╏020

【Destiny and Duty】

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Her words stunned everyone. They whispered and shared looks with eachother because the statement they just heard was unbelievable. Even Zoro was taken aback because he too didn't expect Y/N to say something like that after coming all the way here to talk to the citizens.

"Princess what do you mean?"

Y/N had an annoyed look on her face "You guys are just pathetic."

And that was all it took for the people to step back and have confused expressions on their faces. Never in the history had a member of royal family spoke in such a rude manner to the citizens and on top of that she spoke in that way to people who are older than her. Y/N disregarded the factors of status and age.

"Y/N what are you saying?" Zoro whispered.

"It's just so pathetic that all of you let the Tiger pirates just take over the kingdom like that. I don't think the citizens of this kingdom were so weak. My mother and the rulers before her did so much to make the kingdom strong and it's just really shameful to see that this is the result. As far as I remember, there is a knight in the royal army from every family because that was a mandatory thing to do. Are you guys even aware why there was such a rule?"

"To have a larger army for protection" someone answered and Y/N let out a laugh. "You really think that was the reason? You are mistaken. It was not to make the army bigger instead it was to make every family strong and capable of protecting themselves. I don't think there was ever an incident where all the knights were asked to protect the royal family. I still remember my mother's orders from the time when a pirate crew attacked the island."

"The elite force are requested to go to the frontlines and the rest to knights are requested to safeguard their families and head towards the bunkers."

"That was what my mother ordered. If the goal was to make the army bigger then she could've just ordered everyone to fight on the frontlines. Atleast one member of every family is strong enough to protect themselves. The training provided to everyone wasn't given so that you all could just let some tiny pirate crew take over the kingdom."

"But... The royal family has the devil fruit that they use everytime to protect us. That was the ultimate weapon. The knights aren't strong enough to face off pirates."

"What if I was dead too?"

"Please don't say those words... We would never want you to die."

"But it's not like I won't die. I can die today, tomorrow, next week, next month or two years from now. You never know what's gonna happen. If I were gone too, how were you going to protect yourself?"

Everyone stayed silent and slowly lowered their heads "As expected... You guys have left your protection in the royal families hands. And just so you know... I never planned on coming back. My presence here is just a coincidence and I also don't plan on ruling this kingdom. It's only a matter of few days and I'll be gone again. What are you going to do then?"

"What?! What are you saying, princess."

"How can you just leave us like this?! You were born in the royal family to rule over us. Don't run away from your destiny and duties."

"Destiny and duties...? Pftt, I will create my own destiny and duties. And if I were to run away from the duties... I wouldn't be standing here in front of you."

"But your mother and your ancestors did so much for us. You are being a disgrace." One of them shouted to which Y/N just laughed "Disgrace? Aren't you being a disgrace to your own self? Spending each day like slaves... Doing what you are commanded to do. That's just pathetic you know."

"Y/N, I don't think you are making any progress here. They don't look in a good mood." Zoro whispered again. "This is necessary... Just wait." She whispered back.

"Guys... She won't understand the duties she has. She ran away from them a long time back. People like her are always ungrateful for the things they get by birth."

"Oh yeah? Atleast I am not a slave to someone, like you." She mocked which only made the citizens angry.

"We are not slaves!" They said in unison. "All of us hold respectable positions and we are more than capable enough to protect ourselves! We don't need an ungrateful brat to rule us."

"I don't want to rule over people like you anyways. I would want my subjects to be fearless and ready face on battles of life."

"Just run away again like you did before. Guys! Let's go! We are going to save ourselves and show those stupid pirates that we are not scared of them! We can't let them rule over us like this!!"

"YES!!" Everyone shouted in unison while throwing their fists in air.

Y/N watched as everyone united and got motivated to fight the pirates. "We don't need an useless princess in our life!" One of them shouted as all of them started to retreat.

"I feel bad to your mother... She wouldn't have wanted you to turn out like this."

"You should've gotten educated well"

"Improve your language..."

And many more words were said to her and she listened to all of them without a reaction until it was just her and Zoro left. "What did you just do?" Zoro asked breaking the silence.

"Nothing"

"They hate you now"

"It's fine"

"But, Y/N... I thought you were better than that. They said all that rubbish to you and were fucking listening to them?!"

"I told you it's fine right? All of them were dependent on me to save them and even if I save them now... What's the guarantee that things like this won't happen again when I am not here? I won't be here all the time. Atleast now, I can move on without worries."

"But Y/N-"

"Sh Zoro. I didn't take any of their words to heart because I knew that was going to happen. And we shouldn't waste more time here. We need to save Usopp and Nami."

"What's the plan?"

"Alright so, I am 100% sure that the people the going to plan an attack on the castle and since many people were the part of army at some point in their life, they know the kingdom like the back of their hands. On the other side we have Luffy and the others going towards the castle as well."

"Yeah that's right, and what are we going to do?"

"Let's have a date!!"

"Date? What's that?" He asked.

"You don't know what a date is?"

"Nah"

"Dumbass"

"What!!?"

"Nevermind... Zoro I have a task for you. Can you keep an eye on the people? And come to castle with them. In case they don't make a plan, tell them to do it... Convince them somehow. Ok?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I going to kill that fucker, staining the throne!"

"I don't have any problem following that order, but what if they don't listen to me? I am just an outsider for them."

"Then leave them and come to the castle."

"Leave them?"

"Yeah... There's only limited things we can do and we they don't want to free themselves then we can't do anything. We will save our friends and go."

"Alright."

The two bid their farewell and went different directions. "But Y/N!! You didn't tell me what a date is!" Zoro shouted and Y/N couldn't help but chuckle at his innocence. "I will tell you some other time!" She shouted back and walked away.

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"Awesome!!!" Luffy exclaimed after he saw the giant castle in front of his eyes. They had locked up Maverick in Ema's house and made their way to castle as soon as possible.

Ema, Sanji and Chopper were discussing about the best route to enter the castle but little did they know that their precious captain was already walking towards the main gate which had four guards standing outside.

"Oooo! It's huge!!" Luffy said as he ran his runs up towards the huge gate while Sanji and the others face palmed and panicked.

"Hey hey! Who are you and where do you think you are going?" One of the guards asked.

"I am Monkey D. Luffy! And I am here to save my friends from Tiger pirates! And beat the shit out of the captain!!"

The four of them laughed among themselves and grabbed the weapons they had. "Oh yeah? For that you'll first have to fight us!!" They shouted and started to attack Luffy who was doing a great job at dodging the swords and rods.

Sanji took out a ciggerate and lit it as he puffed out the smoke. "Chopper are you ready?" She asked and chopper ate one of his rumble ball 'arm point' and got ready for battle "Yes!"

"Ema, stay here. We will finish this soon." He assured her and ran towards to Luffy to join the fight.

"Gomu gomu no pistol!!" Luffy threw out a punch and the guard stopped it with his sword and upon making contact with the sword, Luffy's body weakened.

The same thing took place with Chopper as well when he was stopping the rod. "Wait what?" Sanji was confused, his little moment of confusion gave the enemies an opening and one of them hit Sanji with the rod but that wasn't enough to take him out.

The battle quickly turned into 1V4.

"These bastards."

Look who's back 😎 I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know it was boring and nothing much happened but yeah, we gotta build up the story.