The misunderstanding had already taken root. Even if Sherwin and the others tried to explain to the outside world through Morgans and Uta live broadcast, those people wouldn’t possibly listen, so he simply couldn’t be bothered to care.

Regardless, even if they eventually discovered it was all a misunderstanding, very few would actually dare to come looking for trouble with him.

Thus, Sherwin very heartedly tossed the matter to the back of his mind and continued to discuss with Uta and the Felynes how to give Shanks a profound lesson.

Well, not caring was one thing, but toward a guy like Shanks who had caused him such a mess, Sherwin decided he still needed to be a bit more ruthless.

The next day, Shanks, who had been rushing over at high speed, arrived at Elegia.

Originally, Sherwin had intended for him to sneak onto the island, but given the current situation, there was no longer a need to hide it from Uta.

Therefore, upon spotting the Red Force, Sherwin and the others took Uta and Gordon to the already repaired port of Elegia to wait for the Red Hair Pirates to approach.

"Show some spirit! Don’t look all expectant before you’ve even seen that idiot Shanks, Meow!"

Jinx jumped from Shirahoshi head onto Uta shoulder, crossly patting her cheek as a reminder.

"Oh, right!"

Uta quickly composed the expression on her face and replaced it with a look of impatience.

Gordon: "..."

Sherwin and the others didn’t hide their plans when they were discussing them, so Gordon knew exactly what Shanks was about to face.

Out of loyalty to his friend, Gordon instinct was to warn Shanks, but considering he was an accomplice, jumping out now to ruin the Felyne plans seemed like a death wish.

Thus, he could only lower his presence while silently mourning for Shanks...

There was no helping it the potions made by that little Felyne named Haibara were terrifying! Gordon had seen with his own eyes the miserable reaction of a certain cow cat after drinking one of Haibara Meow concoctions.

He wasn’t young anymore, and his strength wasn’t as formidable as Shank, so he really couldn’t handle that kind of ordeal.

"Uta!"

Before the Red Force had even come to a steady halt, Shanks had already leaped off the ship and took two steps forward in excitement.

However, upon seeing her deliberately tensed face, he stopped in his tracks, his shoulders slumping in disappointment.

"Uta..." Shanks called out her name again, his voice filled with guilt as he spoke,

"I’m sorry. I know it might be a bit late to say this now, and I don’t expect you to forgive me, but what I want to say is that no matter what, you will always be the musician of our Red Hair Pirates, and you will always be my daughter."

Under Shank sincere and heartfelt words, Uta, who was already somewhat soft-hearted, almost couldn’t hold her resolve.

However, as the saying goes, it hard to learn good habits, but easy to fall into bad ones. Under the repeated influence of the little Felynes, even though Uta heart already leaned toward forgiving Shanks, she had no intention of giving up on teaching him a lesson...

She was even a little expectant.

So, after her mouth twitched a few times, Uta still managed to maintain her facial expression, only giving Shanks a cold glance before turning her head away and refusing to look at him again.

"Sigh..."

Shanks sighed. Because of Sherwin consistently false intelligence, he believed that Uta hated him deeply, so he hadn’t expected to gain his daughter forgiveness so easily.

Yet, seeing her cold attitude, the usually lighthearted pirate still felt a pang of loneliness.

However, knowing the truth, Sherwin and the Felynes didn’t dare let him continue this "tragic" act.

What if Uta couldn’t hold back and softened her heart? In order to pit... no, to vent Uta frustrations, they had made many detailed plans and even conducted rehearsals in the Sing-Sing Fruit world they couldn’t let things go wrong at the very beginning!

Thus, Sherwin immediately stepped forward to change the subject.

"Speaking of which, because of you, those pirates have started running here again. We finally managed to get Elegia mostly rebuilt. If this place is destroyed again because of your arrival, I won’t help rebuild it a second time. The Red-Haired Pirates will have to take responsibility!"

"Eh? What going on?"

Shanks had a look of utter confusion on his face. In his rush to reach Elegia as quickly as possible, he hadn’t paid any attention to what was happening behind him.

Furthermore, Morgans wouldn’t have published anything in the newspapers before those pirates caused a real scene, so the Red Hair Pirates still had no idea what had happened.

After a brief explanation of the situation to him and the rest of the Red Hair Pirates who had followed him ashore, Shanks nodded as a matter of course. "Don’t worry! We’ll take responsibility for protecting this place!"

