“Outsiders?”
“What outsiders?”
At some point, Kong Tai and Gu Yina had disembarked from the windmill and were standing on the deck at the bow of the ship.
Kong Tai released Gu Yina, then stood diagonally at the bow of the ship, his feet as if rooted. Even though the bow tilted seventy degrees, he did not slide down.
Gu Yina, however, slid down, ending up beside Robin. She grabbed Robin’s hand, held it to her chest, and turning to Robin with a smile, said, “Sister Robin, don’t listen to Doctor Indigo’s nonsense! Once you’re on the ship, we are all comrades. Comrades don’t distinguish between outsiders and insiders!”
As she spoke, Gu Yina turned her head and glared at Indigo.
“Heh heh!!”
Indigo was not afraid. He had been on the ship for so long that he was no longer as cautious as he was when he first joined.
“Gu Yina, don’t blame me. You have to let me finish speaking!”
“Kelekele!!”
“Speak! Let’s see what you have to say.”
Gu Yina stared sternly at Indigo.
This guy had been with them for so long, yet he still considered them outsiders. This made her a little angry.
At the bow of the ship, Kong Tai leaned against the railing, drinking wine, watching them with great interest.
He was also very curious about how Indigo viewed their group after being on the ship for so long.
After all, it was he who had forced Indigo to join the ship in the first place.
Indigo glanced at Gu Yina, then turned his gaze to Kong Tai, his eyes serious. “Captain, I need to say something to you first.”
As he spoke, he moved away from the railing, bent down towards Kong Tai, and bowed deeply, saying loudly, “Thank you!”
“Alright, alright.”
Kong Tai paused his drinking, looked at Indigo, and chuckled, “Really, what are you thanking us for, comrades!”
“Hahaha!!”
Amidst the laughter, an invisible force lifted Indigo, straightening his body.
Indigo looked up at Kong Tai, a smile on his face.
He leaned back against the railing, smiling at Kong Tai. “Captain, this belated thank you is truly sincere!”
As he spoke, a hint of reminiscence flashed in his eyes. “If you hadn’t invited me onto the ship back then, I don’t know where I’d be struggling to survive right now!”
“In my life, as soon as I went out to sea, I joined Shiki’s ship. That guy was very strong, but I never felt the true emotions of comrades from him.”
“So, when you killed him back then, I thought I would be very sad, but afterwards, I realized I wasn’t sad at all. I was just panicked about suddenly losing my pillar of support.”
“But then!”
Indigo paused here, turned his head, swept his gaze around the ship, and finally settled back on Kong Tai. “But ever since I joined your ship, I’ve felt something completely different from Shiki from all of you. I don’t know what it is, but I incredibly enjoy this relationship we have. I suppose this is what comrades are!”
“Actually…”
Indigo shifted his gaze from Kong Tai to Robin. “What I actually wanted to say to Robin-chan is that although at first we might have had trouble fitting into this team, as we spend more time together, you’ll find that in this team, you’ll never feel lonely again, nor will you feel afraid. You’ll feel honored and lucky to have joined this team.”
“I am the same as you.”
“Hmm… it’s probably the same for everyone on this ship. They all love this ship, love this team, and of course, they love this captain.”
As he spoke, he turned to look at Kong Tai and continued with a laugh. “It’s precisely because we love it that we truly gather our hearts around Captain, that we form this team, that under the Captain’s protection, we achieve each other, and without any reservations, we laugh freely on this boundless sea, pursuing our individual dreams.”
“This… is the ‘Silver Hair Adventure Group,’ am I right?”
“Captain!”
He didn’t say ‘pirate crew’ because on this ship, the person who paid the most attention to Kong Tai’s usual words and actions, besides Gu Yina, was him, who had been forced to join at first.
When he first joined the ship, he was incredibly afraid of Kong Tai!
This led him to deeply contemplate the deeper meanings behind Kong Tai’s actions and words after he joined.
From his cruelty towards pirates to his leniency towards Marines, it was evident.
Kong Tai had his own scale.
He wasn’t entirely sure what this scale was, but after spending time with him, he could vaguely understand it.
It was probably good and evil.
He could be merciless towards evil, leaving no one alive, eradicating them completely.
But towards good, he could be generous. Even when the Marines fired at them multiple times, he had not harmed a single low-ranking Marine soldier.
Such a person, such a team, if you called it a pirate crew, it would be completely inappropriate.
Pirates, in his understanding, should be free, uninhibited, arrogant, and when they saw something they didn’t like, they would strike hard. If they had no money, they could slaughter a town. If they had money, they could generously invite the residents of a town for drinks, eat what they wanted, sleep when they wanted, be lawless and unrestrained.
This was his understanding of true pirates, not like Kong Tai.
Someone like Kong Tai, if you called him a pirate, it would be more fitting to call him an adventurer.
Because he always acted with rules, even though he was sometimes unrestrained, but that was towards pirates.
He could save a country for a pot of wine, even going against the World Government.
He could also destroy a Shichibukai for a baseless reason he didn’t know where he learned.
Such a powerful person, when he entered a town inhabited by humans, he completely became an ordinary person. He would obey all the rules of the city and would not harm any civilians.
His attitude of freely enjoying himself at sea, and his extremely law-abiding behavior in civilized society, wasn't that the mark of an adventurer?
And from Kong Tai’s repeated descriptions of their team, he had never heard the words ‘pirate crew.’
And the first time they met, when Kong Tai invited him onto the ship, his words seemed to be “Silver Hair Adventure Group.”
He hadn’t paid much attention at the time due to his fear, and had forgotten about it over time.
Looking back now, Kong Tai probably set out to sea for adventure from the very beginning, hadn’t he?
Through their interactions during this time, he had come to understand what an adventure group was.
He had actually seen such teams before.
He had been on Shiki’s ship for many years, and was there when Shiki was at his peak, dominating the New World.
Every year, so many pirate crews ventured into the New World, and there were always a few teams that set out for dreams, for adventure.
The main characteristic of these pirate crews was that although they were all pirates, they rarely clashed with other pirate crews. Their team cohesion was quite strong, with a clear objective: to explore, to adventure in all sorts of places, and they basically wouldn’t harm civilians.
Also, these groups usually had very few members, and there was no obvious superior-subordinate relationship on the ship, as if everyone were friends.
He didn’t know what these pirate crews were before.
But now.
After months of interaction with the Silver Hair group, he knew what they were.
This must be the “adventure group” that Kong Tai spoke of!
He liked such a team.
Although the comrades each had various dreams, it didn’t affect their shared adventure, which was to go wherever they wanted, to enjoy the pleasure of adventure, and to admire the countless beautiful sights along the way.
They had rules, yet lived freely.