I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

Roger went on and on about the past ten years of seclusion.

From Ace's initial resistance and coldness, to Rouge gradually softening his attitude...

For the past ten years, Roger has lived almost as a neighbor to the bandit Dadan's family. Not only Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, but also Roger and his wife grew up under their very noses.

Compared to the rebellious teenager Ace, the polite and sensible Sabo, and the clueless Luffy, were closer to Roger.

"Sigurd, you've come at a bad time. That kid set sail a few days ago and has officially embarked on the path to becoming a pirate."

"Ace became a pirate supernova three years ago and has now entered the New World."

"As for Sabo... he seems to be plotting something lately, and he's gathered a rather large number of Revolutionary Army soldiers, but I didn't ask any further questions."

"In the blink of an eye, these children have all started their own lives..."

At this point, Roger sighed and grinned:

"From now on, it will be their era."

While chatting, we arrived at the cabin on Mount Colbo.

"How has it been living in the mountains for the past ten years?" Sieg asked casually.

He watched as Roger returned, greeting the Dadan family with a smile before pushing open the door.

"Not bad at all." Roger nodded in satisfaction.

This wasn't the first time Roger had gone into seclusion.

After disbanding his pirate crew, "the troublesome guys are finally gone," so he rallied his spirits despite being seriously ill and spent a whole year living a shameless life in seclusion with Rouge.

Sieg didn't recognize Dadan, he just glanced at her briefly, and then followed Roger into the house.

"Rouge? Come and see who I've brought back!" Roger said with a smile as he entered the house.

When I entered the house, Rouge was sitting on the bench in the living room, holding a newspaper and scissors, about to cut out Ace's picture.

Seeing Roger and Sieg approach, he quickly stood up and greeted them with a smile, but there was a hint of confusion in his smile.

As we all know, most people cannot see through the simple disguise of a beard and glasses, except for Roger, who had superhuman Observation Haki.

"Are you cutting up newspaper clippings?" Roger's interest was immediately piqued.

"Could it be news about Ace? Let me see."

Chapter 1003 Our Big Family Has Grown Even Stronger

Rouge's expression changed slightly, and she was about to hide the newspaper, but Roger was quick and had already snatched it from her hand.

"This photo...is good, it should be cut..."

Roger's smile suddenly froze halfway through his sentence.

His gaze was fixed on the conspicuous Whitebeard Pirates emblem on Ace's back, and his hand unconsciously tightened slightly.

Sig leaned over for a glance and was also shocked.

However, seeing Roger's frozen smile, he thought for a moment and tried to smooth things over:

"It's not really that outrageous. He just recognized Whitebeard as his godfather."

"In my hometown, there's a similar custom. Many children have godfathers and godmothers, which doesn't contradict whether their parents are alive or not!"

“Yes,” Rouge chimed in.

"This is not really outrageous... but it's a bit much that he didn't call back to inform us before acknowledging his godfather."

Rouge's words also contained a hint of resentment.

Most pirates have an unfortunate, incomplete family.

Without the constraints of family, they were able to embark on their voyages to the seas without hesitation, and not return for many years.

But thanks to Sig's influence, Rouge survived her death, and the family remained intact, albeit with some differences.

"Besides..." Sieg urged again.

"Back when you entrusted your son to someone before your execution, didn't you seriously consider having Whitebeard protect your son? Now it's just that your plan from back then has come true."

Upon hearing what Sieg said, Roger suddenly turned to look at him, his expression somewhat strange:

"Whitebeard clearly stole my son... Why do I feel like you're taking his side?"

Sig: "......"

“Roger…” Rouge tugged at Roger from the side.

Roger's expression softened slightly, and he said irritably:

"That kid Ace is definitely trying to annoy me on purpose."

He put down the newspaper, sat down at the table, and casually took a bottle of vintage wine from the wine cabinet behind him.

"Rouge, this is Sig, he's back... Of course, his name now is Wang Rixiong."

