Chapter 547: Jeff, Roger?!
The moment that voice sounded, both of them turned their heads at the same time.
"Gol D. Roger," Adam said calmly.
"Jeff," Ryuunosuke blurted out.
Ryuunosuke froze the instant Adam spoke that name.
Want my treasure? You can have it all. Go find it. The Grand Line. I left everything in the world there.
That single line had lit up the hearts of countless pirates and dreamers. Ryuunosuke was one of them.
Roger?
He stared at the newcomer, unable to hide the confusion on his face.
Because the man standing there was Jeff, the one who had appeared before him.
And according to Roy, Jeff had existed even longer than Roy himself.
Then how old was Roger supposed to be?
At most, Roger should only have been a little younger than Garp.
How could someone like that be Roger?
"I am sorry," Jeff said with a soft sigh. "I could not meet you with my real face before."
"Captain Ryuunosuke, you are his older brother, after all."
As he spoke, he reached up and pulled down his hood.
A face that should have belonged to history appeared under the moonlight.
Gol D. Roger.
The Pirate King.
His features looked exactly the same as they did decades ago, with no visible trace of time.
If Garp were here, he would probably drop dead on the spot from pure shock.
Ryuunosuke could accept the idea that Roger had not truly died.
After all, Roger and Rayleigh had once said he would not die, and then Roger had still walked into Marine hands with his head held high.
Later, many people chose to interpret that as a man believing his will would live forever.
But seeing Roger standing here, alive, in the flesh, was something else entirely.
Because of Ace's existence, and the relationship between Ryuunosuke and Ace, Roger had been unable to use his real identity to meet Ryuunosuke.
"Roger… Uncle?" Ryuunosuke's voice came out strange.
"Wait. You should already be dead."
"Even if you were not dead, you should be an old man by now."
His attention was completely locked onto Roger.
Adam, meanwhile, was left standing off to the side like decoration.
Adam's expression did not change, but the curiosity in his eyes sharpened.
The man who had rejected him first, and then rejected Lilith, was appearing like this now?
Why?
"Wororororo… no, wrong laugh." Roger grinned, then burst out laughing anyway.
"Hahahaha!"
"I was supposed to die."
"But someone gave me a new life, and a body."
"He tried to devour my soul…"
Roger tapped his own chest with a thumb, still smiling.
"…but I devoured him instead."
It sounded ridiculous, but Ryuunosuke understood who Roger was talking about.
Jeff.
Roy had said before that Jeff would change and grow stronger every so often.
This time, Jeff had changed so much he became almost unrecognizable.
That was exactly why Roy had become determined to get rid of Lilith.
He was afraid he would change too.
In the end, they had forgotten the most important problem.
Jeff had changed far more than anyone realized.
If the change went far enough, then he was no longer the same person at all.
That was only Ryuunosuke's deduction from Roger's words, though.
The true reason was still unclear.
"All right," Roger said, waving a hand. "We can talk about that later."
"Ryuunosuke, is this what you were looking for?"
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stone, holding it up like a casual gift.
"The mother stone of the Infinite Orange Stone."
"The Eternal Heart Orange."
"I heard you were collecting these. I do not know what you plan to do with it."
"But how about we make a deal?"
His smile was warm, like an elder looking at a junior he was genuinely satisfied with.
For a moment, Ryuunosuke felt his mind go blank.
The last Eternal Heart was right in front of him.
He had promised everyone he would find all five Eternal Hearts, then take them to their respective worlds, so they could achieve what they were meant to achieve.
Now that the final one had appeared, he felt flustered.
Almost lost.
"System," Ryuunosuke said silently, not taking his eyes off the stone. "If I obtain this Eternal Heart, will I be able to open the Gate of Eternity?"
He remembered there had been other conditions mentioned before.
Something about breaking the dimensional limits of this world.
The Eternal Quest had required five Eternal Hearts to open the Eternal Gate, but was that the same as breaking the limit?
"The host must obtain five Eternal Hearts to open the Gate of Eternity."
"The Gate of Eternity can ignore the limitations of breaking through worlds and take the host to a designated world."
"System suggestion: After breaking the limit, the Gate of Eternity can be used infinitely."
Ryuunosuke fell silent.
Then he lifted his head slowly.
"I do not know, Uncle Roger."
"What exactly do you want me to do?"
Roger's grin widened.
"It is simple."
"Help me."
"Together, we destroy Adam and Lilith."
"We drive them out of this world."
"Drive them out?" Ryuunosuke repeated, then glanced sideways.
Adam's face still wore that lazy, distant calm.
Roger's words did not shake him at all.
It was like he had heard threats like that so many times they no longer counted.
Roger continued, his voice steady and forceful.
"You met Lilith's projection, did you not?"
"What she showed you was real."
"Their original purpose for coming here was to claim ownership of this world."
"What they plan to do after claiming it, I do not know."
"But this is a planet full of life."
"How could these so called gods be allowed to rule it?"
The ambition in Roger's words was as sharp as a blade.
Even without lifting a finger, he carried a pressure that made people want to stand straighter.
He truly deserved to be called the Pirate King.
And he was the man who had turned the tables on Jeff and devoured him.
Ryuunosuke did not answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at Adam.
"Sir Adam."
"Do you have anything you want to say now?"
Ryuunosuke was not a saint.
His goal was his own.
Now that two people were offering him a path, he would weigh them properly.
Adam smiled faintly.
"Me?"
"There are many ignorant, arrogant people in this world, and I do not think they have done anything wrong."
"After all, they are my children."
"Having dreams is a good thing."
That calm tone was somehow even more infuriating than an outright threat.
Roger laughed, but there was no humor in it.
"Children?"
"A tree that lost its own ability to reproduce dares to say nonsense like that?"
He leaned forward, gaze sharpening on Ryuunosuke.
"Ryuunosuke, you have the ability now."
"Cooperate with me."
Before Ryuunosuke could respond, a third presence arrived without warning.
Roy.
He appeared as if he had always been there, his voice cutting straight through the tension.
"You have absorbed almost all of Lilith's bloodline, have you not?"
Roger looked at Roy with open mockery at first.
Then his expression changed.
The carefree ease vanished from his face, replaced by cold dissatisfaction and anger.
"Roy?"
His voice dropped.
"Are you preparing to betray us completely now?"
Off to the side, Merlin drifted back a step, silently watching like someone seated in the best spot at a theater.
This relationship was far too tangled.
Even if she understood pieces of it, she could not connect everything to what was happening right now.
One thing, however, was obvious.
This ocean was chaos itself.
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