Hearing Luffy's words, Dadan's hand, which had been gripping Luffy's collar, unconsciously let go, causing Luffy to fall to the ground.
"Sig... That's the self-proclaimed King of the East Blue Bandits!"
There was a look of apprehension in Dadan's eyes.
And it wasn't just Dadan—behind her, the other bandits also had their eyes wide open in shock.
Recently, all the large and small bandit groups in the lawless mountains had been swept clean by Sig's bandit crew. Many among them had bowed before this man who called himself the King of the Bandits.
As for Dadan and her gang, their remote location and the dense, beast-filled wilderness that separated them had been their saving grace, sparing them from Sig's conquest.
"This is bad. This kid is definitely trouble. How could such a young child know Sig..."
"We, the Dadan family, don't want anything to do with Sig's bandit crew! It's way too dangerous!"
Dadan spoke with a wailing expression.
Hearing this, Garp's face darkened. He immediately grabbed Luffy by the cheeks and lifted him.
"Luffy, how do you know that bandit called Sig?"
Garp's expression was grim.
He knew Dadan and her group well. They were unusual for bandits—sharp-tongued but soft-hearted.
That was precisely why he had trusted them to look after Ace and Luffy.
But that didn't mean Garp thought bandits were good people.
"It hurts... I met him at the bar in Windmill Village..."
"I shouldn't have left you in that peaceful Windmill Village!"
Garp's eyes widened in anger, his frustration palpable.
"Red-Haired Shanks, and now this Sig..."
"When I'm not around, just how many bad people have you gotten to know in Windmill Village?!"
He clenched his fist, blew on it for dramatic effect, and then mercilessly hammered it down on Luffy's head.
Luffy clutched his head, where a massive bump was already swelling up visibly, steam practically rising from it. Yet, despite the pain, he still argued:
"Shanks is an amazing pirate! And Uncle Sig is also a really awesome bandit!"
"You're still arguing back!" Garp raised his fist again and struck Luffy's head two more times.
This time, Luffy's eyes filled with tears from the pain, but instead of backing down, he raised his voice and shouted at Garp:
"Shanks is an emperor among pirates! And Uncle Sig... he's amazing too!"
"He was friends with Pirate King Roger and once defeated dozens of powerful pirates!"
Garp's raised fist froze mid-air, and his entire body stiffened as he stared, dumbfounded.
Under the distant tree, the boy who had been sitting silently atop the wild boar's corpse with a grim face—Ace—raised his eyes and glanced at Luffy.
Though his expression remained unchanged, his gaze shifted subtly, revealing a flicker of emotion.
"Pirate King Roger's friend..."
Ace muttered the words softly, too quietly for anyone else to hear, as he repeated them to himself.
At the same time, he mentally etched that man's name into his memory:
Sig, the self-proclaimed King of the East Blue Bandits.
Meanwhile, Dadan and her group were just as stunned by what Luffy had said.
"Sig? How could he possibly have any connection to Pirate King Roger?"
"I admit he's dangerous, perhaps even the most dangerous person on this island... but to claim he was friends with Pirate King Roger? That's just absurd."
Dadan and the bandits didn't believe it at all. Suspicious, they pressed further:
"Kid, where did you hear all this nonsense?"
"At the bar! Uncle Sig said so himself."
"...And was he drinking a lot of alcohol at the time?" Dadan asked tentatively.
"Yeah," Luffy nodded.
"Pfft, hahahahaha! So he's just a drunk braggart!"
Dadan and the other bandits couldn't hold back their laughter, breaking into a chorus of guffaws.
"Kid, let me tell you a secret. Actually, I'm the King of Bandits from Shandong. Do you believe that?" one bandit joked.
Another bandit chimed in, playing along:
"What a coincidence! Actually, I'm the King of Bandits from Shanxi—call me Dongge."
On the side, Garp, who had remained silent, quietly let out a sigh of relief.
When he first heard about Sig, he'd thought the man was another dangerous figure like Red-Haired Shanks, someone who might corrupt his precious grandson.
Now, at last, he could relax a bit.
A drunken braggart was far safer than an actual crewmate of Roger.
When Luffy grew up a little, he would naturally stop believing such nonsense from a drunken man.
"You all doubt Uncle Sig, but he's really strong!"
Little Luffy was starting to get angry. He pressed down on the straw hat atop his head, recalling two unforgettable memories associated with it.
About this straw hat, there were two similar moments that were etched into his mind.
One had happened at the Windmill Village pier, the other in a tavern.
Two very different men had both placed this hat in his hands, treating seven-year-old Luffy as if he were already a true man.
Angered by Dadan and the others' dismissive attitudes, Luffy raised his voice:
"Uncle Sig is super strong!"
"He personally defeated 56 Sea Emperors, including the Crimson Solitude, the Giant Battleship, and the Evil King..."
Luffy counted off several names on his fingers:
"Even Shanks believes in Uncle Sig, so it can't be a lie!"
After saying this, Luffy stretched his cheeks out long on both sides and made a silly face at Dadan and the others:
"You dumb bandits are nothing compared to Uncle Sig!"
Dadan clenched her fists, veins bulging on her forehead.
But glancing at Garp standing nearby, she ultimately didn't act on her anger.
Meanwhile, the previously relaxed look on Garp's face turned into one of deep suspicion.
"Luffy, you're saying you really heard these famous pirates' names from that Sig? And Shanks also believes him?"
Garp, unconvinced, pressed further.
After receiving Luffy's firm confirmation, he scratched his nose, momentarily dazed.
"Setting everything else aside, several of the big pirates that Sengoku and I personally captured... how could they have been defeated by this Sig guy?"
Garp was deeply puzzled.
It wasn't strange for a drunk in a tavern to boast about taking down a bunch of infamous pirates.
But what was odd was that the names Luffy had listed were no ordinary names—they were a secret!
Some of these powerful pirates hadn't even had the chance to gain fame before the Navy acted swiftly to apprehend them.
Because of how dangerous they were, the World Government had completely erased all traces of their existence—their names, their deeds, everything.
Even within the Navy, only a handful of people knew these names!
"Who exactly is this Sig? And why would he tell Luffy about these people?"
"On top of that, Shanks actually believes him too?"
Garp suddenly felt that his initial assumption might have been wrong.
Someone who knew these names and had earned Red-Haired Shanks' trust couldn't possibly be an ordinary person.
These questions tangled in Garp's mind like a knot of chaos, leaving him unable to make sense of anything.
After five seconds of hard thinking, Garp gave up.
"So that guy's name is Sig, huh?"
Garp grinned, his massive fist tightening with a loud crack.