Chapter 156: Sterry's Peak of Life

The Lord of Rain-base's office.
No, Garen was a completely hands-off lord who didn't even have an office of his own.
The true occupant of this office was the esteemed Princess Vivi, who had been serving as the administrator in Rain-base under the guise of "honing her abilities," assisting Garen with the territory's governmental affairs.
In other words, Vivi was effectively the mayor of Rain-base in the public eye.
At this moment, she was turning the pages of a freshly printed newspaper with a peculiar expression, glancing over from time to time at Garen, who sat before her with an equally strange look.
"Garen...?"
Vivi closed the booklet and asked softly, "You aren't actually a Celestial Dragon, are you?"
"Why are even you..."
Garen's face darkened, and he could only say with a helpless sigh,
"How can you possibly believe this kind of hastily fabricated tabloid trash?"
Miss Robin, the secretary standing quietly to the side, couldn't help but cover her mouth and chuckle.
She was well accustomed to Garen's mastery over dealing with reporters and manipulating public opinion, so this was the first time she had ever seen him troubled by the media.
Garen had come to see Vivi this time precisely to enlist her help as the people's beloved, flawless princess to publicly debunk the rumors and stamp out their momentum, at least within Alabasta.
Yet he hadn't expected that even Vivi would be taken in by this seemingly materialized pamphlet titled *Garen's Incognito Travels*.
"Everything written in this article feels so authentic..."
Vivi's gaze toward Garen was brimming with curiosity.
"Don't be fooled, Vivi!"
Garen let out a light sigh and explained with exasperation,
"The examples used in this piece are basically adapted from Wallace's reports, and then they just wove the element of a 'Celestial Dragon' into my background from start to finish..."
"With nine parts truth and one part falsehood mixed in, of course it reads convincingly!"
"Besides..."
Garen cast a sideways glance at Vivi. "Speaking of Celestial Dragons, aren't you actually a descendant of the Twenty Sovereigns?"
"What?"
Robin couldn't help crying out in surprise, her eyes widening as she stared at Vivi with a renewed sense of shock.
"No wonder the Poneglyph is kept here. It turns out the Nefertari family is actually..."
Meanwhile, the expression on Vivi's face grew far more complicated.
After a brief silence, Vivi spoke in a leisurely tone,
"Matters concerning our family should only be known to the World Nobles, who are likewise descendants of the Twenty Sovereigns."
"......"
This only made it harder for Garen to clear his name.
"Besides, what this newspaper says is correct."
Vivi fixed her sharp gaze on Garen, asking with keen interest,
"No matter how anyone investigates your past, Garen, the trail only goes as far as Samuel Island half a year ago."
"It seems that before you met Nami, you had never left a trace of your existence before anyone."
"......"
This was something Garen truly had no way of explaining.
With a wave of his hand, he abandoned any further attempts at making up a story and, in a fit of self-abandonment, blurted out the raw truth:
"That's right."
"My life in this world only truly began the moment I met Nami."
Vivi's gaze momentarily froze, and the urge lingering in her heart to dig into Garen's past was instantly extinguished by more than half.
"Eh?"
Suddenly, a slightly delighted and bashful gasp echoed from the doorway of the office.
Immediately following it, Nami pushed the door open with a flushed face, casting a coy and reproachful glance at Garen as she did so.
"Ahem..."
Garen suddenly realized that his previous honest remark, viewed from a different angle, sounded rather cheesy. He cleared his throat twice and asked with a feigned air of seriousness,
"Nami, what brings you here?"

