"This gentleman is…?"
At the massive round table, only twenty seats had been prepared. No one expected twenty-one people to show up.
"Queen Lili of Alabasta, introduce him for everyone."
A blond man spoke from the table, his gaze fixed on Ozz with obvious wariness and hostility.
As the head of the Donquixote Family, a royal line that had built its fortune by bleeding the Tontatta tribe dry, he and his kin were practically villains by nature. A powerhouse appearing out of nowhere was exactly the kind of variable they despised.
"Everyone, this is Lord Ozz. He has come of his own will to form an alliance with the Twenty Kings…"
Facing the twenty rulers of this era, Ozz did not flinch. He simply smiled and gave a small nod.
There was nothing for him to explain.
These kings of the world's strongest nations, even if they hid it well, all carried their own pride.
So Ozz chose a more direct method.
"Bzzzz…!"
He stood in the lavish hall, a faint smile still on his lips, and then in the next instant…
His black formal coat stirred though there was no wind. The man carrying a blade and a spear let his long hair whip up as if something unseen had seized it.
A terrifying storm of Conqueror's Haki erupted from him like a black thunderclap.
Cracks raced across the floor. The entire chamber split open. Everyone present jolted in shock.
Especially the Donquixote patriarch, whose face twisted in horror as veins bulged across his forehead.
"This Conqueror's…"
The whole building shook, the earth itself groaning and breaking.
This was Conqueror's Haki that belonged to a king among kings, no, something beyond that.
Heaven and earth threatened to collapse.
Among the twenty seated rulers, a tall, gaunt figure wearing a crown stared at Ozz without blinking. A few beads of cold sweat slid down its brow.
For a fleeting moment, demonic traits surfaced over its body, then slowly faded again.
Clearly, Ozz's presence was pressing it harder than it liked.
"Ozz…"
…
Elsewhere.
Year 1518 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
"What?!!! Pops actually dueled Uncle Ozz too?!"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Ace choked on his drink and hacked a few times, still staring at Marco and the others like he could not believe his ears.
When he looked around at the rest of the crew, at the expressions on their faces, even at Whitebeard himself, it became impossible to deny.
It was real.
"Uncle Ozz… is he really that strong?!"
Ace's face froze in disbelief. Cold sweat dotted his brow.
Ever since he was small, he had vaguely sensed Uncle Ozz was some kind of extraordinary pirate.
He had once sailed under his biological father, Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King.
And the moment Ace entered the real sea, he learned something else.
Even Jinbe, a man Ozz treated as "just one of his subordinates," could fight Ace to a standstill.
That alone had already shocked him.
As for Yamato, whom Ace had met before, she had told him Ozz had once defeated one of the Four Emperors, Kaido.
Ace knew that was insane, but he still could not truly grasp what it meant.
Not until you actually faced Kaido, you could not understand the despairing gap.
But Whitebeard's strength?
Ace understood that perfectly.
Since boarding the ship, he had never once seen a path to victory against Pops.
Not even when Whitebeard was asleep. There were no openings. None.
Ace had also witnessed the quake power's sheer terror.
A force that could be called world-ending without exaggeration.
And yet…
A man that vast, a man so strong Ace could not even see the ceiling of his power…
Had once fought Uncle Ozz?
"Seriously?"
Ace grabbed Marco by the shoulders, eyes shining with fierce curiosity.
Two elders he respected.
A clash of monsters.
"How'd it end?"
"Uh…"
Marco's face darkened immediately. Some of the crew even looked indignant, like old wounds had been poked.
"Well… technically, it was a draw…"
Even now, Marco could still remember the scene.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit versus a teleportation, spatial ability.
Both of them unleashing massive-range destruction.
Both of them top-tier Haki masters, coating attacks with Conqueror's.
The entire island was flying through the sky in chunks.
Calling it apocalyptic was almost too modest.
In the end, looking only at the surface, Pops looked worse off.
But the Whitebeard Pirates refused to accept the story the world told.
"And yet the whole world keeps spreading that Ozz is stronger than Pops, all because Morgans is Ozz's man!"
"Hahahaha! So that's what it was?!"
Ace laughed so hard he nearly fell over.
That sounded exactly like Uncle Ozz.
That kind of nasty, shameless style.
The story was ancient by now. Ace found it fascinating.
The crew fumed.
Only Whitebeard sat there, gulping down alcohol in silence, saying nothing.
After a long while, he slammed his jug down onto the table with a heavy thud.
His expression held something hard to name.
Sensing the shift, the crew stopped talking and turned toward the man they revered most.
Whitebeard's face was serious as he spoke slowly.
"You idiot sons…"
"Ozz isn't like Kaido, Linlin… or even that brat Shanks."
"Pops?"
Whitebeard felt the weight of years more and more these days.
He glanced toward the nurse at his side, and the IV lines running into his body.
"In this world, there are always a few monsters that break common sense."
"Even men like me and Roger… can look dim next to them."
"And in this era, Ozz is that monster."
"Pops…"
His sons stared, wide-eyed.
They never expected the man who had sheltered them from every storm, the man they believed no one could defeat…
To say something like that.
Seeing their faces, Whitebeard's heart softened.
In the end, a smile tugged at his lips.
"Gurarararara… but don't worry."
"I'm not dying that easily."
"Even if it's Ozz, he's not laying a finger on my precious family!"
"Pops!!!"
The deck filled with warmth again. A scene of fatherly love and sons who would die for him.
…
At the same time, somewhere else, people were also thinking about Ozz.
"Ginny, Bonney!!!"
"Kuma!!!"
"Daddy!!!"
The three of them wrapped each other in a tight embrace, faces bright with happiness.
Nearby, Dr. Vegapunk watched, moved to the point that tears slipped down his cheeks.
"What a loving family…"
Kuma lifted Ginny's slender body and the lively, adorable Bonney up in his arms, grinning like an idiot the entire time.
"So good… so good!"
"Your treatment is finally over!"
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