The Pirates of the Round Table

by Luis78912

After their smashing victory against Donquixote Doflamingo at Dressrosa, Luffy and his band of misfits end up sucked into a mystical whirlpool that transports each one of them into a magical medieval land full of fairies, demons, goddesses and talking pigs. Yup, another usual day for the Strawhat Pirates. Contains Spoilers post Dressrosa and mentions up to Wano.

2. Chapter 2

The Pirates of the Round Table 2

Alas! Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew have shipwrecked into the magical and medieval land of Britania scattered from their friends. Luckily, they were able to meet a humble Tavern owner by the name of Lostvayne and his talking snarky pig Hawk. Trouble woulnd't wait for our heroes though as they came across the Princess of Britannia Elizabeth Lioness. She plead everyone to help her find 7 criminals named the 7 deadly sins that would help her save her kingdom. Just when they were about to make their final decision, they were suddenly attacked by the Holy Knight Sir Twigo of the Kingdom of Lioness. For their salvation, Zoro was able to effortlessly beat him in combat, leaving Lostvayne and co. impressed. With the Princess promising to compensate the group with great treasures and prizes if they help her and due to Luffy's heart of gold, the group of the future Pirate King embarks on a new adventure to save another country in distress and find their lost friends.

Still not having a clue on how wicked the new Vampire King of Lioness, the son of the former Vampire King Izraf, Dracula can be. Not only in raw power, but in how he can be able to break strong bonds of friendship and love apart…

Chapter 2: The Shocking Secret of Lostvayne! The Legend of Sir Usopp!

The group was watching from a window the plains of Britania while Hawk Mama was strolling to the grassy fields of the land. Funny that they were leaving from a country where a princess wants outside help to defeat a corrupt usurper to well, a country where a princess wants outside help to defeat a corrupt usurper. Probably its was some sort of curse Luffy had that made him such a princess magnet.

"Hey there. Enjoying the view?" Lostvayne walked in, which made the rest turn to see him. "Well, at least I'm glad you're doing so. Though, don't expect that I will just let you all stay on the Boar Hat for free."

"Sight… Let me guess…" Nami groaned in irritation. "You want to touch my boobs, don't you?"

"Well, it wouldn't be that bad if you wish to pay your rent by doing so, but actually no." He surprisingly decline Nami's supsition. "All I want is for you to help me manage my tavern. It's already hard doing so when only me and Hawk are the only staff on the Boar Hat."

"Sheesh! I'm least I'm glad that you aren't thinking with your horniness." Hawk was relief that his friend Lostvayne wasn't thinking about his pervert thoughts first. "Anyways, sorry to disappoint y'all, but the position of Captain of the Order of Scraps Disposal is already taken! A.K.A. the best position of the Boar Hat." Hawk stood up as he felt proud of having the title of the official janitor. "But if you wish to be my loyal disciples, you're free from doing so!"

"So anyways, seeing your capabilities, I've think I've already chosen your roles." Lostvayne snapped his fingers to bring their attention. "So as for you Luffy, you'll be a waiter as your stretching powers can be useful for that. You too Elizabeth." He pointed at the pirate with the Straw Hat, which was received by complains. He hoped for a better role, but still he had some experience for his stay at the Baratie. "And you Sanji, since you claim to be a better cook than I am, I'll proclaim you the new chef of the Boar Hat."

"Hah! Finally!" Sanji laughed as he rearranged his apron. "Your tavern will at least be now called a true tavern with you out of the kitchen."

"Haha… How funny." The kid just ignored the cook as he look at the 2 swordsman. "As for you, it'll be better to position the both of you as bouncer. Basically, your main job is to kick out any unwanted patrons out of the Boar Hat."

"Heh! Kinda of an easy task is you ask me." Zorojuro sighted as he stood up, having been tasked with the most interesting of tasks.

"And you Nami, you'll be our treasurer. You'll be keeping a check on the Boar Hat's budget and such." Lostvayne pointed at the Naviagor, which made her eyes turn into berry symbols. At least is a better job rather than some provocative waiter.

"But what about me?" Usopp asked as he didn't knew what job will he take inside the Inn.

"Oh right." He continued. "I think you can be the supply supervisor. In other words, keeping an eye on food or such to see if we need to buy."

"Oh… I guess it's fine…" Usopp felt disappointed on the job he was tasked into doing. Although, now that he re-thinks it for some time more and he admitted that he wasn't going to be a better candidate for another task.

"Oh, speaking of which, I think it would be better to know about my staff. How about you, oh brave explorer Luffylumbus?" The kid turned to ask Straw Hat Luffy.

"Shishishi!" Luffy let out a chuckle. "Well, I am Monkey D. Luffy and I'm planning into becoming the next Pir-" Just when he was about to proclaim his dream, he was stopped by Nami who shut his mouth and pull him into his direction. "Hey! What gives Nami?"

"I think it would be better to hide the fact that we're pirates Luffy." The red-haired whispered through her captain's ear. "Did you see how powerful that bastard was back there? And I don't want to hear from someone that he was the weakest."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth, Hawk and Lostvayne were looking at the group puzzled on why did Nami just went and stopped the teen from speaking. "Is there something wrong?" The runaway princess politely asked the Navigator.

"Ahaha! Yes! My captain Luffy here was about to say that he was about to become the next Pirate slayer. After all, him coming from the west part of the world and sailing all the way down here can make you fight with dastardly pirates, amirite?"

The blonde kid rubbed 2 of his fingers between his chin, making Nami worried about him not really buying the whole tale. "Oh, you mean the country of America?" He clarified. Which was a relief for Nami to say the least. "I've heard many things about that country from my patrons that have come or visited that faraway country. They say they are one of the most technological advanced civilizations without using any sort of magic. Kinda impressive, don't you think?"

"REALLY!? I wa-" Luffy was shut again by Nami.

"Well of course. What a country to live in!" Nami replied with a fake smile. "Don't you think, LUFFY?" She then menacingly narrowed at the Straw Hat, which made the rubber boy frightened by the scary look of her navigator.

"Y-yup, I love my country America. Ahahah!" He then laughed while sweating nervously to not suffer Nami's wrath upon him. Otherwise, his quest to become the Pirate King would end right here and now.

Sometime later, the giant female boar carrying the entire establishment halted, causing some commotion inside the Boar Hat. The pirates and the princess weren't prepared for Mama Hawk to do such a brute move and fell through their rumps aside from Lostvayne and Hawk who were more used to these kinds of events.

"Ow… My butt…" Usopp cursed before getting up and rubbing his backside.

"I'm sure that butt of yours could have significantly cushion your fall." The kid told Nami as he helped the princess of the country on getting up. And for no one's surprise, she slapped Lostvayne once again to knock some sense back into him.

"Oh! Are we there yet Lost-Vine?" Luffy looked at the leading child of the group. It wasn't long for the rubber teenager to put a nickname for Lostvayne as he was mostly used to give people outside his crew nicknames to remember them well.

"You can put it that way." He replied as he opened the door of his tavern, allowing the rays of the sun to bath the establishment. The group left the inn to be greeted by an astonishing view of their next destination. "Well, may I welcome you all to Bernia village." He presented everyone their next destination before heading through the Forest of White Dreams to convince Diane to join their cause. "By the way Elizabeth, you better put this on." Lostvayne handed to Elizabeth a hood for her to wear. "It's for the best to remain hidden. We aren't sure if any villager or servants of Liones would be present to deliver you to the 3 new leaders of the kingdom."

The princess was skeptical about this, but she knew that It was for the best and decided to put the hood to hide her identity for now.

The group strolled down the road, passing through the green and clear fields that lead to the humble village, not before the giant green boar would dig herself into the ground, leaving only the Boar Hat visible.

"So Lostvayne-Donno, is there anything special for us to do a small stop into this humble village?" Kinemon the Samurai asked the bartender of the Boar Hat while holding his son Momonosuke by the hand.

"You see, me and Hawk normally wander all over the country looking for the finest liquors, but Bernia's stuff is special." He added as they walked through a small brick bridge. "You can find the cleanest and cleanest water around all of Britania here. And with the groot grown down by the river, its used to aid Bernia's ale. It's mostly known as a farmer's paradise."

Though, the weird part is that when they were crossing the bridge, Hawk and Zorojuro noticed that it was a river bridge, but the only thing that it lacked was a river to be considered one. "Well, I don't know if you're lying, cuz all I see here are dead plants and a bone-dry river." The green-haired swordsman added as everyone turned their attention to see the once-lively plants turned into dry and dead crops.

"A river without water? Who could have done this?" Elizabeth asked herself, confused about how could a river just stopped from flowing water all of the sudden.

"Could it be one of those Seven Deadly Sins?" Luffy thought innocently.

"Hmm… Maybe, but who knows?" Lostvayne interrupted everyone for them to finally enter the farmer village of Bernia. Once they all arrived, they noticed a lot of people gathered on the center.

"Haha! Just look all of these people in the square." Elizabeth gleamed, thinking that all of those people were celebrating something.

"Oh! Could it be a festival? Because I love parties!" Luffy thought as he walked closer to the crowd, not before being stopped by Sanji who grabbed him by his body.

"I couldn't really called it a festival." The blonde chef added before puffing a cloud of smoke from his cigarette. "Just look at their expressions, they seemed too worried and anguished about something. How odd…" He mumbled while Nami stepped in to ask the townsfolk about what was happening.

"Excuse me, but why are so many people gathered here?" The redhaired Navigator asked a burly villager of why many people are so gathered into one place.

"Is it a festival?" Luffylombus asked while literally stretching his neck to ask. Of course, this was received by shrieks of terror from the local villagers.

"Does this look like a damn festival to you, monster?" The villager responded with terror and disguist over the weird power Luffy possessed. "We're trying to pluck off a sword some blasted Holy Knight shoved into." He then showed the group of heroes the planted sword into the center of the plaza, having all of the citizens of Bernia trying to get it off, but with all of them being futile efforts.

Elizabeth took a better look at the jabbed sword in the ground, only to widen her eyes in terror. "I-i-I recognize that sword…" She frightfully muttered.

"Wait, you do?" Hawk looked at the runaway princess feeling surprised that she knew who impaled the sword in the first place.

The 3rd daughter of the king requested the group to have a little private chat for the other to not hear anything and cause disturbance amongst the crown. "T-that sword, it belongs to the Holy Knight… Gilthunder…"

"Gilthunder?" Lostvayne asked. "You mean that thunder-controlling Holy Knight and son of the former Grandmaster Zaratras?"