"Is this Mr. Sig?"

Rouge looked surprised and scrutinized Sieg several times, still somewhat bewildered.

It wasn't until Sieg took off his sunglasses that she realized who it was and recognized him.

"It seems the magic of the sunglasses and beard is still working," Sig said with satisfaction.

As long as he continues to maintain this simple disguise, most people will not be able to see through his identity.

Sabo is like that, and so is Rouge.

The two sat facing each other at the table. Roger took out a bottle of vintage wine and began pouring it for Sieg.

Sieg could disregard the courtesy extended to unfamiliar pilgrims in the past, but after ten years of not seeing Roger, he couldn't very well refuse.

"Now that things have come to this, who can force me to lie by holding me by the neck?"

Sieg raised his glass to toast, and casually asked:

"Ace recognized Whitebeard as his father, are you really not angry anymore?"

"What's the big deal?" Roger's expression quickly recovered from its previous stiffness, and he appeared quite nonchalant.

“What you said earlier is quite right. I did have that idea from the beginning.”

As he said this, he unconsciously tightened his grip slightly, causing a crack to appear in the wine glass.

"I never expected that Garp would benefit even more. I should have entrusted it to Whitebeard."

Roger sighed softly.

Recognizing a godfather is far superior to recognizing a grandfather.

At least the adoptive father was unrelated to his biological parents, but the grandfather... invisibly made him a generation younger than Garp.

At this point, Roger's eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had just thought of something.

"That's right!"

Roger clapped his hands and laughed:

"If Whitebeard dares to talk back to me again, I'll tell him that Ace is Garp's grandson!"

“…You’re really clever.” Sieg gave a thumbs up and raised his glass to Roger.

This tactic of killing a thousand enemies while losing ten thousand of your own is truly outrageous.

During the banquet, Sieg vaguely recalled what had happened back then.

Ace was Roger's son, then Whitebeard's son, and also Garp's grandson.

Previously, Roger even mistook Dragon for his own son, right in front of his biological father, Garp...

"Why are all these people so eager to play father? It's outrageous! This entertainment industry is truly chaotic..."

Sieg smacked his lips as he drank, thinking casually.

Although he had adopted several daughters, including Bai Xing, whose parents were still alive, their relationships were all quite harmonious. He had never seen anything like this before.

At this point, Sieg was still unaware of the seriousness of the situation.

................

It's far away on the other side of the ocean.

On the ship of the Whitebeard Pirates in the New World.

After the banquet celebrating Ace and his crew joining, the team leader Marco, with his arm around the already drunk Ace's shoulder, walked towards the deck.

“Ace, from now on we’re all on the same side. I need to introduce you to Dad’s big family.”

Ace was somewhat surprised. He opened his hazy, drunken eyes and looked at Marco with a puzzled expression:

"Didn't I get to know them all at the banquet during the day? I remember all 15 captains except for myself... Are there any captains who haven't come yet?"

"That's not what I meant..."

Marco called over to the captains, including foil fencer Vista, who were chatting idly on deck, and said with a smile:

"Vista, go get Mom's bounty poster. We need to let Ace know him, so he won't be unfamiliar with his own people later."

Vista was taken aback at first, then burst into laughter along with the other captains around him.

"Correct."

"That's right."

"Vesta, go get it!" Amidst the laughter, Vista suppressed a laugh and walked into the cabin.

Ace was even more surprised: "Mom? So Whitebeard had a wife? I've never heard of that before!"

Marco laughed and said, "There are many things you haven't heard of. I can tell you about them later."

"Speaking of which, you may have heard of my mother's name... Back in the day, her name was quite famous."

After a few words of casual conversation, Vista returned with a bounty poster in his hand, which he presented to Ace.

Ace opened his hazy, drunken eyes and stared intently, the images before him swaying constantly...

"Why does he act like a man? Am I drunk and seeing things?" he wondered to himself, but with so many captains watching, he wisely kept quiet and looked at the name on the bounty list.