Laughter rang through the tavern, mixed with the crisp clink of mugs meeting in midair.
Today—
joy belonged to the bar.
Men laughed from the belly, tearing into roasted meat with wild abandon, not caring in the slightest when grease ran down the corners of their mouths.
Near the counter, nearly ten empty casks had already been stacked up.
Two figures sat there, still drinking.
"Hahahaha! Didn't expect you to hold your liquor this well!" Shanks threw an arm around Kairos D. Vale's shoulder, face flushed red, clearly drunk already. He let out a loud burp, then grinned even wider.
"Honestly, neither did I," Kairos said as he downed another mug of ale in one go, still completely steady.
He really was surprised.
This was the first time he had drunk alcohol since transmigrating into this world, and this body's tolerance was absurdly high.
Makino carried over another barrel and set it down beside them, giving the two a helpless look.
"This is the last barrel. Once you finish this one, that's it."
"No problem!" Shanks slapped the table and flashed a huge grin at Luffy. "We can just have Luffy go get more!"
"Shanks, you idiot!"
Luffy puffed up his cheeks angrily. Since eating the Devil Fruit and turning into a rubber human, the motion made his face balloon comically, round as a puffed-up ball.
It looked ridiculous.
"A little brat is still a little brat," Shanks laughed even harder, pounding the table loud enough to rattle the mugs. "Can't even carry a few barrels. Useless!"
"Who says I can't?!"
Luffy glared at him, jumped off the chair, and stormed out in a huff.
There was already no more liquor left in Makino's bar.
The alcohol they were drinking now had all been borrowed by Luffy from the mayor.
"Still just a kid." Shanks watched Luffy run off, smiling with simple, genuine amusement.
Kairos also watched him go, a faint smile on his lips.
But hidden inside that smile—
was a trace of mischief.
He wanted to know whether, now that Higuma was dead, the world itself would try to drag the timeline back into place.
Would fate somehow force Luffy into the sea another way?
For example…
What if he slipped while carrying the wine and fell into the ocean anyway?
That would have been interesting.
But Kairos was quickly disappointed.
Luffy came back safe and sound, carrying five barrels at once without any mishap.
"This is Grandpa Mayor's last stash!" Luffy puffed his cheeks out again, still visibly annoyed. "Don't make me go get more!"
"Alright, alright." Shanks laughed and rubbed his head.
The liquor had arrived.
So the party continued.
Kairos stopped talking with Shanks and instead slowly swirled the ale in his mug, recalling the feeling from when he had used the Assassin Wu Liuqi Card.
It had been…
a sensation of control.
A detached dominance over life itself.
When he looked at the bandits, every weakness on their bodies had seemed exposed, as if their lines of death were laid bare before him.
All Kairos had to do was thrust his blade.
And a life ended.
Of course, he knew that wasn't some Mystic Eyes of Death Perception nonsense.
It was simply Wu Liuqi's assassin instinct.
His instinct told him: strike here, and the target dies.
So Kairos struck.
And the bandits died.
Simple.
Clean.
Over a dozen lives had ended by his hand, yet in Kairos' mind, it had felt no more remarkable than lifting a cup to drink.
After all, during these past two and a half years, he hadn't just been practicing the sword.
He had killed quite a few pirates in the waters around Foosha Village.
That, combined with the Wu Liuqi Card, was what had given him the killing aura powerful enough to surprise even Shanks and his crew.
Kairos took another sip of ale.
The sharp burn of the alcohol mixed with the mellow sweetness of grain. Instead of dulling his thoughts, it made them even clearer.
At the moment, there were two things he could already confirm.
First—
when a System Card was activated, some of that character's traits manifested in his body, like Wu Liuqi's assassin instinct.
Second—
the character's weapon would automatically materialize during use, then disappear once the effect ended.
"…Hmm."
Kairos lowered his head and rubbed his temple.
There were still far too many unanswered questions about the cards.
For example—
each card had a limited number of uses, but how long did each use actually last?
And how strong was each card, exactly?
He had already asked the system these questions in his mind.
The system had answered none of them.
"There's still a lot to figure out…" Kairos murmured, gently rotating the mug in his hand as he stared into the pale golden liquor.
His gaze grew distant.
"Kairos, what are you thinking about?"
Shanks leaned over with the shameless familiarity of an old friend. "By the way, Luffy told me you're not actually from Foosha Village, right?"
"Yeah." Kairos set down his mug. "My hometown is very far away."
He answered lightly, cutting off whatever follow-up Shanks might have asked.
Then he stood.
"I'm heading out."
Without turning back, he raised a hand in farewell and started walking toward the tavern door.
He had only stayed to drink with Shanks because he wanted to see whether the world would force the timeline back into place and make Luffy fall into the sea through some other "reasonable" accident.
Apparently not.
Which meant there was no reason for him to linger any longer.
He still had training to do.
But just then—
a childish voice rang out behind him.
"Kairos! Fight me!"
Kairos stopped and looked back.
It was Luffy.
The boy's eyes were wide, his face stubborn, his voice loud with urgency, as if he were desperate to prove something.
Most likely, someone from the Red Hair Pirates had teased him again.
"A fight?" Kairos lifted a brow, a glint rising in his eyes.
"Luffy, don't trouble Mr. Kairos," Makino hurried over and tried to stop him.
The members of the Red Hair Pirates just chuckled and shook their heads.
No one thought Kairos would agree.
A man carrying the aura of thousands of kills had no reason to waste time humoring a child.
And yet—
a smile curved on Kairos' lips.
He said something that caught everyone off guard.
"Then let's take it outside."
After all…
Higuma's reward had already been so generous.
So what kind of reward would the protagonist of this world bring?
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