The adjutant immediately activated the Den Den Mushi and dialed a number.
Before long, the call connected, and the Den Den Mushi took on the appearance of an elderly man with a dog-head hat and a graying beard.
"Hello?"
"It's me, Mr. Garp! I'm my grandfather's grandson! You even held me when I was little!" The adjutant grew nervous.
There was a moment of silence on the other end.
The adjutant failed to notice anything wrong, but the officer listening beside him couldn't stand it anymore and punched him on the head.
"Idiot! Everyone is their grandfather's grandson! Tell Vice Admiral Garp who your grandfather is!"
"Ah! Yes! My grandfather is Dilly! He's a fisherman from Foosha Village!"
At last, a voice came from the other end. "Oh, so you're that old man Dilly's grandson. What do you need?"
"Here's the situation, Mr. Garp. We're in the Sage Kingdom! Not long ago, someone attacked the Royal Palace and killed the King!"
"We also found a body suspected to belong to a Celestial Dragon at the scene! Along with the bodies of numerous guards and CP Agents! Hundreds of people died!"
"So it's about that..." The Den Den Mushi resembling the old man in a dog-head hat spoke slowly. "Sengoku already told me. If trash like the Celestial Dragons won't stay put in Mary Geoise, they deserve to die in the East Blue."
Such outrageous words sent both the officer and the adjutant into a panic.
"Mr. Garp! You can't say things like that!"
"Bwahaha! Really? Then just pretend you didn't hear it..." On the other end, Garp chuckled before turning serious. "Still, we can't ignore a monster of this caliber appearing in the East Blue."
"Wonderful! Mr. Garp, are you going to take action?"
"Yes. I'm already on my way to the Sage Kingdom," Garp said quietly.
After hanging up, Garp looked at the man who had just been hauled out of the sea onto the deck.
The man's clothes were in tatters, and his skull had been nearly caved in, leaving even his face difficult to recognize.
"It's hard to imagine anyone surviving injuries like these," Bogard said quietly beside Garp.
"If he could defeat even CP0, the criminal probably came from the New World!" Bogard speculated.
"An Emperor's right-hand man, or one of the Four Emperors themselves? Or some other notorious pirate?"
Garp was silent for a moment before saying gravely, "It could also be one of those old bastards from the previous era coming back for revenge."
Bogard paused, then said, "Mr. Garp, you suspect... the Golden Lion?"
"That's right." Garp nodded. "That old bastard has been lying low ever since he escaped from Impel Down. After all these years, it wouldn't be surprising for him to show himself again."
"Unfortunately, none of the witnesses saw the culprit's face. We'll have to wait for this CP0 agent to wake up," Bogard said with a sigh.
Somewhere in the East Blue.
The White Pearl sailed across the sea.
Inside the White Pearl's captain's cabin, Norton and Nami were locked in a fierce battle, while Funing watched from the side.
"Check!" Norton placed his piece.
Before Norton sat a square board etched with a grid of horizontal and vertical lines, with round playing pieces placed at their intersections.
Now, one of Norton's pieces had pinned down Nami's general.
"No, no! Start over! You must have cheated!" Nami flung herself over the board, scrambling the pieces like a furious kitten.
"Nami, that's the ninth game you've lost to Norton," Funing said, kneeling beside them and delivering a precise finishing blow.
"That's right. You've lost a total of 900,000 Beli to me! Don't try to wriggle out of it, Nami!" Norton said with a broad smile.
The money itself didn't really matter, but Norton thoroughly enjoyed prying it out of a money-grubber's hands.
"Damn it... it doesn't count! You invented this Chess Game, so you have an advantage from the start! And you know the rules better! It's unfair!" Nami was getting frantic.
"Haha! Not my problem."
Amid their noisy banter, someone knocked on the captain's cabin door.
Sanosuke's voice came from outside. "My lord."
"What is it?" Norton looked toward the door. "Come in."
"Yes."
Sanosuke pushed the door open and entered. "I've finished counting everyone aboard."
"Excluding the twelve remaining members of the Redbeard Pirates, the Cooking Corps and Shipwright Crew total thirteen people."
