Looking at his master, who had stopped breathing but still wore a peaceful smile, Will did not cry or grieve any longer.
Instead, he slowly carried his master onto his back.
“Master…
let’s go home.”
With those quiet words, he slowly walked toward the One-Sword Dojo.
His slender figure was not particularly tall or imposing, but there was something about his back that radiated an unmistakable sense of strength.
When he returned to the dojo, Will looked at the blood covering the ground.
He paid no attention to the bodies of the enemies.
Instead, he carried the bodies of his master, Senior Brother Roy, and Senior Sister An to the rear mountain.
He carefully cleaned the blood from their faces and changed them into clean clothes.
Then he buried his master in front, with Roy and An behind him.
It was just like the first time he had seen the three of them standing together at the One-Sword Dojo, all three smiling as they looked at him.
Will did not erect gravestones.
Instead, he planted his master’s and Senior Brother’s swords in front of their graves.
For Senior Sister An, he planted her curved dagger into the earth.
After finishing everything, Will did not remain on the rear mountain.
He returned to the dojo and changed his clothes.
He took only a bag and a bottle of wine with him, while Blood Scorpion was strapped to his back.
He went to the storage room and retrieved two enormous barrels of highly flammable oil.
Then he poured it all over the dojo buildings and throughout the courtyard.
Standing outside the One-Sword Dojo, Will remembered the first time he had come here.
He remembered meeting his master for the first time.
He remembered meeting Roy.
He remembered meeting Senior Sister An.
“Farewell, my family.”
With those words, he threw the lit metal lighter in his hand into the courtyard.
The flames erupted instantly.
Under the early morning sun, the dojo that had given him so many memories burned fiercely.
Will returned to the rear mountain.
He poured some wine in front of his master’s, Roy’s, and An’s graves.
Then he took a sip himself.
He sat upon a large stone in front of the three graves, silently recalling every little moment they had shared.
From the bag he carried, Will took out a round wooden object.
It was oval-shaped, hollow inside, with a large opening at the upper end and six smaller holes on its front.
It was made from the piece of Treasure Tree Adam he had obtained during his first mission.
Later, Will had turned it into a musical instrument.
An instrument that nobody else in this world knew how to make.
A Ocarina.
Will raised the Ocarina to his lips.
Then he began playing a song he had loved in his previous life.
It was a somewhat sorrowful melody.
The mournful sound of the Ocarina drifted through the rear mountain, filling the air with sadness.
A young man with a short ponytail sat upon a massive stone before three graves.
He wore a black coat and played a strange musical instrument.
The morning breeze gently stirred the hem of his coat.
He wasn’t very old.
Yet there was a sense of age and weariness about him, as though he had already experienced countless meetings and partings, life and death.
When the song ended, Will looked toward the distance.
Then he walked toward Loguetown without looking back.
He didn’t turn around.
He didn’t say farewell to his master, Senior Brother, or Senior Sister An.
He was afraid that if he did, he would lose control and start crying.
But his master had once told him:
A man doesn’t cry.
Along the way, Will thought about many things.
The deaths of his master, Senior Brother Roy, and Senior Sister An had always been an unavoidable possibility. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Even if he had died last night as well, it would have been perfectly normal.
After all, they were assassins.
If an assassin wasn’t prepared to be killed by someone else, how could they dare risk their lives again and again to carry out missions?
“Master, Senior Brother, Senior Sister An…
don’t worry.”
“I, Will, will live a life worth remembering.”
Will walked onward, muttering to himself.
When he reached Loguetown, he didn’t wander around.
Instead, he went directly to a shipyard to retrieve the ship he had commissioned and completed a year ago.
When he entered the shipyard, Will was in such a poor mood that he didn’t bother paying attention to the fat owner’s strange expression.
“I commissioned a custom ship here.
It should have been completed long ago.”
“Take me to it and have it moved to the dock.”
The shipyard owner wore an embarrassed smile.
He hesitated for a moment.
Instead of answering immediately, he called over one of the workers and whispered something to him.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“Because you didn’t come for such a long time, another customer bought your ship.”
“How about I give you another ship instead?”
The fat owner gave an ingratiating grin as he tried to brush Will off.
“Do you want to die?”
Will’s pupils contracted.
