Chapter 88: Garen, King of the Children

At the little tavern run by Makino in Windmill Village, the moment Buggy stepped inside, everyone drinking there turned to look at him with laughter in their eyes. Some immediately called out:

“Buggy, you’ve got a new scar on your face again!”

Buggy did not answer. Wearing an awkward expression, he merely walked to the counter and sat down, then tried to tidy up his thoroughly miserable, dust-covered appearance.

Makino, the proprietress, naturally brought this old customer a large mug of beer and said with a smile,

“Did Vice Admiral Garp beat you up again?”

Buggy’s face instantly flushed red, the veins standing out on his forehead.

“This is training... training doesn’t count as getting beaten up!”

“How can anything in the navy count as getting beaten up?”

Yet the fresh bruises and swelling on his face still set everyone roaring with laughter; inside and outside the tavern, the air was full of cheer.

During this period, after accepting amnesty and joining the navy, Buggy had been staying at Garp’s side the whole time.

Because of Vice Admiral Garp’s extraordinarily long vacation, the man whom the World Government had recently been promoting as a model figure, the “Righteous Convert” already famous throughout the Grand Line, and whom Fleet Admiral Sengoku had personally awarded the rank of Headquarters Colonel, had in fact never even set foot in the Grand Line.

All this while, Buggy had simply been accompanying Garp in Windmill Village, living an idle and rustic country life.

Of course, for Buggy, this country life was not relaxing in the slightest.

While training his grandson Luffy, Garp had conveniently dragged along Buggy, this tagalong whose strength was entirely disproportionate to his fame, and thrown him into his private training camp as well.

The result was that Buggy and Luffy got beaten black and blue by Garp every single day.

“Sigh...”

Buggy lifted his glass and took a huge swallow of beer before lamenting with deep feeling,

“When is the old man’s vacation ever going to end?”

“Hahahaha!”

A hearty laugh came from behind him, though to Buggy’s ears it sounded as terrifying as a demon’s cry.

“Red-Nose brat, don’t even think about slacking off!”

“Even after we get back to Headquarters, you’ll still be training at my side.”

If anyone else had kept calling him Red-Nose to his face, Buggy would have exploded long ago.

But when this old man called him that, Buggy could only turn around timidly and greet him:

“Vice Admiral Garp!”

Garp stood there at the tavern entrance with a broad grin on his face. His huge, imposing frame made the doorway look absurdly narrow by comparison.

And in his hand he was carrying a miserable creature with lumps all over his head, a swollen black-and-blue face, and a look even more pitiful than Buggy’s, almost beaten beyond recognition—

It was Luffy, Buggy’s fellow sufferer in recent days.

Garp casually tossed his grandson beside a small table, letting Luffy’s swollen face make intimate contact with its cold, hard surface, thus demonstrating in the most practical way possible what a “real grandfather” was.

Then Garp accepted the beer Makino handed him and drained it in one gulp. At last he patted Luffy on the back and said:

“You little brat, still thinking about becoming Pirate King?!”

Luffy, whose face was swollen like a pig’s head, struggled to push up his body, now looking a size larger than before, and said one word at a time:

“I... will... become... Pirate King!!”

Bang!

Garp’s loving iron fist came down on Luffy’s head again, slamming his face right back onto the tabletop.

The tavern’s patrons had long since grown used to this sort of domestic violence. They merely watched with amused smiles as Garp and Luffy carried on their bizarre grandfather-grandson routine.

“What’s so great about becoming Pirate King?”

Garp swung his bowl-sized fist, then pointed at Buggy beside him.

“That Red-Nose brat over there used to be a crewman of the Pirate King!”

“And that red-haired fellow who tricked you into becoming a pirate—he was Buggy’s old companion too!”

“Look at him now. Didn’t he come along with me and join the navy in the end?”

“Haha...”

Buggy forced out an awkward smile.

These past days, he had already served as Garp’s model example in educating his grandson countless times.

But Luffy had never once given in, and this time was no different:

“I don’t care! I’m going to become Pirate King!”

“That’s my promise to Shanks!”

“Sigh...”

Garp let out a helpless sigh. He could already foresee what kind of road this stubborn grandson of his would walk in the future.

He was the Hero of the Marines, and yet his son, his grandson, even his adopted grandson, all of them...

Luffy’s single-minded determination made the tavern patrons burst into laughter once more.

In this peaceful little village, Makino’s tavern was the liveliest place of entertainment.

Though Makino would not sell alcohol to children, neither would she drive away the youngsters who came here to play.

So among the patrons were several children enthralled by the dream of becoming Pirate King, their eyes shining brightly as they cheered for Big Brother Luffy:

“Big Brother Luffy is so cool!”

“You’ll definitely become Pirate King!”

Some of the other children even copied Luffy’s manner, declaring passionately, “I’m going to become Pirate King too!”

Garp felt even more helpless at this.

The children of the hometown of the Hero of the Marines had actually been led astray onto the wrong path by his own grandson.

And yet one thing did give Garp a little comfort:

Unlike on his previous trips home, this time the dreams of Windmill Village’s children were no longer so unanimously aligned.

The moment one boy had just shouted that he wanted to become Pirate King, another boy immediately stood up and said disdainfully,

“What’s so good about being a pirate?”

“Following Senior Buggy and becoming a marine is way cooler than being a pirate!”

