"Very expensive?"
The two little brats looked at each other, the exact same stubbornness in their eyes.
"How much?" Ace asked in a low voice, his freckled face pulled tight.
"As long as we can get strong, we'll pay any price!"
Luffy nodded vigorously beside him. Although he had no concept of money, he understood the words "get strong."
"Hehe."
Blake let out an ambiguous, low laugh. He slowly stood up from his rocking chair, held up one finger, and lazily pointed to the broken wooden sign next to him.
On the sign, four large characters were scrawled crookedly: Dungeon Shop.
Below them was a line of smaller words: Beginner Dungeon: One Million Beri.
Blake pointed at that line, nodding his chin at the two brats.
"See that?"
"My entry-level lesson. That's the price."
He twitched his lips into a mischievous smile, his gaze like that of someone teasing two anxious, pacing kittens.
"One million Beri."
"Do you have it?"
"..."
Luffy's mouth instantly formed an "O" shape.
He counted on his rubber fingers for a long time, but finally gave up.
"One million... is how much meat?"
His face was a mask of conflict. This number was clearly beyond his ability to calculate.
However, Ace, standing beside him, froze the moment he heard the number. His pupils suddenly shrank, then lit up!
It was an incomparably burning gaze, the kind one gets after seeing hope in the darkness!
One million!
That number, like a bolt of lightning, split the fog in his mind!
He remembered! His and Sabo's "pirate treasure," saved up all these years so they could set out to sea as pirates!
The Beri they had snatched from bandits, scavenged from the trash heap, and stolen from nobles... saved up one coin at a time!
They had lost count of it long ago!
They definitely had it!
Maybe... even a little more!
"We have it!"
A low roar, suppressing his extreme excitement, escaped Ace's throat!
His voice trembled slightly from the excitement, yet it was incredibly firm!
"We have it!"
Luffy was startled by Ace's sudden reaction and shouted excitedly along with him, "Oh oh oh! We have money!!"
Blake's eyebrows twitched. His lazy expression finally showed a hint of genuine surprise.
"Oh?"
He really hadn't expected that these two brats from the boondocks could actually scrounge up this much money.
"The money is in our secret base!"
Ace grabbed Blake's pant leg, terrified he would disappear in the next second. He tilted his head up, his black eyes burning with a fiery, non-negotiable plea!
"Sabo! My brother! He should be there right now!"
"Come with us! We'll give it to you now!"
Looking at this stubborn kid, whose gaze was firmer than any adult's, and then at the single-celled organism beside him, hugging his leg and yelling "I wanna get strong, I wanna eat meat," Blake suddenly felt this was far more interesting than lying in the sun.
"A secret base, huh..."
He drew out the words, the arc of his lips growing wider.
"Fine."
Blake lazily stood up straight, stretching, his bones letting out a series of pop-pop sounds.
"Lead the way."
He shoved his hands back into his pockets, looking down on the two brats.
"But I'll remind you."
"If you dare to trick me, or if the money isn't enough..."
Blake's eyes suddenly turned playful.
"The tuition... will double, you know."
"It's definitely enough!"
An unprecedentedly bright smile bloomed on Ace's face. It was the ecstasy of someone who had bet everything and finally saw the dawn!
"Follow me!"
He no longer hesitated. He turned and ran, grabbing the still-dazed Luffy.
"Let's go, Luffy!"
"We're... going to get strong!"
"Oh! Get strong! Eat meat!"
Luffy, being dragged along, also shouted in excitement.
The two small figures ran hard, as if they were chasing an unreachable dream.
Mt. Colubo, Gray Terminal.
This was a mountain made of trash, a place where stench and despair festered.
However, deep within this land that even the sunlight despised, inside a giant hollow tree trunk, a shining dream was hidden.
Clatter!
A worn-out wooden box was opened, revealing a pile of glittering, shining Beri that reflected an intoxicating light in the dim tree hollow.
A blond brat, wearing a black top hat and holding a pipe in his mouth, was kneeling in front of the box, carefully pouring Beri from a money bag, one coin at a time.
His name was Sabo.
"Hehe..."
Sabo looked at his "harvest" for the day, a merchant-like smile on his face that completely betrayed his noble birth.
"Adding the money I 'borrowed' from those stupid nobles today..."
He stuck his mud-stained fingers into the treasure chest, digging excitedly, muttering and calculating.
"We're just a little bit short of buying that second-hand fishing boat!"
His eyes sparkled with something called "hope."
"That guy Ace... I wonder what he's doing right now."
Sabo couldn't help muttering as he counted his money.
"Probably fighting with that single-celled organism Luffy again."
"One hothead, one idiot."
He pouted, but a warm smile unconsciously appeared on his face.
"What a pair of brothers. Can't stop worrying about them."
"But..."
Sabo's gaze became incredibly firm.
"Soon."
"Really soon."
He looked up, peering through a crack in the tree hole at the sky, which was fragmented by the mountains of trash.
"Just have to endure a little longer."
"When we save up enough money and buy our own ship, we'll set sail immediately!"
"Then, the world will be vast, and no one will be able to control us!"
"No annoying rules, no disgusting nobles, only the endless sea and absolute freedom!"
Sabo clenched his fists, his entire body trembling slightly from his excitement.
Set sail!
Become pirates!
Attain freedom!
This was the undying promise he and Ace had made on the day they met!
"At most..."
Sabo calculated quickly in his mind.
"At most, one more month!"
"We'll become the freest pirates on this sea!"
At that time, he would write a book about all their adventures, all the interesting things they experienced, and spread it throughout the world!
Just as Sabo was immersed in his beautiful fantasy of freedom, almost about to laugh out loud.
A cold, emotionless male voice, the voice he was most familiar with and most afraid of in his life, drifted in from outside the tree hole.
"Sabo."