"Uhh… Excuse me, is that bad Rust-chan?" Luffy interrupted, very puzzled about what the 2 were talking about.

"I'it's just that it weirds me…" Elizabeth added, feeling uneasy about why the sword of her former childhood friend would be impaled into the ground, terrorizing local villagers. "Gilthunder also witnessed the death of his father like me, so this couldn't be right. D-did he really did this with his own free will? It can't be! T-there's must be a reason for why he must do this…"

"Hmm…" The young innkeeper thought for some moments. "Now that you're mention it. It could be due to the fact that the Holy Knights aren't being controlled or supervised." He theorized on why would a supposedly "Hero" of Brittania would torment a village of innocents. "Whatever Hendrickson, Dreyfus and the 3rd mastermind are planning, they're allowing the Holy Knights to do whatever they want without any signs of repercussions. No wonder they wanted those 3 on power."

"Is there something in the matter, fellow visitors?" An elder man walked near the Strawhats and his friends to see what's in the matter, which made all of them look at the man. "Oh! Young Lostvayne. We weren't expecting your visit on these desperate times. Forgive us but seems that today we can't offer you our Vayne liquor."

"Nah, it's alright. We actually came to see if you can sell us some food, supplies and such." He turned to the elder man while guarding both of his hands between his pockets. "Guys, this man here is the Major of Bernia."

"Hi there gramps." Luffy was the first to politely salute. "My name's Luff- I mean, Luffylombus. And these here are my friends!" Luffy introduced each one of them with the kindness of his heart.

"Charmed." Sanji said with calm before lighting up his cigarette again. "So what's the big deal with the sword then?"

"Well you see, the Holy Knight that came here infused his sword with Mana, preventing the water from flowing down the river." The Mayor of the town replied with woe. "If we don't do something quick, our hard-work will be go to waste and there won't be crops to make our special drink. We're truly sorry for these inconveniences." He apologized the adventurers about the issues they were having about the sword in the stone.

"Have you tried to pull It even harder?" Luffy thought that using brute strength alone would solve this predicament.

"Unfortunately young adventurer, that won't do." The Mayor shook his head. "It says that only a Holy Knight is able to pull a sword impaled by another Holy Knight. But even still, we are clinging to that inexistent hope, growing desperate every second." The Mayor then looked at the people trying their best into pulling the blade, without any positive news about it.

"Aw, come on! Give me a break!" A young child voice came walking near the team of heroes. The kid in particular had some sort of weird hair to say the least, something similar to the one Ludwig Von Koopa has in Mario. "What's with all this moaning and groaning?"

"Ah great… It's Mead…" One of the villagers groaned out of frustration, which caused a chain reaction amongst all the townsfolk to act disguisted and hateful toward the little brat.

"Ha! I can't believe how pathetic you guys all are!" He exclaimed to everyone as he stood tall and straight while having all eyes on him. "If my buddies the Seven Deadly Sins were here, that piece of junk would be soon gone by now!" He boasted with confidence while swiping his nose.

"Shut it Mead!" One of the villagers shouted at the small kid furiously. "It was your fault that we're on this predicament in the first place! And to top it all of, you have to mention those blasted criminals too?"

Though, for Usopp, he somehow knew what Mead what talking about were nothing more than lies. Even still, he was beginning to feel some sympathy over the kid as it reminded him over his early days on Syrup Village before after her mother's passing.

"Yeah! She's right! We don't need to anger the kingdom of Liones anymore!" Another man complained about that it was the kid's fault for their water to not be working as always.

"T-the kingdom of Liones?" Elizabeth stammered nervously.

"Do you have wax in your ears or what?" One of the villagers proclaimed to the hooded princess' face. "That little runt made one of the representants of Liones angry, punishing us that if we don't pull that damn thing off, we have to pay twice our taxes or we'll get our town destroyed! Ever since the old king got sick on bed and got replaced temporally by the 2 new grand masters and the new king, the Kingdom of Lioness has become stricter recently."

"N-no! I had to do it! I couldn't let that Holy Knight diss our town!" Mead tried to make an argument for why he enraged Gilthunder in the first place.

"Who cares? All you did was dragging us into an irreparable mess, you little rat!" One of the villagers shouted at the kid's face. "We are having enough of your goddamn mischief and lies!"

"You're suck a jerk!" A girl picked a rock and threw it at Mead, only for him to dodge it which resulted into landing into Lostvayne's face. The rest of the town continued to throw rocks at the kid to show their grudge over the child. Only for Usopp to throw away his fear for awhile and take the kid away.

"I-I hate you all! I hate you! I hate you!" Mead began to curse their villagers as Usopp was tanking all of the rocks. Luckily, the Major stepped in to stop the rest of the others from continuing from throwing rocks at the child.

"Oi! W-wait for us Uso-I mean Hassop!" Luffylombus ran toward his good ol' friend only for Lostvayne and Sanji to follow them, only to end up inside the Boar Hat again.

"Man, we picked the wrong time to come here…" Hawk signed as he saw his human friend retreat back into the tavern.

---

"Well, that sure must suck." Lostvayne sighted as he dusted off his clothes and gave the child a seat to sit down. "Anyways kid, why do they-"

"Don't go call me like that!" Mead barked at the blonde kid. "You're a kid like me."

"Well, actually i'm older that I look." The bartender of the Boar Hat added, which surprised both Luffy and Usopp at the same time. "By the way, welcome to the Boar Hat and I run this place. Fortunately, our chef here can make your taste buds melt with his food."

"Hey, why should I cook for some brat? I would if he would be hungry, but not just because of a whim." Sanji looked at the owner of the Inn for why use his culinary skills right now.

"I'm technically your boss, and I'm sure you could make him something to ease off his stress." The Bartender added a point on why, which the curly-eyebrowed pirate couldn't negate. He got up from his seat and went to the kitchen to get working.

Some seconds later, he came back with a plate for Mead to eat. "Here kid, eat this. I'm sure it will make you less stressed about this situation." Sanji offered a plate of roasted chicken legs to the kid.

"Man! This looks delicious!" Mead exclaimed before taking a bite. Once he did, he almost passed down on how delicious it was.

"Alright, now with that out of the picture…" Lostvayne came in before serving himself a cup of booze for himself. "Is it true? Are you really friends with the Seven Deadly Sins?"

"Well…" Mead drawled before his expression would change one into a gloomy one. "I couldn't lie to someone who offered me food for free… To be honest, I was just lying…"

"But why would you lie to everyone if it only brings you trouble?" Usopp asked the kid for why he did that, but Mead only turned to see the long-nose man.

"Hey, why did you even saved me back there? I'm just a petty liar who tries to tick off people with made up junk." Mead asked himself for why the Sniper of the group would step in and rescue him from the array of falling rocks.

The teen just shrugged for some seconds… "Well… to be frankly, you kinda reminded me of myself from long time ago."

Suddenly, Elizabeth came in alongside Hawk. "Sorry for being late. The others are trying to do their best to pull out the sword or at least find a way." She added before taking a seat with the rest.

"Oh, is there something I can do for you Elizabeth-Chan?" Sanji was on his love mode as he was ready to receive orders from a beautiful princess such as her.

"Uhh… Maybe later Sir Sanji…" She declined before looking back at Mead. "So Mead, I heard you are quite the troublemaker among your village. The Major told me everything, so there's nothing to hide young sir."

"Oh, what did the old man told you?" Luffy looked intrigued on what the Major of Bernia told Elizabeth about Mead.

"Well… He told me you got your reasons for behaving like that, don't you Mead?" The princess softly smiled at the boy with a warm smile on her face, trying to make Mead talk.

"Hmph…" He only frowned and looked at another direction. "And who do you think you are to lecture me? My, my…" Mead's eyes began to sprout tears, as if he was remembering something that saddens him all of the sudden.

Elizabeth then bent over Mead to see him better after he decided to look back. "Well, when I was the same age as you, I was as much of a prankster as yourself. I always sneaked around on places to explore so I can grab the attention of my dad and my friends." She told him the days when she was just a small child, always playing and getting into trouble. "Once, I climbed a tree so I can see if my dad could also do so since I have never seen him climbing one. And he did, but he fell and hurt himself, but there weren't any fatal injuries." She ended, reminding those happy days where she, her sisters and her father used to hang out like a family, causing her to sob small tears before wiping them out. "But, if he were to die for my selfishness, I couldn't forgive myself from doing so… There must be a good reason for why are you doing this, so it would be nice for you to tell us so we can resolve this."

Mead only clenched his hands in frustration before slamming the table. "It's easy for you to say that! at least you have a dad!" He wailed as he tried to hold his tears from what he was remembering. "I don't lie for the sake of lying or irk people! I-I I…"

"Are you jealous because you don't have parents, don't you?" Usopp talked it, cutting the kid short as he hit directly on the spot like the expert sniper he was.

"Well, guess it's no use hiding it any longer…" Mead drawled before telling the reason why he became a lying child in the first place. "M-my mom and dad were once brave and renowned adventurers all across Britania… They seek out treasures and lost history over the land, gaining a good reputation amongst the village… they met a lot of amazing people such as self-proclaimed Samurais and even some sort of Pirate King… Even the 2 of them decided to come here peacefully and throw a big party all around the village, well… that's what they used to told me." He told them, remembering his loving parents and how much they admired them, which cause the pirates to gasp once they heard the name of the Pirate King. Could his parents met the one and only Gol D. Roger? "But a year ago, my parents got sick and died during an epidemic…" He then started to sprout a waterfall of tears, remembering the painful day the plague took the 2 people he loved the most. "That's when the people of the village took me in and raised me as their own… Even still, I can't stop It from envying the other kids having parents caring for them…" He muttered on a gloomy matter. "T-that's why I began to lie and cause trouble… Because I just wish for a family like the others…"

The story caused the long-nose teen of the Strawhats to relate closer to him as it reminded him about his harsh times on Syrup Village, after his dad parted away to venture into the sea and his mother's passing.

"So that's why you put a bug into the Holy Knight's drink? Because you were upset?" Elizabeth questioned Mead on to why he sabotaged Gilthunder's drink, if the Holy Knight in question was actually her childhood friend.

"NO!" Mead slammed the table once again in frustration. "I didn't do it just for the kicks! That bastard was saying mean things about our town and I couldn't let his shit-eating grin stick out any longer!" Mead revealed on why he did that caused his village not getting their river flowning.

