An hour later, at home.
"Let me sort out what happened during your month at sea. Help me confirm if I got it right. First, you grew over ten centimeters in height?"
"Yes, it's just puberty growth. Totally normal."
"You won the championship at the Asakura Island swordsmanship tournament?"
"Yeah, I accidentally took the title."
"And you also uncovered a major conspiracy on the island, becoming a well-known figure in the East Blue?"
"True, but it's not that big of a deal. The hype comes and goes, and people will forget soon enough."
"And then you became a billionaire!!!"
"Yep, 400 million Berry. I withdrew 50 million, and the rest is still in the bank. Here, the card's right here."
Bellemere took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. But when she looked up at the muscular giant in front of her, she felt dizzy and collapsed backward.
Xiano quickly caught her. "What's wrong, Bellemere?"
"I'm fine. Let go of me. I just need some time to process this…"
Bellemere sat cross-legged on the carpet, staring blankly at the coffee table for a long time.
After gulping down the water Xiano handed her, she finally began to accept reality.
"I told you, didn't I?" she murmured. "Your Bloodline must be extraordinary. It started awakening as soon as you reached the right age. Your parents must have been some incredible figures, maybe even royalty…"
"Wait, I don't think this has anything to do with Bloodline, does it?"
Xiano was puzzled. "I just won a championship and made some money. It's all good news. Why are you having such a hard time accepting it…"
"I'm talking about your height! Your height! It's great to grow during puberty, but who grows over ten centimeters in a month?!"
Bellemere angrily punched Xiano's calf. "What's going on with you?! Do you know how much I've knitted for you this past month? Two sweaters, three pairs of long johns, half-finger gloves, full-finger gloves…"
"Now none of them fit or are useful anymore. I'll have to unravel them all, boohoo…"
So that's why she's upset!
Xiano facepalmed, then suddenly noticed the thick stack of newspapers piled up on the wooden cabinet nearby. He couldn't help but ask, "You've been buying newspapers every day while I was away?"
"I was worried you might miss some news out there."
Bellemere pouted. "But I didn't read them. They've just been sitting there. I only found out about your exploits on Asakura Island when the neighbors started talking about it. I couldn't sleep all night that day."
"What about Nami and Nojiko? How did they react?"
"What do you think?"
Bellemere replied irritably.
At the time, she was both worried and somewhat relieved, tossing and turning all night.
Nami and Nojiko, on the other hand, didn't overthink it. They were beyond excited, especially Nami, who practically wanted to jump to the sky.
She ran from one end of the village to the other every day, bragging to everyone she could find, making sure the whole village knew her brother had become a big shot in the East Blue.
Even the big white dog at the village entrance had its ears pulled by her every day as she repeated the news, to the point where it started running away with its tail between its legs whenever it saw her.
The two parrots next door were no exception. Their favorite phrases now were "My brother! Champion!" and "My brother! Hero!"
Xiano listened, sweating profusely.
For the next while, the chickens, ducks, and geese in the village would probably look at him a bit differently.
He shook his head, picked up the stack of newspapers, and sat down on the sofa.
He was just about to read through them to see if there was any noteworthy news.
At that moment, the door was quietly pushed open a crack, and a small, dirty figure with orange hair tiptoed in, carrying her shoes, sneaking around the back of the sofa towards the bathroom...
"Come here!"
Bellemere said sternly, "Do you think I'm blind? Can't see a little mud monkey coming into the house, and can't see the two dirty shoe prints on the floor?"
Oh no! A slip-up! Nami turned her head to look at the two black marks on the floor and slapped her forehead in frustration. She should have sneaked in through the kitchen window!
"Tell me the truth, where did you go? When you left this morning, didn't you say you were going to the bookstore to read?"
"I wasn't lying, Bellemere. I did go to read at first, but the bookstore was too small. I've already read almost all the books on navigation and nautical charts that I'm interested in... Huh? Brother?!"
Nami, who had been walking with her head down, suddenly noticed someone lying on the sofa next to her. When she saw that familiar face, her eyes widened in surprise.
"When did you come back!"
She exclaimed joyfully, throwing herself into Xiano's arms, raising her hands to pinch his cheeks, "You didn't even come to call me back, how mean... Ouch! That hurts!"
She had rushed in too hard, and her nose had hit Xiano's firm chest, making her nose sting and almost bringing tears to her eyes.
"Tsk tsk tsk, you've turned into Buggy."
Xiano teased her, looking at her red and swollen nose with schadenfreude.
But when he looked down and saw his shirt covered in mud spots, and then turned to the mirror to see two dirty handprints on his face, his expression darkened, and he couldn't laugh anymore.
"Hehe, gotcha~"
Nami made a face, her scheme successful, "Serves you right! Who told you to sneak off alone that morning without saying goodbye to me and Nojiko!"
"I was afraid you two would turn into crybabies."
Xiano said irritably, wiping his face hard with a towel, "Besides, I trust Nojiko, but you, little troublemaker, if you had followed us to the dock that morning, you might have sneaked onto the ship when we weren't looking. I didn't want to drag a burden around with me."
"Who's a burden! I've grown up a lot now, and I'm really good at fighting! Just now, two monkeys in the mountains teamed up, and I beat them until they were running all over the place!"
"Monkeys in the mountains?"
Bellemere caught on to something, her anger rising, "Wait! You got yourself so dirty because you went to the mountains to fight with monkeys?!"
"I had no choice."
Nami blinked, looking innocent, "I held up a newspaper photo and told them my brother is a champion, but they just kept eating fruit in the trees, rolled their eyes, and ignored me. I got so mad I threw a rock at them, and then we started fighting."
This unlucky child!
Bellemere gritted her teeth, dragging her by the ear to the bathroom, "Wash yourself properly! Honestly, if there's a next time, see how I deal with you. I don't even expect you to be like Xiano, when will you ever be as sensible as Nojiko!"
Creak~
The door was pushed open again, and both Xiano on the sofa and Bellemere at the bathroom door instinctively turned their heads to look.
A disheveled blue-haired girl appeared at the doorway, her face bruised and swollen, her pants torn in several places, and only one shoe left on her foot.
Her eyes lit up with joy when she saw Xiano, but then she met Bellemere's murderous gaze and couldn't help shrinking back, forcing an awkward smile:
"Well, there's a reason for this. I was talking about Brother Xiano with the big goose at the village entrance, but it lost patience halfway through and tried to run away, so I ended up fighting with it. Unfortunately, I was just a bit short of winning..."
PS: In the previous chapter, the price of Luffy's straw hat was adjusted slightly, and I've seen your comments. It's not about temporarily suppressing the power levels; it's actually part of the early outline set before the book started. The main idea is to avoid inflation of item prices, everyone.
The prices of items in the shop won't be set too high. A few thousand Points would already be considered extremely rare, and the vast majority of items will be priced within three digits. The difficulty of obtaining the straw hat isn't too high either. Giving out hundreds of thousands or millions of Points and then having prices skyrocket would just be playing a joke on everyone, T
(End of Chapter)