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The door of the wooden house opened and the three walked out.
The villagers quickly gathered again, taking a hostile stance. They glared and pointed angrily at Liam, who had changed into clean clothes, as if they were about to attack him again.
“That’s enough! Stop it already,” Liam stepped forward and looked around at the villagers with irritation. “I just washed up, I don’t want to do it again!”
“How dare you…” The villagers were obviously angry.
“Enough!”
The old village chief shouted, “What are you doing? Have you all forgotten how terrifying his mother was?”
At the mention of that woman, the villagers immediately calmed down a bit.
“Do you have any idea how many fierce pirates this boy has hunted on the sea? If he really wanted to deal with you, do you think your petty efforts would stand a chance?”
The villagers were skeptical, “Is he really that strong?”
“He’s just a kid!”
Not everyone read the message.
Those who had been thrown by Liam, despite their shame, remembered the fighting prowess of the woman named Lily before her illness and found Liam’s strength unsurprising.
The old village chief scolded, “Did Lily ever blame Liam even a little before she died? You’re the ones making a fuss over nothing, meddling in other people’s family affairs…”
The villagers were outraged and retorted, “This brat is so unrepentant and we’re not allowed to hit or scold him?”
“He already died once!” Shouted the old chief.
The villagers fell silent and looked at each other.
The old chief sighed, “He was just a child when he left, only eight years old. In a sea full of pirates, it wasn’t just about finding medicine; just surviving was a challenge… How many of you can say you have the courage to face such a rough sea for your family?” He looked at the villagers, who all avoided his gaze.
“Liam almost died at sea… He was lucky to survive, but he lost many of his memories,” The old village chief sighed again. “Perhaps it was his late mother’s blessing that gave him another chance at life, allowing him to forget the heavy past he wasn’t meant to carry!” In the silence, he continued hoarsely, “This child let you beat and scold him all the way, which is enough recognition of his mistake… You’ve had your say, now go!”
In a complex atmosphere of silence, guilt, and regret… each person looked at Liam and then quietly left.
“Let’s go.”
Liam, ignoring the villagers, held Lily’s letter and walked toward the eastern hill.
…
Passing a wooden path at the foot of the hill, the three continued on.
The sun was sinking lower, casting a blood-red hue over the ridges.
…
From a distance, Liam saw a small cleared area surrounded by wildflowers.
Lily’s grave.
The old village leader and Robin stopped a few paces behind, letting Liam approach alone.
Snap…
B.I.B.” broke off two pure white wildflowers and placed them in Liam’s outstretched hand.
Liam reached the grave and looked at the headstone with Lily’s name on it and a photo of her laughing, presumably from before her illness.
“Hello.”
Liam placed the two flowers in front of the headstone.
He sat down right there and waved the letter in his hand at the photo of the woman on the gravestone, “Well, I’m going to open it and read it, okay?”
A light breeze blew through the foothills, causing the flower petals to flutter.
“Let’s take that as a yes, big sister,” Liam said, letting the wind wash over him as he opened the envelope, “Let’s see what you wrote to your precious son…”
Unfolding the letter, the first thing Liam saw were several tear marks of varying depth, dried and scattered across the paper.
“……”
Liam focused on the first line.
“Mom came from Kano Country.”
Well, this first sentence surprises me a bit… Liam thought as he held the letter. When he had heard about her formidable fighting skills before she got sick, he had assumed that she came from Amazon Lily, also known as the Maidenland of Kuja Island!
After all, the female warriors of Kuja Island are fierce, and the warriors who board the Kuja pirate ship all master the Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki).
Kuja Island women are often named after flowers. For example, Sandersonia is named after the Chinese lantern lily; Marigold after the marigold flower; Marguerite after the daisy; some even have names like Kikyo, which means bellflower; even Elder Nyon’s real name is derived from the flame lily…
With ‘B.I.B.’ as his personal memory bank, Liam could easily find posts from forums he had read in his previous life.
The Maiden Country Emperor also suffers from a so-called incurable disease known as “lovesickness”.
It seemed to correspond to the incurable disease Lily had…
Unexpectedly, the first sentence of this letter revealed that Lily actually came from Kano Country in West Blue… the same place where, in the Dressrosa Arc, old Chinjao, whose pointy head was dented by Garp and popped back out by Luffy, and old Sai, who kicked his grandfather’s pointy head askew and happily mated with Baby-5, came from…
Kano Country… a place based on China? Liam thought as he continued reading Lily’s letter.
“I didn’t want to hide it from others… but they kept asking! Even though flower names aren’t very popular in Kano Country anymore, I still didn’t like it… so, hmph, I didn’t tell them.”
Liam read on, somewhat surprised by the casual tone of Lily’s letter to her son.
To imagine her writing the letter while she was sick…
The first few lines were calm, chatting about everyday life. But gradually, as her condition worsened, Lily had less and less strength to write the many things she wanted to say…
“Let me tell you a story from Kano Country~”
“Once upon a time, in the land of Kano, there was a princess named Lily – yes, the same name as your mother! Isn’t that cool? Princess Lily was the treasure of Kano Country, but she bravely ventured into the vast sea to retrieve the national treasure. Okay, the story is over!”
“Mom always admired the princess who shared her name, so she foolishly snuck out to sea too… It’s a headache, and now Liam has done the same. Mama should have stayed in Kano country!”
“But if I hadn’t left, there wouldn’t be you, Liam. So it’s all good. Hmm…”
Liam’s eyes wandered over the tear-stained and increasingly shaky handwriting. The further he read, the more unstable and weak Lily’s handwriting became…
“Mom didn’t find the treasure of Kano Land, but she had you! So it wasn’t for nothing…”
Lily’s handwriting became more erratic, with some sentences making little sense, as if she knew her time was running out and was frantically writing down her thoughts.
“Mom taught you the secret Hasshō-ken of the Kano country – Eight Impact Fist… It’s very powerful, and if you master it, Liam, you’ll be incredible. Then you can protect Mom…”
“Ah, there’s no time left… what a pity!”
“I regret it so much, Liam. I should have taken you to the Kano land sooner… I planned to do it when you grew up… I had so many plans. I didn’t see you grow into a man… but it’s okay, you don’t have to be a man. Just be happy!”
“If you ever read this letter, please visit Kano country for me…”
“……”
The writing became increasingly disorganized and ended abruptly. The last stroke slanted away and the letter ended there.
Liam could almost imagine Lily’s hand suddenly losing grip on the pen…
“Is Liam okay…” Robin watched from a distance as Liam read the letter at the grave.
“Sigh!” The old village leader sighed softly and looked up at the setting sun. “Huh?” He seemed to see a shadow passing by.
“What a pity!”
Liam put down the letter, sat down by the grave, and looked at the photo of the smiling woman on the gravestone, laughing heartily, “Kano Country, huh? I’m very interested. I’ll visit sometime!”
“Heh heh heh, really…”
At that moment, accompanied by the falling words, a massive figure slowly descended in front of Liam.
Laffitte!
A bolt of lightning flashed through Liam’s mind. That voice, that figure, triggered a flood of fearful and shadowy memories of the original owner of his body.
“But I think it would be more appropriate to bury you here.”
The pale-faced “Demon Sheriff” Laffitte, his blood-red lips curled into a smirk, spread his pure white wings and perched on the tombstone.
Liam said, “Get your filthy foot off me.
……
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