The next day Ars worked on his documents for the kingdom, trained, and then by noon he went flying though the sky to a kingdom in the same blue sea.
He reached the kingdom shortly after, there he spotted a few pirates in the distance, he decided he could go and get a bit extra money to buy stuff.
He transformed back and quickly reached them using geppo, and realized he knew them from the newspaper, they were famous for being scum, and raiding villages. He just thought for himself.
'Easy money!'
He quickly dispatched them all using his sword before they could even react to his presence, then he collected the heads to change for the bounties. It didn't take him long to have an extra 40 million berries in his pocket.
He moved through the stores buying clothes, jewelry for his queens, spices for his home, food for himself and sometimes presents for his friends.
After a while he had a large amount of stuff in his laboratory, which was now serving as a storage unit.
When he was done on the first island he decided to go to the next one. There he repeated the process until he was satisfied. Then to the next, then the next and finally he was on his way to a kingdom that he went to from time to time, to get some delicious sandwich, he had discovered this delicacy a few months ago when he went out to explore, it was kinda expensive for a simple sandwish but for him it was worth it.
But that day when he arrived pirates were attacking, and it wasn't just one ship it was a group of them, the marines were also here fighting. He looked around and found a familiar face. She was fighting in the middle of the enemy forces, but due to the overwhelming number advantage, she was slowly losing ground.
She looked around and noticed she wasn't the only one slowly getting overwhelmed, all the marines and kingdom soldiers were, worst they were getting killed left and right, if this went on like this all of the marines and soldiers would die soon enough and then she would be next.
Ars contemplated his options. He could help, or he could ignore what was happening and knock on the door to see if the food seller would pick up and sell him his sandwiches. He decided that helping the marines was easier, while the marines weren't his allies they weren't enemies either, and the seller was more likely to open the door if he did so, then he could buy what he wanted faster.
Ars looked around and used his conqueror's haki, knocking every single pirate in the city along with a lot of the kingdom's soldiers. The marines along with the guards who stayed awake looked around confusedly.
Hina did the same searching for what had saved them. Ars in the meantime was already knocking on the salesman door. While saying out loud.
"The pirates are all asleep, so open the door!"
Ars kept banging on the door and repeating himself until there was movement inside. The owner of the shop peeked out through the window, and he saw the pirates on the ground, not moving, and decided to open the door and pull Ars in. The moment Ars got in the vendor started screaming at him.
"Don't you know how dangerous it is to be outside? You could have gotten killed!"
Ars looked confused, did he really think that he would be outside if he wasn't strong enough?
Ars smiled anyway, then he replied.
"Thank you for worrying about me but I'm strong enough that they can't even touch me. Anyway I would like to buy the usual!"
The man looked at Ars like he had grown a few extra heads, then he asked cautiously.
"Did you come here just for the sandwich?"
Ars simply nodded and the man lost it.
"There was a war with people dying outside… And you come here just for a sandwich? Are you completely insane?"
Ars sighed and explained.
"Having those people outside or not having them it's the same, it's like a bunch of ants in your way, you would just ignore them right? Damn, now that I think about it, I would probably be more careful about the insects, if they could fly they probably could enter my mouth or something… So I'm not insane, I just don't care about a bunch of worthless existences outside… Now can I have my sandwich?"
He nodded absently then he remembered a detail from what Ars said, so he asked.
"In that case, couldn't you defeat everyone outside by yourself?"
Ars nodded, so the man demanded.
"Then, why didn't you do it? There were innocent people who died!"
Ars looked at him and replied feeling indignant.
"I just got here!?"
The man was now confused.
"Don't you live on this island?"
Ars shook his head and explained.
"No. Previously I just came here to explore and I found your food which i liked. So I come here from time to time, and today I found this mess so I helped a little."
The man stood there bewildered, then asked.
"So let me get this straight… You come here quite often, from a whole different island, just to buy food from me?"
Ars nodded and the man muttered.
"I'm not sure if I should feel happy with how much you like my food or afraid of how far you are willing to go just for food…"
The man looked at Ars and finally said what Ars wanted to hear.
"Wait here, I will get you your sandwich ready in a few minutes…"
Ars corrected him hurriedly…
"I don't want just one, I want that one, that one, also that one… Ho that one also looks good so i want it too, and finally i want the usual one."
The man nodded absently as Ars pointed at his choices and asked.
"So 5 sandwiches to go?"
Ars nodded at him and added.
"I will wait outside."
He went outside and found a place to sit while waiting, he observed as the marines slowly killed their way through the unconscious pirates. Using observation haki Ars realized that the marines and guards that were awake, only killed about 10% of the pirates until now, due to injuries and being exhausted.
Ars just stood there, while he waited for his food to be completed, someone from the marines saw him and went somewhere. After a few minutes the same marine came back with Hina.
The moment she saw him, she realized what happened and why they were still alive.
She quickly approached and when she got close enough she instantly thanked him.
"Hina, wishes to thank your majesty for your help, or Hina would most likely be dead!"
The other marines and the kingdom soldiers gasped, then looked carefully at Ars, he was just standing there doing nothing, looking unimpressive, one of the kingdom soldiers looked at Hina and asked astonished.