“Within five minutes, if I don’t see my ship, I’ll make sure there isn’t a single living person left in this shipyard.”
“My mood is terrible right now.”
The fat owner felt the young man’s entire aura change.
If Will had seemed like a depressed young man a moment ago, he now felt like a vengeful demon surrounded by a red haze.
It was as though one wrong word would cause that demon to tear everyone apart.
The fat owner’s legs began trembling uncontrollably.
“I-I’ll take you to your ship right away.”
“Please, follow me.”
He was thoroughly terrified and didn’t dare say anything else that might anger Will.
“Kid, I’ve taken a liking to your ship.”
“You can get lost.”
A burly man approached them with a group of men following behind him.
A Pirate flag was even tattooed across his chest, as though he were afraid nobody would realize he was a pirate.
“The ship made from Treasure Tree Adam is truly rare.”
“But its design is too strange.”
“I’ll have to take it apart.”
“And it’s too small anyway.”
Will didn’t even bother wasting words on this man.
He simply drew his sword.
“Everyone who’s uninvolved, get out of my way.”
“Otherwise, I’ll kill you.”
Will calmly looked at the group of people who had been rendered speechless by his threat.
“Run!”
“The boss was killed with a single slash!
This guy is too strong!”
“Wait!
What about the boss’s body?
Take the boss’s body with us!”
“Forget about him!
Saving our lives is more important!”
The underlings shouted over one another as they fled.
Their feet moved quickly.
Before long, they had disappeared into the distance.
The fat owner didn’t run.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to.
He wanted to escape, but he couldn’t move.
“Keep walking.”
Will threatened him.
Will only killed people who genuinely angered him.
Although the fat owner was a shameless bastard, at least he knew when to back down.
“Yes…
yes!”
“I’ll take you to your ship immediately.”
The fat owner finally managed to regain some strength in his legs and tremblingly led Will toward the ship he had commissioned.
They hadn’t gone far before a strange wooden ship appeared before them.
The vessel was more than ten meters long and about five meters wide.
It wasn’t particularly large, but it wasn’t small either.
The entire ship had no sails.
Roughly half of it consisted of a deck, while the other half was taken up by the cabins.
The deck contained lounge chairs, parasols, fishing rods, a fishing platform, and various other recreational equipment.
The interior had three and a half levels.
The lowest half-level was a huge refrigerated storage room for preserving food.
The level directly beneath the deck contained the helm.
There was a steering wheel and a small control console inside the wheelhouse.
Beside it was a combined dining room and kitchen.
The second level contained the bathroom and bedrooms.
The third level contained the training room and storage room.
The ship’s entire power system consisted of more than a dozen large batteries that Will had purchased at great expense through the Black market.
The ship ran entirely on electricity.
That was why it didn’t need sails.
At first, Will had merely wanted to see whether his idea was possible.
He had gone to the shipyard and asked whether electricity could be used to power a ship.
The owner had said it was completely possible.
The problem was that there were no batteries large enough to provide sufficient power.
The distances between islands were too great.
There was nowhere to recharge while at sea.
A ship powered by electricity therefore couldn’t travel all the way to the next island.
But Will’s custom-built ship was designed specifically around electric propulsion.
And he could solve the problem of recharging himself.
After all, he was essentially a walking power bank.
Eight wooden propellers had been installed along each side of the ship.
When operating at full speed, the ship could travel several times faster than an ordinary sailing vessel.
Once aboard, Will went directly to the wheelhouse.
Beside the steering wheel was a concealed compartment.
He opened it.
Inside was a golden metal sphere.
Will placed his hand against it and began charging the ship.
Because he could precisely control the flow of electricity, it took him only ten minutes to fully recharge the ship.
He immediately ordered the fat owner off the vessel and steered the ship toward the port of Loguetown.
As Will sat in the wheelhouse, his depression gradually faded.
Perhaps it was because he was finally about to set sail.
Perhaps it was because a new conviction had begun taking root in his heart.
A determination.
Once I settle the final matter, I’ll set out to sea.
But where should I go first?
Forget it.
I’ll just head in the direction of the New World.
How could I possibly miss a place that interesting?
Will docked the ship at the port of Loguetown.
After disembarking, he walked off in a certain direction.