The Unlucky Naval Base

South Blue.

A steamship with a half-crooked chimney and a hull crawling with rust puffed heavily as it docked at the crude pier.

Lucas and Baccarat stepped onto land one after the other. Neither of them knew how to repair a ship, and by the end of this voyage across the Calm Belt, this steamship, which had hardly been new to begin with, was basically in a semi-scrapped state.

"Let's go buy some clothes first."

Baccarat naturally linked her arm through Lucas's, pressing his arm against her full chest while holding a heavy money chest in her other hand.

"I've been wearing this outfit for so long, I couldn't stand it anymore."

She casually grabbed a passerby to ask for the location of a clothing store, half-dragging Lucas with her as she walked toward the town.

Half an hour later, the two returned to the ship wearing matching, well-tailored black trench coats.

Baccarat tidied her collar against the glass of the porthole, her mood visibly improving to the naked eye.

"Darling, South Blue is so big, how do you plan to find that fruit? Surely you can't search it island by island."

"Let's go to the Marine branch first."

"I know the fruit is on Kutsk Island, but we lack a precise nautical chart. The Marine base will definitely have one."

That very night, following the information they had gathered, the two sneaked to the outskirts of a nearby Marine base.

In front of the base gates, two marines holding flintlock muskets stood straight, their vigilant gazes sweeping across the dark street.

In the shadows where the light could not reach, an ordinary copper coin rolled out with a clatter, stopping at the feet of the two men.

An invisible force quietly swept past, and the luck of the two soldiers was mostly drained away in an instant.

"Who's there?! Come out!"

The soldier on the left sternly demanded, advancing carefully with his gun raised.

Just as he took his second step, his right ankle gave a severe twist, and he lost his balance, crashing heavily to the ground. His finger instinctively pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

A lead bullet whistled out, striking his companion's shoulder squarely. Blood instantly splashed forth.

The two collapsed on the ground, gasping in pain.

This was the malicious nature of the Luck-Luck Fruit.

To powerhouses with thick skin and sturdy flesh, it might only be an annoyance, but to ordinary people, the consequence of having their luck sucked away ranged from torn muscles and fractured bones at best, to direct death at worst.

Taking advantage of the chaos at the gate, Lucas and Baccarat vaulted over the wall and sneaked into the interior of the base.

The drill ground was brightly lit. A muscle-bound officer with a black ponytail and a mustache was doing barbell presses shirtless, sweat rolling down his deeply furrowed muscle lines.

Another coin rolled to his feet.

"These little brats, even throwing away their pay..."

The moment Maynard had this thought, his feet inexplicably slipped, and his whole body fell straight backward. The barbell smashed heavily onto his chest with a dull, loud thud.

With his physique, he naturally wouldn't be crushed to death, but two of his ribs broke, and he couldn't get back up for a moment.

"Colonel Maynard! What's wrong?!"

The patrolling marines nearby turned pale with shock, rushing over in a swarm to help.

The one running at the front was tripped by a stray stone on the ground, taking a solid, face-first tumble into the dirt. The men behind him couldn't stop their momentum, and they all tumbled over each other in a chain reaction of sprawls.

Cries of agony, groans of pain, and curses rose and fell one after another.

In just a few minutes, the entire base fell into inexplicable chaos.

The door to the navigation archives was gently pushed open. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was too busy to look after anything else, Lucas and Baccarat slipped inside.

The two of them nimbly searched the shelves for nautical charts, the soft rustling of turning paper drowned out by the commotion outside.

"Darling, I don't have Kutsk Island on my side."

Baccarat lowered her voice.

"I don't have it on mine either." Lucas closed the last file. "Let's go, to the next base."

Over the next few days, the two replicated tonight's operation in several other Marine bases, turning those places upside down and panicking the inhabitants. Finally, in the fourth Marine base they victimized, they found the nautical chart they wanted.

The setting sun sank, and the orange-red light spilled through the lattice window into the restaurant private room, sending ripples of fine golden patterns across the tabletop.

Platters of elephant-nosed tuna sashimi, a South Blue specialty, sat on the table, the meat tender and translucent.

"Darling, I've always wanted to ask." Baccarat picked up a piece of fish meat and popped it into her mouth, speaking unclearly.

"With your strength, wouldn't it be faster to just charge in and snatch the chart? Why go through the trouble of using this kind of method?"

In her view, the strongest colonels in these bases couldn't take a single punch from Lucas. There was completely no need to take such a huge detour.

Lucas set down his wine glass and remained silent for a few seconds.

"My first woman was a Marine."

Baccarat's hand holding the food paused, raising her eyes to look at him. She had long guessed that a man like this couldn't possibly have only herself by his side, but hearing it with her own ears still gave her a subtle feeling.

She quickly regained her composure and pursued the question:

"If the Marines are dead-set on capturing you, on killing you? Will you still show mercy?"

"Then I'll wipe them out."

Lucas could spare the Marines out of respect for Gion, not actively slaughtering them and trying his best to get what he wanted through peaceful means.

However, that favor had a bottom line.

When it truly came to drawing swords against one another, he wouldn't have a shred of softness.

He had always agreed with Shanks's words—once you draw your gun, you must be prepared to risk your life.

Baccarat breathed a secret sigh of relief.

What she feared most was that this man would be tied down by old sentiments and end up getting himself dragged down in the end.

Now it seemed she had overthought things.

In this world, powerful individuals surrounded by multiple partners was the most normal thing in the world.

From the day she decided to follow Lucas, she had prepared herself for this.

What she always feared wasn't "scarcity", but "inequality".

She feared someone receiving exclusive favor, feared being left behind.

Since everyone was treated the same, she had nothing to fear.

Dinner ended, and the two checked into the best inn in town.

Just as the door closed, Baccarat reached out to hook her arms around Lucas's neck, pulling him toward the bathroom without room for argument.

Since she already knew there was an older sister ahead of her, she had to perform even better.

It might have started as a binding of interests, but after more than a month of living together day and night, this powerful, calm, and occasionally genuinely affectionate man had long since moved into her heart.

Lucas did not resist, following her momentum as they walked in.

Hot water poured noisily into the bathtub, and the hazy white mist quickly filled the entire bathroom. Amidst the swirling steam, tiny sounds mingled with the splashing water, leaking out through the crack of the door, only to be quickly swallowed up by the night wind.

TO BE CONTINUED