Failure’s Road to the Pirate King

The small boat drifted on the vast ocean, following the wind.

Sage sat cross-legged at the bow, taking occasional sips from his flask until the very last drop fell into his mouth. He smacked his lips in satisfaction.

Lily sat at the stern, using an oar as a fishing rod and a thin rope from the boat as a fishing line. She had somehow managed to find a fat worm and tied it to the end of the line, then cast it into the water to fish.

"Don't worry, when it was raining heavily over there, lots of fish came with the currents. We're sure to catch something!" Lily said confidently.

Sage was equally confident, but for a different reason. Go ahead and fish, he thought, I won't say a word.

Did she really think she could catch fish with him around? He once had the impressive feat of having 3,000 fish jump out of the water near him, yet not being able to catch a single one!

Even if someone came to help, it would be useless. Anyone associated with him couldn't even smell a woman's scent, let alone catch a fish!

Sage sneered inwardly. Even if you somehow got bait from who knows where...

As he stared at the line dangling in the water, Sage's expression grew increasingly strange. He couldn't help but speak up: "Lily."

"Hmm?"

"Where did you get that worm?"

"I caught it in the cracks of the boat," Lily replied nonchalantly. "I may be a princess, but now that I'm a pirate, I have to act like one. A mere worm doesn't scare me at all."

To prove her point, she reached into a crack in the boat with her free hand and pulled out a few more worms. They were as fat as white bread rolls, writhing and twisting on her slender, fair fingers.

"See?"

Crack! "Moonwalk!"

In an instant, Sage stepped on the air and grabbed the back of Lily's collar. Continuously treading on the air, he flew upwards, carrying her with him.

At that moment, a strange sound rang out as the wooden boat completely fell apart, splitting into several pieces that now floated on the sea as mere planks.

The boat had disintegrated!

"How..." Lily was dumbfounded.

"Where did you get a ship infested with woodworms?" Sage asked.

A boat riddled with woodworms, having already endured cannon fire and the battering of wind and rain - it was no wonder it fell apart.

"It was the only boat left, all the others were gone," Lily explained. "I had managed to get a ship earlier and was planning to come find you with it, but the navy ships came too quickly. I couldn't risk the people on board being captured, so I came to find you on my own."

"I'm sorry," she added, lowering her head. "I didn't consider that you could walk on air."

"It's fine, not a big deal," Sage replied calmly.

"You're not angry?" Lily asked in surprise. "We had a chance to get a big ship, but I missed it because of me."

Sage tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a smile as he said meaningfully, "As long as you don't blame me, it's fine."

Bad luck? He was used to it by now.

When it came to misfortune, he had always been quite confident in his abilities.

He had thought that failing to steal even one ship from all those at the port was already quite unlucky, but he didn't expect there to be more... "You think this little difficulty can stump me? Do you have any idea how many storms I've weathered?" Sage said with a confident smile, his feet bouncing on the air like springs, maintaining his position without touching the water.

Ordinary Moonwalk techniques couldn't stay airborne for this long, but Sage, with his extreme understanding of the human body, could achieve prolonged suspension.

The Six Powers were indeed excellent martial arts techniques. Though they seemed simple, they encompassed the ultimate utilization of the human body. Each technique contained different categories, especially this Moonwalk, which had the highest technical content.

Unlike the Fist of the North Star, which had many techniques in memory but only a few that could truly be called "techniques," the rest being applications of pressure point strikes with fancy names.

Moreover, the Fist of the North Star focused more on secret acupoints and pressure points. Although Sage had been deliberately increasing his strength, it was still lacking somewhat. Now that he had obtained the Six Powers, his weak points had been compensated for.

As for Haki, the Fist of the North Star had the power of fighting spirit, which would also become Haki in this world.

Sage didn't know Haki yet, he had only touched upon it slightly.

Although he got the cheat early, it was one that required him to train himself, not like a Devil Fruit that could be used immediately after eating.

It was more like being given a textbook tailored specifically for him - all the methods were in the book, he just had to practice.

Being able to master the principles of the body techniques, Sage felt he was quite talented.

"Where should we go? Point me in a direction. I can't stay in the air forever. It's best if we find an island with a town to get some supplies," Sage said.

No matter how strong the Moonwalk's suspension power was, it had its limits. It wasn't related to Sage's stamina, but constantly bouncing in the air would exhaust anyone's energy eventually.

However, Lily's next words caught Sage off guard.

"I don't know."

"Huh?"

"I don't know," Lily shook her head. "Without a nautical chart, I have no idea where to go."

A navigator is a profession that masters wind directions and climate, not a fortune teller who can predict locations out of thin air.

"Aren't you a navigator? Don't you know the sea routes?" Sage tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"I'm only good in theory..." Lily said weakly.

She was quite proficient in theory, but she had never had any practical experience and had never left land before. How could she possibly know the sea routes?

As for Sage, he was even more clueless. He looked at the endless sea with no visible landmarks on the horizon and sighed, "Let's just pick a direction and start moving."

The small wooden boat had drifted far, carried left and right by the wind, and they had long lost their bearings. Otherwise, he could have returned to Oikot.

Lily looked up at the sun's position, then gazed at the sea, and pointed north. "We could try going north. Don't worry, Sage. There are always ships on the sea. As long as our luck isn't too bad, we'll encounter one. Besides, I can swim. If worst comes to worst, we can swim in the water."

"Unless absolutely necessary, I'd rather not go into the water. Also..." Sage smirked, "You underestimate me!"

"Underestimate?" Lily didn't understand.

Sage didn't explain. He just held onto Lily and continuously kicked off the air, heading north.

Very soon, oh so very soon, in just a day's time, Lily understood what Sage meant by "underestimate."

There should always be ships on the sea. Even in the open ocean far from land, there should be vessels sailing.

Especially when viewing from high up in the air, as long as one's luck wasn't too bad, they should be able to see ships. And if there were ships, that would solve their problems.

However, from sunrise to moonset, and then to sunrise again, apart from the disturbance caused by Sage's air-walking, there was not a single sign of movement around them.

Ships? What were those? Did such things even exist on the sea?

"Sage, you..." Lily not only wasn't stupid, but she was also quite intelligent. She not only understood what he meant by "underestimate," but also grasped the meaning behind his words "don't blame him later."

She pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, then looked up at Sage's expressionless face and said tactfully, "You... you have rather bad luck, don't you..."

"Guess why I haven't made my fortune in this mere East Blue yet?" Sage sneered. "That's right, I'm cursed with misfortune!"

"It's... it's okay. It's just a little accident. It's normal not to encounter any ships for two or three days on the sea. Maybe we just missed them. If we had stayed put earlier, we might have encountered a ship," Lily tried to comfort him.

"You're wrong about that," Sage said, now full of confidence. "I have experience with this. If we stay in one place, ships will appear in the direction we were heading. If we leave, ships will appear where we were staying. It's the Schrödinger's ship principle."

Lily didn't know who Schrödinger was, and at this point, she didn't want to know.

She had found herself a captain, only to discover he was the most unlucky person imaginable... At this rate, she didn't know if she'd ever become a pirate, but she might well become sea scum.