"Are you sure this is the guy!?"
Hina nodded, but smiled awkwardly. It was indeed strange his presence here, but he was the most likely candidate for the help, considering there wasn't anyone else capable of knocking everyone down, present here.
Ars looked at her and commented.
"You looked like you were having a rough time, so I helped a bit. Besides, if you died here it would mean I was the one who killed you, by changing your destiny."
Everyone else besides Hina looked shocked by his admission. Hina on the other hand knew how strong he was from one of their interactions in the past, and she calculated that he was even stronger now. She looked at Ars and was a bit bewildered by his presence, so she asked, deciding to ignore the destiny part.
"Hina would like to know, why are you here?"
Ars pointed at the sandwich store and directly explained, before questioning them.
"Came to buy some food. But I'm pretty sure you still haven't killed 20% of the pirates, is it wise to be here just talking?"
All of their eyes widened, when they realized he was right, they were just so shocked that someone was here relaxing like this was a normal day.
Hina looked at him and said in a hurry.
"Hina will go deal with the pirates, wait here for a while."
Ars was a bit confused about why he should wait, but nodded anyway.
Both the marines and the kingdom soldiers rushed to finish the pirates. After a while, when they were about 90% done, the remaining pirates started to wake up. When they realized they had lost so many people they started to escape.
The marines and the soldiers did manage to kill a few more but most of them managed to escape.
While they were dealing with the pirates the shop owner had finished the sandwiches and was going to Ars to deliver them. As he delivered them, one pirate that had escaped rushed from behind Ars and grabbed him with a knife to his throat, and started demanding.
"If you don't want to see this man die, get back and let me leave! And you won't chase or he dies!"
The shopkeeper panicked and started screaming.
"Help! There is a pirate here! I knew it, coming out was a bad idea…"
This attracted the attention of the marines and soldiers. Hina also approached and then saw the situation.
She was speechless, the shopkeeper was freaking out, the marines and soldiers were lost about what they should do, and the hostage was eating his food like this had nothing to do with him.
She looked at the relaxed Ars and asked the pirate.
"Of all the people who you could get as a hostage you chose him… How unlucky are you!?"
The pirate was confused and screamed.
"Don't you see I have a knife right beside his throat? Do what I tell you!"
Hina looked at the pirate and asked.
"Didn't you notice something strange!?"
Everyone went silent, and suddenly the only sound that was being heard was the sound of someone eating his food away.
The pirate finally realized what was wrong… His hostage was more busy eating, than afraid… He screamed at Ars now.
"What the hell are you doing!? Oh hell no! How dare you ignore me!"
Ars just signaled him to be quiet with his free hand and said calmly like this was a normal situation.
"Chill… I'm enjoying my meal."
The pirate lost it and tried to slit Ars throat but instead of the sound of blood being spilled the sound was almost metallic.
Hina laughed like she already knew this was gonna happen but everyone else was looking at Ars neck incredulously.
The pirate started screaming incoherently, and Ars looked at him and complained.
"Do you mind stopping the noise!? I'm trying to enjoy a meal, I'm not interested in your theatrics."
The pirate started screaming even more, Ars pulled his hand back, before slapping the pirate across the island… Or what remained of him.
Everyone shivered, and Hina couldn't help but complain.
"Hina finds something very wrong with how strong you are!"
Ars just shrugged and kept eating, then he asked Hina directly.
"So… What do you need from me? Did you decide to leave the marines and join my kingdom, my queens would like it!"
Hina looked at Ars and explained.
"Hina would like to know the location of your kingdom! Hina searched but couldn't find anything! But no Hina, will keep being a marine!"
Ars smiled, nodded and then added.
"Then it will remain like that! Since I'm not sharing the location with anyone, unless they come to live there!"
Hina looked at Ars and said.
"Hina's unhappy! Hina wanted to check Kuina-sama kingdom!"
Ars smiled and explained.
"We can't compromise on that, for safety reasons. So unless you want to quit the marines and come work for me I can't help you with that… Well… There is a way, but you would have to put your life in my hands, and honestly it's not worth it for you in this case."
Hina showed a conflicted expression but nodded, putting her life in someone else's hands just to visit someone wasn't worth it.
Ars thought about it, the only group outside his kingdom that definitely knew about his kingdom location and part of its size, was the World Economy News Paper, which had a bunch of birds that flew over his kingdom almost daily to sell the newspapers. Thankfully the bird in charge of the group didn't show much interest in his kingdom, besides selling his newspapers to them, and Ars intended to keep it that way as long as possible.
Hina then said.
"Then this is Hina's farewell, Hina got promoted and relocated to the grandline! So this is the last time Hina will meet your majesty Ars."
Ars smiled and shook his head before saying calmly.
"Maybe, but i can go to the grandline as easily as i came here to buy food, so maybe we will meet again, when you are not expecting."
While Ars and Hina were talking, everyone was getting shocked by what they were hearing and understanding, and were all thinking at the same time.
'This guy is a king? What is wrong with this world?'
As they finished talking, Ars left. He noticed marine ships approaching the island. It was the back up, late but they were coming.