Testing the Sails (3)

Barlow cut off a piece of fish with his dinner knife, placed it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly before setting down his knife and fork to wipe the corner of his mouth.

"Gwen." He did not add "Miss."

"Between the East Blue and the Grand Line, which do you think is better for business?"

Gwen was wiping her fingers with a napkin.

Once she was done, she folded the napkin and set it at the edge of the table, then lifted her wineglass and turned it halfway around without drinking.

"The East Blue is stable; the Grand Line is vast. East Blue routes are fixed, wind patterns and seasons are predictable, and dock commissions are transparent. It is suitable for building a long-term trade network. The Grand Line offers higher profits, but there are too many uncertainties: climate, currents, political relations between islands, and the density of Marine garrisons."

She paused. "With the Uchiha Trading Company's current fixed routes, entering the Grand Line now would spread our shipping capacity too thin. I suggest laying the groundwork for a few more years first."

"What exactly would that involve?"

"Set up a trading post in Loguetown. Do not get involved in the Grand Line's internal competition yet. Focus on moving goods from the East Blue to Loguetown, while gathering intelligence in Loguetown on the climate, currents, and garrisons in the early stretches of the Grand Line."

"Who would run the trading post?"

"They would need two qualifications. First, they must be a Loguetown local, familiar with the forces controlling the docks and the Marines' rotation patterns. Second, they must be a direct Uchiha family executive with the authority to make decisions on the spot."

"Do you think Orange Town has someone like that?"

Gwen stopped turning her glass. She looked at Barlow, and Barlow looked back at her. The two stared at each other across a table of red snapper and clam soup.

"Barlow, you already have someone in mind. You did not ask to hear my advice."

Barlow neither denied nor admitted it. He reached for the decanter and poured Gwen half a glass, then poured himself half a glass as well.

Koldo knocked and entered. Wearing a professional smile, he gave a slight bow, quickly circled to Barlow's side, and whispered something into his ear.

Barlow nodded after listening and replied in a few low words. Koldo bowed again, first to Barlow, then in turn to Damian, Mila, Roy, and Gwen, his sense of each person's position precise to the inch. Then he withdrew and closed the door behind him.

Throughout the entire exchange, Gwen's gaze fixed on Koldo for a second from the moment he entered until he left.

"That was Koldo," Barlow said.

"The face of the Uchiha Trading Company. I know," Gwen said.

She lifted her glass and clinked it against Barlow's. The sound was crisp.

Barlow finished the last sip of rum in his glass and set the empty glass on the tablecloth. Its base tapped the ceramic coaster with a soft sound.

"Come to the trading company on Saturday. We need someone to prepare teaching materials for commercial bookkeeping. My eldest brother said you have taught children to read."

Gwen looked at Barlow's empty glass and nodded.

"Fine."

This time, she did not say "thank you" or "it would be an honor."

Barlow had said "need," and she had answered "fine." Two syllables, neither more nor less.

Mila finished the last bite of pan-fried fish steak, wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin, then rose and said something to Gwen.

"The ready-made clothing shop. Take me to see it next time."

With that, she left the private room, her footsteps gradually fading down the stairs.

Roy stood as well, set his crumpled napkin on the table, and gave Gwen a thumbs-up. The gesture was quick—up, then immediately down again—before he followed Mila's retreating figure.

His voice drifted in from the hallway: "Mila, why are you walking so fast?" followed by Mila's contentless cold snort.

The private room suddenly felt much more spacious with only three people remaining.

Damian got to his feet, walked behind Gwen, and gently patted her shoulder.

When Gwen turned her head, he bent down and whispered something into her ear, too quietly for anyone but her to hear.

After hearing it, Gwen's eyelids lowered slightly, and a smile appeared at the corner of her lips, fifty percent more genuine than the one she had worn when she entered.

Barlow stood as well, took his coat from the rack, and draped it over his arm. When he reached the door, he looked back at Gwen.

"Gwen."

"Hm?"

"Only longtime customers order Sailshadow's red snapper. How did you know?"

Gwen picked up her glass, drank the last sip of rum, and set the empty glass beside Barlow's.

The two glasses stood in a row on the tablecloth, the sunset reflecting a slender arc of light from their rims.

"I have been to every restaurant in Loguetown. The owner used to run a small place called Sailshadow in Loguetown's port district. I went there often."

"See you tomorrow," Barlow said.

He left the private room and casually pulled the door mostly shut behind him. His footsteps were as steady as ever as he went downstairs.

Damian escorted Gwen back to the inn.

The setting sun had already laid gold across Orange Town's cobblestone streets. On the dockside boardwalks, laborers headed home in twos and threes after finishing work, while the sails were dyed orange by the fading light.

The Red Skull Tavern beneath the old banyan tree had lit its lamps. A wooden sign reading "Open" hung at the entrance, while Joey stood behind the bar wiping glasses that never seemed to run out.

The two walked the final stretch before the market side by side and stopped at the inn's entrance.

"Your younger brother." Gwen tilted her head at him.

"Has been watching me the whole time."

"Yes." Damian nodded in admission.

"He started when you said you wanted to measure my collar size in the shop. He is the most meticulous person in our family."

"No," Gwen said softly.

"Mila is the most meticulous."

Damian turned to look at her. Gwen's golden hair drifted gently in the evening breeze, its tips gleaming pale gold in the sunset.

"Mila calculated the profits for the entire route, not to test my arithmetic. She was telling me that she knew what valuable intelligence was."

Damian said nothing.

Gwen smiled. This smile was entirely different from the one she had worn upon arriving, carrying the ease of someone who had fought a battle and confirmed that she had held her ground.

"I know what this means," Gwen said.

"Thank her for me."

She rose onto her toes and lightly kissed Damian's cheek, then turned and pushed open the inn's wooden door.

The door closed behind her with a familiar crisp click.

That same evening, on the third floor of the Uchiha Trading Company's offices.

Barlow stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window. The setting sun cast his shadow long across the large ebony desk, stretching even the outlines of his fingers into thin lines.

Koldo stood in the corridor outside the door. He held the notebook he had never opened and stood perfectly straight.

"Koldo." Barlow's voice came from inside.

"Yes."

"Check the port district in Loguetown. See whether there was ever a restaurant called Sailshadow. I want everything: the owner, the landlord, regular customers, who fought there, who ate there."

"Understood." Koldo lowered his head and made a note in the notebook.

Koldo waited for a moment, confirmed there were no further instructions, and quietly retreated to the second floor.

Inside the office, Barlow sat behind the ebony desk.

He pushed the closed folder on the desk toward the left corner of his chair, then pulled over a draft sheet covered in numbers.

The paper listed the quarterly profits for each shipping route, with advancement plans written in pencil at the end of every route.

On the far right were three words, written more heavily in pencil than anything else: Loguetown.

He drew a circle around those three words. Then he wrote two more beside it: Gwen.

He still could not trust her, but he needed her.