---

(Not so long ago…)

"Here… Bernia's Vanya liquor…" The Major of Bernia village poured today's brew into Gilthunder's glass, as he trembled over the Holy Knight's presence just like the rest of villagers. "Our village is proud of today's brew. We hope you enjoy it, Sir Gilthunder…"

"Hmph… I just hope this trash you pride so much about actually tastes as good as you boast about." The Pink-haired knight that was Gilthunder groaned as he felt disgusted about being surrounded by so much pleb. He tood a small sip before giving his honest point of view. "Disguising… If I were to drink horse piss or this, I would choose the prior."

Mead prior then felt attack that the ruthless Holy Knight could just insult the people of his town that casually, so he secretly put a worm inside Gilthunder's drink before he could take another sip in hopes of teaching him a lesson. The Holy Knight threw the glass into the floor once he noticed the bug in the drink.

"Is this how you treat a Holy Knight… Fine…" He snarled before implanting his sword at the center of the village, causing the water flowing in the river to stop, leaving it dry like a wasteland. "Listen her you sacks of shit. If you don't pluck this sword sooner or later, this village will pay twice the taxes to the Kingdom of Liones. And, if you still try to oppose us…" He then looked at the crawling worm trying to escape, only for Gilthunder to squash the worm beneath his metallic foot. "We'll have no other option but to purge this entire town…"

---

(Back to the present)

"We care about so much about our harvest. We put our heart and soul into making that ale! But he just insulted us like nothing! Those Holy Knights are nothing more than a bunch of villainous bullies!" He cursed the name of the Holy Knights of the Kingdom of Lioness for doing something so awful to his home.

"So, what's your deal about saying that you're good friends with the Seven Deadly Sins?" Lostvayne asked the child for what he says he allied with the most notorious criminals amongst all Lioness.

"B-because, if the Holy Knights are the bad guys, m-maybe the Seven Deadly Sins are actually the good guys!" The kid stated on why he said that. "M-maybe if I wish hard enough, someone from that group could come and help us, right? Right?" He became more delusional, repenting for what he did that caused Bernia to be in this predicament.

"Oi Moustache-hair, then I have something to tell." Luffy stood up, referring Mead as Moustache-Head as he usually gives nicknames to people he meets outside the Straw Hats and such. "Me and my friends are searching for the Seven Deadly Sins so we can see if they can help us save this country!" He exclaimed giving a thumbs up.

"Uhh? B-but why would you do that?" Mead jumped out from his seat due to the kid wearing the Straw Hat's declaration.

Luffy took a breath before confirming why he decided to help Britania. "Because, even if this could put a slight stop to my dreams, I can't break a promise I made to a friend." He smiled before looking at Elizabeth, confirming that despite the pirate with the straw hat not seeing himself as a self-righteous hero, he still like to help those in need. "And besides, they promised me a full feast worth of meat if we manage to save this country!"

Minutes later, Zoro and co. re-entered the bar looking tire for all their efforts from pulling out that sword. "Man… Whatever material that sword is made off, it seems that it's sticked like glue." The green-haired swordsman scuffled before taking a seat and taking a nap.

"Forgive us, Eli-" Kinemon was about to snitch out Elizabeth's identity until he noticed Mead's precense. "Ehem… Forgive me, my dear companion, but seems that our efforts to pull out that sword in the ground have been in vain. For that, we're truly sorry."

"Wait, eli as in, Elizabeth?" Mead thought about the name of the missing princess, but still it was nothing more than a loose shot.

Elizabeth tilted her dead down into the floor. "Well, it was time for you to figure it out." Elizabeth took off her hood, revealing her identity to the boy. "In actuality, I'm Elizabeth Lioness, the 3rd princess of the royal Lioness family…"

"WHAT!?" Mead jumped out of his seat, surprised that he was face to face with the lost princess herself. "Y-you're telling me you're princess Elizabeth the whole time?" He stammered In shock.

"Yes…" She affirmed. "To be frankly, I escaped from my kingdom right when the coup of the Holy Knights happened. I'm on a quest of reuniting the Seven Deadly Sins and see if they can help me defeat the evil Triumvirate ruling over my kingdom." She told the kid before looking at Lostvayne and the others. "Fortunately, I've met these kind adventurers eager to help me into fulfilling my quest. I tried to hide my identity during our visit to your town as I was afraid that any of you could notice the Holy Knights about my location. I'm truly sorry for acting like that." Elizabeth apologized for acting untrustworthy toward the people of Bernia.

"Nah, it's fine… I-I can get where are you going." Mead replied as he looked at the eyes of the princess. "Although, you shouldn't worry since our town is very kind to good-willed travelers. And, sorry for asking you this, b-but can I sleep here? Well, until the other townsfolk have become more calm after well, you know…"

"Oh, sure why not." Lostvayne replied as he stood up from his seat. "I'm glad on giving shelter to those in need after all. And don't worry, I won't ask for anything in return."

"Uh…. R-really?" Mead stammered a bit nervous. "T-thanks… Uh… what was your name again?"

"It's Lostvayne. Nice to meet ya." The Bartender waved while winking. "Just make sure to not cause anymore trouble or ruckus around here, will ya?"

---

During the night on the Boar Hat, Luffy was sleeping on the guest room of the tavern alongside Mead temporally. Nevertheless, Momonosuke who also shared room with the captain of the Straw Hats and Kinemon heard hammer blows over Bernia's plaza. It was surprising that he could hear from a far distance. Though, inside the mind of the kid, he would have never guessed he would visit this world once again. "Hey, Kinemon… Are you awake?" The young kid prod his "father" to see if he was awoken.

"Uhh… Something in the matter, Momonosuke-Sama?" Kinemon asked his "son" if there's something wrong. But Momo only shook his head to deny any danger around them.

"It's just… I don't know if I should tell you this…" The small child gulped some saliva before continuing. "It's just that, even if it sounds surprising, I've actually went to this place before all of this things would happen." He told the samurai of Wano that he indeed, have traveled to the land of Britania prior to their shipwrecked.

Meanwhile on the plaza, Usopp tried his best to figure another way to pull out the Holy Knight sword rather than to jank it off as most people would think. He hammered down over the area the sword was located in order to dig up a more open area and see if the weapon could loosen up. Of course, he was received by static shocks of the magic-infused sword. But no matter how many electrocutions would he receive, he continue to dig up, as he couldn't let down Mead and the rest of the town knowing that he also shared the same woes and pain as the child, prior to meeting and joining the Straw Hat Pirates.

---

(The Next Day)

"Alright, you lowlife scum!" One of the knights of Lioness who represented Sir Gilthunder announced to everyone, gathering the whole town into the plaza. "Sir Gilthunder is growing impatient, and he wants his sword already! So he had a change of plans! If you don't pull it until tomorrow, you'll all pay ten times the taxes!"

"Are you kidding us!?" One of the male villagers shriked in shock on how quickly the decided to charge them even more than usual. "How the hell the 2 expect for us to gather so much money?

"Yeah, and with you bastards clogging our water, we can barely produce a bottle, and that doesn't even cover that much money!" Another villager protested his anger against the 2 foot-soldiers.

"Uhh… Could you tone that down? I don't think the townsfolk would want to co-operate if we antagonize them even further." A familiar voice came in, resulting to be none other than Allioni from all people. And for everyone's surprise, he was promoted to Holy Knight Apprentice for him and his platoon being the ones who actually found out Elizabeth's existence and location, and also because Dracula, Dreyfus and Hendrickson thought that he would be a more competent knight than Twigo. "Ehem… Citizens of Bernia, I am Sir Allioni, Apprentice to Holy Knight under the wing of Sir Gilthunder." He announced to everyone in the plaza with a more neutral tone. "As you may know, your act of vulgary against the Holy Knights have brought this punishment. I've advise to all of you to pay twice the taxes if you don't wish your homes to be destroyed by the order of Liones." He told everyone as he thought it was the best outcome. In actuality, Allioni wasn't that bad of a person, he enlisted himself into the order of the Holy Knights of Liones in order to bring justice and peace all across Britannia, with his ideals and morals receiving a major boost after witnessing the massacre left by the wicked 7 Deadly Sins. Though, he still was unaware of the new king of Liones and the 2 Grand Masters' true intentions of Liberating the once-feared Demon King's army from the coffin of eternal darkness the mystical mage Merlin created.

"Bullshit!" Mead exclaimed as he ran again to the town after he saw the presence of the Holy Knight goons. "Pay twice the taxes my ass! You can shut your yap about all your righteous shit! All those Holy Knights of yours have been doing was just bully people who can't fight back!" He shouted at the Rookie knight and the other 2 guards accompanying him.

"Shut it Mead! You already brought enough trouble to us!" One of the townsfolk shouted at the child's face, seemingly tired and having enough of his troublemaking schemes. They all feared that he will only end up angering the Holy Knights even more and bring more unwanted chaos on their town.

Allioni had his attention dragged by the commotions caused by the kid. "Oh, are you the one who started this?" He bent over the boy to look at him closer. "Look, I'm sorry for this were to happen. If I were honest with you, I've wished this could be resolved with the 2 sides not being harmed."

In response, Mead only slapped the Holy Knight in training out of pure frustration. "Save your bullshit for yourself! All you Holy Knight now care about is just fill your pockets and drag about how "noble and just" you asshole are!" The slap was strong enough to tumble the young warrior into the ground.

Allioni was surprised on what the kid said about the Holy Knights. But it can't be true! After all, he heard that the kid was infamous for his lies. "Ugh… Why are you acting so cocky? All I'm trying to do is help! Why are you still trying to resist then?" He growled as he slowly got up.

"You wanna know why?" Mead stood up as he pointed his thumb to himself. "Because this time, I got a legend backing me up, and I assure you, it's not a lie!"

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Metallic steps and rusty sounds began to be heard all across Bernia. A towering and familiar figure came trotting his way to where Mead was. The citizens of Bernia quickly looked at the entrance of their village as they saw none other than the mythical Rust Knight itself.

"I-it can't be!" Allioni and his troops gasped at the sight of the wandering knight suddenly appearing in front of them, walking… Meacingly… "Uhh… Uhh…" The Holy Knight in training tried to put his bravery back on himself as he was ready to confront the giant warrior of rust. "M-Mr. Rust Knight, you are under arrest for disturbing the peace all around Britania! R-r-refusing to turn yourself in will only severe your punishment!" He stammered, only for the myth to not care and just continue to walk.

The Rust Knight stood in front of Gilthunder's sword and stared at it for some seconds.

