Dong Stallion / White Sea ...

[Second update]

"I see... I didn't expect those remains to belong to a former member of Roger's pirate crew, or that he wrote down so many interesting stories from their voyages in his journal."

Arthur's fabricated lie was practically flawless. Nami and Robin trusted him deeply and had no doubts, though the story left them somewhat moved.

"Hey, Arthur, did that journal say anything about the legendary One Piece?" Nami asked, her beautiful eyes shining. "Does the One Piece really exist? Is it a mountain of gold and silver?!"

"I don't know either." Arthur shook his head. "Maybe, but it wasn't in that journal. However..."

He paused and looked at Robin. "It did record the locations of some Poneglyphs."

"Really, Captain?!"

Sure enough, Arthur's words had a tremendous impact on Robin. She had been silently taking in what he had just said, but now she looked at him with excitement.

"Yeah... Do you remember how I knew there was a Poneglyph in Alabasta back then?"

"I did forget to ask about that at the time. You must have learned about it from that journal, Captain." Robin suddenly realized something. "Could it be that Gol D. Roger saw that Poneglyph too?"

"Yes, you're right." Arthur nodded and continued, "The route we're taking is actually the route Roger's pirate crew followed. Alabasta wasn't the only place. In fact, there's a Poneglyph at our next destination too."

"Sky Island," Robin said, naming their destination.

The three looked up at the blue sky, where a few white clouds floated.

If not for Arthur, it would have been hard to believe that floating islands existed high above the heavens.

"So, how about seeing the legendary Sky Island for yourselves?" Arthur's lips curved into a playful smile.

"I want to go," Robin said without hesitation, her resolve as firm as it had been when she joined forces with Crocodile three years ago.

"I want to go too, but..." Nami raised her hand slightly and said in frustration, "How do we get there? The ship can't fly."

"Roger's pirate crew went to Sky Island before, so there must be a way to get there." Before Arthur could answer, Robin looked at him with a smile in her eyes. "Since you asked so confidently, Captain, you must know how, or that journal must have recorded a way to reach it, right?!"

"It's no good for a girl to be so clever..." Impressed by Robin's reaction and intelligence, Arthur reached out helplessly and rested a hand on her head, ruffling her hair.

Arthur often patted Nami on the head, and the lively girl, who was like a younger sister, thoroughly enjoyed it. But this was his first time doing it to Robin.

Robin froze slightly at Arthur's affectionate touch, a blush spreading across her delicate cheeks. She hurriedly lowered her head.

"The journal did record a way to reach Sky Island, but it's too dangerous, so I don't intend to use it." Arthur didn't notice the change in Robin. After ruffling her hair, he withdrew his hand and began filling in the gaps in his lie.

There was no journal at all. There were indeed other ways to reach Sky Island, but the Knock Up Stream was the only one Arthur knew.

With this small cabin sailboat, Arthur certainly wasn't going to use that method.

"Show your majestic form, Dong Stallion!"

He reached into the air beside him, and golden light gathered, forming a silver lance in his hand.

Arthur held the lance and slashed at the air above him.

Blue-white lightning shone at its tip, and like a cutting blade that could cleave through anything, it tore a black rift in the space above Arthur's head.

"Neigh!"

A horse's whinny rang out, and the black spatial rift opened with a thunderous roar.

A magnificent white horse galloped out, its four hooves treading on air as it hovered before Arthur and the two women.

The king's horse, Dong Stallion.

It was King Arthur's mount, existing within the holy lance as a probability-based life-form.

With the holy lance in hand, King Arthur could summon the king's horse and enter Riding mode. If the horse was killed during that time, it would not truly die, but return to the holy lance and revive.

"Is... is this your ability?"

The two women who had watched Arthur summon the king's horse with their own eyes were dumbfounded.

Nami pointed at the white horse before her and looked at Arthur in shock.

Robin was visibly moved as well. Since meeting Arthur, she had seen many wondrous things about him.

Weapons he could summon and dismiss at will, walking on water, and a beam that destroyed everything were all utterly incredible abilities.

Nami and Robin had always suspected these were Arthur's abilities, but they had never asked.

This time, seeing Arthur summon a magnificent steed, Nami finally couldn't resist asking the question she had held back for so long.

"My ability? You could say that." Arthur studied Dong Stallion and reached out to stroke the horse's head. The white horse affectionately nuzzled him in return, and Arthur could clearly sense that a subtle connection had formed between them.

It was as though, even if he didn't know how to ride, he could mount the horse and display all manner of sophisticated riding skills at will.

"Drop anchor, and bring the Beli and some valuables while you're at it. We're going straight to Sky Island," Arthur instructed, turning to Nami.

"To Sky Island?" Nami paused, then looked at the king's horse's hooves hovering in the air. Her eyes lit up. "Can this horse fly?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Wow, it's like a dream! Arthur, tell me, are you a knight prince who stepped out of a story?" Nami looked at Arthur, her heart surging. His looks, appearance, bearing, and weapon all suited a knight, and he was more perfect than any knight. Just like the title acknowledged across the seas, he was truly a knight among knights.

And now he had a flying white horse, adding a dreamlike quality to his knightly bearing and sending his coolness soaring through the roof.

A knight among knights? He's clearly the King of Knights!!

Nami had inadvertently guessed the truth.

Chapter 47: White Sea

[Third update]

"Is this what flying feels like?"

"It's even more breathtaking than what we saw at Reverse Mountain."

High in the sky, a magnificent white horse galloped upward as though running on level ground.