“That giant fish even Pirate Shanks couldn’t beat was personally taken care of by Senior Buggy!”

“Hahaha!”

The moment he heard his own name, Buggy at once assumed the air of a lofty master beyond the world.

“Compared to me, Shanks is indeed still a little lacking.”

“It was only one fish. Hardly worth mentioning, hardly worth mentioning!”

Among the figures admired by the children of Windmill Village now, Buggy had become a rather popular choice.

This was not because the children had read the World Government’s propaganda, but because Buggy had, quite by accident, easily dealt with the Sea King of the Near Shore.

When Buggy first encountered that “King of the Coast,” he had no idea of its illustrious record.

Only after casually slaughtering it did he learn that this utterly ordinary-looking sea beast had once...

Defeated his dear friend Shanks, and even bitten off one of Red-Hair’s arms.

Buggy very much wanted to know what exactly had happened back then.

Thus, with his legendary background as a former crewman of the Pirate King and current Marine Headquarters colonel, together with the overbearing feat of defeating the King of the Coast, Buggy had in one stroke established a towering image in the minds of Windmill Village’s children, one that did not lose in grandeur to either Shanks or Luffy.

The children who had once firmly followed behind Luffy, all chanting that they wanted to become Pirate King, suddenly split off into a sizable pro-marine faction.

But Windmill Village now no longer had only two camps, the pirate camp and the marine camp.

A third faction joined the children’s argument inside the tavern:

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s marines or pirates—being a Knight of Justice is better than either!”

Several children waved wooden greatswords they had made themselves and said with shining eyes,

“To roam the world righting wrongs, punishing the wicked and protecting the weak like Sir Garen—that’s the coolest!”

“Nonsense!”

A child from the marine faction retorted excitedly, “The marines have cloaks of justice. That’s definitely cooler than being a knight!”

“What’s so special about a cloak?”

The children of the knight faction refused to back down.

“Knights have armor and greatswords. They’re way cooler than marines!”

The few remaining children of the pirate faction quietly shrank back. When it came to discussing appearances, they had no right to speak at all—

Compared with cloaks of justice and knightly armor, Big Brother Luffy’s straw hat simply fell far short.

“Armor and greatswords?”

The marine-side children continued to argue back.

“Those belong to the knight himself. Do you have them?”

“I...”

The knight-side children clenched their wooden swords tightly, their faces reddening, unable to answer.

“We do.”

A strange voice suddenly came from the doorway.

The Knight of Justice stepped out as if straight from the newspaper illustrations and stood before them all.

And beside that knight stood an orange-haired girl, lovely and captivating as a princess.

This free-spirited “princess” had herself tightly wrapped in the oversized white suit Garen had forced onto her earlier, so she was not exposing anything inappropriately revealing before the children.

“The Knight of Justice?!”

At the sight of that dazzling armor and giant sword, the children cried out in unison.

“Garen, Nami?”

Garp and Buggy both looked over in surprise.

“Long time no see.”

Garen nodded slightly to the two of them in greeting.

But after offering his greeting, he did not go at once to exchange reminiscences before Garp. Instead, he walked straight to the children who admired him and deliberately showed off his splendid armor.

Garen’s armored-warrior appearance perfectly matched the aesthetic tastes of childish youngsters. The children were instantly dazzled by the glittering golden brilliance of his armor and sword.

“So cool!”

“I want to become a Knight of Justice too!”

The moment Garen appeared, the children of the pirate and marine factions instantly defected to the knight faction.

Yet as he looked at the children gathered around him, Garen showed no annoyance. He chatted and laughed with them easily.

And in the children’s eyes, countless shining stars of admiration quickly appeared.

Garp watched Garen’s interaction with the children with great interest, then asked Nami curiously,

“This guy... he’s actually the type who knows how to handle children?”

“Haha...”

Nami laughed softly.

“Garen is fulfilling his mission.”

“Mission?”

Garp grew even more curious.

Nami nodded and explained seriously,

“In Wallace’s words, this is competing with pirates for the future.”

“And Garen has said this too: if we don’t seize the high ground of public opinion, the enemy will.”

She pointed at the children, who had already completely ignored their Big Brother Luffy and were now idolizing Garen instead.

“If children of the future all grow up listening to stories of the Knight of Justice, then there won’t be so many pirates stirring up trouble on the seas anymore.”

Meanwhile, Garen was still busily playing king of the children.

He was not the sort with the patience to take care of a pack of little troublemakers, but when it came to putting on a show before his admirers, his skill had long since been honed to perfection.

With earnest gravity, Garen began preaching his own doctrine to the children:

“To become a Knight of Justice, you don’t necessarily need outward armor and a greatsword, nor do you need to accomplish some earthshaking deed right away!”

“What matters most is a heart turned toward justice, and a heart that refuses to do evil!”

A dry and tedious moral lesson, when spoken by an idol—and by one standing right before them at that—had a completely different effect.

The children’s yearning only deepened, and they asked excitedly, “Then what should we do in the future to become Knights of Justice?”

Garen composed himself and replied in a kindly, instructive tone:

“It’s very simple. You only need to follow these Five Great Knightly Oaths.”

“First: never go out on an empty stomach.”

“Second: when the weather is good, air out your bedding in the sun.”

“Third: when crossing the road, watch for passing vehicles.”

“Fourth: do not rely on the strength of others.”

“Fifth: do not run around barefoot on the ground.”