No Change

"How could that be?" Ham looked at the direction of the pointer, then at the one on his wrist. Both seemed to be pointing toward the same place.

"You idiot, we haven't left Earthfire Island's weather range yet. This place is still affected by Earthfire Island's magnetism. The direction to the next island is exactly the same as before. Our destination hasn't changed—we're still headed for that island," Simon roared at Ham.

"So that was it. I overlooked that." Ham scratched his head awkwardly.

"Captain, what should we do?" Everyone turned to Rogge.

Rogge was the captain, so they still had to follow his lead on major decisions. After all, this was his ship.

Yet Rogge lay sprawled over the bow, staring at the distant sea without saying a word.

Jelly and the others looked at Rogge curiously. Normally, Rogge would have mocked Ham a couple of times by now. It was practically part of his daily routine. Yet Rogge had gone quiet, his eyes fixed ahead, and no one knew what he was doing.

"What's wrong?" Jelly walked over curiously and asked.

"Phew!"

"???" Several question marks appeared over Jelly's head.

"Pheeeew, snore!!!"

"?????"

Jelly heard the strange sound and finally walked over. What he saw was Rogge, eyes closed, a bubble hanging from his nose as he slept soundly.

A vein popped on Jelly's forehead as he raised a tightly clenched fist.

"Wake the hell up, bastard!"

Jelly roared and swung his fists, delivering a brutal beating to Rogge.

Bruised and swollen, Rogge leaned against the side of the ship with both hands resting on the rail, looking blankly at everyone.

"W-what happened?"

"This bastard." Jelly was still fuming and wanted to hit him again.

"Is this what companions are like? Didn't they say they got along well?" Jerry muttered to himself as he stood off to the side, holding Billy, who kept struggling free.

"Tell this bastard yourselves. I don't have that much patience. What do you want to drink?" Jelly snapped.

"Orange juice." Rogge raised a hand with difficulty.

"Eat shit, Ray." Jelly turned and entered the cabin.

On deck, Ham explained the situation to Rogge. Rogge had recovered and sat atop a barrel with one leg crossed over the other, constantly picking between his toes with one hand, wearing a blissful expression.

"That's easy. Just follow the route," Rogge said indifferently.

"But the Marines will be waiting for us over there," Cook said.

"That's easy. The Marine officer is the White Hunter, Smoker. He's no ordinary Marine officer. If he really is there, then Cook, you can do this." Rogge lowered his voice and began explaining to Cook.

Cook nodded after listening, the look he gave Rogge difficult to read.

"This guy is that underhanded?" Ares whispered to Ham.

"Just don't be fooled by his appearance. Rogge isn't as simple as you think. If he really were that simple, Jelly and I wouldn't have followed him out to sea back then." Ham smiled and shook his head.

Before long, Jelly came out carrying juice and handed everyone a cup. Jerry, who was drinking juice for the first time, loved the sweet-and-sour drink. But when he looked at Billy in his arms, he drank all of it himself. How could something this tasty be given to a dog? He would just leave the cup for it to lick.

Billy had no idea that innocent little Jerry had become impure. He happily licked the cup Jerry had finished drinking from.

They retraced the route they had taken while fleeing. Rogge once again hid in the small room atop the mast to continue training. His Observation Haki training could be put on hold for now. What Rogge needed now was combat. The reason he was willing to return to their original route was also because he wanted to see just how strong he truly was. As for a way out, he had one too. He had just told Cook about it—if he truly could not handle Smoker, Cook would step in.

Since they had only entered the Grand Line a short while ago—just around ten days, by calculation—Ham's understanding of the Grand Line was insufficient. He realized that himself and was now cramming knowledge about the Grand Line, exchanging information with Cook and Simon and learning from their experience.

Snowflakes drifted through the air. They were still within Earthfire Island's weather range. Once they left Winter Island's climate zone, it was back to boring sailing. Ares stayed in his room, studying who knew what. Ham crammed navigation knowledge, while Simon, Cook, and Jelly formed a little group and played Fight the Landlord every day.

The three of them had originally been responsible for looking after Billy, but they became obsessed with the playing cards Rogge had brought out and turned into Fight the Landlord fanatics. Billy was thus handed over to newcomer Jerry. Jerry liked the stupid dog anyway. One was dim-witted, the other foolish—just right for communicating with each other.

No one knew what the stupid dog Billy's actions and expressions meant. Only Jerry could understand him. Like attracted like, and in the end, they came together.

Thud!

Rogge jumped down from the mast and shouted at Jelly, who was still playing Fight the Landlord, "Jelly, hurry up and cook! I'm starving to death."

"Soon. Bomb." Without even turning his head, Jelly stared at his cards and threw down four aces.

"Rocket." Simon chuckled and played the big and little jokers.

Jelly's expression changed. He was the landlord this round, and when he saw Simon's cards, a bad feeling rose in his heart. He immediately looked into the distance and shouted, "Eh, what's that?"

Hearing Jelly's words, Simon and Cook failed to react in time. Jelly had already mixed the cards in his hand together with the cards on the table, then quickly ran into the cabin.

"I'm going to cook. No time to play. We'll have a big match after I'm done," Jelly's voice called from inside the cabin.

Simon and Cook looked at their cards, then both put them down. Seeing the terrible hands they each held, they laughed.

Even if Jelly mixed all the cards together, they could still figure out what cards he had left. But in psychological warfare, how could young Jelly possibly be a match for these two old foxes? After playing that rocket, they knew their chances of winning were low. Yet they had crushed Jelly mentally and made him give up on his own.

"How much did you win?" Cook asked Simon with a smile.

Simon flicked the IOU in his hand and smiled. "Not much. Forty million Beli."

"Not bad. I got sixty million Beli." Cook took out an IOU and slipped it into his pocket.

In just one day, Jelly had lost one hundred million Beli to those two seasoned schemers. Hearing their conversation, Rogge silently shook his head. Gambling ruined lives. Luckily, he was terrible at cards; otherwise, he would never beat these old foxes.

"Anime really does lie. Sailing isn't fun at all," Rogge sighed as he stared at the sea.