"W-wait, you aren't thinking of pulling the sword, don't you?" Allioni gasped as he watched the giant monster wrap his hands over the handle of Gilthunder's sword.

The Rust Knight began to pull the blade out of the ground with all of his might, making the people of Bernia marvel and hope that the wandering fiend could actually be the miracle they prayed toward the heavens.

"A-are you sure the wandering Rust Knight will be able to pluck off the Holy Knight's sword?" One of the Bernia villagers was skeptical about the mysterious figure being capable of dispelling the curse upon their village. "I mean sure, some say that the Rust Knight was a former Holy Knight, but its just a myth. Anyone could be inside that armor."

All while that's happening, Lostvayne, Luffy and the others arrived to see what's going on, with Kinemon, Momonosuke, Sanji and Nami worried about Mead getting into more trouble. "Yawn… Man, I just hope I didn't overslept." Said Lostvayne while brushing the back of his natural blonde hair. They woke up as the group noticed that Usopp went missing for some mysterious reason. Though, it didn't took that long until the group realized the precense of the mythical Rust Knight among them.

"Oh! So cool! It's the Rust Knight again!" Luffy was surprised seeing the mysterious warrior pass by and try to save Bernia from their taxy doom.

"B-but it can't be… Is there someone there inside that armor?" The hooded Elizabeth asked herself as he watched the Rust Knight struggle to pull the sword out of the floor all while the 2 followers of Allioni were laughing while drinking some of Bernia's remaining liquor.

"Ha! Try all you want! There's no way none of you can yank Sir Gilthunder sword without the streght of another Holy Knight!" One of the knight laughed at the townsfolk as he chug his Barrel Mug with his other companion, all while Allioni could only watch as he still was afraid of getting in the bad side of the Rust Knight.

"Come on! I know you can do it… Do it for my family and everyone that has suffered by the Holy Knight's hand."

CREAK!

There was a loud creak among the center of the town, indicating one and only thing.

"T-the sword…" one of the townsfolk muttered among everyone.

Once the 2 guards saw what seem to be impossible spat out their drinks and drop their mugs down the floor, spilling the liquids all across the street. "I-impossible… I-it can't be!" The taller Knight stammered in shock.

As for our fellow heroes, their jaws were left to drop to the floor, all except for Lostvayne who's expression didn't changed much with it just being a small tilt of his head to the left.

All of Bernia's prayers were answered as the miracle happened. The Rust Knight was holding Gilthunder's sword in victory over pulling it out from the floor, pointing up high into the sky and claiming victory for himself.

"I-impossible! H-how can you p-pull Gilthunder's sword? W-what the hell are you?" Allioni began to stammer as he tremble at the presence of the Rust Knight. Just how powerful was that legend that was keeping the towns of Britannia terrorized recently.

The monster of rust heard the Holy Knight of the New Generation and turned his helm toward his direction, sending a an air of fear through the poor young Knight's spine. "My name…?" he said with a raspy and omninous voice, gaining more intimidation points due to the metal of the voice. "I've been known by many names, one more intimidating by the other." He added. "I am known as the slayer of thousands giants, the champion of a million battles, the master of masters, the one that even the 4 Emperors of the Sea don't even dare to stand against, the one that makes everyone kneel when I take my steps, even the one who keeps the Seven Deadly Sins at bay since those wicked criminals know if they ever dare to terrorize this country, I'll be there to destroy them all with one punch." He told everyone as he grabbed his helmet. "Are you that desperate to know my identity? So be it… I am the one, and almighty…" The Rust Knight took off his helmet, revealing his true face. "SIIIIIIIIIIIIIR USOOOOOPPPPPP! THE RUST KNIGHT!" The liar of the Straw Hats exclaimed with enthusiasm as he posed heroically, showing everyone that he was the Rust Knight all along.

"WOOOW! YOU LOOK SO COOL USOPP!" Luffy jumped out of his seat in excitement over the big reveal.

"Well, I think that solves the happening of our favorite long-nose." The blonde kid smirked while guarding his kid hands on his pockets.

"WHAT!? WAS HE REALLY THE TRUE RUST KNIGHT ALL ALONG!?" Hawk jumped in shock just like the Pirate Captain, still chugging down Usopp's made-up tall tale.

"That's right! It was me the whole time!" Usopp exclaimed while carrying the Holy Knight's sword on his back. "Those rumors you heard about the Rust Knight, the most powerful of all the Holy Knights of Britannia, there were all true!" He exclaimed as he looked at his companions. "Not only that, but during my wandering quest to become even more awesome, but I have tamed and made none other than the 7 Deadly Sins themselves my loyal servants and minions! Who there are? Well…" He then proceeds to point at his crewmates and Lostvayne. "There are right there for your eyes to marvel." He looked at his crewmembers who had no idea. Usopp did some head and eye-signals for him to dissimulate to be the 7 Sins to scare off Allioni and the King's goons. "Come on guys, I need you all to play the part! Do it for Mead please!"

"He's actually telling the truth." Lostvayne was the first to step in as he walked over the 2 guards under Allioni. "By the way, if you're just gonna drink the beer this people put their heart and soul into it just to laugh at them, you just don't deserve those drinks in the first place." He told the tall and short guards as he confiscated his drinks.

"Hey! What's the big idea!?" The fat Guard exclaimed, demanding his drink to be recovered. "Sir Allioni, you can't let those plebs talk to us like that! What would the King, the Grand Masters and Sir Gillthunder think about this?" He looked at his young superior, that for their surprise, he was trembling upon their boots.

The 20-year old Allioni didn't knew what to do now. He couldn't believe that those guys he encountered yesterday could be the real 7 Deadly Sins, but the feat of strength Zoro proved during his fast duel against his former couch Twigo said otherwise when talking about their power. Also he had to remember how harshly Dracula punished the invincible Twigo for just letting the princess Elizabeth slip-away for some dumb battle that resulted into his greatest humiliation. "Hey! I remember you! You're the guys with the princess!" He pointed at the group with his sword to threat them, without any resolve. "Whenever Sins or not, you're all under arrest for holding the princess hostage. Now, tell us where are you hiding the princess Elizabeth and we shall shorten your sentence!" He advised Lostvayne and the Straw Hat Pirates to turn the runaway princess in, unaware that he has Elizabeth on sight. "And you up there! Give us back Sir Gilthunder's sword! It's an order!" He ordered the Rust Knight to return the Knight sword to him right this moment.

"Oh, this piece of junk?" The teen looked at the broadsword for a moment to appreciate its lustrous beauty. "Nah! I don't think a wimp like him is worthy of this sword, much less someone who abuses his power and position and make a fit when he doesn't gets his way." He replied with a cocky smirk, claiming the sword for himself and himself alone.

"Well, I'm gonna repeat myself as my new master's telling the truth." Lostvayne said as he used a nearby kitchen knife to cut off the right sleeve of his Boar Hat uniform to reveal something that shook the town.

"I-it can't be!" Allioni trembled even more.

"Wait! Is he really the real deal!?" The Major of Bernia bulged his eyes out of pure shock, up to the point he was about to have a heart attack.

"It really is him…" Mead watched in amusement and wonder as he saw the infamous Tattoo on Lostvayne's arm.

"Yup, surprise surprise, I'm actually none other than the Dragon Sin of Wrath and leader of the Seven Deadly Sins, Sir Meliodas." He told everyone as he showed off his Dragon mark, revealing his secret identity.

"Uhh?" Elizabeth watched in amusement as she couldn't believe it. The most dangerous and most powerful out of the Sins was in front of her this entire time. Though, the aura of drama would switch off until Meliodas got struck in the head by Sanji's right leg.

"YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THIS ENTIRE TIME WE WERE ONE STEP CLOSER TO THOSE BEAUTIFUL LADIES, AND YOU JUST ACTED LIKE A FREAKING ASSHOLE BY TELLING US YOU HAD NO IDEA WHERE THE LAST ONE WAS!?" Sanji wailed in anger against the Sin of Wrath as he began to concecutly stomp Meliodas in the head.

"YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT YOU WERE THE ALL-POWERFUL MELIODAS AND YOU HID IT FROM ME!? WHAT KIND OF GODDAMN FRIEND ARE YOU!?" Hawk quickly came in to join the pummeling against the Midget.

"LEGENDARY KNIGHT MY ASS! WHAT KIND OF KNIGHT WOULD GO ON AND TRY TO TOUCH THE BOOBS OF WOMEN WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT! IF IT WEREN'T FOR MY PITTY TO YOU, I WOULD HAVE ALREADY DENOUNCE YOU TO THE AUTHORITIES AND CLAIM YOUR BOUNTY!" Nami was the last one to join the Whack-A-Dwarf party as she continuously started to smack the leader of the 7 Deadly Sins with her Clima-Tact.

Meanwhile with Usopp, he tried to hide his true reaction from everyone else as he tried to sustain his smile, all while millions of drops of sweat began to run a marathon on his body like if it was a heavy rainstorm.

"Hey, you up there!" The chubby knight pointed at Usopp. "Why are you sweating? You look kinda nervous!"

"A-about this?" Usopp quickly got an idea on how to improvise this situation. "As you can see, it's just that this armor is too hot for me to handle. But unfortunately, it's the only thing I can wear to hide my huge muscles!" He exclaimed, flexing his rusty armor with pride. "I don't want to destroy your fragile egos after all."

"Wait a moment! I-if you are the Dragon Sin of Wrath, then why the hell do you look like a child?" Allioni approached Meliodas, confused on why one of the strongest members of the sins looked like a defenseless kid.

"Funny story if you ask me. Some time ago, a witch cursed me into looking like a kid, but I'm still strong as always." He exclaimed while looking sideways and rubbing the back of his head. "By the way, I do have my fellow sins with me, such as Ban the Fox of Greed" He pointed at Sanji who didn't mind being called that. "King the Grizzly of Sloth, and yes, he has gone through a diet." Meliodas pointed at Luffy who was still slightly confused. "Diane, which also was cursed into becoming human size." He looked at Nami which just humphed and looked at another way to ignore Meliodas.

"And those 2 over there, well those are Escanor and Gowther." He then referred to Zoro as Gowther and Kinemon as Escanor. "And yes, we indeed became disciples of the great Rust Knight Usopp." He said before bowing honorably toward the long-nose pirate.

"Wait, if you're really the 7 Deadly Sins, then why don't you look like the images on the posters?" Sir Allioni tried to add some sort of sense into the situation, only for Zoro to point one of his sword toward his nose.

