the King of Pirates of the East Sea

After Sig finished speaking, Benn Beckman and the others exchanged glances, their expressions somewhat peculiar.

The Sixty Emperors of the Sea?

Just imagining that scene was… overwhelmingly absurd.

"Looks like Mr. Sig has had too much to drink…"

This was Benn Beckman's first thought.

But upon closer reflection, he couldn't help but feel that Sig's words didn't seem entirely like drunken rambling.

The names Sig had casually dropped caught his attention.

Redfield the Lone Wolf… This was a legendary pirate from Roger's era. Without any crew, he had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Roger, Whitebeard, and others on the Grand Line based solely on his own strength.

Yet, later on, this legendary pirate had mysteriously vanished.

Douglas Bullet, the Devil's Heir…

Benn Beckman was familiar with this name too. He glanced at his captain, Shanks.

Bullet, like Shanks, had once been a member of the Pirate King Roger's crew.

Even back then, Bullet's strength was said to rival that of the Pirate King's right hand, Silvers Rayleigh. He was considered a monster within the Roger Pirates.

Such a powerful individual had vanished shortly after the disbandment of the Roger Pirates. Rumor had it he was captured by the Marines and imprisoned in Impel Down.

As for the others—Sanjuan Wolf, the Colossal Battleship, Avalo Pizarro, the Evil Ruler, and Catarina Devon, the Crescent Moon Hunter…

Though their names weren't as renowned as the former two, they were still infamously dangerous pirates, with massive reputations for violence and cruelty.

Among them, a few names were so obscure that even Benn Beckman, widely regarded as highly knowledgeable, had never heard of them before.

"Could these pirates really have been taken down by Mr. Sig and then sent to the Marines for imprisonment in Impel Down?"

Benn Beckman fell silent.

The possibility was too shocking to contemplate, and he didn't want to think about it any further.

"What does the Captain think? Shanks once served aboard the Pirate King's ship—he should know more about these secrets than we do, right?"

"Is this Sig fellow bluffing, or is there truth to his words?"

Benn Beckman turned his attention to his captain, Shanks, hoping to gauge his reaction.

What he saw, however, was Shanks guzzling down a large swig of alcohol, already arm-in-arm with Sig:

"Mr. Sig, you're amazing!"

Benn Beckman: "…"

It seemed Shanks wasn't concerned at all about whether Sig's words were true or false.

He had clearly made a mistake in placing any hope on this carefree captain of his.

Beside them, young Luffy was also listening intently, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he heard Sig continue his braggadocious tales:

"Wow, Uncle, you're so strong!"

"So this is what a mountain bandit is like?"

Sig, now drunk, let his nonsensical boasts flow freely, one after another.

Even the members of the Red-Haired Pirates, seasoned as they were, couldn't help but find themselves deeply engrossed in his stories.

Many of the secrets Sig shared from the old era were things even they had never heard before. Yet the man before them recounted them with such vivid detail that it felt entirely believable.

Nearby, the Red-Haired crew's sniper, Yasopp, noticed the starry-eyed Luffy staring at Sig. A mischievous thought crossed his mind, and he teased:

"Luffy, didn't you say you wanted to become the Pirate King someday?"

"Look at how amazing Mr. Sig is. When you grow up, why not become a Mountain Bandit King instead?"

As soon as he said this, Yasopp burst into laughter, and the rest of the crew joined in, their laughter echoing all around.

Only Sig, seated nearby, suddenly jolted upright as if splashed with cold water. Most of his drunken haze dissipated in an instant.

Future Mountain Bandit King Luffy?

Wasn't that joke a bit too much?

The thought of a grown-up Luffy declaring, "I'm going to be the Mountain Bandit King!" nearly made Sig laugh out loud at the absurdity.

"When I was young, I also dreamed of choosing between Tsinghua University and Peking University…"

"But choosing between the Pirate King and the Mountain Bandit King? That's like deciding between Tsinghua and Peking University!"

Sig chuckled at the absurdity of it all.

However, what made Sig's heart skip a beat was that young Luffy didn't answer right away. It seemed like he was genuinely pondering whether to become the Pirate King or the Mountain Bandit King.

Sig put down the bottle of liquor, his expression turning serious. The lines of his face hardened visibly.

Damn it.

He definitely didn't want to see Luffy go down the wrong path and end up aiming to be some "Mountain Bandit King."

Even if Luffy decided to become the "King of the Marines," that would be ten thousand times better than becoming the Mountain Bandit King!

With that thought in mind, Sig looked at Luffy earnestly and spoke in a deep voice:

"A man's dreams aren't something to be joked about."

The low, solemn tone reverberated through the tavern, halting the surrounding laughter in an instant.

The previously relaxed atmosphere suddenly grew tense again.

"A man's dreams…"

Young Luffy's starry eyes sparkled even brighter.

He was still just a kid. Even when he declared he would become the Pirate King, no one ever truly took him seriously.

Not even Shanks and his crew—more often than not, they'd simply laugh it off as a joke.

But now, for the first time, Luffy met someone who addressed him as a man.

Every child, deep down, wants to be seen as an equal by adults, to be treated as a full-fledged individual with respect.

And in Luffy's short life so far, Sig was the very first person to call him a man.

"That's right!"

Sig's gaze held a meaningful depth as he looked at Luffy.

"A man's dreams… never end. It has nothing to do with age."

As he spoke, Sig casually reached for the straw hat Shanks had left on the bar. His expression didn't fluctuate much, but there was a faint trace of emotion in his eyes, just enough to convey a sense of nostalgia.

"Roger's straw hat…"

Sig crouched down in front of Luffy, the corners of his lips curling into a warm, encouraging smile as he gently placed the straw hat on young Luffy's head.

"Roger's straw hat—it suits you quite well."

"Mountain bandits like me are just relics of the old era, hiding away in some remote corner of the world."

"But every man with a dream in his heart should set sail for the sea."

Sig's deep voice resonated throughout the tavern, but more importantly, it resonated in young Luffy's heart.

"Dreams… The sea…"

Luffy's mind became entirely occupied by these words.

For a moment, he didn't know how to respond. He simply stood there, dazed, clutching the oversized straw hat on his head.

"Mr. Sig…"

Nearby, Shanks and the rest of the crew were stunned into silence. Their expressions were a mixture of surprise and subtle amusement as they watched the interaction between Sig and Luffy.

Under their gazes, Sig fully came to his senses.

At that moment, he was crouching in front of Luffy, having placed the straw hat on the boy's head.

The hat was far too big for young Luffy, covering nearly his entire face.

The scene seemed to freeze in time.

"Hmm? Why does this look so familiar…?"

Sig thought about it for a moment—and then it hit him like a bolt of lightning.

Holy crap.

Wasn't this exactly like when Shanks was about to set sail, saying goodbye to Luffy, and entrusted him with the straw hat?

The only difference was that the person holding the straw hat wasn't Red-Haired Shanks…

It was him, Sig, the so-called Mountain Bandit King!