Boom!
Those two words, spoken without any inflection or emotion, made the smile on Sabo's face freeze instantly.
His blood ran cold.
That voice... the nightmare he was trying desperately to escape!
He whipped his head around, peering through the crack in the tree hole.
Outside.
A middle-aged man in gorgeous noble attire stood there quietly. His face was cold, his eyes filled with arrogance and indifference.
It was his father.
Outlook III!
And behind his father, rows of kingdom guards in armor, holding long spears, had sealed off the small clearing! Their cold armor glinted grimly in the forest sunlight. Every gaze was locked on this small tree hole.
An inescapable net!
Sabo's heart sank to the bottom.
The freedom he was just fantasizing about, the dream that was within his grasp... was shattered by reality in an instant.
"Shouldn't you be tired of this filthy game by now."
Outlook III spoke, his voice filled with extreme disgust for this trash heap and for his son's behavior.
"Look at the state you're in."
His disgusted gaze swept over the tattered, mud-stained clothes on Sabo.
"You are a disgrace to our family!"
"Now, get out here immediately."
His tone was not a suggestion. It was a command.
"Come home with me."
Home?
Sabo's body trembled violently with anger.
That place... that place full of hypocrisy, full of stench, full of suffocating rules...
That wasn't a home!
It was a cage, ten thousand times more foul than this trash mountain!
"I won't go back!"
A suppressed growl escaped Sabo's throat. For the first time, his clear eyes showed undisguised hatred!
"I'll die before I go back with you!"
"Die?"
Outlook III sneered, his smile full of contempt.
"On your own? Or with those two 'brothers' of yours who are like stray dogs?"
His gaze turned frigid.
"Don't force my hand."
"Sabo, I'll say this one last time."
"Get. Out. Here. Now!"
As his voice fell, the guards behind him took a uniform step forward.
Clang!
The sound of spears being drawn, perfectly synchronized, pierced the tranquility of the forest. The cold blades were aimed at the lone, helpless blond boy in the tree hole.
It was as if in the next second, they would smash this small secret base, along with the disobedient child inside, to pieces.
Sabo bit his lip until it bled.
He protectively shielded the treasure chest in front of him.
That was his and Ace's, his brothers', ticket to freedom, bought with their blood, sweat, and dignity!
He would never let anyone take it!
"I said!"
Sabo grabbed the pipe he used as a weapon, and with all his strength, he let out the most defiant roar of his life!
"I! Am! Not! Going! Back!"
"Not going back?"
The sneer on Outlook III's face froze like frost. He didn't even get angry at Sabo's roar. It was the absolute, condescending contempt of a cat watching a mouse.
"Did you think you have the right to say 'no'?"
His voice was soft, yet it made the surrounding air feel heavy.
"I said! I would rather die here than go back to that disgusting cage with you!"
Sabo's eyes were red as he roared with all his might. The knuckles of the hand gripping the pipe were white from the force.
However, Outlook III just gently raised his hand.
"Is that so."
His cold gaze passed over Sabo and landed on the broken wooden box full of treasure.
"For those trash friends of yours? And this ridiculous pirate dream?"
A cruel arc hooked his lips.
"I heard you have two inseparable 'brothers' here."
"One is called Ace."
"One is called Luffy."
When those two names left his mouth, Sabo's pupils shrank violently!
An extreme, unprecedented sense of foreboding rose in his heart!
"What are you planning to do!"
Sabo's voice was trembling.
"Me?"
Outlook III spread his hands, the picture of innocence.
"I don't 'plan' to do anything."
"I was just thinking. If a noble of the Goa Kingdom, in his inconsolable grief over losing his beloved son, decided to send troops to clean up the 'trash' in the Gray Terminal that creates such tragedies... that would be perfectly reasonable, wouldn't it?"
His gaze, like a venomous snake, locked onto Sabo.
"Don't you think?"
"What if, by chance, a fire... accidentally started."
"Or... if two little mice who didn't watch their step were mistaken for rioters by the guards, and... were 'dealt with' by mistake..."
"That would be a terrible shame."
Boom!
Every single word made Sabo's head spin!
The color drained from his face at a visible rate!
A threat!
A naked, undisguised threat!
He knew! He knew all too well!
With his father's power and ruthlessness, he would absolutely do it!
And no one would ever investigate!
Who would care about the lives of two stray dogs in a trash heap?!
Fear.
A bone-chilling fear seized his heart.
It was a fear ten thousand times stronger than facing death!
"You... you bastard!"
Sabo's lips trembled. He couldn't even form a complete sentence.
He could die.
He could give up his dream.
But he couldn't bear the thought of Ace and Luffy getting hurt because of him!
"It seems you understand."
Outlook III looked at his son's despair-filled face with satisfaction.
He knew he had won.
He elegantly adjusted his collar and issued his final ultimatum.
"Now, make your choice."
"It's your ridiculous, worthless freedom..."
"Or the wretched lives of your two stray-dog brothers."
"..."
Dead silence.
Sabo's body trembled violently.
He looked at the treasure chest before him, which held the dreams of all three of them.
He thought of Ace's defiant face.
He thought of Luffy's idiotic smile.
Clatter.
The pipe he always carried, slipped weakly from his hand and fell to the ground.
Two streams of hot tears burst from his red-rimmed eyes.
He had lost.
A complete and utter defeat.
Sabo slowly raised his head, his clear eyes now filled with endless hatred and pain.
Using all his strength, he forced the words that reduced his world to ash through his gritted teeth.
"I..."
"...will go back with you."