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.

"Are you stupid? We haven't left Earthfire Island's weather range yet, so we're still affected by Earthfire Island's magnetic field. The direction of the next island is exactly the same as before. Our destination hasn't changed—it's still that island," Simon shouted at Ham.

"So that's how it is. I overlooked that." Ham scratched his head awkwardly.

"Captain, what should we do?" Everyone turned their eyes toward Rogge.

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

Yet Rogge was lying 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. But Rogge had gone quiet, his gaze fixed ahead. No one knew what he was doing.

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

"Phew!"

"???" Several question marks seemed to pop up over Jelly's head.

"Pheeeew, snore!!!"

"?????"

Jelly heard a strange sound and finally stepped closer. What he saw was Rogge asleep with his eyes shut, a snot bubble hanging from his nose as he snored away.

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

"Get up, you King bastard."

Jelly roared and unleashed a furious beating on Rogge.

Rogge, battered black and blue, leaned against the side of the ship with both hands resting on the railing. He stared blankly at everyone.

"W-What happened?"

"This bastard." Jelly still had not calmed down and wanted to hit him again.

"Is this what companions are like? Didn't they say they were close?" Jerry muttered to himself from the side, clutching the constantly struggling Billy.

"Tell this bastard yourselves," Jelly said irritably. "I don't have that good a temper. What do you want to drink?"

"Orange juice." Rogge struggled to raise a hand.

"Eat shit!" Jelly turned around and entered the cabin.

On deck, Ham explained the situation to Rogge. Rogge had already recovered and was sitting on a wine barrel with one leg crossed over the other, absentmindedly digging between his toes with one hand, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

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

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

"That's easy too. That Sea Marine officer is Smoker, the White Hunter, not some ordinary Sea Marine commander. If he really is there, Cook, you can do this." Rogge lowered his voice and began explaining to Cook.

Cook nodded after listening, his expression as he looked at Rogge difficult to read.

"Is this guy really 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 the 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 looking at Billy in his arms, he drank it all himself. How could something so delicious be given to a dog? He could leave the empty cup for it to lick.

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

They retraced the route they had taken while fleeing. Rogge returned to the little room on the mast to continue training. His Observation Haki training could be put on hold for now; what Rogge needed was combat. The reason he had agreed to take the original route was also because he wanted to see just how strong he really was. As for a way to escape, he already had one. He had just discussed it with Cook—if he truly could not handle Smoker, Cook would make a move.

Since they had only entered the Grand Line not long ago—barely ten days, by their reckoning—Ham did not know enough about it. He had realized that himself and was now cramming knowledge about the Grand Line, discussing matters 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 the Winter Island climate zone, it was back to boring Sea travel. Ares stayed in his room studying something unknown, 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 fascinated with the playing cards Rogge had brought out and turned into Fight the Landlord addicts. Billy was thus handed over to the newcomer, Jerry. Jerry liked the stupid dog anyway. One was dim-witted and the other was foolish, so they got along perfectly.

No one could understand the actions or expressions of stupid Billy, but Jerry could. Birds of a feather flocked together; in the end, the two had found each other.

Thud!

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

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

"King Rocket." Simon chuckled and laid down the two Kings.

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

Simon and Cook did not react in time. Jelly had already mixed the cards in his hand with the cards on the table and hurried into the cabin.

"I need to cook. I don't have time to play. We'll have a proper battle after I'm done!" Jelly's voice came from inside the cabin.

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

In truth, even if Jelly had mixed all the cards together, they would still have known what cards he had left. But in a battle of wits, how could young Jelly possibly be a match for these two old foxes? They knew their chances of winning were low after playing that King Rocket, but they had crushed Jelly psychologically 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 his IOU and slipped it into his pocket.

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

"Anime really does lie. Sailing isn't fun at all." Rogge looked out at the Sea and sighed.