Setting Sail

"No... wait! This is my ship... If the Celestial Dragons find out you're using my vessel to escape, they'll kill me for sure!" A man dressed like a wealthy merchant tried to stop Siegfried from boarding.

The Fish-Men who'd pushed the ship over from the shelter were hardly strong to begin with—anyone tougher was still holding the harbor berths. An ordinary Fish-Man was just a few times stronger than a human, could breathe underwater, and was better at exerting force in the sea.

So they only pushed the ship; they didn't "clean" the crew off the deck.

The merchant had come to Mary Geoise for business or to offer tribute—not necessarily to trade slaves. Having his ship stolen by runaway slaves might well draw the Celestial Dragons' wrath, which was somewhat unfair...

Siegfried raised a gun he'd just picked up from a dead caravan guard. "Jump."

Too bad Siegfried wasn't a judge—just a slave who'd barely escaped.

"No, you can't—" Bang! "Ahh!"

The shot hit the deck beside him, but it still made the man shriek in terror.

Siegfried tossed the gun aside in disgust. Sure enough, ordinary firearms in ordinary hands had no accuracy. You needed Observation Haki—or at least the rudiments of it—to sense the bullet's trajectory, air resistance, and everything else, then factor it all in for a sniper shot.

He hadn't aimed seriously, but he hadn't deliberately missed either...

When Siegfried came at him with a blade, the merchant dove overboard. The other guards and sailors on deck were mostly cleared out too.

The merchant and his bodyguards who'd tried to protect their ship had either fled or been thrown off by now. Those who ran into someone with a shorter temper were just unlucky.

Expecting slaves who'd just glimpsed freedom to sympathize with merchants and guards heading to Mary Geoise was pure fantasy.

Some of the slaves had been pirates before, some hadn't, but none of them were a righteous army now. The only creed they held to was: "If you want me dead, I'll make sure you die first."

"Men of the sea! I, Bartz Dadanion, West Sea Swordsman, am from this day forward the captain of this ship... the Freedom Sword!" The blond swordsman Dadanion stood at the helm, raising his sword in declaration.

No one argued. They'd all silently agreed—pick a leader, then board the ship.

At the same time, a painter had already drawn a black skull on the original merchant flag. Seeing the captain raise his sword, he added a blood-red blade piercing straight up through the skull from below!

"Dadanion! Freedom Sword!"

"Dadanion! Freedom Sword!"

"Dadanion! Freedom Sword!"

Amid the shouts of the slaves—no, the pirates—the Jolly Roger was raised.

This was Siegfried's first time boarding a ship since his transmigration.

As far as he could tell, his current body was a younger version of himself. But since everyone called him "Siegfried," this body must have been living normally in the One Piece world before... maybe an alternate-world counterpart?

What was certain was that "Siegfried" hadn't been a sailor before.

Yet with the "Sailor" boost, Siegfried felt the rocking deck was more comfortable than solid ground. Not only could he stand steady, but he didn't get seasick at all—the sway of the waves actually made walking easier.

And then...

As Siegfried cheered with the other slaves under the Jolly Roger, a surge of power erupted from within him.

No one else noticed, but Siegfried clearly felt his body growing stronger!

Not just his body—his thoughts and comprehension seemed sharper too. A single glance swept in details he'd normally overlook, all flooding into his mind for analysis.

"This is..." Siegfried stared at his hands in disbelief.

His Sequence had risen?

So you had to "act" all five Sequences to a certain degree before they could advance together?

But Siegfried was still puzzled—he'd only just become a "Sailor"...

No! He'd only just boarded the ship, hadn't even touched a rope yet.

And he'd already completed the acting?

"Haha, what are you staring at, kid? We're free now!" A burly bearded man had somehow found a bottle of rum from the ship, drinking heartily while clapping the dazed Siegfried on the shoulder.

"Free...?" Siegfried blinked.

Then it clicked. Maybe the "Sailor" acting wasn't about being a crewman—it was about freedom.

Just like Luffy said: "The freest man is the Pirate King."

Yeah, Siegfried had only shed his slave identity to become a... fugitive slave? Not the freest by any means, but that very shift had completed the "Sailor" acting, hadn't it?

Siegfried smiled too...

But just then, a Fish-Man in the shallows shouted, "Ship! A warship... the Navy fleet is coming!"

On the horizon, a swarm of Seagull Flag warships was encircling the harbor.

"It's the Navy!"

"Damn it! How are they here so fast?"

"No way, no way... They're going to drag us back..."

"Back? I'd rather die!"

"I, I used to be a bounty hunter... I'm not a pirate, I never broke the law!"

"Haha, even if you were a king before, you're the same as us now—a runaway slave of the Celestial Dragons."

"My head's worth eight million to the Navy, you know. For old times' sake, you can try to claim it. But... you think the Navy's going to let you off? Don't be stupid!"

The last batch of slaves boarding the shore had basically all been blocked here. A wave of panic spread from the surroundings, from every ship...

D'Artagnan struck his scabbard with his sword and shouted, "Brothers! Take up arms and fight them to the death! Maybe you'll only be sailors for an hour, but... I think that's better than half a lifetime as slaves!"

The burly uncle from earlier had already reached the helm. After downing a few more gulps of rum, he tossed the bottle aside and said, "Captain, I used to be a helmsman. Helmsman Raitol."

Uncle Raitol had clearly seen that the Captain, though bold and brave, didn't know how to steer a ship.

"Excellent! From now on, you're the helmsman of the Freedom Star... With the most experienced helmsman among us, we've already won half the battle!" D'Artagnan tried his best to boost morale.

"Hahaha, then leave the sailing to me! Raise the sails, lads—don't give me those funeral faces when we set out to sea! It's a northwest wind, our windward side. The sea is on our side!"

"Roar!" "Let's get 'em!" "I've killed who knows how many navy men in my day!"

The crew's spirits lifted somewhat for the moment. After all, this was a fight with their backs to the wall—there was no way to flee.

The dozen or so ships around the harbor were likely in much the same situation.

One by one, merchant vessels, facing a navy several times their number, hoisted skull-and-crossbones flags—many of them drawn crooked and shapeless, barely recognizable—and raised their sails against the wind...