Chapter 132: Buying Oranges And The Little Happiness Of The Bellemere Family
"Gentlemen, would you like to buy some oranges?"
In the orange grove, a slender woman in a green plaid shirt with the word MACE across the chest stood beneath a tree, checking the branches and fruit.
She noticed a man and a woman walking in among the trees. Her eyes lit up at the sight of potential customers, and she strode over happily, a cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth.
Her hair was tied into red braids, the sides trimmed short. Some unknown stylist had once described that haircut as, "A woman should have courage."
It suited Bellemere perfectly.
She was a former navy officer who had survived a brutal battle with pirates. Her unit had fought the enemy down to the last man, the battlefield left in ruins, with only Bellemere still breathing among her former comrades.
The rest of her unit had died in combat.
Once, the fearless Bellemere had been driven to the brink of despair by that loss. It was not until she stumbled upon a little girl named Nojiko and a baby Nami and decided to adopt them that she found a new reason to live.
She returned to her hometown, planted oranges, and raised her two adopted daughters.
"Hm?"
Hancock frowned as she saw the woman approaching. She had been listening to Roy's story about when he first met Toki and taken her aboard his ship.
She did not appreciate being interrupted.
She was just about to turn Bellemere away with a frosty, "We are not buying," when Roy quickly reached out and took her hand.
"Oh, can we try some oranges?" he asked Bellemere with a smile. "If they are good, we will take a lot more later."
"Of course," Bellemere said.
She reached up and plucked two ripe oranges from a nearby tree, handing one to Roy and the other to Hancock.
If she could sell a good batch today, then Nami and Nojiko could have something tasty for lunch.
The thought made Bellemere quietly happy.
Hancock gave the orange in her hand a dismissive look, then shoved it into Roy's palm.
She was not interested in anything given by another woman.
Unless Roy fed it to her himself.
She clearly did not see the difference.
Roy smiled inwardly.
He took the orange, began to peel it, and popped a segment into his mouth.
The peel gave off a light citrus fragrance, but when he squeezed it a little, the oils sprayed out and the scent became sharp and strong.
This stuff was a perfect tool for masking other smells.
In his previous life, when he had been a child, Roy had loved playing with orange peels after eating the fruit. His mother had told him that the peels could be soaked in water and used to wash hair, which was good for its condition.
In this life, he was grown up, and oranges had become useful in other ways.
If there was a suspicious smell clinging to your body, you could rub yourself down with orange peel or juice. After a while, all you would smell like was fruit. It was a simple and very effective cover.
Oranges really were handy things.
"It is pretty sweet. Hancock, you should try it."
Roy took a few bites, then pinched off a small piece of pulp and held it out to her.
Hancock stared, lips slightly parted.
He took the chance and pushed it right into her mouth.
"Mmff…"
She glared at him. "Why did you shove so much in…"
Roy had practically stuffed half the orange in at once. Hancock just stared at him with her cheeks puffed up.
She chewed anyway.
The sweet pulp burst with juice on her tongue.
It was, unfortunately, very delicious.
"Then we will take more," Roy said, amused. "And while we are at it, let us buy a few trees. That way we will never run out of fruit at sea."
Hancock had just confirmed the oranges were juicy and sweet with her own mouth. Of course Roy was going to stock up.
Besides, he still had plenty of money stashed away from what the nun had given him decades ago, now quietly sitting in the sea of time.
A few orange trees were nothing.
He considered it a way to help improve Nami's family life.
The moment Roy had seen Bellemere, he had understood a lot.
What had once been a village he had randomly picked all those years ago had, over time, become Cocoyasi Village.
That kind of coincidence was very much like the sea.
In Roy's arms, the thundercloud Horus lay still and flat, pretending to be nothing more than a strangely shaped pillow.
Bellemere noticed nothing unusual. She happily led Roy and Hancock around the grove, pointing out trees and helping them choose.
Her navy salary alone had never been enough to raise Nojiko and Nami in comfort.
Bellemere was a pitiful person, and a foster mother worthy of respect.
So Roy was more than willing to buy a few extra trees. It was a quiet way to support Nami's family without making a show of it.
If you had the ability, you helped. That was all.
Roy could not stand watching girls suffer.
He had always been like that.
On the village street, little Nami was running back and forth, craning her neck and scanning the sky, but she could not find that suspicious cloud anywhere.
She darted around corners, her small head swiveling, big round eyes flicking from one patch of sky to another.
She searched and searched and still found nothing.
"Phew, that should be enough. Master showed off a lot today. I really want to learn those moves."
At a nearby vegetable stall, a short blond boy staggered under the weight of a huge bundle that covered half his body and almost his entire head. Inside were all sorts of meat, vegetables, fruit, and seasonings.
His master had a frightening appetite.
The ship only needed to feed three people and two snakes, since Hancock had brought a pet snake along as well, but with the amount Roy ate, most of the ingredients would end up in that bottomless stomach.
Sanji adjusted his grip on the bundle and trudged toward the shore.
Nami glanced curiously at the very suspicious rich kid, then at the now empty wallet in his hand. She pursed her lips and turned away.
Young Sanji brushed past young Nami.
Or rather, their shoulders only just missed.
The bundle on his back was simply too big.
"Tch, what a waste," Nami muttered.
She fiddled with her braids, slid the elastic band off, pulled another small band from her pocket, and quickly retied her hair into neat pigtails.
Playing with the ends of her hair, she skipped happily toward home.
Outside the orange grove, Nojiko stood waiting. She wore overalls and a red headband, her short blue hair framing her gentle face.
She saw her little sister trudging back, looking frustrated, and her gaze drifted to Nami's pockets.
"What are you looking at?" Nami snapped, already prickly.
Did her sister really think she would steal something?
Hmph. That stupid older sister Nojiko. As if Nami would just grab things.
If she did, she would be, at worst, a little rascal.
A little cat, maybe.
"It is nothing," Nojiko said, smiling as she rubbed Nami's head. "We had a customer today. They bought oranges. We will have something good for lunch."
"Hmph hmph hmph."
Nami swatted her hand away, but a happy grin crept onto her face anyway.
If she could read more books, she was happy.
If she could eat something delicious, she was happy.
If she could get a new dress, she was even happier.
That was Nami's childhood.
Poor, but full of little moments of happiness that belonged only to the Bellemere family.
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