In the first week of the second month, all of Naraka stopped.
It was not a decision by the factory owners.
Marine ships arrived at the port in the early morning and stopped work everywhere.
Sailors in white clothes walked through the streets and ordered everyone to head toward the large square in the north of the island.
There was no choice in the matter.
---
Pablo and Marco arrived with the crowd.
The square was already full. Thousands of Naraka's workers and their families stood and wondered.
In the middle of the square was a huge Den Den Mushi, larger than any Pablo had seen before.
A Marine officer stood in front of the crowd with a serious face.
"By order of the World Governnt, every citizen is obligated to watch the execution of the pirate Gold Roger, the so-called Pirate King. So that everyone understands that pirates have only one end."
A light murmur spread through the crowd.
Pablo looked at the huge Den Den Mushi.
He knew what was going to happen.
But his knowledge did not lessen the weight of the mont in any way.
---
The broadcast began.
The scene from Loguetown appeared on the Den Den Mushi.
A huge execution platform in the middle of a square crowded with people from everywhere.
And on the platform, restrained and under heavy guard, stood a man.
Tall, with black hair and a smile that did not suit soone about to die.
Gol D. Roger.
The Pirate King.
Pablo looked at him through the Den Den Mushi.
A man who reached the end of the world and saw everything.
Now he stood there with that smile of his.
---
One of the guards shouted at the crowd in Loguetown.
"Gold Roger, Pirate King, where have you hidden all your treasure!"
An enormous uproar from the crowd there.
So shouted in anger, so cried, and so waited in silence.
Roger looked at the crowd with calm eyes.
Then he opened his mouth.
His voice was quieter than everyone expected, but the Den Den Mushi carried it to every ear.
---
"My treasure? If you want it, you can have it."
Complete silence.
"I left it all in that place."
Then he closed his eyes, and the smile did not leave his face.
He was stabbed twice in the heart.
---
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
Then the world exploded.
---
In Naraka's square, no one said anything for a few seconds.
Then Pablo turned slowly and looked at the people around him.
Marco was standing with his mouth open, his eyes wide and with sothing igniting in them.
The man beside him, a huge worker who had been at the fish factory for years, was looking ahead with eyes that were no longer the sa. A fiery look that had not existed a minute ago.
A woman behind him gripped her husband's hand tightly and looked at him, and in her eyes was the sa fire.
A young man of seventeen beside them was trembling slightly from excitent, not from fear.
Pablo looked at all of them.
This is how the Age of Pirates begins.
Not with a ship or a sword.
But with two words from a condemned man.
---
And Pablo felt sothing in his chest.
Sothing old and buried.
A strange desire to take to the sea.
To search.
To be part of this great madness.
But it died out quickly.
He knew what these people did not.
He knew how many of those fiery-eyed people would die at sea before they found anything.
He knew that the sea does not spare those who sail it with only a dream and no power.
And he did not yet possess power.
He extinguished that desire quietly and continued looking ahead.
---
After the broadcast ended, people began to move slowly.
But the square was no longer the sa.
Murmurs from every direction.
"Roger's treasure is real?"
"Where is that place?"
"Am I capable of..."
Pablo walked through the people toward the factory.
The Marines wanted to deter people.
They achieved the exact opposite.
---
At the factory on the sa day, Pablo noticed Tom standing by his desk with Rava in front of him.
The conversation was short.
Tom spoke quietly, and Rava's face changed from red to pale.
After minutes, Rava left the factory with his bag and did not return.
When Tom passed by Pablo later, he gave him one quick glance.
He did not say anything.
But the next day, when Pablo ca to his usual spot in the middle of the belt, Tom pointed him toward the beginning.
"From today, here."
The beginning of the belt.
Where the fruit arrived first and where the pressure was less because dozens of hands ca after you.
The rest of the workers looked at Pablo.
So turned their faces away.
So continued their work faster than usual.
No one spoke.
But their looks said everything.
---
In the evening, when they returned to the room, Pablo noticed Marco.
His face was paler than usual.
His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep.
And when he sat on his bed, he took out dry bread and ate it slowly.
Pablo looked at him.
"When was the last ti you ate real food?"
"Good food is expensive."
"Your body carries fish boxes for twelve hours a day and eats dry bread."
"I save what I can."
"Saving is useless if you beco sick and cannot work."
Marco looked at him with tired eyes.
"You talk like an old man."
"I talk with logic."
Marco fell silent and continued eating his bread.
Pablo did not push more.
He said what needed to be said.
Then he added quietly:
"Your salary is enough for both good food and saving if you calculate properly."
Marco looked at him.
"Maybe."
He said neither yes nor no.
Pablo looked at his pale face and knew.
He would not change his habits anyti soon.
---
At night, Pablo went out as usual toward the edge of the island.
He stood before the sea in the darkness.
Today was a different day.
Roger had died.
And with his death, sothing bigger than death began.
Now on every island, every village, and every city in this world, there were eyes igniting.
People who had been living their lives quietly decided today to beco pirates.
And after twenty years, a small child in a remote village nad Monkey D. Luffy would appear.
And he would change the entire world.
Pablo looked at the horizon.
He would not be a pirate.
But he had to be strong enough to live in a world filling up with them.
And rich enough to protect himself when necessary.
The price?
Any price.
He turned his back to the sea and walked back toward the lights of Naraka.
The road is still long.
But he is walking.
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