"With you, Miss Nami, Miss Funing, and myself, there are now... twenty-nine people aboard."
Twenty-nine people living aboard a ship a hundred meters long had more than enough room for their daily activities. It was positively spacious.
"Understood." Norton nodded slightly. "How many more days will our food last?"
"We still have plenty. There's no need to worry about that for now," Sanosuke replied.
"What about Beli? Including what Funing's father gave us, how much money do we have now?" Norton asked.
"Together, the Duke's gift and the nobles' assets Nami rescued are worth over 200 million," Sanosuke said.
"Excellent. Add the 900,000 Beli Nami lost to me, and I'm quite the rich man here in the East Blue." Norton chuckled.
Nami was so furious she wanted to sink her teeth into Norton.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Ow! Why is your body so hard?!"
Nami actually bit him. Unfortunately, rather than hurting Norton, she nearly damaged her own teeth.
Funing covered her mouth and giggled, her eyes curving into crescents.
"How dare you bite your captain! As punishment, hand over my 900,000 Beli right now! Otherwise, I'll deduct it from your daily wage of 500,000 Beli!" Norton held Nami's head down and spoke fiercely.
"Hmph! Fine, I'll pay!" Nami pouted. "What's so great about that? Today's the fifth day! You owe me 2.5 million Beli in wages!"
With that, Nami stormed out.
Watching her leave, Norton shook his head in amusement.
"Do you have any further orders, my lord? If not, I'll go train," Sanosuke asked quietly.
"Can't you take a break? Training every single day-where's the fun in that?"
Norton flopped onto the large sofa behind him. "Want me to teach you this Chess Game? We need some games to pass the time during these boring voyages."
Sanosuke shook his head. "Allow me to decline."
He had no interest in that sort of thing.
Besides, apart from Norton, he was the strongest person aboard.
As they continued sailing toward the Grand Line, more and more people would join the White Pearl. If he didn't train hard, he would lose his position as number two.
With Nami and Funing around, Sanosuke didn't consider himself second in rank. But in terms of strength, he was unquestionably number two.
On top of that, as a ninja, he had a duty to protect his lord and those close to him...
Every time he thought about that, Sanosuke couldn't suppress the frustration rising within him.
Norton was far too strong to need his protection. The reason he trained so hard was to close the distance between them, even a little.
At least then Norton wouldn't be so far ahead that he couldn't even see him.
"You're no fun." Norton sighed. "That's everything. Go train."
Sanosuke bowed slightly and withdrew, leaving only Funing with Norton in the captain's cabin.
"Um... Mr. Norton, there's something I'd like to tell you." Seeing that she and Norton were alone, Funing immediately spoke up bashfully.
"Just say it. Call me Norton, my lady shipwright." Norton got up, took a bottle of vodka from the wine rack, and poured himself a drink.
"Well... I heard the story about that ninja just now. The pirates aboard told me," Funing said after a moment's hesitation.
"Yes, and?" Norton took a swig of vodka.
Funing bit her lip, her hands unconsciously bunching up her skirt.
"It's just... Norton, with someone as unlucky as Mr. Sanosuke aboard the White Pearl, the ship I built that brings misfortune, wouldn't having both together be too dangerous?" Funing finally gathered the courage to say it.
"So that's what you're worried about?" Norton waved a hand, looking completely relaxed. "Things like that don't matter to me."
"You're not worried? We could run into a disaster at sea or something else at any moment," Funing said anxiously.
"I don't care what Sanosuke and the White Pearl might bring. I like a challenge. If there weren't any danger at all, it'd be too boring."
Norton drained the liquor in his glass and flashed a wild, arrogant grin.
"Bad luck, misfortune-I'll master them all! I'm the man who's going to become the King of the World!"
Funing's lips parted slightly as she stared at Norton, brimming with confidence.
After leaving the captain's cabin, Nami returned to her own room, right next to Funing's.
Aboard this ship, only Nami, Funing, and Sanosuke had Norton's permission to have rooms of their own.
The others had places to sleep too, but several people shared each room.
Norton had deliberately arranged things this way to distinguish ordinary crew members from his future officers.
