“Rocks, is this your son?”
Roger had grown curious after watching Rocks defend Hua Ye and even use his Haki to intimidate members of his own crew on Hua Ye’s behalf.
He had crossed paths with the Rocks Pirates several times before, yet he’d never seen Hua Ye among them.
Considering Hua Ye’s apparent age, Roger felt his guess wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
“I’m not,” Hua Ye answered for himself, raising his glass toward Roger.
“Want to have a drink, Roger?”
“He’s an interesting guy.
You’ll understand eventually.” Rocks smiled.
“Though I haven’t known him very long either.”
Roger didn’t care much either way and simply came over to drink.
A collection of vicious pirates feared across the seas sitting peacefully together in one tavern was a rather remarkable sight.
At that moment, Newgate finished his drink, stood up without saying a word, and left.
The others soon followed his example.
More accurately, Shakky wasn’t even here anymore, so what was the point of staying around drinking?
One after another, the pirates wandered out.
Soon, only Hua Ye, Rocks, Roger, and several members of the Roger Pirates remained inside.
“Do you two know where the Grand Line ends?” Roger asked, holding up his glass and gently swirling the clear liquor inside.
“Nope.” Rocks shrugged without shame.
“Don’t care either.”
“Lodestar Island,” Hua Ye said.
“Oh?”
Roger glanced at him in surprise, then laughed.
“Rocks, your guy is a lot more knowledgeable than you are.”
“He’s not my guy.
Not yet.” Rocks picked up the bottle and poured himself another drink.
“And I never will be,” Hua Ye added.
“We’ll see about that.” Rocks sounded completely confident.
“I’m planning to overturn the entire world.
I’ll need you—and that bastard Harald too.”
‘King Harald of the giants.’
Hua Ye silently recalled the name.
“Stop changing the subject!” Roger slapped the table in annoyance.
“You two are supposed to be the audience right now.
I’m the one telling the story.
Got it?
Got it?!”
“Go on.” Rocks lazily swirled his glass.
“Lodestar is the final island the Log Pose points toward.
Doesn’t matter which of the seven routes you choose when entering the Grand Line, or whether you’ve already crossed the Red Line.”
“All the routes in the New World eventually converge there.
That’s Lodestar Island.”
“They say nobody has ever reached it by following the routes all the way to the end.
No pirate, ever.”
Roger raised his glass and emptied it in one swallow.
“I’m going there.
It’s supposed to be the final island!
Isn’t it strange that nobody’s reached it?
There has to be a mountain of treasure waiting!”
“Good.
I support you.”
A terrifying grin spread across Rocks’ face.
“Bring all the treasure back, then I’ll sink your ship and take it for myself.”
“You’ve really got the nerve to say that.” Roger laughed, completely unfazed.
“Rocks, a guy like you who doesn’t even care about adventure—can you really call yourself a pirate?”
“Pirate or not, my goal is to become King of the World.”
Rocks spoke calmly, yet there was unmistakable madness beneath his words.
“And to do that, I have to drag down those evil bastards sitting above everyone else.”
“The World Government?” Roger stared at him in surprise.
“You’re seriously insane.”
“I’m still gathering strength.
If you feel like helping me, I wouldn’t object,” Rocks said half-jokingly.
“No thanks.
I’d hate to see the mighty captain of the Rocks Pirates spending every day running around behind my ass.”
“Roger!
Don’t make it sound like I asked you to become my captain!”
“Isn’t that basically what inviting me means?!”
Their eyes met.
A faint, invisible pressure seemed to collide between them.
They had been drinking together peacefully one moment and were already at each other’s throats the next.
Hua Ye set down his glass.
“You don’t need to go to Lodestar.
I can tell you right now—there’s nothing there.”
The tavern instantly fell silent.
The members of the Roger Pirates all turned toward him.
Roger had come to Hachinosu because he wanted to see Shakky before setting out for what he believed was the final island.
If the journey took a long time, he knew he’d miss her.
Naturally, he’d already told his crew about the plan.
Rayleigh, meanwhile, had stayed hidden on the ship because he didn’t know how to face Shakky.
“What do you mean?”
Roger’s fingers tightened around his glass.
“When you land there, you’ll discover Lodestar isn’t actually the last island.
Your Log Pose will also go haywire and stop pointing toward anywhere else.”
Hua Ye silently added the rest in his mind.
‘Because that’s exactly what happens when you reach it in the future.’
Roger remained silent for several seconds before slowly speaking.
“You’re one irritating little bastard.
Don’t you know the best part for a pirate is the excitement right before opening the treasure chest?!”
An overwhelming wave of Conqueror’s Haki erupted from him.
The air instantly grew heavy.
Rows of bottles lined across the counter began shaking and striking against one another with sharp clinking sounds.
Roger’s anger wasn’t difficult to understand.
He hadn’t even reached Lodestar yet, and someone had already told him there was nothing waiting there.
It was like accidentally eating a piece of shit disguised as chocolate.
If nobody told you, maybe you could somehow endure it because at least it tasted like chocolate.
But if someone informed you it was shit the instant you put it in your mouth…
Would you swallow or spit it out?
Roger’s Haki was terrifying.
It surged through the tavern like an endless gravitational current, twisting the atmosphere into a vortex.
Yet Hua Ye continued sitting there with the same calm expression.
He was like a small boat floating on a raging ocean, swaying lightly with the waves but never sinking.
He even casually reached for a fresh bottle on the table, opened it, and poured himself another glass.
Roger’s Haki could crack the floor and burst glass bottles apart from sheer pressure.
But it couldn’t interrupt Hua Ye from pouring his drink.
A thin stream of reddish-brown liquor flowed steadily into the cup.
Hua Ye’s expression practically said, ‘Did you do something?’
“Stop wasting your time, idiot!” Rocks mocked Roger without mercy.
“What are you, some kind of comedian?
Intimidation doesn’t work on this guy.”
Hua Ye constantly kept a layer of Reishi covering the surface of his body.
Forget attacks based purely on presence—even a speck of dust couldn’t get through it.
“Haaah…”
Roger released a long sigh and withdrew his Haki.
His expression immediately became dejected.
It was hard to believe the man slumped there was the same monster who had just unleashed that terrifying pressure.
“Why’d you have to tell me?
Damn it, now I’m pissed off…” Roger lowered his face against the table.
“Or are you saying you know where the real final island is?”
“You’ll need the Poneglyphs for that.
That’s also one of the reasons the World Government suppresses the history surrounding them.”
Hua Ye felt absolutely no shame about spoiling the future.
He couldn’t care less how much the original storyline changed because of his interference.
Roger definitely wasn’t going to become Pirate King this time anyway.
Besides, Hua Ye was far more interested in seeing what kind of expression Roger would make.
There was something uniquely entertaining about watching a person get worked up.
At the mention of the Poneglyphs, Roger’s expression shifted slightly and his gaze deepened.
“Hahaha!
What the hell?
After all that, our enemy is still the World Government!” Rocks laughed loudly.
“Roger, you’re not getting away from this!”
“Quit interrupting, Rocks!” Roger snapped, then looked back at Hua Ye.
“What do you mean I need the Poneglyphs?
Don’t tell me you can read them.”
“The Road Poneglyphs contain coordinates.
Mark those coordinates on a map, connect them with lines, and the point where those lines intersect is the true final island—the place where this world’s secrets are hidden.”
After saying that, Hua Ye drained the rest of his drink and simply stood up.
He didn’t care in the slightest how enormous the information he’d just revealed was.
He had no interest in the One Piece to begin with.
And sitting around chatting with Rocks and Roger had gotten boring.
He was going to find someone else now.
Just for fun.