Misfortunes Never Come Singly

It was impossible to leave the warship without anyone noticing. Besides, now that he was a Devil Fruit user, he could not possibly swim away.

In other words, if William wanted to escape, he had to wait until the warship reached the next island for supplies. But another problem arose: without William's orders, who would dare sail the ship away on their own?

Could he secretly take a lifeboat and leave under cover of darkness? Not to mention that the Navy lookouts were not blind, even if William managed to get hold of a lifeboat, he could not return to land alone.

Could he escape when the warship arrived at the next island to purchase supplies?

However, William learned that this warship had stocked up just that morning and would begin crossing the Calm Belt into the Grand Line tomorrow.

In most people's minds, crossing the Calm Belt was nearly impossible. One reason was that sailing ships had no power at all in the Calm Belt. Aside from the Navy, only a handful of wealthy people possessed mechanically powered ships.

But that only solved the problem of propulsion. The other reason was that the Calm Belt was known as the nest of Sea Kings. That was the real reason ships could not cross it. However, the Navy had mastered a technique that allowed them to avoid being detected by Sea Kings, making it possible to cross the Calm Belt.

"Should I seek refuge with him?" William looked at the photograph of three people standing together. One of the younger-looking men was a rear admiral.

However, that rear admiral had later betrayed the Navy and become a pirate. He was Drake, one of the eleven rookies from the original story's generation alongside Luffy. When he arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago, his bounty had reached 100 million Beli. Drake was a master of two-sword style, wielding a rapier and a double-bladed axe, and he was also the user of an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit: the Dinosaur Fruit, Tyrannosaurus form.

But William did not know that Drake had once been his superior, nor that Drake had personally taught him his two-sword-style swordsmanship. Drake had betrayed the Navy and become a pirate several months ago, and William had been exiled to the East Blue because he was implicated in the matter. If not for the mission to escort the Devil Fruit, William would never have had the chance to be transferred back to Marine Headquarters. Yet he had disgracefully ruined the escort mission and dragged the entire warship's soldiers down with him.

However, the "amnesiac" William clearly did not know about this. Although it was no secret, who would dare bring it up in front of William?

Moreover, William had been in this world for less than half a day. He obviously had not had time to sort through his personal connections. He had merely guessed from the photograph that the two had once been close.

"Colonel William! Colonel!" A Navy soldier suddenly rushed into the room in a panic, startling William so badly that he nearly lost control and activated his Devil Fruit ability. Fortunately, he restrained himself in time, or he would have been exposed.

"Calm down. What happened?" William asked with a dark expression. He was not putting on that expression; he was genuinely annoyed and deeply nervous. Did something happen? Did we run into pirates? If we did, maybe I can shift the blame onto them. Then I can return to Marine Headquarters and keep serving as a colonel without worry.

But no pirate crew in the East Blue should dare provoke the Navy, right? Besides, this warship's primary mission was to escort the Devil Fruit, and during the mission, they ignored every pirate they encountered. Unless their warship was attacked by pirates, they absolutely could not take the initiative to attack passing pirate ships.

Ordinary pirates were sensible enough. The Navy was not easy to provoke, and aside from their advanced weaponry, Navy warships generally carried no valuables. Wasn't the purpose of highway robbery money? Therefore, any pirate with half a brain would not do something as unprofitable as attacking a Navy warship. They would do their best to avoid one instead.

Bang! The entire warship suddenly shook violently.

"What's going on?" William hurriedly grabbed the table and shouted. The jolt had frightened him badly.

Could that tremor have been caused by cannon fire hitting their warship? Had they really run into some desperado with a grudge against the Navy? After all, a small number of pirates specialized in attacking Navy warships. Perhaps they did so to vent their anger, or perhaps merely to raise their bounties.

"It's a Sea King. We've been attacked by a Sea King!" The Navy soldier before him tried his best to stay on his feet as he answered. "Fortunately, it isn't one of the large Sea Kings from the Calm Belt."

"It's just a Sea King, isn't it?" Hearing that they had encountered a Sea King—and not even a large one—William spoke disdainfully.

In his memory, weren't Sea Kings all things that people killed in seconds? Were all those cannons on the warship just decorations? Yet William's words earned admiring looks from the soldiers. They had personally seen William take down a Sea King with a single move.

William strapped the two swords hanging on the wall to his waist like Zoro. The Navy soldier who had come to report assumed that William was preparing to personally deal with the Sea King attacking them. He did not know that William was merely putting on a show. If he went to fight a Sea King now, would that not be seeking death?

As he left the room, he did not forget to bring the Den Den Mushi with him. He was extremely curious about this creature unique to the world of One Piece, and he had to study it properly when he had the time.

"It's that huge?" William froze the moment he reached the doorway. He had only one thought: Is that really something people can kill in seconds? And this isn't even a large Sea King? How terrifyingly enormous must the large ones be?

Although he had mentally prepared himself before coming out, the real Sea King was vastly different from what he had imagined. At that moment, his legs had already gone weak, and his feet seemed nailed to the deck, unable to move even half a step forward. If one hand had not tightly gripped the doorframe, William would have collapsed onto the ground in terror. After all, he had once merely been an ordinary shut-in on Earth. He had not even seen the largest land animal on Earth, an elephant, with his own eyes, much less a terrifying creature of this size.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several cannonballs struck the Sea King, but they did not leave any obvious wounds. Damn it, hadn't this warship not entered the Calm Belt yet? Why had a Sea King suddenly appeared here and attacked a Navy warship for no reason? Could he really be so unlucky as to encounter a lost Sea King?

Bang! Enraged by the cannon fire, the Sea King slammed its body hard into the warship. Many soldiers fell awkwardly onto the deck.

"Colonel?" The surrounding Navy soldiers all looked toward William. Their eyes clearly said: We can't hold out anymore. Hurry up and take action.

They can't possibly be expecting me to go up there, right? Seeing the pleading looks in the Navy soldiers' eyes, William cursed inwardly. Apart from brute strength, he did not know any techniques at all. He could not possibly run onto the Sea King and beat it with brute force, could he?

"Have you all been scared stupid? If you can't even take down something like this, don't even dream of going to the Grand Line!" William pointed at the colossal creature before them and roared.

Although William did not know how large the biggest Sea Kings were, the Sea Kings of the Calm Belt were definitely much larger than this one.

But William's words made the Navy soldiers aboard the warship mistake this for a test. After all, everyone knew how terrifying the Grand Line was. The Navy colonel before them was a genuine officer from headquarters, and they had previously seen him kill a Sea King of similar size with one move.

Yet before the Navy soldiers could react, he turned around, shut the door, and returned inside the warship. However, the soldiers on deck seemed as though they had been injected with stimulants. They treated the Sea King before them as a lamb awaiting slaughter, believing this was a test from Colonel William.

However, William had not been wrong about one thing: if they could not even defeat such a creature, they should not dream of going to the Grand Line.

After all, Navy warships were better equipped and more powerful than the vast majority of pirates, and this warship had a Navy colonel capable of easily killing Sea Kings stationed aboard it. How could these fired-up soldiers still be afraid?

But these soldiers did not know that their superior had set them up. The Colonel William they admired was currently running back to his room in terror, wondering whether he should seize this chance to take a lifeboat and leave.

Although this was a plan with only a slim chance of survival, if the Navy discovered that he had stolen what he was assigned to guard, it would mean certain death. If the Celestial Dragons found out, it would be worse than death. Either way, he would die, so he might as well take a gamble.