Norton had no intention of following the elite-crew approach of the Straw Hat Pirates or the Red Hair Pirates. To establish his own country, he first needed enough people.
Norton intended to follow a path similar to Big Mom's.
That would inevitably create a hierarchy within the pirate crew.
Rather than introduce ranks after the crew grew larger, it was better to differentiate their treatment now and let everyone aboard get used to the rules, preventing resentment later.
"Damn you, Norton. Just you wait! I'll win it all back!"
Seething, Nami dragged a sack out from under her bed and untied the red cord around its opening. A heap of banknotes immediately slipped out.
Nami took out a stack, counted out 900,000 Beli, and set it aside.
Then she stood up, drew the curtains, locked the door, and lit the kerosene lamp.
Only after completing this series of actions did Nami sit back down and begin counting the Beli in the sack.
"One million, two million, three million... nineteen million five hundred thousand!"
Once she had finished counting every last note, Nami took a deep breath, delight spreading across her face.
"Now I've saved enough! I need to find a chance to leave and buy the village back from Arlong!"
Sanosuke didn't know that Nami had already hidden away some of the Beli that day, when the Sea King destroyed the passenger ship and scattered its treasure across its back and into the sea.
Not only that, Nami had also been responsible for counting the treasure the Duke gifted them. Naturally, she hadn't passed up such an opportunity to "embezzle."
That was also why Nami had stayed aboard the White Pearl all this time...
The money came in so fast!
Norton seemed completely indifferent to the treasure and had never looked into it closely. At most, he asked about it in passing.
What thief... no, what navigator wouldn't like a captain like that?
Nami had already decided that once she bought the village back from Arlong, she would return to this ship.
Whether in generosity or strength, Norton surpassed every man Nami had ever met!
If she hadn't already saved enough money, Nami would have wanted to ask Norton to deal with Arlong.
But now that she had enough, there was no need to trouble Norton!
"It's time for me to personally end all these years of oppression! Just you wait, Arlong. I'll make you willingly hand Cocoyasi Village back to me!"
Thunder suddenly rumbled outside the window. Nami stuffed the Beli back into the sack and drew the curtains open, revealing a darkening sky outside. Lightning snaked across the black heavens.
"A storm's coming!" Startled, Nami opened the door and hurried onto the deck.
"Hurry and furl the sails! A storm's coming!"
Norton and Funing opened the cabin door, stepped onto the deck, and looked up at the pitch-black sky.
"How strange. The weather was perfectly fine just a moment ago," Funing murmured.
Norton smiled, sensing that weather like this would accompany the ship for a long time on their voyages ahead.
"Have faith in the White Pearl!" Norton patted Funing's shoulder. "Besides, we have the world's best navigator aboard."
"Stop chatting! Hurry up and help! Move everything on deck into the hold!" Nami shouted at Norton while directing the pirates' preparations.
"Coming!"
Several dozen nautical miles north of the White Pearl lay a small island covered in lush jungle.
With wild beasts roaming freely and relatively few resources, the island was uninhabited.
That day, however, a man carrying three swords unexpectedly arrived on its shores.
The man had short green hair, wore a white short-sleeved shirt, and had three teardrop-shaped gold earrings in his left ear.
"I lost him. Where the hell did that wanted criminal go?"
The green-haired man casually plucked a piece of fruit from a tree and took a bite.
"So sour!" He casually tossed the fruit away.
"And... what the hell is this place?"
The man's name was Roronoa Zoro, and he currently worked as a bounty hunter.
A few days earlier, he had gotten lost at sea while pursuing a group of pirates. Not only had he lost their trail, but he had also forgotten the way back and ended up stranded at sea.
When he finally found an island to land on, it turned out to be uninhabited.
"I wonder if any ships pass through this godforsaken place. A merchant ship, a pirate ship, either's fine. I need to get back to town and buy some booze!" Zoro muttered as he headed deeper into the island.
In fact, Zoro had meant to return to the shore and find his little boat. Unfortunately, he had once again chosen the wrong direction.
As everyone knew, Zoro had no sense of direction.