Holding the reins in one hand, Arthur wrapped his other arm around Robin's waist in front of him. Nami held his waist tightly with both hands, her ample breasts pressed against his back, soft enough for him to feel even through their clothes.

Robin, held in Arthur's arm, pretended to watch the sea below, her cheeks slightly flushed where Arthur couldn't see them.

Robin had never experienced that distinctly feminine shyness before.

Experiencing it for the first time, Robin felt unusually uncomfortable all over, and a little strange inside.

Yet, for some reason, she didn't dislike the feeling.

With Robin in front and Nami behind him, Arthur, caught in the middle, wasn't having an easy time either.

The two different sensations sent ripples through his mind.

To reach Sky Island, the three had to leave their ship behind for the time being. Nami needed to bring Beli, clothes, and some other important items, packing them into a large backpack, so she could only sit at the back.

Thus, his first intimate contact with Robin gave Arthur a different feeling from being with Nami.

Whether it was her figure or her scent, Robin was like a mature older sister, exuding an indefinable allure.

"Hold on tight and don't fall. We'll reach our destination soon." Arthur hurriedly started a conversation to distract himself.

"So soon?!" Nami said in surprise.

"Ten thousand meters isn't very high. It's nothing to Dong Stallion," Arthur answered calmly.

The king's horse wasn't charging straight upward from below.

If Arthur had been alone, he might have chosen that approach without reservations.

But with two more people on the horse, especially Nami at the back with a large backpack, Arthur could only choose a gentler approach, having the king's horse travel back and forth at an acute angle of thirty degrees.

Like climbing stairs, although it increased the distance and time, they wouldn't lose their balance.

The king's horse's stamina came from Arthur's Mana. Whether the mount consumed very little or Arthur's Dragon Factor caused his Mana to recover quickly, they had already risen to an altitude of three thousand meters, yet his expenditure of Mana was completely negligible.

More than twenty minutes later, the white steed galloped freely and finally rose to an altitude of seven thousand meters.

A vast expanse of white cloud appeared overhead, blotting out the sky, and the king's horse plunged straight into it.

Almost the moment the king's horse entered, Robin, in Arthur's arms, found herself unable to breathe, and weakness swept through her body.

Even Nami, behind Arthur, hurriedly held her breath.

Their eyes widened in disbelief.

It was seawater!

"Speed up." Arthur looked slightly regretful. Holding Robin with one arm, he used the other to grasp Nami's hands around his waist and increased the flow of Mana to the king's horse beneath him.

"Neigh!"

"Neigh!"

In an instant, the king's horse shot upward like an arrow loosed from a bow, cutting a passage through the White Sea.

Bang!

A gap burst open in the white sea's surface as the king's horse charged majestically upward.

"Are you all right?" With the king's horse hovering in the air, Arthur looked down and asked the weakened Robin.

"Cough, cough... I... I'm fine. I didn't expect there to be a sea ten thousand meters up in the sky." Robin coughed several times and forced her eyes open, smiling despite her pale face.

"We haven't reached ten thousand meters yet. We're only at seven thousand," Arthur said with a meaningful smile, looking ahead.

A white waterfall stood against the sky before them, and beneath it, a set of letters came into view.

"Heaven's Gate. Oh my... have we died?" Robin followed Arthur's gaze and smiled with interest.

"Nami, are you all right?"

Arthur released the hands he had been gripping tightly and asked without turning around.

"I almost died. I was drowning before I could even react. It was awful." Nami pressed her cheek against Arthur's back, seeming even weaker than Robin.

"Sorry... I didn't expect there to be a sea in the sky either," Arthur said awkwardly. In truth, he had forgotten to warn them. ...

After all, his brain wasn't a database he could search whenever he wanted. Arthur still remembered important plot points very clearly, but he had long since forgotten most of the little details.

As a result, he had forgotten to warn Nami and Robin.

"Is everything in the backpack all right?"

"Luckily, I bought a waterproof one, so it's fine." A trace of lingering fear appeared on Nami's bloodless face.

"Good. Take out three hundred thousand Beli." Arthur held the reins and, at a thought from him, the king's horse beneath him stepped toward Heaven's Gate as though they were communicating telepathically.

Nami took off her backpack as she asked, "What do we need money for?"

"The entrance fee."

"Uh... Heaven's Gate? Have we come to heaven?" Nami had finally noticed Heaven's Gate ahead and couldn't help remarking weakly, "You have to pay even to enter heaven? Beli really is useful everywhere."

Click!

As the king's horse approached, a short figure emerged from a building resembling a tollbooth and pressed the shutter on a camera aimed at Arthur and the two women.

She was an old woman as withered as deadwood, short in stature, with a pair of wings on her back.

"Wings. Is she an angel?" Nami and Robin studied the old woman, their gazes full of curiosity about a new species.

"I'm Amazon, the attendant at Heaven's Gate." Amazon lowered her camera and looked at the three with an indescribably strange expression. She showed no surprise at Arthur's white horse, which could tread on air, and spoke slowly in a hoarse voice. "Are you here for sightseeing, or for war?"

"Sightseeing." Arthur rode the king's horse closer to Amazon and tossed the three hundred thousand Beli he had prepared in front of her. "This is three hundred thousand Beli, equivalent to three billion Extol. We don't have a ship, so we won't need an Express Shrimp."

"Then, have a pleasant journey." Amazon picked up the three hundred thousand Beli and nodded slightly, her tone showing no disappointment.

Anyone who knew about the entrance fee was clearly very familiar with Sky Island and its laws.

These three weren't suitable candidates to become criminals!

Chapter 48: Enel, the God (1/10)