After waiting for a while, an entire table of delicious dishes was finally served.
Just looking at them was enough to whet Will’s appetite.
Giant lobster, veal steak, and other specialties of the Baratie filled the table.
Unlike his usual meals, Will didn’t wolf the food down without a care for appearances.
Instead, he slowly savored every bite.
After finishing the entire feast and drinking a bottle of the Baratie’s finest wine, Will felt completely satisfied.
At first, he’d even considered picking a fight with Zeff.
But now that he thought about it, Zeff really had grown old.
From beginning to end, the old man hadn’t even appeared in front of Will.
Even when Will had deliberately provoked him, Zeff had remained out of sight.
After all, Zeff had once been ruthless enough to smash his own leg with a rock and then eat it to survive when he was stranded without food.
That leg had been the foundation of Zeff’s former strength.
Unfortunately, the man really was old now.
Will tossed more than a dozen diamonds onto the table and turned to leave.
Looking at the diamonds Will had left behind, Sanji wasn’t particularly excited.
He merely smiled.
He didn’t care much about money.
“A troublesome, but generous customer.”
Any chef would be delighted when a customer showed such respect for their cooking.
And in this case, the chef Will had respected was not only Sanji’s teacher, but also his lifesaver and adoptive father.
After leaving the Baratie, Will immediately sailed in a particular direction.
He didn’t spend much time interacting with Sanji.
Sanji had his own journey ahead of him, and Will had his own adventure to pursue.
Will had already decided on his next destination.
He was going to enter the Grand Line.
Half a month later, a massive red mountain appeared before Will, seemingly stretching all the way into the heavens.
No matter how vast and imposing the Red Line had been portrayed when he’d watched the anime in his previous life, nothing could compare to seeing it with his own eyes.
Will was completely awestruck.
Just how much hatred had Fisher Tiger possessed?
And how strong had his determination to rescue slaves been for him to climb a mountain like this?
Will struggled to control his ship as the violent current carried it toward the Red Line.
If the ship hadn’t been powered by electricity, it would probably have already been smashed to pieces.
Even now, Will couldn’t help feeling insignificant before the overwhelming power of nature.
After sailing for a long time, Will finally spotted the entrance in the distance.
The journey had consumed an enormous amount of power, and he’d already recharged the ship’s batteries twice.
He adjusted his position, then shut off the ship’s propulsion system.
From here on, everything would be left to fate.
In currents this violent, even electric power wouldn’t be enough to change the ship’s direction.
Will felt his ship rapidly accelerating.
Then it shot toward the towering Red Line.
Standing aboard the ship, Will gripped the railing tightly to keep himself from being blown away by the rushing air.
As the ship continued climbing higher and higher, Will’s excitement grew.
This was the kind of adventure he’d been looking for!
The ship finally reached the highest point.
Momentum sent it flying through the air before it plunged back into the water and began hurtling downward at an even greater speed.
“Laboon, you’d better not get in my ship’s way!”
Will clung to the railing and began muttering to himself.
“If you damage my beloved ship, then even if I can’t beat you, I’ll go beat up Brook!”
After spending some time at sea, Will was still a ruthless man, but he was no longer someone who wanted to kill people at the slightest provocation.
The vastness of the sea had changed him.
But that didn’t mean he’d suddenly become a good man.
If someone crossed him, Will would absolutely make them understand what hell felt like.
Fortunately, the ship passed safely over the Red Line.
Laboon was nowhere to be seen and didn’t block Will’s path, so Brook was fortunate enough to avoid being dragged into the situation for absolutely no reason.
After bringing the ship to a stop, Will began searching for someone.
He was looking for Dr.
Kureha—no, not Kureha.
He was looking for Dr.
Will wasn’t searching for him because he had some incurable disease.
He wanted a Log Pose.
Because in the Grand Line, sailing without a Log Pose was practically suicide.
After searching for quite some time, Will still couldn’t find Dr.
Crocus.
But he did find Laboon.
The giant whale was lying near the shore, basking in the sunlight.
Will gathered his strength, took a deep breath, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Dr.
Crocus!
Come out for a moment!
I have something to discuss with you!”
After shouting, Will was exhausted and began coughing.
He had practically used every ounce of strength in his body just to make sure Crocus could hear him.
But Will wasn’t the only one who was shaken up.
Even Laboon was startled by the roar and responded with a bellow that was no weaker than Will’s.
Laboon stared curiously at the tiny human before him.
How could someone so small produce such a tremendous voice?
The more Laboon looked at Will, the more curious he became.
It was like a child discovering a fascinating new toy.