"Does my feat of strength from the other day proves otherwise?" Roronoa responded, which easily made the young Holy Knight apprentice believe the story.

"Oh! Seems that the 2 of you aren't convinced about my god-like powers, eh?" Usopp approached the 2 knight sitting on top of a well where there used to flow water. "Then watch this…" He then began to do hand-signs as slight tremblors began to occur among Bernia.

"E-e-eehh… W-what's going on?" The lanky knight had no clue on what was happening as he and his short companion were looking all around.

"UsoOoOoOoOoOPPPP…" Usopp began to chant as he crossed his armored hands as he was charging for an attack. "Grrrrrrreeeeeaaatttt…" He then slowly raised his arms into the sky as the tremors around the old well began to become stronger.

Without any adviced, the 2 knights under Allioni's wing were sent blasted far away as a gigantic burst of water happened on the well. "AAAAHHH!" The 2 knights cried in fear as they were expelled from Bernia.

"MIRACLE!" The Sniper cried with enthusiasm as he watched the well stream through all of Bernia, creating a rainbow that covered all of the town. It was a marvelous spectacle to behold.

"GAH! WAIT! I'M GOING TO SAVE YOU!" Allioni quickly ran away from the humble town far away to rescue his 2 men, scaring off the Holy Knight for good from the town of Bernia.

Some seconds later, the entire town began to cheer and celebrate for kicking off the Holy Knights out of their town from abusing them any further. All of them began to praise and celebrate Usopp's victory over the Holy Knights like the second coming of Christ.

"That was… incredible…" Elizabeth was marvelled at the feat of heroism and bravery Ussop made. "Just… who are these people?" She thought to herself, being amazed on how easily he managed to pull out a sword infused by Holy Knight magic from all people.

Ussop was having the time of his life being praised as a hero, but then he looked at Mead who was a bit nervous as he looked down the floor. "People of Bernia!" He drawed the attention of all of Bernia, which he managed to do so. "I appreciate your praises and compliments over my feats of heroism, but I woulnd't made it without the help of another invincible and powerful warrior." God Usopp then proceed to point the kid with Gilthunder's sword, with some difficulty as the sword was kinda heavy. "If it wasn't for the brave Sir Mead from your village who venture through the hottest of volcanoes and tell me the injustice all of you were having, I would have never come here."

"W-wait! Did he really risked his life just to meet the Rust Knight?" One of the villagers told another one who was curious about Mead going that far to undo his wrongs.

"He couldn't be the real Rust Knight, right? But then again, he yanked that Holy Knight sword without that much difficulty." The girl that threw rocks at Mead before was doubting about Usopp's act, but she believed he was the real Rust Knight.

As for Mead, he was glad that everything was finally over thanks to Usopp's plan. It was very surprising that it worked despite not looking as if it would.

"Hey there kid." Meliodas approached Mead casually to see for why he looked so happy.

"H-hey…" He stammered at the Dragon Sin of Pride. "Are you, are you really the Dragon Sin of Wrath Meliodas?" He questioned the bartender of the Boar Hat to see if he was the real deal and not some cheap poser.

"Hmm…" He paused for a second, intriguing the kid with the weird hair a bit more. "Before that, don't you have something more important to tell the town? I think you owe them an apology." He then made Mead turn to his behind, making him look at all the townspeople. They all looked downed and a bit disappointed by themselves.

"G-guys…" Mead looked at everyone in the town trying to hold the tears sprouting in his eyes. "I'i-I'm sorry for all the trouble I've c-caused… I acted so stupid for trying to anger the Holy Knight I almost caused our town to be destroyed." He then began to liberate small tears down his face. "All I wanted was trying to do something for accepting me in as one of you, yet I grew jealous of you because at least you all have families…" The kid couldn't contain his sadness and thus, he let out a full cascade over his face. "I DON'T EVEN ASK FOR YOUR FORGIVENESS! I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU ALL THAT I REGRET EVERYTHING I'VE DONE! I'M AN IDIOT! AN IDIOT! ALL I DO IS CAUSE NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS!" He bent as he slammed his fists into the ground, drowning himself in guilt for what he has done.

"I think you aren't the only one who are sorry." The major of Bernia replied, which made Mead turn his head up, having most of his eyes red due to his breakdown. "We're sorry for ever doubting you and treating you so harshly." He told the kid with melancholy in his voice. "I understand your frustration for doing all those pranks. You miss your parents, and you grow jealous of the kids in the town with their parents."

"We forgot where your anger came and we just shout at you as if you were a mere delinquent. We all let our hatred take over us, we sometimes forgot on why we took you all as a son to everyone…" One of the adult villagers commented, feeling disappointed on himself.

"I feel so stupid for treating you bad Mead. We're the bad guys around here for not trying to stand up against that mean Holy Knight in the first place." A girl sobbed, feeling sorry for throwing those pebbles against Mead in the first place. "While we didn't do nothing, you went all alone to get help from the Rust Knight."

"G-guys… I-i…" Mead didn't felt that well seeing all the townspeople wishing for his forgiveness. He should be the one who had to apologize and not them. It just felt, wrong…

Though, his left shoulder was then holded by Luffy's hand. "Why are you still crying moustache-hair?" He tried to consolidate the kid, even when he wasn't that good on trying to help people on emotional issues. "I think you should be glad for finally having those guys as your family and friends.

"Y-you know you aren't helping, right?" Mead looked at the pirate with the Straw Hat before snorting out of sadness. "As if you know what it feels to lost someone who you love the most." He asked while trying to wipe out his tears.

Luffy after hearing this tilted his head downward. "I also had people who I loved died in front of me." He told the kid, remembering with woe and grief his amazing blood brother Portgas D. Ace. "If I was just… stronger, bolder and faster, he wouldn't have died…" He was beginning to clench his other fist in slight anger and frustration. No matter how long it happened, he can't bury the painful memory of watching his brother Ace die by the now Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, trying to give his life in exchange of letting his little brother live from the volcanic hands of the Marine, or the moment he saw his former vessel and old friend the Going-Merry being burn alive to give him proper rest after it saved him and his crew from the clutches of the goons of the World Government, with its last moments in life thanking Luffy and co. for all the amazing adventures they have together. Yet, he isn't planning on repressing those memories, as it is a reminder and a motivation to keep going forward on his adventure. "It hurts, and it still does. But then I remember something… No matter what happens, they're still people out there worth fighting for." He quickly changed mood from that serious and menacing pirate into his more optimistic and happy-go-lucky self. "So no matter if its by blood or not, your friends are like a family, and make sure to always stay together and love each other!" He gave a thumbs up to the kid, encouraging him to reunite with the town.

"Come on kid, just go on and enjoy your family." Sanji smirked at Mead while smoking his cigarre. Taking the fact that he kinda reminds him of his young-self, he coulnd't help it but to encourage him to have a happy life.

Mead was still a bit skeptical before looking at Usopp, hoping that he would have an answer for him. The long-nose man just tilted his head to the direction where Bernia people were, encouraging him to reunite with his family and be happy.

Mead turned where Usopp wanted him to look and tried to hold the tears from running any longer, but he just couldn't help it. Bernia raised him as his own and he almost caused the entire village to be destroyed. "ALL OF YOU ARE SUCH IDIOTS! BAAAH!" He cried as he let himself be ebraced by the arms of the Major of Bernia. "I'LL PROMISE TO NEVER MAKE STUPID PRANKS EVER AGAIN!"

Usopp was glad that everything worked in the end. He just watched the kid he reminded him along time ago being reconsiliated with his entire village, because if something he has learn thanks to sailing to the vast ocean with Luffy and his friends, is that no matter how many times you lie to yourself, it is impossible to lie to your own heart…

---

"Three cheers for Sir Usopp the Rust Knight!" One of Bernia's villagers exclaimed as he raised his beer mug into the air to propose a toast for Usopp's victory over the Holy Knight's of Lioness.

During that same night, all of the village of Bernia was celebrating inside the Boar Hat for the prosperity of their town. Luffy and his crew of pirates were celebrating like true pirates, singing sea shanties alongside the other patrons and drinking like if there was no tomorrow.

Though, some people were mostly busy trying to keep the customers happy, such people being Elizabeth, Luffy, Sanji, Hawk and Nami. While the red-haired young adult was having the time of her life as the tips and revenue didn't show any signs of stopping and Hawk having a visit on culinary heaven by eating the scraps of Sanji's food, Luffy and Elizabeth were mostly busy serving the food and drinks for everyone.

"Uhh… A-are you sure I'm g-gonna do okay?" Elizabeth asked Meliodas nervously as she was not that confident on her waitress job. Since she was a royal member of the royal family of Lioness, she was mostly used with having maids serving her whims, which was understandable since being a princess means that you have a great responsibility on your back. "A-and I don't think I'm really that comfortable with this uniform. I feel everyone is watching me for the wrong reasons…" She stammered since the bartender told her to wear that sexy waitress uniform of the Boar Hat. She just didn't felt that comfortable wearing a miniskirt and a pink shirt that shows her 2 assets on a better degree.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Meliodas replied while trying to hide a drop of blood coming from his nose. "Everyone loves a sexy waitress, so all you have to do is take the orders of the customers. Is not that hard." The bartender then gave a thumbs up to cheer the girl up.

"Umm… T-thanks, but I think I would at least prefer to wear what Sir Luffy is wearing." The white-haired teen then told the child that she would rather prefer to wear Luffy's waiter outfit which was basically the same clothes Meliodas was wearing, but for Luffy's size.

As for Mugiwara, he didn't mind wearing basically Melioda's clothes. Though, he still preferred his Luffylombus outfit as it made him look like an actual Pirate King. "Nah, I'm sure you'll be fine Rust-chan. At least I'm sure you'll make a better job than me." Luffy then hold Elizabeth's arm, saying that she will do fine. Perhaps a better job than Luffy when he used to work in the Baratie.

The girl only gulped before calming down. "If you are confident I can do it, I think I can do it." She replied before getting to work alongside her rubbery friend. Unfortunately for her, confidence wasn't part of Elizabeth, and it shows when she immediately trips over with a plate of booze, soaking one of the patrons with the drink. "Ah! I'm sorry! I'm Sorry! it wasn't my intention!" She began to apologize one million times over the customer who got wet. Some time later, the princess was beginning to struggle on her order as she was constantly being confused on who order what. "You didn't order this? C-can someone tell me who order this please?" She asked on a very scared and nervous matter, only for the person who ordered the meat pie to raise her hand. But when she was about to come to him, she immediately trips over. Fortunately, Luffy stretched both of his hands to catch her before falling into the floor. "Gah! Thanks a lot, Sir Luffy!" She was grateful to the pirate for helping her to not trip and be embarrassed among all the tavern.

