After Garp left, the room fell silent.
Rouge stared blankly at the crib, her expression shifting between light and shadow.
Zane, on the other hand, didn't show much expression. She stretched and left the room, heading towards the second bedroom.
She'd finished her overtime work for the night, and it was time for her to rest.
"Why..."
At this moment, Rouge's negative emotions were almost reaching their peak.
She recognized Garp the moment he showed his face.
That was the Marine officer Roger had mentioned many times, whom he trusted most, and who had even shown her photos.
Looking back now, Roger wasn't just talking to her about the past; he was entrusting his son to Garp.
So why had he entrusted his child to a Marine officer?
Do you think I'm not good enough, or do you think your pirate crew will be wiped out?
Rouge's face was extremely ugly, her fists were clenched tightly, and her hatred for Roger had almost reached its peak.
She didn't care if it cost her life.
But she refused to risk her child's life and force her child onto a predetermined path!
She would rather her child live an ordinary life than follow the path that madman Roger had envisioned.
...
Baterilla Island, an uninhabited coastline where wooden sailboats were moored.
When Garp appeared here holding the baby, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He tightened his grip on the child in his arms, his face grave as he stared into the distance.
Even without using Observation Haki, he could see two clear figures not far away, blocking his way to the wooden sailboat.
"Zephyr!"
Garp let out a low growl.
He hadn't expected that even someone as foolish as Zephyr could have laid an ambush for him beforehand.
"Garp, you're here!"
Zephyr craned his neck, stood in front of Garp, and blocked his way.
"Get out of the way!"
Garp said in a deep voice.
"Whether I give way or not is not up to me."
Zephyr chuckled and took a step to the side, revealing Ross's figure behind him.
Knowing that Garp would come to Baterilla Island, they had made thorough preparations.
The child in Garp's arms was an orphan that Ross had prepared long ago. He had black hair and looked somewhat like Rouge. He was sent to Baterilla Island through a special channel of the CP organization.
The reason they let Garp grab the person first while they tried to stop him was to make Garp think twice.
Otherwise, once the battle began, Zephyr couldn't guarantee Ross's safety 100%.
But as long as Garp had a child in his arms, even if he knew that the child was not Roger's bloodline, Garp couldn't exert full strength.
If Garp could abandon the innocent, then he wouldn't be Garp.
Even though Zephyr didn't like Garp's personality, he still acknowledged Garp's belief in justice.
"Celestial Dragon!"
As Garp looked at Saint Ross's face, his expression grew even more unpleasant.
"Put the child down, and I'll allow you to leave."
Ross said calmly, his words leaving no room for argument.
He wasn't an ordinary person like Rouge who'd never acted before; at least Garp couldn't see any trace of acting in him.
[Garp]
[Overall Rating: S+]
"Impossible! He's my grandson, I'm taking him away."
He tightened his grip on the child and responded in a deep voice.
If he hadn't succeeded and had been stopped, he might have chosen to leave first and then reconsider.
But he had already gotten the child, so how could he give up halfway?
"Your grandson?"
Ross and Zephyr both looked at each other strangely. Were they being treated like fools? And how could he say such things so casually?
"Heh, Garp, Roger's son is your grandson? Are you trying to say Roger is your son, or Rouge is your daughter?" Zephyr's laughter was very loud.
He knew Garp wouldn't make excuses, but he didn't expect the excuse to be so lame.
What are you talking about?
Garp looked puzzled, as if he knew nothing about it:
"Who is Rouge? Roger has been dead for two years, how could his child have just been born?"
"Whether someone is Roger's offspring or not, wouldn't a test tell us? The World Government had recently developed a new technology that could compare human genes to determine blood relations. Even dead people could be tested as long as they had cells."
Ross looked at Garp with amusement, wanting to hear what other insights the other had.
He didn't come here that day to force Garp out of the Marines. As long as Garp remained within the Marines' framework, he had plenty of ways to use this incident to make him compromise.
But if he really drove Garp away, then he'd have to worry about Garp's retaliation.
The main problem was that, with his current strength and manpower, he had no way to keep Garp there.
Garp fell completely silent upon hearing Ross's words.
He knew the result without even needing to take a test; the child in his arms must be Roger's.
This was what Roger had told him, there was no mistake.
Furthermore, after Roger's death, he had secretly visited Baterilla Island and secretly visited Rouge once, so he knew that this child must be Roger's child.
This was also his fault.
If he hadn't accidentally let slip during a discussion among the Marines on his ship about Roger's lack of offspring, the subsequent chain reaction wouldn't have occurred.
Even if he tried to make amends later, he could only bite the bullet and say that Roger had told him before he died that he had offspring, but he didn't know who they were or where they were.
Because of his mistake, the South Blue, where Roger had last appeared before surrendering, suffered. Infants and pregnant women who were possibly Roger's children were all implicated.
Now that things had come to this point, how could Garp possibly hand the person over?
If Ace hadn't been taken away by him in the end, wouldn't all those innocent people in the South Blue have died in vain?
With that in mind, Garp decided to strike first.
"If you dare to make a move, I dare to destroy all the ships nearby."
Zephyr's words completely dispelled Garp's idea, making his expression even more unpleasant.
"Snort."
Zephyr snorted coldly, "We've known each other for decades, do you think I don't know what's wrong with your brain? You can swim to the next island by yourself, but if you take a child with you, he'll surely die."
Garp remained silent.
As Zephyr said, without a boat, he wouldn't have been able to take Ace away at all.
Thinking it over, Garp suddenly had an idea and turned his gaze to Ross.
As soon as his gaze fell, he saw Ross smilingly pull out a Den Den Mushi:
"This Den Den Mushi can dial my grandfather's Den Den Mushi, which connects to the Five Elders."
"Vice Admiral Garp, you don't want my grandfather to know about this, do you?"
"What do you want to do? I can't hand Ace over to you."
Garp gritted his teeth and said, "I might as well just give up and stop lying."
He would accept any condition, no matter how harsh, as long as Ace wasn't handed over.
Otherwise, they might as well perish together.
He was now all alone, with no ties to him.
His son, Dragon, was already grown up and wouldn't listen to him at all, so he couldn't be bothered to discipline him.
He had nothing left to miss, not even his position as a Marine.
He had seen through this world; it was simply impossible for justice to prevail.
All he could do was stay true to himself and remain steadfast to the death.