Noblesse Privilege 1 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Abdulla

Tags: One Piece, SI,

Noblesse Privilege
Chapter 1

-VB-

Ping

A coin glistened in the moonlight as it flew up, hovered for quarter of a second, and then fell back down. It fell into an awaiting palm, and after a quick spin and twist between nimble fingers, found itself flipped into the air once again.

Ping

The gold coin spun in the air almost leisurely, slowly making flips without any sense of haste.

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Its value would have staggered most who lived in the four oceans. This one single coin had enough value in it to buy multi-million hectares of land if not outright chunks of entire nations.

Ping

Oh, this gold coin was not a currency used by the nobility or the world government. No, it was something far more sublime than that. This coin was a direct invitation from a World Noble to anyone outside of Mary Geoise to come and visit. I held it because I was debating what I should do with it.

Ping

I didn’t receive it but rather I was the one who was debating on handing it out.

Because you see, I was a World Noble.

Ping

And I cared very little about the state of the world right now. What I cared about was Nefertari Vivi.

See, I met her years ago in one of the Levelys, which was a gathering of fifty most powerful and influential national leaders of the one hundred forty or so that existed in this world. I, who was having problem connecting my new life as a World Noble and my previous life in the distinctly non-aristocratic United States of America, found myself enamored with her the first time I met her.

I was only fifteen then and twenty-five now.

So yeah, I fell in love with one of the moore notable and beautiful individuals from this world. What’s so special about that? Shit ton of reincarnated people fall in love and get married.

And I did want to get to know her better. I was mature enough to know that just because I loved her from afar that she might have the same feelings.

I mean, when I met her eight years ago, she scolded me for being a bully (I was kicking a cat that my hamster, okay?!) despite the fact that I was nine years her senior, but that’s what meeting and learning about the other person was for; to see if we were compatible.

See, the problem laid there within.

She should be turning sixteen soon, but from what I remembered of this world, and really the One Piece manga, she would leave the comforts of her palace to work undercover in her efforts to discover Warlord Crocodile’s schemes for her country.

I slumped in my seat.

If I sent this and a formal invitation, then I might as well shout at the top of the Empty Throne that Vivi was a spy.

No, to meet her, I needed to go in person so as to not unnecessarily endanger her.

After all, who would dare to harm a World Noble?

(Note: a rich World Noble with a substantial military backing would not be harmed. A clueless and naive World Noble who walked by themselves into a slum without help would be harmed because the common people hated the World Nobles for good fukcing reasons.)

I straightened back up and nodded to myself. “Yes, I will do that.”

But before I left Mary Geoise, I needed to face my greatest enemy first.

-VB-

Outside of the master’s curtained room, two maidservants - one new and one veteran -  watched the scene, one with alarmed confusion and the other with resigned indifference.

“What’s master doing?” Sammy asked her senior in the master’s palace staff.

The older lady, Maria, hummed. “Our master is weird.”

“I mean, I knew that. What other World Noble buys slaves by the boatload and then frees them?”

Their master, Geoffrey Goldman Achstein vel Monstrathum, stood out among the World Nobles so much so that almost everyone in the world had heard his name if not for his generosity then for his eccentricity.

It wasn’t wrong to call him the richest World Noble in the world. Unlike the frivolously spendthrift World Nobles, he was a frugal spender with a brain for wise investments - and sometimes a scrooge. Because he didn’t spend a billion beri for a single slave like most World Nobles did in buying slaves, he had a lot of money to instead donate to charities and orphanages after he saved most of it in his savings and investments.

It was how both Maria and Sammy, formerly unwanted slaves for being so starved and stick thin (and thus cheap), found themselves as his slave for all of a day before being freed and offered help they needed.

Sammy knew that at least a thousand slaves owed their lives to him.

Maria knew that at least a million slaves owed their lives to him.

And he still had money to spare because he wasn’t a clueless World Noble.

What other World Noble drops a million beri to orphanages in remote kingdoms?

At the same time, he was truly eccentric.

“THE LIGHT! MY EYES!” her master shrieked like a cat as he crawled on the floor of his palace, writhing like a worm in rain. “REEEEEEE!!!!!”

“Good morning, master. Your reports for the East Blue kingdoms are ready and awaiting in your solar.”

He paused and quickly stood back up as tears flowed down his cheeks. “Ah, thank you, Maria. Good morning to you, too,” he responded as if he hadn’t been putting on a show just now for a total of two. “How are the children?”

“Roto is doing well as a Marine Commander and Hassi received her three-hundredth offer of marriage.”

“Ugh. Have you looked over them all yet?”

“I have not, master.”

Sammy glanced at Maria while keeping her head bowed.

“Well, if you find one that’s good, ask her if she wants to arrange a meeting. If not, burn it all and send the usual reply.”

“Of course,” Maria smiled gently. “Shall we bring your usual fare or will you be opting for something more fitting of your royal personnage, master?”

“My usual, please.”

Maria sighed, which made Sammy jerk in surprise. Maria was being too casual with a World Noble!

“Master, I say this every morning -”

“For the last decade, yeah, yeah,” he grumbled.

She continued as if he hadn’t spoken as they began to move towards the dining hall. “- but a cup of coffee, a slice of ham, fried common mushrooms, and half a loaf of milk bread is not something a World Noble should be getting used to. Think of how your peers will respond if they learn of it.”

“They already know it, and those dipshits don’t know anything about maintaining a healthy finance,” he growled with a bit more energy even as his eyes continued to shed tears. “If they didn’t spend a million beri for each of their breakfast every single morning, then they would have even more money, but nooooo common sense is too much for their itty bitty brains.”

The guards at the end of the hallway bowed and then opened the doors to the dining hall.

… It was a small dining hall, not like the rest of the -.

Wait, wasn’t this the staff dining hall?!

Sammy watched as her master, a tall man of twenty-five with brimming muscles, sat down on one of the benches and waited. As if it was normal and routine (it probably was from what she just heard), a cook came out of the kitchen with a plate of food, a fork on top of the plate, and two cups in his other hand.

He set them all down and waited.

Master glared impotently at the cook and Maria and then at the second cup of … water?

“Think of your muscles, master. Must they be subjected to eternal torture of being part of a body unwilling to partake in proper hydration?”

“Any other World Noble would have executed you for that,” he grumbled as he picked up his fork.

“Then it is good to me that I am serving the best World Noble of them all.”

To Sammy’s surprise, master blushed.

He blushed!

“Bah!”

And began eating.

Maria smiled, the cook smiled, and Sammy stuttered quietly in shock.

This was wholly not what she was expecting at all.

-VB-

The greatest enemy to be defeated was, after all, my hunger.