What a Suck-Up

"What's your dream?" Rogge asked with his back to him as he ate breakfast.

"I've been following my parents'..."

Unfortunately, things did not go as Rogge had expected. Simon spoke in a low, deep voice. "Freedom."

"Walking out the door is freedom. Joining a pirate crew doesn't mean you'll have freedom. Only the captain can have freedom. On a pirate ship, everyone can only listen to the captain. Only the captain gets to enjoy freedom." Rogge turned around and looked at Simon expressionlessly.

"..." Simon was already cursing internally. Brother, you're not following the script. How am I supposed to respond to that?

Keeping a serious expression, Simon said solemnly, "Isn't the captain's freedom my freedom? Besides, I'm not trying to become captain. I only hope that Simon's name will appear in Captain Rogge's legend."

"Get out, you damn suck-up." Jelly kicked Billy out of the kitchen.

Billy was kicked out, but he had a piece of bacon clenched in his mouth. Clearly, being a suck-up was not entirely useless. At least he had gotten something out of it.

"Since you have that kind of determination, and I'm not some famous pirate, I'll take you in. Work hard." Rogge turned around, finally getting a good look at Simon.

He was somewhat handsome, the fair-faced kind. He was also very tall. That was about it.

Rogge turned away from him and lowered his head to keep eating.

Simon was a little dazed, but being able to join the Asura Pirates so smoothly already satisfied him. As a bounty hunter—especially one who was still being hunted—he felt that he would soon have another sum of money coming his way.

"Jelly, isn't it ready yet?" Rogge shouted toward the kitchen.

"Shut up, it'll be ready soon." Jelly bustled about in the kitchen, and before long, he came out carrying a huge platter of food. Five people and one dog pounced on it.

Simon stared blankly at the five people and one dog fighting over food, especially when he saw Rogge snatch a ham sausage from a dog's mouth and toss it into his own stomach.

Was this really a pirate with a 50 million Beli bounty? He looked more like a starving ghost.

After eating and drinking their fill, Rogge dragged an eager Jelly and Billy—who was biting Rogge's thigh and being dragged along with him—into the woods.

"What's the captain doing?" Simon looked at the backs of Rogge and the others as they left, having no idea what was going on.

"The captain went to train. He won't waste a single moment he could spend training unless there's an adventure to be had. Obviously, Tavern Island doesn't have anything worth adventuring over. If you have time, go familiarize yourself with the ship with Cook. There are also some cannons and firearms aboard. They'll all be under your care from now on. Here's some money. Go buy whatever supplies you need for going out to sea." Ham took out one million Beli and gave it to Simon to buy supplies.

Simon held the money with a dumbfounded expression. He had never seen a pirate crew offer such benefits after someone joined. They even gave him money to purchase supplies. Were these really the pirates he knew? Was this not a company recruiting employees?

In the woods, Rogge put Billy up in a tree. Standing on the tree, Billy was not afraid at all. Instead, he lay seriously on a branch and watched Rogge get beaten up.

With yesterday's experience, Jelly was even more skillful today. His angles were trickier, and every vine struck at places Rogge found difficult to defend.

By the end of the day, Rogge was covered in wounds. He had done slightly better than yesterday, but his injuries were just as severe. Jelly's methods were even more underhanded and harder to evade than yesterday.

Rogge was truly going all out to become stronger. Jelly did not know his purpose, but Rogge did. He was using the same method Rayleigh had used to train Luffy's Observation Haki.

It was just that Rogge did not understand it and had never witnessed it himself. He could only follow the method from the anime, blindfolding himself and relying on his sixth sense to adapt to combat.

It was working. It was only the second day, but Rogge's talent for battle was clearly not bad. He was gradually adapting, and he could even make out some vague shadows.

They ate lunch at noon and continued training in the afternoon. Billy followed them the entire time. Although he had no interest in the name Pigtaro, following Jelly guaranteed food. Even if he got played with, he was willing as long as there was food.

Three days passed. At dawn on the fourth day, Ham told them that the Log Pose had finished recording the next island. The next destination was not an uninhabited island either. There was only one island connected to Tavern Island, so anyone who lived on Tavern Island naturally knew what kind of island lay ahead.

Simon had spent some time hanging around here and had visited the next island several times. It was a Winter Island. Tavern Island was an autumn island with a pleasant climate, making it suitable for brewing liquor.

"Simon, what did you buy?" Rogge had ignored this guy for the past few days, but when he saw him fiddling with a pile of equipment, he curiously went over to ask.

Seeing Rogge approach, Simon took a deep breath, stopped what he was doing, and showed Rogge the things in front of him.

It was a pile of parts, and Rogge could not really make sense of them. Still, he had liked this sort of thing when he was young. Back then, he had taken apart plenty of things himself.

At first, he dismantled tape recorders—the kind that played cassette tapes. Who knew how many people had seen those? People born in the eighties and nineties probably knew them: after playing one side, you had to rewind it before playing it again.

His parents did not mind when he took those apart. Then Rogge got curious about an electric fan and dismantled it. He got curious about a DVD player and dismantled it. He got curious about a television and broke it apart.

Then one of Rogge's hobbies was strangled in its cradle. If not for that, he might have become an appliance repairman in the future.

"I've looked over all the cannons on our ship. They're not bad, but their range is lacking. Ordinary cannons only have a range of around two hundred meters, but after adding some things, the shells' range can be increased to five hundred meters," Simon said.

"Five hundred meters? Are you sure?" Rogge asked in surprise.

"This isn't some secret. The Navy's warships have this kind of device too. It increases the range, but once the range gets longer, it becomes harder to aim accurately, especially with ship-mounted cannons. They're not like cannons on land," Simon explained.

"Then isn't it useless to install it? Tch, what a waste of money. I thought it was some kind of advanced technology. I got excited for nothing." Rogge immediately lost interest.

Seeing Rogge turn and leave, Simon took a deep breath, stood up, and said, "Captain, the accuracy may be worse, but I'm a sniper. Watch closely."

Simon walked over to a cannon and began installing the device he had assembled onto it. Then he started searching the sea for a target.

He soon spotted a piece of foam floating on the sea. It was probably a fishing net buoy.

Boom!

The cannon fired, and the shell struck the buoy accurately.

"Good! Beautiful!" Rogge clapped his hands.

Simon revealed a broad smile. Just as he proudly prepared to brag a little, he realized Rogge was no longer there. Turning around, he saw Rogge's backside facing him as he slowly climbed up the mast.