“Laboon, don’t look at me like that.”
Will smiled at the whale.
“I’m not playing with you.
If you accidentally crush me to death, I’d die a very unfair death.”
Will genuinely liked this whale who had waited fifty years for the sake of a promise.
How many people could maintain that kind of determination?
And Laboon was only a whale.
“Who is it?”
Dr.
Crocus finally emerged, clearly annoyed at having his rest disturbed.
“Whoever you are, tell me what you want.
Even if it’s something I can do, I won’t necessarily agree.”
“Hehehe.”
Will laughed.
“Old man, it’s already noon.”
“And I’m certain you’ll agree to my request.”
“Absolutely certain.”
Will looked at Crocus confidently.
If he told the doctor that piece of information, there was no way Crocus would refuse his request.
“Hm?”
Crocus calmly looked at him.
“Tell me what you want.
Why are you so certain I’ll agree?”
After all, Crocus had once been a member of the Pirate King’s crew.
He had experienced far more than most people and wasn’t easily rattled.
“I want your medical notes—your accumulated medical knowledge, research notes, journals, whatever you have.”
“I’d like to study them.”
“And I want a Log Pose.”
“In exchange, I’ll tell you about Laboon’s former companions.”
“As far as I know, one of them is still alive.”
Will had made a very difficult request.
But he’d also offered Crocus an irresistible temptation.
Before Crocus could respond, Laboon was already becoming extremely agitated.
“MOOOOOO!”
Laboon let out a tremendous roar.
The sound shook the surrounding sea, sending waves surging outward.
Will and Crocus were both rattled by the deafening bellow.
Fortunately, he’d anchored his ship some distance away beforehand.
After a while, Laboon finally calmed down.
“You really know something about the Rumbar Pirates?”
Crocus stared intently at Will.
“If your information is accurate, I’ll give you both my medical notes and a Log Pose.”
Will nodded.
“Yeah.
I know what happened to the Rumbar Pirates.”
“The Rumbar Pirates were eventually wiped out by another pirate crew.”
“Only one person survived in a sense.”
“His name is Brook.”
At that point, Will stopped talking and waited for Crocus’s response.
“I see…”
Crocus’s expression became complicated.
“That’s unfortunate.
You couldn’t find the entire crew.”
“You said one of them survived in another way.
What exactly do you mean?”
Crocus wasn’t particularly shocked or suspicious.
After all, Will had already described Brook’s distinctive appearance—the afro.
Fifty years was a very long time.
Anything could have happened during that period.
Crocus glanced toward Laboon.
The giant whale’s enormous eyes were already filled with tears.
It seemed unwilling to accept the truth.
Laboon slowly sank beneath the waves.
Perhaps with intelligence no less than that of a human, it had already considered this possibility long ago.
It simply hadn’t been willing to accept it.
“Brook ate the Revive-Revive Fruit.”
“That’s why he didn’t truly die.”
“After his death, he was resurrected—but by then, he had already become a skeleton.”
Will carefully explained the fate of the Rumbar Pirates to Crocus.
When Crocus finished listening, he simply said:
“Wait here.”
Then he jumped into the water and went after Laboon.
It wasn’t long before Crocus returned to shore.
In his hands was a thick handwritten medical manuscript wrapped in waterproof cloth, along with a Log Pose.
Without saying another word to Will, Crocus immediately jumped back into the water.
He was presumably going to find Laboon and comfort the heartbroken whale.
Will looked at the handwritten manuscript and Log Pose in his hands.
The Log Pose was something he’d intended to obtain from the beginning.
The medical manuscript, however, was an unexpected bonus.
Back aboard his ship, Will set a course according to the direction indicated by the Log Pose.
After locking the ship at a steady speed, he turned his attention to the medical manuscript.
At first, Will was full of enthusiasm.
But after a while, his expression became strange.
By the end, he was completely dumbfounded.
The medical notes were probably genuine.
The problem was that Will had vastly overestimated his own ability to learn and underestimated the brilliance of Crocus’s medical knowledge.
He couldn’t understand a word of it.
It was like reading a book written in an entirely different language.
He recognized every individual character, but once they were put together, he couldn’t make heads or tails of the meaning.
There were also countless formulas and the names of medicinal herbs he’d never even heard of.
Still, the medical notes had only been an extra.
If he couldn’t understand them, then so be it.
How could he expect any reward without putting in the effort?
Every doctor had to study and work painstakingly before acquiring extraordinary medical skills.
It was the same with swordsmanship.
Indeed, there was no such thing as something for nothing in this world.