One Piece: Silent-Silent Fruit

Chapter 385 - 36: First Stop in the New World - Dressrosa

"Your Majesty... th-this young lady wouldn't happen to be...?" Bins asked in shock as he watched Rosinante teasing Elsa while she called him Dad.

"Oh, this is my daughter. Shaxia gave birth to her ten years ago. Elsa, this is Bins—you should call him Uncle Bins. And this is Grandpa Redfield," Rosinante said as he set Elsa down and introduced them.

"Hello, Uncle Bins. Hello, Grandpa Red," Elsa said obediently.

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare! Little Princess, please don't call me that—just call me Bins!" Bins panicked at once.

Redfield, on the other hand, didn't mind at all. At his age, being called "Grandpa" was perfectly natural.

But Bins was completely flustered.

"Bins, don't be so stiff. It's only right for her to call you uncle. I've always treated all of you as family," Rosinante said with a smile.

"That is our honor. But Your Majesty is still Your Majesty, forever the one we serve with absolute loyalty. The Oathblood Guard will never forget that we are Your Majesty's personal guard!" Bins declared.

As commander of the Oathblood Guard, he had personally overseen their education in loyalty.

And to teach loyalty to others, he believed he first had to embody absolute loyalty himself.

So from the day he became commander, Bins had sworn to himself that he would be absolutely loyal.

And he had lived by that oath ever since.

Seeing how respectful Bins was toward her father, Elsa grew even more curious about this man who had spent ten years unconscious in bed.

What exactly was it about him that made so many people respect him this much?

"Come on, let's head back. Shaxia and the others are waiting for us," Rosinante said.

With that, he picked Elsa up and carried her back toward the house where they were staying.

When Shaxia saw Rosinante return—and saw that Bins had been rescued—she was overjoyed.

She immediately went into the kitchen and prepared a grand feast to celebrate.

Redfield stayed on the small island for a few days before leaving.

After all, he had never once considered swearing allegiance to Rosinante or joining him in any way.

With his personality, it was impossible for him to submit to anyone.

Rosinante didn't mind his departure in the slightest.

After that, Rosinante spent his days quietly on the island, accompanying Shaxia and teaching Elsa how to train.

And so, time passed slowly for a month.

But after staying on the island for about a month, Rosinante began to feel restless.

For one thing, he was no longer the same Rosinante he had been before going to the ninja world.

Back then, all he had wanted was a stable place to live.

He had no desire to drift endlessly across the seas, because ever since arriving in this world, he had been hunted from place to place, and he had long since grown tired of it.

But after spending decades in the ninja world—and after years of ruling the Land of Fire—he had grown weary of staying in one place for too long.

Now that he had returned to this world, he wanted to travel again.

Second, there was still something in the New World that needed to be settled.

The matter of the Oathblood Guard and Whitebeard still needed a proper resolution.

Though Rosinante no longer had any desire to conquer the world, the Oathblood Guard still needed to be given a future.

He felt he needed to sit down and talk properly with them.

If they wanted to remain at his side as his personal guard, then he had the means to protect and support them.

If they wanted to continue being pirates, then they could keep sailing as pirates.

And if they wanted to remain in the Whitebeard Pirates, then Rosinante still needed to give them an answer.

Which meant...

He still had to make a trip to the Whitebeard Pirates.

That night, Rosinante told Shaxia of his decision.

Shaxia fully supported him.

After all, the matter of the Oathblood Guard truly did need to be resolved.

So the next day, Rosinante left the island and set out for the New World.

Originally, when Elsa heard that Rosinante was leaving again for a while—and that this time he was going to the New World—she wanted to go with him.

But Rosinante refused.

After all, his destination this time was the New World.

For Elsa, it was still too soon.

Rosinante flew across the sea at a controlled, unhurried pace.

He wasn't in a rush this time, so he stopped here and there along the way.

But with his speed, it didn't take long before he arrived once again at Sabaody Archipelago.

Since he was already at Sabaody, Rosinante naturally decided to visit Sleepless City.

Compared to a month ago, Sleepless City had already changed dramatically.

There was no longer an entrance tax to enter the city.

The streets were much cleaner.

The slave-trading shops had all been shut down.

The Celestial Dragons who had occupied the Heavenly Veil Hall had all left.

And the three administrative branches of Sleepless City had been reestablished.

At least on the surface, Sleepless City had begun to resemble its former self again.

But Rosinante knew this was only the surface.

If Sleepless City truly wanted to return to the way it had once been, then it needed a powerful force standing above it to keep everything in check.

That was also one of the main reasons Rosinante intended to call back the Oathblood Guard.

No matter how strong he was alone, there were still some things that simply couldn't be done by one person.

He might not want to dominate the world anymore...

But if he wanted to live more comfortably,

and if he wanted the people around him to live more comfortably too,

then the Oathblood Guard was something he still could not abandon.

After taking a quiet walk through Sleepless City without alerting anyone, Rosinante slipped away just as quietly and continued onward toward the New World.

He didn't take the underwater route.

Instead, he flew directly over the Red Line and entered the New World.

Once there, Rosinante did not immediately head straight for Whitebeard's territory to look for him.

The New World was vast.

The Whitebeard Pirates had always treated the sea as their home and had no fixed location.

Without precise information, even if he knew the general region they operated in, finding them would be like searching for a needle in the ocean.

He needed intelligence first.

Rosinante had been gone for ten years.

Even ten years ago, he had never established his own intelligence network in the New World.

So obtaining Whitebeard's whereabouts now would be extremely difficult.

But in the New World...

Wasn't there already a ready-made intelligence expert?

So Rosinante changed course and flew toward Dressrosa...