"Shishishi! Well, I like to help my friends, because friends always help one another." The pirate smiled at her friend, reminding her that she has him and his crew supporting her all the way.

For Usopp, he was just telling the town more tall tales about his adventures. Some were true like how he has liberated a country cursed into being toy slaves by a demonic girl with the power to turn people into toys or how he has 100,000 followers. All of the people of Bernia gathered were amazed by the legendary Rust Knight's feats, or maybe they were too drunk to distinguish reality and fiction. Though, some time after, Meliodas came in to talk with the kid from Syrup Village holding a mug of Bernia's ayle in one hand.

"So then, I'm quite impressed that you managed to pull the Holy Knight sword. Care to tell me your secret?" Lostvayne asked Usopp while taking a quick sip from his drink. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone near to hear them clearly.

"Nah, it wasn't that hard." The liar of the pirate group told him with confidence. "Seems that whatever magic that sword has had no chance with me hammering the ground around the thing to make it easier to pull up. Oh, and some slippery oil." He told him his secret as he shown him a bottle of oil he used to yank of Gilthunder's Broadsword. "Oh! By the way, a-are you really Meliodas? Are t-those rumors everyone talks about true?" He then asked the kid with a slightly frightened tone if he was really the fabled leader of the Seven Deadly Sins.

"Oh this ol' thing?" The kid looked at his left shoulder where he has his dragon tattoo. "Nah… It was just a dumb tattoo I thought it would make me look cool and tough back in the day." He affirmed that the mark he had was just a dumb tattoo he got to make him look tough. "What, did you really though a kid like me would be Meliodas?" Lostvayne then also affirmed that he was just pretending to be Meliodas to fool the Holy Knights bullying bernia. "Still, from liar to liar, I think it would be better to keep this a secret between us."

"Yeah, you said it." The long-nose teenager smiled before doing a toast with the innkeeper of the Boar Hat. Maybe some white lies can bring hope to the people who desperately need it. Because when the truth becomes too harsh to overcome, maybe you need yourself a small lie to motivate yourself and turn said lie into a truth.

---

Though, on that same night, not everyone was celebrating or being in peace. Some people use their night to machinate their evil schemes and more. Such is the example inside the the fortress of Solgress, headquarter of Sir Gilthunder and his rookie knights.

"S-sir Gilthunder…" Allioni was standing in the meeting room of the tower of the wicked holy knight, trying his best to not show any signs of fear or weakness, despite his superior not looking that menacing and having some of Dracula's White Blood Cell Skeletons guarding the place. Sir Gilthunder was a young handsome man with pink hair, but inside those dandy looks, lied a ruthless and merciless soul. "I-I've come with a r-report. P-please don't be mad, but so-"

"The Rust Knight who resulted to be a kid pulled out my sword and claimed it now as his own?" The holy knight pulled the rookie's words out of his mouth. "And there's also some posers pretending to be the 7 Deadly Sins, or am I wrong, Sir Allioni?"

"W-what..? How did you know?" Allioni gasped on how quickly Gilthunder was aware on what happened on the town of Bernia.

"The king told me through one of his minions." He added as he turned his head toward the glass window on his back where he narrowed at a crow made out of blood, proving to be one of the Vampire King of Lioness' creations. "You're lucky that Dracula wouldn't allow me to kill you without his consent."

"W-what…? K-k-kill me…? But why?" The young knight's face began to be infested in his drops of sweat over the fact that his superior dropped the hint that he would have ended his life if it wasn't for the usurper's philosophy of not killing your subordinates, unless their arrogance and foolishness get in their way. Suddendly, Gilthunder blitzed himself like a mad lightning behind the rookie Holy Knight, cornering his throat with one of the swords on the walls. It was scary how fast that human was, despite not looking like it.

"You let my sword be taken by a bunch of brats." The son of the former Grandmaster whispered onto the rookie's ear before kicking him on his back, causing allioni to drop to the floor on constant agony, trying to recover his breath. "You should be at least honored that you're working for me now rather than some wannabe warrior like Twigo, and yet you let your compassion and sense of "righteousness" get in the way to achieve your true potential." He narrowed at the squirming swordsman with pitty before looking at one of the liquid-like skeletons. "Be sure to inform your majesty that we're on our way to plan our assault on the Forest of White Dreams and subdue Diane the Giant if we manage to localize her, and also tell him to provide me with a new weapon." The cold-hearted dandy told the army of the bloody undead.

"Ugh…" The skeletons grunted and saluted before leaving the tower to inform the Commandment of Generosity about Gilthunder's process.

"And now, as for the rest of that town of low-lifes." He muttered on a sinister and spiteful manner while walking through the hallways of his fortress. "I've warned them from defying us as they still proceed to not respect us as they should."

"W-what? y-you aren't really planning to destroy the entire village, aren't you?" Allioni quickly snapped as he struggled to get up from that low blow his boss strike him with. "There are elderly people and children living there! They're innocent!"

"Shut it, Rookie!" one of the run of the mill holy knights that have their faces covered in their helments then kicked Allioni for being against Gilthunder's actions.

"You can't do this! What will the other residence of Brittania think about this!? Answer me!" Allioni was about to lose it before the doors of the meeting hall would be close, leaving him at the mercy of the knights to beat him up and show him some discipline. He himself witnessed the great massacre committed by the 7 Deadly Sins, and couldn't stand seeing more innocent lives being taken away, even if those lives were taken by one of the Holy Knights.

Gilthunder continued to stroll the walls of his fortress before doing a halt. "Sir Law, I require a spear." He ordered one of his Holy Knights under his command to bring him a weapon for him to use.

And then he appeared. Trafalgar D. Water Law clad in a golden yellow-like armor laying on one of the walls. He looked at his new boss and just passed the the lance without saying a slight word. On how Law got himself into the ranks of the new generation of Holy Knights was quite strange. Once he woke up after the Barto Club's ship was destroyed during that stormy day, he woke up on what it appears to be an abandoned town where he encountered Gilthunder and his men who were sent on a mission to cleanse the area from the spirits inhabiting the area, whenever if said spirits were friendly or not. They quickly engaged the member of the Worst Generation after accusing him of necromancer. Trafalgar law prove himself to be the superior fighter after taking out the majority of soldiers with his powerful Devil Fruit abilities. Gilthunder saw promise on the kid and decided to recruit him to the new generation of Holy Knight. Law accepted to join in as he thought he could gather intel over the whereabouts of Strawhat Luffy and his band of misfits. Although it was refreshing to be miles away from the Strawhat Pirates' shenanigans, he couldn't help it but to try his best to find them due to their pirate alliance. "Where the hell are you, Strawhat-ya…?" Law thought to himself as he hoped his fellow pirate and his crew haven't done something that would make them see as enemies of Lioness. His maximum priority was to regroup with everyone and get the hell out of this country. He almost died during his personal conflict against Doflamingo at Dressrosa multiple times, and he won't risk it again for a conflict he could care less.

Gilthunder grasped the weapon in his hand as he stood into one of the arches at the top of the tower. "Burn in the pits of hell, Rust Knight…" He growled before throwing the spear like a professional jabbelin thrower at the speed of a shooting star, with its direction toward Bernia for its destruction.

---

Back at the Boar Hat, Lostvayne felt like something terrible was about to come here as he stopped cleaning one of the mugs.

"Hey Mr. Meliodas of the Seven Deadly Sins, you look like you got sting like a bee." Hawk his porky friend looked at the owner of the place, looking at his worried expression on what was making him feel like that. Nevertheless, he still talked in a mocking tone as he still didn't believe he was the real deal. "Is something in the matter?"

"That reminds me, I haven't gone to the bathroom since yesterday." He replied while putting the mug on his hand into the bar. "Well, I'll be upstairs while you take care of the place, 'kay Hawk?" He told his pig friend that he was in charge while he was going to take a big leak.

"H-hey! Don't try to avoid my questions you pervert dwarf! Come back here right this instant!" Hawk fumed in anger while constantly hopping for the bartender's attitude of not wanting to answer his questions.

"Alright, dinner's ready!" Luffy told to the table where the Major of Bernia and other customers were as he served the famous meat pie of the Boar Hat.

The customers were about to sink their teeth into the dish, until they notice that half the pie was gone. "Hey, wait a damn minute! Who ate the rest of our food?" One of the patrons pointed at the rubber waiter, angry that their food has bite marks all over it.

"Oh sorry, I was hungry, so I took half a bite of the pie. My bad…" Luffy apologized with a smile while rubbing the back of his head. And this is why you shouldn't make the straw hat pirate on a waiter job.

"It's alright. I wasn't feeling hungry anyway." The Major of Bernia told the straw hat kid for him to not feel guilty. "After all, your friends helped us save our village from the oppression of Gilthunder's soldiers."

"Are you sure Major?"

"I am." The elderly man replied, not before taking a good look at Luffy's straw hat for a brief time. "Hmm… That Straw Hat you're wearing, it reminds me of a young red-haired boy of a pirate group who decided to visit us a long time…" The Major told the black-haired teen about how his most valuable treasure made him remember about a kid who took part of a certain pirate crew.

"Huh? Are you referring to Shanks gramps?" Luffy was very surprised that the Major of Bernia knew Shanks long ago, so he took a seat to hear more about him. "How did you met him?"

"Oh! Seems that you're also familiarized with the young Shanks as well." The old man spoke, also being surprised about Luffy knowing the Emperor of the Sea. "Well, I think it's fair for me to tell you how I met him and his friendly companions." He told him to make himself comfortable cuz he's about to tell him the tale on how he and some of the other townspeople of Bernia met the former Pirate King Gol D. Roger and his crew of cheerful pirates.

---

(Long time ago…)

Long time ago, when the country of Brittania was on prosperity long before the Holy Knights of Lioness would take control of the throne of the kingdom and drowning the entire land in chaos, the town of Bernia was having their annual Ale festival once their crops have grown to produce their famous liquid. Only this time, they were very unusual guests attending the ceremony, such guests being none other than the legendary pirate crew, the Roger Pirates.

