rise from an unknown young man to the Pirate King who conquered the Grand Line.

He had watched Roger eventually return to Loguetown and die upon the execution platform, igniting the Great Pirate Era with his final words.

So naturally, the bartender had always assumed that anyone Roger killed must have been a terrible person.

Never once—not even for a second—had he turned the question around.

Pirates were criminals who robbed and killed people.

So what did that make someone who killed pirates?

The old man stared at the massive skull in front of him, his eyes settling on the deep slash carved across its forehead.

He had polished that skull for most of his life.

Now, suddenly, it looked unfamiliar.

Haruto did not know what kind of man the Giant Slayer had truly been.

The bartender did.

His fingers unconsciously tightened around his glass until his knuckles turned pale.

Confusion swirled through his eyes as he muttered so quietly that it was difficult to tell whether he was speaking to Haruto or himself.

"Pirates... are bad people?"

"Then someone who killed pirates... was a good man?"

It was true.

Across these seas, countless people celebrated the romance of piracy, the greatness of freedom, and the legend of the Pirate King.

But how many remembered what lay behind those legends?

Villages crushed beneath pirate raids.

Families torn apart.

Endless tears shed by ordinary people.

Wounds that never healed even after an entire lifetime.

The silence inside the tavern became suffocating.

The five pirates stood awkwardly in place. Their earlier amazement had long since turned into embarrassment and anger.

Their hands instinctively drifted toward the weapons at their waists, yet none of them knew how to respond.

Because they knew perfectly well that they were not good men.

Haruto’s words had landed like a slap across all five of their faces.

He did not continue.

He had no intention of denying Roger’s legend, nor had he come here to shatter an old man’s lifelong beliefs.

Haruto simply believed that once someone became an icon of an era—a legend admired by millions—it did not automatically mean that everyone who had opposed them deserved to be remembered as a villain.

On these chaotic seas, good and evil could never be defined as simply as "pirate" or "Marine."

"GET OUT!"

The bartender suddenly exploded.

He slammed both hands against the counter, his face flushing red with anger and panic.

Bloodshot eyes glared at Haruto as he pointed toward the door.

"You’re not welcome here! Get out of my tavern!"

The story he had proudly told for half a lifetime had just been cracked open by a question he could not answer.

Unable to refute Haruto, the old man could only bury his uncertainty beneath anger.

"If I’m not welcome, I’ll leave."

Haruto shrugged and stood from his chair without the slightest irritation.

If he stayed much longer, the old man might actually work himself into a heart attack.

He crossed the tavern in a few steps and pushed open the weathered wooden door.

Sunlight and the salty sea breeze immediately flooded inside.

Haruto had barely made it a few steps down the alley when hurried footsteps approached from behind.

He stopped.

The five pirates from the tavern had followed him outside and were now spreading out in front of and behind him, completely blocking the narrow alley.

The bald pirate at the front cracked his knuckles loudly.

"Kid, what you said back there actually made some sense."

"Most pirates really aren’t good people."

He took another step closer, the curved saber at his waist swaying with the motion.

"But saying all that right in front of five pirates..."

"Don’t you think that was a little disrespectful?"

"So you really are pirates."

Haruto calmly looked over the five men as though he were watching a group of clowns.

"Damn right we are!"

The bald man grinned, exposing yellowed teeth as he drew his saber.

"Pretty mouthy back there, weren’t you?"

"If you’re going to insult pirates, you’d better be ready to pay for it!"

"Hand over your money and anything valuable you’ve got, and maybe Grandpa here will let you crawl out of this alley alive!"

The other four pirates drew their weapons as well.

Haruto’s gaze sharpened.

"If you’re pirates, then there’s nothing left to discuss."

The instant he finished speaking, his figure vanished.

The five pirates had no time to react.

A blur flashed before their eyes, followed by a violent rush of displaced air.

The bald man’s heart lurched.

He immediately swung his saber.

He only completed half the motion before something slammed into his chest with the force of a mountain.

His entire body flew backward and smashed into the stone wall of the alley with a heavy boom.

He lost consciousness instantly.

The remaining four panicked and rushed Haruto while shouting curses.

To him, however, their movements looked painfully slow.

He did not even bother using any particular technique.

A few casual punches and kicks were enough.

Heavy impacts and screams echoed through the alley.

Within seconds, the five pirates who had been acting so arrogant moments earlier lay scattered across the ground with broken bones and battered bodies, all unconscious and barely breathing.

Silence returned to the alley.

Haruto brushed some dust from his hands, crouched beside the fallen pirates, and searched their pockets.

He gathered all the Berries they had been carrying, counted the wrinkled bills, and immediately looked disappointed.

"Only a hundred thousand Berries between five people?"

"With pockets this empty, you really were bottom-tier fodder."

Haruto clicked his tongue and stuffed the money away.

It was barely enough to matter, but something was still better than nothing.

He certainly was not going to fight them for free.

Once he had finished dealing with the five pirates, Haruto did not bother looking back toward the tavern.

He simply continued through the maze of alleys.

After several more twists and turns, he finally escaped the cramped old district and emerged onto a much busier main street.

Shops lined both sides of the road, and vendors called out to passing customers.

Compared with the oppressive quiet of the old alleys, this part of Loguetown felt far more alive.

Haruto rubbed his chin.

The money he had taken from those pirates was nowhere near enough.

If he wanted to properly explore Loguetown and sample some of the East Blue’s local cuisine, he needed a decent amount of Berries on hand.

He looked around and soon spotted a shop on the corner with a sign advertising gold and valuables exchange.

Haruto walked inside.

Then, using the Gourmet Restaurant as cover, he produced a solid gold bar and placed it on the counter.

The shopkeeper had been half-asleep moments earlier.

The instant he saw the dazzling gold—and realized just how extraordinarily pure it was—his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

He immediately grabbed a magnifying glass and examined the bar repeatedly, unable to suppress the growing smile on his face.

After calculating its value, the shopkeeper exchanged it for five million Berries.

Haruto weighed the bag of money in his hand and nodded in satisfaction before leaving the shop.

Warm sunlight fell across his body.

And in the distance, beyond the buildings at the end of the street, Loguetown’s execution platform was finally visible.

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