Usopp, who was standing nearby, immediately felt relieved when he heard that. He smiled in reassurance.
"That's good. I finally don't have to be the ship's temporary navigator anymore."
Heaven knew how difficult it had been for someone with only a little knowledge of navigation to bring the Merry all the way here.
Zoro suddenly spoke up. "Actually, there's no need to make such a fuss, Luffy. Why not just let me keep leading the way?"
"After all, I've been sailing around the East Blue on my own for years. You can trust me."
"Uh..."
Luffy stopped eating when he heard that. He immediately lifted his head, blinked, and said with a big grin,
"Zoro, you're stronger in a fight. You should stick to being the ship's combatant."
"Besides, aren't you going to challenge that guy with the big sword later? You won't have time to split your attention and steer the ship."
"True." Zoro nodded in agreement. "Then I'll focus on training and getting stronger."
"Yeah!" Luffy nodded repeatedly, secretly letting out a sigh of relief.
At first, he'd let Zoro steer the ship the whole way.
They'd had decent luck at the start, reaching an island full of strange animals and even running into a guy called Clown Buggy.
But after he and Zoro set out from that island again, they'd nearly starved to death together out at sea.
Just when they were about to collapse from exhaustion, they'd miraculously drifted to the island where Usopp lived.
After eating their fill there, they'd finally managed to get back on their feet.
Later, after defeating the guy with the claws on his hands, they'd obtained the Merry and set sail once more.
Luffy had immediately switched to having their new crewmate, Usopp, steer the ship.
Usopp wasn't much good