Now, some would think that because of them being pirates, they would subjugate and loot the entire village for their own selfish needs, but that was not the case for the Roger Pirates, as they have a pirate code of their own code of honor. Most of the pirates forming this legendary group of criminals didn't really cared for power nor control over the world. All they really wanted as pirates was to party, hunt for great treasures and riches, make friends with pirates and non-pirates from other islands/countries and explore all the wonders the world has to offer, all while having fun and enjoying the ride in the process.

Many of the members of the crew of the Pirate King were dancing and singing shanties alongside the villagers of Bernia while drinking booze like if there was no tomorrow, the younger members like Shanks and Buggy were just playing Pirates vs Knights with the other kids of the town, all while the more stoic members like Rayleight and Crocus were just enjoying the beautiful view of Brittania and seeing their fellow crewmembers having their time of their lives, while trading some of their treasures with the merchants of the town in exchange of galloons of their Ayle or other unusual trinkets.

And then, there were the young Major of Bernia, sitting alongside the legend himself Gol D. Roger. Both of them being glad that both Bernia and Roger's Crew managed to get very well with each other.

Roger was chugging his drink like a wild animal, not trying to hide that what he drank must be the best booze he has ever tasted. "Wahahahaha… For a small village, you must be like the brewing gods here." Roger laughed slightly drunk, complimenting the Major of Bernia and his people over their liquor.

"Hehehaha… I think this must be the millionth time I heard that coming from a visitor." The young Major joked, still feeling glad that even pirates from the distant ocean enjoy his town's pride and joy. "So tell me, how long are you thinking of staying here?"

Roger was silent for some moment, as is something was stuck inside his throat. And for everyone's surprise, he was indeed chocking on something. The Pirate King quickly served himself another drink to quickly drink it to finally gobble that piece of meat stuck on his throat. "Uh… Well, seems what Crocus told me about not gobbling up huge amounts of food was true after all."

The Major was a bit weired out on how unusual this suppousley legendary Pirate acted like a well, a goofball.

"Where was i? Oh, I remember!" The Pirate King resumed on what he was about to say. "Well, seeing how surprising your country is here with all sorts of wonders to discover, maybe we'll head back to the vast sea for about, once we discover every corner the land of Britania has!" He exclaimed while raising his mug with optimism.

"Oh, are you sure?" The Major was surprise on the captain's determination. "But, didn't you told me about your incurable disease? Aren't you worried about your imminent death?" He asked the pirate king, who's question was receive by a burst of laughs from Roger.

"Wahahahaha!" He continued to sprout his famous laugh at the chief of the village before slamming his drink into a nearby table. "Tell you what old man, if I was that worried, I've would just stayed on my home and drown my woe like any other person would do, but I'm not any other person for your information!" Gol D. Roger showed himself to be proud of spending his final days alongside his crew. "After all, I have my doctor to at least prolong my short lifespan to at least make the most out of it." He replied looking at Crocus, which the medic looked at the other direction. He then looked at the sky, reflecting all the good things he has done for everyone. "Yeah, yeah… You can tell me that exploring all the world can sound impossible, and more for someone who doesn't have that much time to be alive… But I like to digress." Roger looked back at the Major of Bernia with inspiration. "It doesn't matter if the world subjugates the desires and sense of wonder from its inhabitants, or that this era we live in is where the age of dreaming dies… Cuz' no matter how hard they try to snuffle out our willpower candles…" He paused before slamming his drink down the table.

"People's Dreams shall never die!"

---

"Well, all he said afterward is that the only thing left to do was to make those dreams come true with determination and motivation. He was a big inspiration for all of us back in the day." The Major told Luffy about his experiences with the Pirate King. "Anyways young lad, how did you obtained young Shanks' Straw Hat?" the then asked the next Pirate King about his Straw Hat and how he got it.

"Oh, this?" Luffy took off his prized possession to show it to the customers of the table. "Shanks gave it to me when I was little a long time ago. I told him that one day I'll become a great adventurer that even surprises him, and then he gave me my Straw Hat and told me to give it back once I do." He began to explain the origin story of his famous hat that made him stand out as a Pirate. "Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Roger was the reason I sailed through the seas, I do admire him to some extent. But to me, it was Shanks that inspired me to begin my journey to begin with. He's like an idol to me!" He proclaimed before picking his hat and wear it again. "And to fulfil that that promised I made to him, I'm going to become the next Pirate King!" He proclaimed with confidence and enthusiasm among all the Tavern.

"Hmm… The next Pirate King…" The Mayor of Bernia sustained his beard with his fingers. "Not that bad of a dream. And I'm sure you'll make a great one seeing how kind and brave you and your "Crewmembers" are." He assured the black-haired pirate that he had faith that he will indeed achieve his pirate dream. "Speaking of crewmembers, I saw one of your friends leaving to see the night sky." He informed Luffy about a certain friend of his being out of the tavern. "Perhaps you should see her and talk with her. You know, about certain royal matters." The elder then whispered through the teenager's ear that It was indeed Elizabeth who decided to have some time to herself. The Major already knew about the princess' identity, but he knew that it was better to not tell anyone for her safety and his people.

Outside the tavern, Elizabeth was sitting among the cliff the Boar Hat stationed itself into, looking up at the night-sky and admiring the stars decorating the atmosphere around. Though, it didn't helped her to bright up her mood. She just felt, sad and, scared…

"Oi, something in the matter Rust-chan?" Luffy came in to talk with the princess of Lioness as he sat alongside her and see if he can help her in something. "Come on, we taught those bullies a lesson. We are suppose to celebrate! Is there something bugging you?"

"Well, as a matter of fact…" The white-haired royalty affirmed her melancholy. "I'm just not sure if I'm able to actually make it and save everyone… I just don't think I'm good enough." She was slowly began to blubber while hugging her legs to hide her tears.

Luffy slightly tilted his head to his left. Briefly watching the young teenage girl crying. "Hey, didn't Zoro told you to save your apologies for later?" He said, making the waitress to stop sobbing and look at the pirate captain. "I'm not saying that crying is bad. Its good to do it to let out that sadness in yourself, but at least those tears must mean something." He affirmed, feeling some similar pain on what Elizabeth was going for. He too thought that he wasn't that good or strong during his crew's defeat at the hands of the Warlord of the Sea Bartolomew Kuma, leading to their painful separation.

"I-I know…" The princess reply with a soft tone. "It's just when I saw Mead and the others, it brought me memories of my father and my sisters…" She began to explain her woes with her gloomy voice. "I… I'm just hoping all of them are okay… But with the thought on how harshly the Holy Knight under the new Triumvirate, I just can't stop imagining all of them being tortured by those 3…" She ended, trying to stop thinking about it… "And, with everyone putting their hopes on me, I don't think the gods won't answer their prayers of salvation…" She mumbled in despair, thinking that maybe this was just a dumb adventure that's just stalling the inevitable.

"Well, you found us, didn't ya?" Luffy affirmed with his optimistic mood, trying to lighten up the situation. This could cause the renegade princess to look at him. "Hey, if you didn't had the initiative to escape your castle from whatever those 3 bastards are and put yourself an armor without days of eating, just to find those 7 Deadly Sins, that means you weren't that strong to begin with." He affirmed the princess that she did had that bravery inside her, causing her light of hope to bright once more. "Even when instead of finding them, you found us, doesn't mean that we aren't trying to help you for just our personal gain."

"R-really?"

"Eyup. I just like to help people when they need it, even when the trouble they're having seems too big." Luffy told her before he would look at the sky with his arms crossed. "Look, I don't consider myself a righteous hero even when I admire heroes. I just don't like to share my meat since heroes have to share their meat too. But just because I'm not a hero, doesn't mean that I can't do good things for others." He turned back to see Elizabeth once again. "Besides, even if those Seven Deadly Sins won't want to help and try to harm you, you have me and the Straw Hat Pirates to help you, because you're our friend. And friends never turn their back to one another." He affirmed with an innocent smile, affirming that he and his band of quirky people are there to aid her whenever she needs to.

Once Luffylombus told her that, the Princess felt much better as she wiped her tears and began to smile once more. "T-thank you, Sir Luffylombus…" She thanked the rubber pirate with a warm hug. Though, it felt weird to hug him since Luffy's entire body felt slightly wobbly. He's a rubber man, of course.

"Nah, it's nothing. I just have something that makes me want to help Princesses." He referred those times he helped Shirahoshi, Rebecca and his old Nakama Nefetari Vivi in putting Hoody, Crocodile and Doffy on their place. "Oi, look! A shooting star! My grandpa always told me that if you wish upon a shooting star, your wishes will come true!" He told Elizabeth as he witnessed a shooting star above the sky.

The princess stopped hugging the rubber boy as she began to close her eyes and pray to the shooting star, wishing that she would soon become strong, both in body, mind and heart.

But, there was something, odd about the shooting star. It didn't seem to traverse through Bernia. More like, it seemed that it was about to traverse TO Bernia!

The 2 yelled, unprepared that Gilthunder's lance would soon impact among them, causing both the Boar Hat and Bernia to be completely decimated, taking all people with it.

But fortunately, help came…

CRASH!

Lostvayne quickly came in leaping high into the sky, causing him to break a part of the roof in the process. The young kid then quickly grasped the lance that was trying to destroy the humble town and quickly landed on the ground, trying to make the electrified weapon to stop by impaling his feet on the ground to use as breaks. But in the process, the lance made the poor boy pierce through a signicant number of the buildings of Bernia, reducing them to nothing. But fortunately, the enhanced weapon stopped as it and Lostvayned crashed through a wall, causing a huge impact among the area.

"Lost Vine!" Luffy cried in worry as he and Elizabeth alongside Hawk quickly rushed their way among all the rubble and debris caused by the destruction, only to find the young Lostvayne holding the lance Gilthunder threw, tearing part of his outfit where his dragon mark was. Surprisingly, he seemed okay and without any kind of major injuries. "Woah… Y-you, you…" Luffy was left speechless on how flawlessly the kid managed to stop that electrified weapon.

"Well, I didn't want any of you to find out for your own safety, but it was time for you to figure it out…" Lostvayne said while taking heavy pants over the feat of power he made for everyone to witness. "In actuality, I wasn't lying back there… I am indeed one of the most wanted criminals of all of Britania, Meliodas, the Dragon Sin of Wrath and the one responsible for the total annihilation of the Kingdom of Danafor." He confirmed to everyone with a surprisingly serious tone instead of using his laid-back mannerism.

