Time flew by, and six months passed in the blink of an eye.
With a lot of Berries, Bellemere's family's big villa was completed early.
It was more like a small estate. The house had two and a half floors but covered a large area, and now everyone had their own room.
Even so, there were still many empty rooms.
Nami now had her own secret space, a quiet studio for drawing maps.
Ryuen also had his own training room, so in the past six months, his strength improved rapidly. He focused on training the Marine Rokushiki technique Soru and had already mastered it.
At this moment, in the training room, Ryuen was doing weight training with Seastone handcuffs. He had basically adapted to the restraint of Seastone.
With the Seastone on, he couldn't use his Devil Fruit abilities, but he could move like a normal person.
Besides Ryuen, Nojiko was also in the training room.
Nojiko was eager to go to sea, so she had been training hard for the past six months. Without considering Devil Fruit abilities, Nojiko was now stronger than Nami.
Mainly because Nami had been slacking off and spending a lot of time learning about weather and maps.
"Ryuen, Nojiko, come out for breakfast!" Bellemere's call reached the training room.
"Coming!"
"Okay, Bellemere!" Ryuen and Nojiko answered in unison.
"Let's go, Ryuen..." Nojiko walked over and helped Ryuen remove the Seastone handcuffs.
When they reached the dining room, they saw a lot of delicious food prepared by Bellemere.
Since they no longer lacked Berries, the three kids convinced Bellemere to stop growing oranges, and the orchard was sold to the villagers.
So now, Bellemere's most important task was to ensure the kids' nutrition so they could grow up healthy and strong.
"Genzo-san, are you going on patrol?" Ryuen asked curiously, seeing Genzo adjusting his hat and holding a baton.
The little windmill on his hat was still spinning slowly.
"Hahaha, yes, Ryuen, Nojiko, Bellemere, I'm off now!" Genzo cheerfully left the estate.
"Genzo-san, if any pirates come, make sure to tell me first!" Ryuen shouted to Genzo's back.
For Ryuen, the most important thing this year was to deal with the invasion of the fish-man Arlong. He couldn't set sail peacefully until this guy was taken care of.
"Got it..."
Genzo came to their house for breakfast every day, but spent the rest of his time at his own home.
Bellemere's family had tried to persuade Genzo to move in with them, but he refused without a second thought, saying that a man couldn't live in someone else's house!
Everyone agreed with Genzo's reasoning and stopped trying to persuade him. After all, a man's dignity is something everyone respects.
Ryuen and Nojiko had just sat down when Nami came down from upstairs. The highest room in the house was her studio.
"Nami, you're slacking off again today!" Ryuen shouted, pretending to be stern.
"Stupid Ryuen, you scared me! I wasn't slacking off today, I was training hard upstairs!" Nami jumped over and punched Ryuen without hesitation.
"Nami, I'm almost stronger than you now. Soon, I'll be the one protecting you~" Nojiko teased, waving her arms.
"Alright, alright, stop messing around and eat breakfast. Later, help me clear the weeds in the little orange grove," Bellemere interrupted the two kids before they could continue.
"Hmph, this time I'll be the bigger person and let it go~" Little Nami said, pretending to be proud.
Hearing Bellemere's words, the three kids immediately sat down obediently and began to enjoy their delicious breakfast.
Watching the three kids, who often bickered but loved each other dearly, Bellemere smiled with satisfaction.
She deeply felt that her greatest achievement in life was raising these three kids and watching them grow up strong, happy, and healthy.
After enjoying their delicious breakfast, the four of them eagerly went to the little orange grove in the estate to start working.
Besides the little orange grove, the estate also had a beautiful garden and a clear swimming pool.
At this moment, the garden was breathtakingly beautiful, with colorful flowers blooming and competing with each other, filling the air with a rich fragrance.
The vibrant spring atmosphere made everyone feel especially happy and relaxed every day.
In fact, they could easily hire professional gardeners to take care of the garden and the little orange grove. But Bellemere insisted that this was their shared home, and only by personally participating and taking care of everything themselves could they truly feel the warmth and closeness of home.
Therefore, Bellemere often brought the three kids to work in the garden for an hour or two.
"Bellemere, how's your Marine Rokushiki training going?" Ryuen asked while weeding with a small shovel.
Bellemere looked at Ryuen's serious expression and felt a surge of emotion and satisfaction, but also a bit of helplessness: "I'm too old for training. No matter how hard I try, it's hard to learn. As long as you all become strong and can protect yourselves, that's enough."
When Ryuen heard Bellemere's answer, he stopped what he was doing, turned around, and looked at Bellemere seriously: "No, Bellemere, you have to keep training, or we won't feel safe going out to sea!"
Little Nami, standing next to him, quickly agreed: "Yes, Bellemere, you have to train with us from now on!" Little Nami said seriously.
After a few trips out to sea, Nami had seen all kinds of bad people.
Especially when they left the village to go on adventures, if pirates or other bad people came here, Bellemere could get hurt, so it was important for Bellemere to get stronger.
Bellemere looked at Ryuen and Nami's determined eyes and felt moved. She knew the kids weren't saying this on a whim, but because they truly cared about her safety.
She sighed softly, nodded, and patted little Nami's head, smiling: "Alright, I promise you, I'll try to find time to train from now on."
Seeing that Bellemere was really determined to keep training, the three kids smiled knowingly.
Actually, Bellemere's body was fine, just that her potential was low. When she was a Marine, she was just a small officer in East Blue and didn't get good training.
But Ryuen's requirements weren't high. Before they grew up, if she could master one or two techniques from Marine Rokushiki, that would be enough.
Even Tekkai would be fine!
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