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Chapter 42
When the second day's daylight came, Jepack brought Nami and Guina to the tavern. Garp was still lying on the floor of the bar, snoring loudly—clearly in a drunken stupor.
Nami and Guina had been unwilling to come at first. Jepack tried reasoning with them, saying training needed a balance of work and rest, but it had no effect. The two girls were completely obsessed with training. In the end, he had to use the excuse that Garp seemed in a very bad mood yesterday to finally bring them along.
So when they entered, Jepack kicked the tavern door open with an annoyed face and immediately spotted the sleeping Garp and the bottle of Moutai beside him.
"Mr. Jepack, Mr. Garp drank a lot last night after you left. After finishing that last bottle of white liquor, he just collapsed here in the tavern. We could only let him sleep on the floor!"
Makino, hearing the noise, came out from inside and explained what happened last night.
"This old man really dares to drink. All that booze last night, plus a whole bottle of big Moutai—he finished everything. No wonder he's sleeping like a dead pig."
Jepack waved casually at Makino in greeting, then grumbled about Garp.
Right after he finished complaining, his ear was suddenly pinched.
"Ow, ow, ow!"
"If it hurts, then be polite to your teacher!"
The one twisting Jepack's ear was Guina. Seeing him badmouth her teacher, she immediately took action to discipline him.
Nami chimed in from the side, agreeing with Guina: "Exactly! Always calling him 'old geezer' this and that. Next time you do it, Big Sis Guina will teach you a lesson!"
"Thank you so much for taking care of Teacher last night!"
After finishing twisting Jepack's ear, Guina let go and thanked Makino.
"It's nothing, really! Mr. Garp is very well-known and respected in our village. Whenever the villagers see him like this, they take good care of him."
"By the way… why do you call Mr. Garp 'Teacher'? I've never seen him bring disciples here before."
Taking advantage of the topic, the three girls started chatting. Meanwhile, Jepack stood bored on the side, checking the system update timer.
System update countdown: 5 days!
"Only 5 days left… kinda looking forward to what new stuff it'll bring!"
The three girls chatted the whole morning. Before they knew it, it was already lunchtime.
Jepack had no choice but to interrupt them and ask about the kitchen—he planned to cook a meal for everyone. Otherwise sitting around was too boring.
Makino pointed toward the kitchen. Jepack walked over.
"I'm telling you, Jepack's cooking is amazing! So delicious~ Just thinking about it makes my mouth water."
"Really?"
Makino looked curiously at Jepack heading toward the kitchen.
...
The food was ready quickly. Even standing at the tavern entrance, the fragrance of the meal could be smelled.
At that moment, a loud, carefree shout came from the door.
"Makino-sis! What food did you prepare? It smells so good!"
Pushing the door open was a boy wearing a straw hat, a red vest, blue shorts, and open-toed sandals. He had messy black short hair and a scar under his left eye.
"Ah! It's Luffy. This isn't food I prepared—it's from that handsome gentleman over there."
Makino pointed at Jepack, who had just walked out of the kitchen carrying the last dish.
"Oh! Not you? Then big bro, can I join you guys and eat a little?"
Luffy held his straw hat, grinning as he asked Jepack.
Jepack saw that the person who just burst in was the future Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy. Hearing his question, he smiled and replied:
"Of course you can. Sit down and eat with us!"
"Thank you, Jepack-san!"
Luffy thanked him excitedly and immediately pulled up a chair next to Makino.
"Too delicious! Can't hold back—I'm digging in!"
After Jepack sat down, everyone heard this one sentence. Then they saw everyone devouring the food like a storm.
In that moment, no one spoke—all were focused on eating like crazy.
Jepack watched the scene and showed a faint smile. There's a great sense of accomplishment when the cook sees people enjoying the food so much!
While devouring his meal, Luffy suddenly noticed the sleeping Garp—though only from behind. With his mouth full of meat, he asked Makino curiously:
"Who's that guy sleeping in the tavern? His back looks kinda familiar."
Makino swallowed her food before answering:
"Huh? That's Mr. Garp. Luffy, didn't you come here to see Mr. Garp?"
Luffy slapped his palm as if suddenly realizing.
"Ohhh, that's why he looked familiar! It's this old man. I didn't come to see him—I just smelled the food and came to bum a meal!"
"This old geezer beat me up last night for no reason. Just seeing him pisses me off!"
While eating and nonstop complaining about Garp, Luffy didn't notice the tall figure behind him slowly raising a fist, getting closer and closer.
Looks like Luffy hasn't trained Observation Haki at all yet.
Feeling his back suddenly grow warmer, Luffy said:
"Why does it feel like the tavern is getting hotter? My back is sweating…"
Right after saying that, came the cry: "Love's Iron Fist!"
Then—BOOM! Luffy was hammered straight into the tavern floor.
Across from him, Jepack, Nami, and Guina silently put down their chopsticks and prayed for Luffy.
"Stinky brat—this old man beats you whenever he wants! Do I need a reason?! I woke up and saw you eating—can't you read a book instead?"
After saying that, Garp still felt unsatisfied and gave the floored Luffy another punch.
Then he pulled out a chair, sat down as if nothing happened, and started eating Jepack's food.
"Teacher Garp / Mr. Garp!"
The three girls greeted the seated Garp. Garp nodded and looked at Jepack.
"So this meal is your cooking, huh? Good thing this old man woke up from the smell—otherwise I'd have regretted it!"
Garp said somewhat gratefully while looking at Jepack.
"No big deal. I left a portion in the kitchen for you anyway. Otherwise I was afraid you'd starve to death in your sleep, old man!"
Garp shrugged casually at Jepack's words, then pointed at Luffy on the floor.
"The rest of that portion can be this brat's bento later. I'm taking him into the mountains for some 'fun'."
Jepack understood Garp's intention—he probably wanted to take Luffy to the area behind the mountain bandit hideout for some special training. Their teaching style was quite unique: either take the beating, or rely purely on toughness to survive.
"I don't mind. Take him if you want. Just make sure Makino's okay with it since it's her ingredients. Also—bring the three of us along to watch!"
"Stinky old man—leave me some food!"
Luffy stood up in a panic and started shoving food into his mouth—because if he didn't hurry, Garp would finish everything alone!
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