The 3 adventurers didn't really knew what to say. It was surprising to see how much power such a kid managed to show off, even more power than any adversary Luffy has encountered. And that's saying something when he would consider him scarier than Sakazuki.

"Now, I advise you to not get near me… I'm planning to return this lance as a warning…" Meliodas the Dragon sin of Pride looked at the group with a menacing narrow. Elizabeth just felt some sort of dark aura emitting from the boy, it made her realize that it was better for her, Hawk and Luffy to stand back as much as they can, which they did.

The leader of the former knights of Britania made a stance and was ready to throw the jabelin back at Gilthunder and warn him to not mess with Bernia ever again. Yet, once he did threw the damn thing, there were no words on how strong and fast Meliodas threw the damn thing. The Sin of Wrath launched the weapon faster than a cannon could ever do and with such firmess, it looked like a damn lighting bolt. All that's left is wait and see if their complain letter reaches the skull of that damn Holy Knight.

---

Back at Fort Solgress, Gilthunder was sitting on what it appears to be his seat of the conference room where he watches everything, waiting for the response of those villagers. But what he received instead was a sudden gasp.

The same lance that Meliodas threw back came crashing down the entire fortress of the Holy Knights, decimating it to rubble of its former glory. All what's left was the cloud of dust made by the impact.

Fortunately, Law managed to save all of the Knights of the fort by quickly using ROOM around a good area surrounding the fortress and using Shambles to teleport everyone out of the falling tower. Nevertheless, the Pirate did this not due to goodwill, but rather to look good among the corrupt order of Lioness and gather more clues over his crew's whereabouts.

"Is everyone alright? Does anyone need medical attention?" Trafalgar called everyone to be noticed if anyone needs any sort of medical help among the order.

"W-were okay. T-thanks Sir Law…" Allioni who managed to survive the beatdown the other knights made him suffer from got up, thanking the undercover pirate for at least caring for the least.

"Sir Gilthunder!" The Knights who served under the Holy Knight were quick on their feet, as all of them came to climb what's left of the Solgres Tower. Once they reached the top where the conference room is located, they were surprised that their ruthless leader was still alive, and he barely survive if we take as a fact that the lance missed the shot and impaled itself into the demonic dandy's chair. But even then, he didn't seem to be frightened in the slightest. He was still sitting with confidence on its expression with his arms and legs crossed, bearing a devilish smug on its face.

"Fufufufufufu… I recognize that throw from one person, and only one person only…" Gilthunder softly and slowly chortled over the fact that he finally had a slight idea on who sent this warning sign to him and his knights. "To think after all those years, you finally choose to stop slacking and start an effortless rebellion against the rebirth of the great Lioness Kingdom." He then began to talk with himself, having a malicious tone. "Then tell me, why did you made us wait this long, Traitor Captain, Meliodas…?"

---

All while the drama between the Seven Deadly Sins and the Holy Knights was occurring, there was also a certain group of infamous pirates that have accidentally arrived at the magical land of Britania. Though, let's say not as infamous as the Straw Hat Pirates, it was indeed a crew that has risen in popularity and power recently, and more when we take for a fact that its eccentric and slightly dumb captain used to form part of the legendary Roger Pirates.

"Ugh… My freaking head…" A certain Pirate with a big red nose groaned in irritation as he slowly opened his eyes. "I swear, this will be the last time I'll let travel companies carry me and my crew through the room…"

The pirate in particular was none other than current member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea Buggy the Clown, captain of the not-so-cleverly named Buggy Pirates with a bounty of 15,000,000 berries on him and user of the Chop-Chop Fruit.

"Guh… I-I at least hope we get some compensation after this." Another member of Buggy's crew managed to woke up from that painful shipwreck the recently had. It was a man who wore glasses and had a hair-cut shaped like the number 3. His name was Galdino, formerly known as Mr. 3 back when he formed part of the Baroque Works.

"Though, I must admit that the buffet and the VIP was nice to say at least." Lastly from waking up, it was a voluptuous and beautiful woman that bear a mace as a weapon. Her name was Alvida and just like Galdino, she surprisingly formed part of the Buggy Pirates. "But can someone at least lend me a coat? I'm freezing here!"

And how these 3 Idiots got into this mess you may ask? It just so happens that after the events of Dressrosa with the fall of the former Warlord Donquixote Dofflamingo, a certain Giant of Buggy's Mercenary Service announce his resignation and proclaim that he will now serve under the fleet of Straw Hat Luffy. And let's say, Buggy and Monkey D. Luffy didn't had the best relation to say the least. Now sure, they have indeed worked together during the massive Impel Down breakout and also during the Paramount War where he and the Rubber boy were helped by none other than the former Emperor of the Sea Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate to rescue Portgas D. Ace from the clutches of the Marine organization. But it didn't meant that he would want to strangle the optimistic kid's neck with his hands. But speaking of which, Buggy quickly noticed that his red blanket he uses to look intimidating has gone missing, leaving him like a scattered jigsaw puzzle.

"HEY! WHO WAS THE BRIGHT IDEA OF TAKING MY PRECIOUS RED MANTLE!? I SWEAR I'M GONNA CUT THE THROAT OF THE BASTARD WHO DID THIS TO THE GREAT CAPTAIN BUGGY!" It was an understatement that Buggy was mad about this. I mean, he was basically just a head at this point with the rest of his limbs bouncing like jelly beans. But fortunately, his 2 crewmembers always carry his main body if these sort of situations were to happen. "Hey you! A little more to the left! NO! I SAID MY LEFT, NOT YOUR, I MEAN MY! AHG! FORGET IT!" Though, the hard part was for the rest of his body to put itself back together. It took time for the pirate to put himself together (No pun intended), but the great Captain Buggy managed to do so at the end.

"I think it's a good thing that none of us have died or drowned, considering all of us are D-devil Fruit users, but it doesn't help the fact that we're on a winter horrorland without any warm clothes." Alvida told everyone, as she was freezing since the 3 of them ended on a snowy field. Which was probably caused by the fabled Winter Warlock.

"F-Freezing like p-popsicles is your b-biggest problem? We don't even know where we are! ACHOO!" Galdino sneezed, feeling that he's about to get sick sooner or latter, considering that mostly they wear something fresh since pirates tend to travel through sunny places. "C-captain, you did travel with the mythical Roger Crew. Do you know where we are? ACHOO!"

Though, the pirate clown didn't took that long to take a good look at the place they crashed into. But to think that him would return to the land of Britania after so many years. "W-what? Y-you got to be kidding me for all that I believe!" Not even the Clown that crossed dimensions alongside Shanks and his former Captain Roger was still able to process that he will once again find himself in another world. "Damn it all! To think I would find myself in Britania from all places! First off, one of my most valuable mercenaries decides to quit for that damn Straw Hat, then there's that damn ship cruise line barely standing, and now I'm stuck on another dimension. Freezing like a dead animal on a freezer of all place. H-hey speaking of which? I didn't remember these parts of Britania being this snowy in the first place. Is it winter or what? If it was your fault for taking me here again, I swear I'm gonna rip your head in half, Straw Hat!" The Warlord began to to talk with himself on his mind for his 2 lackeys to not hear him. "Calm yourself up Buggy! I mean, y-you managed to survive the Paramount War and lived to tell your glorious tale! You got yourself a thousand suckers on your crew, you became a Warlord of the Sea and now your business is booming with Doflamingo's defeat. Huh… I guess there was something good coming from Straw Hat Luffy. Now, how can I explain my 2 crewmates that we're stuck on another dimension far from us without sounding like a complete moron?" He tried to think of a way to tell Alvida and Mr. 3 about the situation without sounding like if it made it right out the bat. "Well, at least I can boast about being one of the few pirates that has crossed the boundaries between worlds. Now, I only need to find that witch Merlin and convince her to take us back home. Now the only thing that remains is to find a way for she to help me, considering how much of a creep that woman is. UGH! Hmm… Maybe I can talk with that old man Barta since he and my old captain used to be really close friends."

"Earth calling to Buggy!" Alvida smacked Buggy's head to snap him back to reality, of course this was received with some very mad ramblings from the clown. "Also, I have to point out that it will be impossible to contact any of our crewmembers or anyone in general since it appears to be no signal." The vixen of the crew also pointed this out as she brought her Den-Den Mushi that seemed to not be working due to the small snail sleeping as if it was dead

Though, Buggy managed to calm down surprisingly fast. "Ehem… As I was saying, what you see gentlemen right here is not just any desert island. It is actually a faraway land that once me and the legendary Pirate King Gol D. Roger have visited and very few pirates have witnessed with their eyes.

"AAHH! IS THIS LAUGH TALE!?" Galdino's heart came out from his chest, thinking that maybe this is the final island where the legendary treasure One Piece was lurking.

"No you idiot! This isn't Laugh Tale!" Buggy smacked the former member of the Baroque Works, causing him to fall face-down to the snow. "If it really was Laugh Tale, I would have already been the Pirate King." He affirmed before changing mood to his usual flashy and over the top one. "Behold Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the mystical and great land of Britania! Home of many magical monsters, knights and even wizards capable of twisting reality as we know it!" he presented the land of the 7 Deadly Sins as flashy as possible, like one of those tv commercials.

"Yeah, Yeah… Still that doesn't resolve our problem! We're not sure where are we right now, and we don't have a clue on how to get back." Alvida pointed out, breaking the sense of hype among the clown. "Seems that we need to loot and pillage some towns if we wish to find a map of this entire continent."

"A map? Nonsense!" Buggy exclaimed to the 2, affirming that they don't need a map. "Who needs a map when you have me! The Great Captain Buggy! I traveled through this entire land alongside the Roger Pirates alongside the Emperor Red-Haired Shanks! I know this whole damn place like the palm of my hand!" Now, most people would point out that Buggy was lying, given the fact that he wouldn't end up on his position in the power hierarchy of his world if it weren't for the circumstances he took part in. But in actuality, Buggy was actually telling the truth. He indeed knew the entire geography of Britania forth and back. "Now, follow me, and I shall show you a land like none other so you can tell your grandchildren that you, yes you, have sailed through Britania with the legendary Buggy the Clown! GYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Halt there! By the name of the Weird Fang, you're all under arrest for trying to loot a village full of innocents, damn Pirates!" Just when they weren't paying attention, a hundered Knights under the new order of the Weird Fangs founded by Hendrickson surrounded the 3 stooges without any chance of escaping.

"Oh, I forgot… We just so happen to land right next to Baste Dungeon…" Buggy delivered the punchline, having no idea on what to do now.