The Great Voyage Begins with the Celestial Dragons

But now it seems they were clearly going to see Roger's son.

"It seems that we might actually run into Garp on this trip to the Goa Kingdom," Luther said with a slight smile.

He brought such a luxurious entourage this time, naturally not for the Kingdom of Troy.

Kidnapping Garp's adopted grandson right in front of him is a meaningful thing, no matter how you look at it.

"If you really run into him, I'll stop him for you!"

Zefa clenched his fists, a look of eager anticipation on his face.

He hasn't sparred with Garp in a long time, and if they were to actually fight, he definitely wouldn't be able to match Garp, who has been fighting on the front lines all the time.

But it would take at least a day for the other side to take him down.

It just so happens that he has been out of action for a long time, so it's time for him to stretch his muscles.

"Then I'll leave Garp to the teacher."

Luther nodded with a smile. With his and Gion's current abilities, even if they joined forces against Garp, they would probably only be able to achieve a pyrrhic victory.

His and Gion's combined stamina is probably only about the same as Garp's.

"Leave it to me!"

Zefa readily agreed. Judging from Luther's expression, he knew that a conflict was likely to break out this time.

He was present at the time of the conflict between Luther and Karp.

No one expected that in just a few years, Luther's strength would have grown to this level.

......

One day later.

The Kingdom of Goa, Mount Colbo, on the edge of a cliff.

A little boy with messy black hair sat on the edge of a cliff, gazing blankly towards the sea.

His name is Ace, and he is 3 years old... To be precise, if he had been born normally, he would be 5 years old now.

He knew nothing about what was happening in his mother's womb.

Even though he was young, he knew very well that his mother was a great mother who had endured for two years to give birth to him before passing away.

In comparison, he also has a world-famous father, who is a complete bastard.

If it weren't for that bastard father who said those inappropriate things before he died, my mother wouldn't have been implicated...

To be honest, his life now is neither good nor bad.

Although Dadan was a bandit and often yelled at him, he was still treated fairly well.

As for the uncle named Garp who comes by occasionally, Dadan is very afraid of him. He will inexplicably punch her when they meet, so he doesn't seem like a good person.

I heard from Dadan that he was in the navy and used to chase after his bastard father every day.

If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have let that old man hit him.

And that uncle was hilarious. Even though Dadan said he was about the same age as his bastard father, he wanted Dadan to call him grandpa.

Ha, if it's just to disgust his bastard father, he'd be willing to call him out a couple of times.

But given that guy beats me up every day, I shouldn't even think about it.

"Watching the sea alone?"

A gentle voice suddenly came from behind him, startling him.

With a shove of his foot, his entire body plummeted down the cliff.

The weightlessness and the increasingly sharp rock face before him caused Ace to close his eyes in despair.

He shouldn't have been sitting alone on the beach. Damn it, he hasn't even seen what the world looks like yet!

But just as he was about to touch the sharp cliff, he suddenly felt his hand being pulled, followed by a feeling of soaring through the clouds and taking off.

"call!"

When Ace opened his eyes again, he found himself back on the cliff.

While inwardly exclaiming how close he had come to disaster, he also saw the person who had just spoken out, harming him and then saving him.

He was a tall, imposing man in a white suit, over 3 meters tall, much taller than Kap and Dadan.

Standing in front of the other person, Ace felt like a tiny ant.

At first glance, he saw the man's face, which was unusually young, yet possessed an indescribable air of elegance.

Judging solely from his temperament and appearance, Ace felt that the other person was the best person he had ever met.

Such a person should not be in the bandit-infested Colbo Mountains, but should live in a high town inhabited by the kingdom or nobles.

"who are you?"

Chapter 149 Roger and Ace

Luther looked at the little one in front of him, a strange smile on his lips.

Portgas D. Ace.

Roger's posthumous son, a man who will leave a significant mark on pirate history for decades to come.

Unfortunately, the future is a tragedy.

"who are you?"

Hearing Ace's question, Luther smiled and bent down:

"I'm Luther, little one, and you are?"

"Ace! Portgas D. Ace, not Gol D. Ace!"

Ace's introduction was exceptionally unique, with the latter half of the sentence being emphasized.

Upon hearing his words, Luther couldn't help but chuckle.

"Gol D., if I remember correctly, that's the surname of the Pirate King Roger?"

"I have absolutely nothing to do with that bastard!"

Ace muttered a resentful curse and kicked a small pebble away. A splash echoed from below the cliff long afterward.

“You don’t seem like you have no connection with anyone. Didn’t anyone tell you to keep this surname a secret?” Luther smiled slightly.

"Yes, an older man once said that. But you saved my life, so I won't lie to you!"

Ace grinned, revealing a big smile, like an extremely sunny little boy.

Luther raised an eyebrow after hearing this, and couldn't help but rub the other person's head:

"Little one, I'm the one who scared you!"

"No, that's not it. It's because I yearn for the sea and want to get closer to it! A real man wouldn't be scared off a cliff by a single sentence!"

Thinking about his previous reaction, Ace couldn't help but blush.

It wasn't a question of whether Luther had harmed him or not; it was that he had actually been so frightened by a single sentence that he had fallen down. If people who knew him knew this, he would probably be ridiculed for a whole year.

To steer the conversation back to their earlier exchange:

"Anyway, you can call me Ace, or Portgas, just don't call me Gol D. Ace!"

"Ace, do you want to know the story of your father?"

Upon hearing Luther's words, Ace shuddered, but his mouth still instinctively retorted:

"He is not my father."

“Alright, would you like to know the story of Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King?” Luther smiled.

“I know!” Ace pouted. “Roger sailed the entire world and was known as the Pirate King. Everyone is chasing after his treasure because of a single sentence he uttered!”

“You know quite a lot,” Luther smiled. “Then do you know why he’s called the Pirate King? Do you know why he was executed by the Navy?”

"Can you tell me about how he was arrested by the Navy?"

Ace became interested.

He wasn't very curious about the man's story, but he was very interested in why the man had abandoned his mother.

"Of course, saying he was arrested is actually a more accurate way to describe it as turning himself in."

Luther smiled and swore that not a single word he said afterward was fabricated.

"That was around 1496 in the Sea Calendar, which is about 7 years ago. At that time, he had just arrived at the last island, Larulav, and after reaching the end of the Grand Line, Roger chose to disband his pirate crew and go to Baterilla Island."

Upon hearing the name of the island, Ace's eyes narrowed sharply.

This is the island where her mother used to live; he would never be mistaken!

"and then?"

Seeing Ace's somewhat anxious look, Luther smiled and gestured for him to calm down:

"After that, I heard that he spent a year there like an ordinary person. Because of his great strength, people overseas did not know exactly what he did, but according to some people on the island, he was just like an ordinary person, an ordinary husband."

“But that guy betrayed his wife!” Ace said through gritted teeth.

"You know quite a lot of vocabulary!" Luther raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Hmph, I'm already 3 years old!" Ace said with slight dissatisfaction.

"Three years old..."

Luther smiled meaningfully. If this weren't the world of One Piece, 3 years old would be considered an age where a child is still being breastfed.

This world is different. Some people have the power to destroy a country at the age of 5. It's incomparable.

Before Ace could continue complaining, Luther continued:

"It wasn't until I met you today that I finally understood something."

"What is it?" Ace asked instinctively.

Roger surrendered himself at the end of 1497 and was executed in Loguetown in early 1498. So what made him, who should have been an ordinary person, choose the path of surrender?