030. Wanted!

Rising from the bluestone, Merlin came to Yol and took his backpack and sword from her hands.

"Did we leave anything behind?"

"No, don't worry." Yol smiled.

Yol was carrying a backpack too, but she also held a suitcase in her left hand. A simple, slender sword hung at her left hip.

As for Lami, she was holding a compass.

She was in charge of reporting their direction at all times.

With his backpack on and his sword at his waist, Merlin smiled. "Then let's go!

Let's try to get out of here within three days."

Yol smiled. "We should be able to. It's not as though we've been training for nothing these past two weeks.

With Monkey Wine and plenty of high-energy meat to keep us going, our physical strength has improved quite a bit."

Merlin smiled. That was certainly true. The Monkey Wine really had been extraordinary.

Now that the three of them had finished drinking all the Monkey Wine here, their bodies had indeed become much stronger and more resilient.

Lami looked back at the giant tree, reluctant to leave. "Will we ever get the chance to come back to our home?"

Merlin rubbed her head and smiled. "We'll have the chance someday."

A smile appeared on Yol's lips. "This place isn't what matters. As long as we're together, anywhere can be our home."

Lami's eyes lit up. She looked up at Yol and nodded firmly. "Yeah! Sister Yol's right."

Then the three of them left without looking back.

With the compass pointing the way,

they crossed mountains and valleys along the way.

When they got thirsty, they looked for water. When they got hungry, they hunted and roasted their catch on the spot. At night, they found a suitable place to light a campfire, keep warm, and sleep.

Two days later, at noon,

they stood on a slope near the edge of the Fultons Mountain Range. Far away, they could see a harbor town by the sea.

Before long,

the three of them entered the town along a dirt road.

They stepped onto a bustling street.

The passersby's faces were filled with peace and contentment.

The cries of the various street vendors rose and fell around them.

After so long without seeing such a harmonious scene, the three of them felt a strange, almost unreal sensation.

This was Kastra Town,

a harbor town within the maritime territory of the Kingdom of Fultons.

As they walked down the street,

Yol pressed her lips together, but a hint of sadness crept into her eyes. The bustling street reminded her of Flevance. It, too, had once been so peaceful and prosperous.

"Where are we going now?"

"To eat and buy clothes."

Merlin thought it over, then said, "Actually, let's buy a few clean outfits first!

Our clothes have taken quite a beating from all the training lately."

Yol glanced at the holes and dirt on her jeans, her face turning faintly red. She nodded again and again. "Then let's buy clothes first."

She smiled at Lami. "We'll have new clothes to wear soon. Are you happy, Lami?"

Lami's now slightly round face lit up with delight. "Yeah! Lami's happy!"

A moment later,

the three of them emerged from a clothing store, looking completely refreshed.

Each of them had bought three outfits.

At that moment,

Merlin wore a coffee-colored, stand-collar shirt and black trousers, with a pair of black ankle boots.

Yol wore a long-sleeved, collared, pale-blue T-shirt beneath a sleeveless brown V-neck sweater.

Her black skirt fell to her calves. Black tights covered her shapely legs, and she wore a pair of black low-heeled leather shoes.

The outfit accentuated her beautiful figure, making her all the more captivating.

As for Lami, she looked like a miniature Yol, dressed in the exact same outfit, only a few sizes smaller.

In their clean new clothes, all three seemed to have been rejuvenated.

Before long, they arrived at a restaurant and took seats by the window near the back.

They ordered a tableful of delicious food, mostly vegetables. Each of them had a bowl of white rice with distinct grains and a bowl of hand-pulled noodles.

They dug in heartily, pairing it all with the restaurant's tasty signature dishes.

After so long without noodles or rice, the three of them couldn't stop smiling throughout the meal.

Afterward,

Merlin leaned back in his chair and leisurely sipped a cup of tea. He sighed without thinking. "All kinds of meat taste good, but you can't live on meat alone! A balance of meat and vegetables is the way to go."

Yol nodded in agreement. "That's true. Eating only meat gets tiresome. Good thing we've had a steady supply of fruit all this time.

Otherwise, I really wouldn't know how we could have managed."

Lami nodded vigorously too, then chimed in with a grin, "Rice really is the best. It tastes even better with meat!"

After a brief rest,

they paid the bill

and strolled down the street together.

This was a bustling harbor town, and the streets were filled with people from all walks of life.

Pirates, street thugs, gangsters, merchants of all kinds, and the town's guards.

A seaside harbor town was a vivid reflection of the world of this era.

As time passed,

Merlin gradually pieced together the power structure of Kastra Town.

On the surface,

it was administered by an official appointed by the Fultons royal family.

Behind the scenes,

however, the nobles ruled in concert, keeping gangs and thugs on their payroll as their eyes and ears.

At that moment, they stopped in front of a notice board at the entrance to the town center.