"I should warn you beforehand, the pirates coming this time include the Beast Pirates and Big Mom crew, and we are also about to leave... In fact, if it weren’t for you leading that group of pirates back here again, I would have set off long ago."

"I’ve really caused you too much trouble." Shanks patted Sherwin on the shoulder, moved, and then said:

"If you have urgent business, feel free to leave! The likes of the Beast Pirates and Big Mom don’t scare the Red Hair Pirates!"

The reason Shanks was so confident, besides his own formidable strength, was that he didn’t believe the Beast Pirates and Big Mom would fight him to the death. After all, their goal was Vegapunk and had nothing to do with Elegia.

Having finished discussing business, Shanks finally had a moment to greet the Felynes.

"Long time no see, Klee Meow."

As he spoke, he reached out his hand to pat the little Ragdoll head.

Even though he had been laid up for several days after being blown up by Klee Meow bombs, Klee Meow remained Shank favorite among all the Felynes.

Aside from the fact that the little Ragdoll was indeed adorable, it was also because her personality was somewhat similar to Uta when she was a child.

Therefore, when Shanks had met with Sherwin before, he had gotten along very well with Klee Meow.

Klee Meow, who could sense people emotions, no longer resisted getting close to Shanks after he had proactively tried to please her for several days.

In the entire Red Hair Pirates, only a few people like Shanks and Lucky Roux had managed to achieve this.

However, the response Shanks imagined did not appear. Not only did Klee Meow ignore his greeting, but she also tilted her small head to the side, avoiding his palm while huffing angrily,

"You actually left Sister Uta behind and ignored her, Klee doesn’t like you anymore meow!"

(`н=)

Shanks froze, maintaining his reaching posture as he looked at the other Felynes, only to find they all wore expressions of disdain. He couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh and withdrew his only remaining arm.

Shanks was actually no stranger to this situation Yasopp treatment among the Felynes was roughly the same.

He had even gloated about it with his other crewmates before, never expecting that he would now be loathed by the Felynes for a similar reason.

Furthermore, the Felyne relationship with Usopp was clearly not as close as their bond with Uta, so Shanks found that the situation he faced was even worse than Yasopp...

At least those few Felynes with more stable personalities didn’t show too much obvious disgust toward Yasopp, and most Felynes would politely give some response when Yasopp proactively approached them to talk.

But now, even if Shanks proactively tried to speak to the Felynes, the vast majority treated it as wind past their ears.

Only Huamei Meow and Kaido Meow, who had previously received his guidance on Conqueror Haki techniques, would occasionally exchange a few words.

"Little Klee, the power of that ’little toy’ you gave me was a bit too exaggerated, wasn’t it? Didn’t you think to warn me when you gave it to me?"

Seeing the stiff atmosphere on the scene, Lucky Roux immediately jumped out to change the subject,

"Aren’t you afraid I’d press down on it while sleeping and accidentally trigger it and get blown away?"

"Meow?"

(=ω=)

The little ragdoll scratched her head in confusion. "Didn’t Klee Meow tell you to throw it if you encountered an enemy you couldn’t beat? Why were you completely off guard, meow?"

Lucky Roux fell silent.

He couldn’t exactly tell Klee Meow that he hadn’t taken the compressed Jumpy Dumpty she gave him seriously at first, could he? Although Lucky Roux failed to lighten the mood, the other members of the Red Hair Pirates took his cue and stepped forward to strike up conversations with the Felynes.

With their efforts and the Felyne active cooperation, the atmosphere finally began to liven up.

Then came the standard pirate world tradition: holding a banquet. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

As the banquet progressed, Uta and the Felynes, who had been giving Shanks the cold shoulder, finally stopped scowling at him. Even though they still refused to speak to him, Shanks was already deeply moved.

As the banquet reached its climax, Uta even took the initiative to sing a song.

While Shanks was lost in a trance, admiring his daughter singing, a large sake dish was handed to him.

"Have a drink, meow?"

︺(●ω●)

"Ha! Ibuki Sake! I’ve missed this!"

Shanks cheered as he took the dish and raised it to his lips.

However, the moment the rim of the dish touched his mouth, his movements suddenly froze...

His Observation Haki had just triggered an automatic warning, showing him a glimpse of what was about to happen a few seconds into the future.

"Heh..."

Shanks gave a bitter smile, but he didn’t put down the dish. Instead, with a look of determination to let his daughter and the Felynes vent their frustration, he tilted his head back and drained the liquid in one gulp!