The blush on Nami's face had yet to fade as she offered a transparent excuse:
"I-I have business."
"Those rumor-mongers have come up with new tricks again..."
With that, Nami pulled a thin, crudely printed, poorly bound booklet—clearly an illegal publication—from her chest and handed it to Garen.
Instead of rushing to look at the booklet, Garen focused his full attention on Nami's current attire.
Because he had previously advised Nami not to go out shirtless, she had finally abandoned those swim-suit-like outfits that only offered defense to vital areas.
However, this did not diminish her charm in the slightest. Thanks to Garen's vast financial backing, Nami already possessed a wardrobe larger than an ordinary clothing store, cycling through various luxurious garments like a revolving door.
Today, Nami was wearing a deep purple off-the-shoulder evening gown. Her grown-out orange hair was pinned up at the back, lending her an air of increasing maturity. Her ivory-white, delicate collarbones appeared even more translucent and fair under the sunlight, while her slender legs hinted at themselves beneath the high slit of the skirt.
Position alters air; nourishment alters form.
Having spent half a year as a high and mighty lady boss, the young woman had gradually developed the rich, mellow fragrance of a mature female, yet the innocence and lively purity of a young girl still lingered between her brows.
Garen couldn't help staring in a daze.
Under Garen's burning gaze, the blushing Nami...
quietly clenched her fists.
"Garen, is there something you'd like to say?"
Nami asked with a forced smile.
Holding the booklet, which still retained a hint of her body heat, Garen looked at Nami with absolute earnestness and said,
"It's not like our family is short on money..."
"Could you please buy an outfit with pockets to wear?"
"......"
The smile on Nami's face completely collapsed, and she landed a furious, embarrassed blow to the top of Garen's head infused with her innate Armament Haki:
"I knew you wouldn't say anything nice!!"
.............................................
The pamphlet Nami had brought was also widely circulating across the seas.
The newspaper's reprint of *Garen's Incognito Travels* merely retold Garen's heroic deeds in the East Blue under the guise of an incognito inspection by a Celestial Dragon.
It primarily told the story of a World Noble laying down his status, going deep into the grassroots, starting a business, and leading the peasants of the East Blue out of poverty and toward prosperity. It could still barely be considered positive coverage.
As for that pamphlet...
It could only be described as harboring malicious intent—a nakedly reactionary work.
Because in this booklet, "Celestial Dragon Garen" was not the protagonist; the hero was an extraordinary figure named "Outlook Stirrup."
The text detailed the tragic struggles of the Outlook family fighting the evil Celestial Dragons to the bitter end, utilizing a piercing, heart-striking pen to vividly portray Stirrup's heroic image of defying tyranny without fear of death.
Yet it had spread nonetheless, growing even wider alongside the massive news that "Warlord Garen had defeated Dark King Rayleigh."
Amazon Lily, country of the Kuja, where the empress Boa Hancock resided.
The palace gates were pounded urgently, and a short, white-haired old crone was panting heavily as she struck the heavy doors with her walking stick.
Yet she was left waiting for a long time without anyone coming to open them.
"Open the door, Hancock!"
Gloriosa, the former-former-former empress of Amazon Lily living in seclusion, had no choice but to shout loudly before the gates: "Something major has happened!!"
After she called out several more times, the palace doors finally swung open.
Gloriosa hurriedly clutched a stack of newspapers and pamphlets as she walked inside, taking only a few steps before catching sight of Boa Hancock, the Empress of Amazon Lily, seated loftily upon her throne.
Hancock leaned lazily against a large bolster formed by the coiled body of her pet snake. Her thick, dark hair cascaded over her smooth, fair collarbones, and her low-cut, high-slit qipao did little to conceal her ultimate, graceful curves. Her heaving chest and slender, athletic legs all shimmered with a pale, seductive radiance.
Yet the expression of the world's most peerless beauty at this moment was filled with unyielding arrogance and impatience, her eyes cast haughtily upward, not even deigning to spare the visitor a proper glance.
Yet beauty granted the privilege to act however one pleased; an expression that would have gotten anyone else beaten into a pulp looked uniquely and captivatingly enchanting on the face of the Pirate Empress.
"Old hag!"
"Who gave you the gall to disturb my rest?!"
Hancock's choice of words, tone, and demeanor were utterly discourteous, but her melodious voice effortlessly evoked a temptation to simply think, "Of course, I forgive her."
Gloriosa, long accustomed to Hancock's arrogant attitude, cut straight to the point and thrust the newspapers she was holding forward:
"Hancock, look at this!"
"That Garen..."

"Garen?!"
Hancock's delicate brows furrowed slightly as she said with impatience,
"Didn't the World Government already issue a notice to me? I know he's the new Warlord!"
"Even if he managed to beat Rayleigh, what does that have to do with me?"
"......"
Though living in seclusion, Gloriosa essentially acted as the state advisor and offered her earnest counsel:
"Hancock, you are, after all, the monarch who rules over the fate of Kuja."
"You ought to pay close attention to the news from the open sea!"
"Not interested, shut up."
Hancock lightly brushed a lock of hair trailing over her shoulder, withdrawing even the gaze she had rested on Gloriosa.
"This is news you will be interested in."
Gloriosa wore a grave expression as she pushed the newspaper a few inches closer, revealing the bold headline right before Hancock's eyes:
*Shocking! The True Identity of the New Warlord Garen is Actually a World Noble?!*
Hancock's expression instantly stiffened. The four characters "World Noble" drove into her heart like iron spikes, causing the brand hidden across her back to faintly and agonizingly burn.
Snatching the newspaper from Gloriosa's hands, she began to read intently.
"This fellow is really a Celestial Dragon? How could a Celestial Dragon run out to sea and become a Warlord?"
Hancock muttered to herself involuntarily.
"Indeed."
Gloriosa nodded, adding,
"He is a Warlord just like you, and there may be opportunities for contact between you in the future."
"You must mentally prepare yourself and avoid revealing any flaws..."
Knowing Hancock's psychological trauma, Gloriosa was taking preventive measures in advance.
However, neither Hancock nor she knew that there was actually already a Celestial Dragon among the ranks of the Warlords...
Gloriosa then handed a crudely printed pamphlet to Hancock, saying,
"This was brought back by the warriors who went to the outer seas for supplies..."
"According to what is written here, this Celestial Dragon Garen is exceptionally cruel and vicious, so we must be deeply on guard against him."
Hancock took the booklet and read through it with even greater concentration.
Her expression morphed into one of profound astonishment and shock:
"Opening fire with dozens of shots at a Celestial Dragon, refusing to submit even after being run through with a sword..."
"Such a heroic and magnanimous figure exists in this world?!"
An imposing image named "Stirrup" instantly took shape in Hancock's mind.
Though they had never met, Stirrup's heroic deeds of defying the evil rule of the Celestial Dragons without fear of death were deeply etched into Hancock's soul.
"Abominable!"
An indescribable fury welled up within Hancock's heart, causing her to abruptly rise from her throne, making a move as if to depart immediately:
"A hero like Stirrup has actually met such a tragic end with his entire family wiped out!"
"I am going to avenge him!"
Gloriosa's face turned pale, and she desperately grabbed onto Hancock's thigh to prevent her from leaving:
"Are you out of your mind?"
"I told you to be on guard against him in the future, not to go throw your life away right now!"
"Leaving aside his status as a Celestial Dragon... can you even beat that Garen right now?!"
Hancock's steps ground to a sudden halt, and her body trembled involuntarily.
In the end, Hancock sank back down into her seat in dejection, though the fire of rage in her eyes had never dissipated.
Clenching her fists tightly, her brows brimmed with indignation:
"Garen, I will definitely come find you..."