Merlin's gaze sharpened. The board was covered mostly with wanted posters for the famous pirate crews currently active in the West Blue.

The most eye-catching was a notorious pirate crew right in the center of the board.

The Donquixote Pirates.

Their captain was

Donquixote Doflamingo.

He was a handsome young man in his twenties, wearing red sunglasses and a collared suit, with blond hair styled into a spiky crest.

The bounty on his poster dwarfed every other pirate's by a staggering margin.

Ninety-seven million Beli.

In the outer seas, where almost no pirates had bounties above a hundred million, he was among the most formidable pirates around.

Now, as Merlin looked at the photograph on the wanted poster, a peculiar look quietly appeared in his eyes.

It seemed this guy hadn't left the North Blue yet.

At the thought, bits of information from his previous life about this man surfaced in Merlin's mind.

There was no doubt about it: Doflamingo was a ruthless, ambitious man.

He was highly skilled in both martial arts and his Devil Fruit abilities.

He also possessed all Three Types of Haki.

He was clever, too.

And he had all sorts of resources at his disposal.

The Six Powers, Life Return.

Resources and connections for learning martial arts, swordsmanship, and marksmanship.

He was a well-known broker who thrived in the underworld, and he even had access to trade channels dealing in resources like Devil Fruits.

He was a veritable treasure trove.

Yol noticed Merlin staring intently at Doflamingo's wanted poster. Hesitantly, she said, "Are you interested in him? He's been active across the North Blue for more than a decade.

I've heard he's a brutal man, a desperado who'll kill people and raze towns at the drop of a hat.

You..."

Just then, Lami tugged at Merlin's sleeve and pointed to a corner at the bottom of the notice board. Merlin looked over and saw a wanted poster.

It had been jointly stamped by the four neighboring kingdoms.

But instead of a photograph, the image on it was a pencil drawing.

And it bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Merlin.

Below the picture was a name and some information.

[Laplace Merlin]

[A carrier of Lead Platinum Disease who escaped from Flevance.

Inherently cruel and bloodthirsty.

The public is urged to be on guard against this criminal.

If you discover his whereabouts, report it to the guard forces of the four kingdoms. If your information proves accurate, you will receive a reward of 50,000 Beli.

If you kill this criminal, you can exchange his head for a reward of 1,000,000 Beli.]

When Merlin looked away from the wanted poster, Lami immediately asked in a hushed voice, "Brother Merlin, is that you?"

Merlin pressed his lips together slightly. "Yeah. Unless something unexpected happened, that's me.

They really have money to burn!

They're offering a million Beli for my head!"

Lami asked in confusion, "Why is it only you? Why aren't Sister Yol and I wanted?"

Yol's expression darkened. She spoke calmly. "I was wearing a nun's habit, my face was filthy, and I was wrapped up tightly. None of the soldiers who saw me survived.

As for the survivors, only a few had seen my face.

And the reason you aren't wanted, Lami, is because you always stayed hidden, and hardly anyone pays attention to a child. Besides..."

Merlin picked up where Yol left off, speaking softly. "And back then, I was the one who caused them the greatest 'pain.' Plenty of them saw my face, so it makes sense that I'm the one they're after."

"Merlin..." Yol said worriedly.

Merlin raised a hand to stop her, then gave a soft laugh. But there was a cold edge to it. "So what if they put out a warrant? It's nothing more than a trivial annoyance to me."

But then Merlin gave Yol a helpless smile. "Looks like we can't go to the Volgala Kingdom. How about we head to Sea Swallow Island instead? It's outside the territories of the four kingdoms.

I hope the Rockheart Kendo Dojo there will have something to offer us!"

Yol nodded. "Should we leave now?"

"Tomorrow morning," Merlin said. "First we'll find an inn and check in. Then we'll go to the port and see if there's a passenger ship or merchant vessel headed there, or going somewhere along the way.

There are plenty of ways to get there."

"Okay, let's find an inn now," Yol said, nodding in agreement.

Before long, Merlin and the others reached the inn district. Merlin was wearing a gray baseball cap and sunglasses.

He also wore a pair of brown gloves that fit snugly over his hands.

He wasn't afraid anymore, but a little simple disguising could still spare him unnecessary trouble.

After all, Merlin still couldn't withstand a hail of gunfire.

No shame in being cautious!

There was nothing embarrassing about it.

They checked into a decent inn.

In a standard room with two beds,

Merlin and Yol took turns washing up in the bathroom. Then they all headed out to the port.

It didn't take them long

to find a passenger ship bound for Sea Swallow Island. The only problem was the price: each ticket cost 100,000 Beli.

They wouldn't even give a child a half-price ticket.

What a rip-off.

The ship would sail at nine the next morning.

Still, they bought the tickets.

They paid the deposit,

and got their receipt.

They could board the ship after paying the balance in the morning.