One Piece: Failure’s Road to the Pirate King

The vast ocean stretched endlessly, making it easy to find an island.

But to find a ship—Boom! Water splashed near the black-sailed warship as cannonballs flew through the air straight towards the vessel. A flash of cold light appeared, slicing the cannonballs in half horizontally. Lily jumped from midair to the side deck, slowly sheathing her thin sword.

"Fire."

At her command, the cannons on the side of the warship fired in unison, striking the pursuing warship. One hit the mast, another penetrated the deck, and several more blasted the hull, exploding into plumes of black smoke and flames.

Lily glanced at the warship that had lost its pursuit capability, then turned and walked towards the captain's quarters.

Sage had changed into a white pirate shirt unbuttoned to his chest, sleeves rolled up to his forearms, loose trousers, and boots tightly hugging his pant legs. He had one foot propped up on the table in front of him, lounging lazily in a sofa-like chair, a wine glass in his left hand, the liquid sloshing with his movements.

"How many is that now?" he asked, eyeing Lily as she entered.

"The second one today. For three consecutive days, we've encountered five warships," Lily replied.

It was hard to find pirate ships on the vast ocean, but warships seemed to come uninvited.

The navy in this area appeared to have singled out Sage. Once they spotted the black-sailed warship, they pursued relentlessly like mad dogs.

"Has a bounty been issued?" Sage asked curiously.

Lily shook her head. "I've been monitoring the newspaper delivered by News Coo these past few days. I haven't seen any wanted posters for us."

"So..."

Sage drained his glass in one gulp and slammed it down on the table with a loud thud, irritated. "Why are they chasing us so persistently?!"

Lily's face remained expressionless and she said nothing, but the look in her eyes betrayed her thoughts.

It wasn't normal for pirates to encounter warships every day.

Pirate ships were usually smaller and faster, able to flee when encountering warships. But they were sailing a warship themselves, with the same specifications, making it impossible to escape from other warships. They could only engage in battle, otherwise prolonged pursuit could expose their position and attract more navy ships.

Sage understood this, and given his own bad luck, encountering the navy every day wasn't surprising.

What puzzled him was why the navy insisted on chasing him specifically.

Even if he was being framed, he had only raided a few towns. Pirates like that were everywhere on the sea. Why chase him out of so many pirates? This point greatly annoyed Sage.

He wasn't sure if his life these past few days could be considered good or not.

On the bad side, being chased by the navy every day meant he couldn't even sleep soundly at times, which certainly wasn't good.

But on the good side, they no longer had to worry about supplies. The resources obtained from other warships ensured their voyage, and sometimes they even got some nice goods. These branch navy officers had quite good food, clothing, and other items.

Sage's current outfit had been taken from a warship, much better than his previous ragged clothes. They had even acquired several crates of good wine.

His subordinates had also gained more experience from the prolonged battles with the navy, especially Lily, who could now slice cannonballs.

She always had that ability, but lacked combat experience. The engagements with the navy quickly made up for that.

It seemed there were some benefits.

But they couldn't make money! He became a pirate to make money. Even if they honed their fighting skills to become the world's strongest, it was all for the sake of making money more easily!

"Sage, why don't we go somewhere else? The Black Sail Pirates aren't easy to find," Lily said, hesitating. "Besides, it's not good for morale to have the crew drifting at sea for so long. We need to find a place to rest."

"Let him roam free while I take the blame? That's not an option. Even if I have to empty out the entire 23rd Branch of the Navy, I'm going to find him!" Sage waved his hand dismissively, but then reconsidered. "But you're right, people need to spend time on land. Let's do this—choose a town where we can rest for a bit. We can also ask around for news about the Black Sail Pirates. Just drifting at sea isn't getting us anywhere."

He couldn't focus solely on chasing someone else at the expense of his own pursuits. They were going to plunder anyway.

Major economic towns were off-limits, so they'd target medium-sized towns.

"Pick out some islands for us to raid. We don't want poor people—they're just struggling with little money. Find some wealthy ones," Sage instructed.

"Understood. The poor indeed don't have much money. That Arlong you were looking for before—I've heard rumors about him. They say he collects exorbitant protection fees. Ten thousand Beli per month for adults, five thousand for children. These amounts have already drained several villages dry."

Lily nodded, then stared at Sage for a while, seeming to want to say something several times, but after much deliberation, she finally left without speaking.

Sage poured himself another glass of wine. Just as he brought it to his lips, he suddenly paused. "Was she going to say that we can't find them because of my bad luck?"

It was easy to find something with a specific location, but without one, it was like when he used to be a bounty hunter looking for pirates—he couldn't find a single one.

Moreover, this was an unknown pirate.

During his time as a bounty hunter, Sage had memorized all the wanted posters in the East Blue. He hadn't seen anyone matching the description of a black-robed figure, so it was probably not a famous pirate. It might even be a newcomer like himself.

Sage wasn't stubborn. Once he realized this, he began to consider whether he should simply abandon this target.

The East Blue was vast, and there was no need to linger in this 23rd Branch area. There were many other targets to raid, and continuing to waste time like this was squandering his own opportunities.

He pondered for a while, took a sip of wine, and leaned back comfortably in his chair, gazing out the window at the shimmering sea.

At least in his other pursuits, he hadn't enjoyed such treatment. Now he had underlings and a secretary, albeit low-grade ones, but it still gave him a taste of the life of a future landowner.

...

The island Lily chose wasn't far, only half a day's sail away. It was an oval-shaped island with several villages and a sizeable town along the coast.

The island had no special products; it was just an ordinary town. But wherever there were people, there were bound to be wealthy individuals—Sage's true targets.

As for the common folk, as Lily had said, a family might scrape together ten to twenty thousand Beli a month between adults and children. It would take several months to gather enough to ruin a family, so there wasn't much worth stealing.

In fact, the real money for pirates came from raiding merchant ships. The cargo of a single merchant ship could be quite valuable, and the risk was lower.

But they couldn't find any, could they? If they could resolve things at sea, why would he go through the trouble of finding towns?

Although towns were wealthy, raiding them carried certain risks. The larger the town, the stronger its defenses. If they got entangled, coupled with naval reinforcements, they might end up trapped.

However, this wasn't a problem for Sage.

In the East Blue, as long as he didn't encounter those powerhouses returning from patrols at Navy Headquarters, he was confident he could escape unscathed.

As dusk gave way to night, the black-sailed warship arrived at the town Lily had chosen.

Sage emerged from the captain's quarters and stood at the railing, watching the gradually clearing outline of the town. He said to Lily beside him, "After this raid, we'll leave this sea area. That Black Sail pirate might have already left the area, otherwise it's impossible we haven't found any trace. Since we're both pirates, they're bound to cause some commotion on the sea. We'll look for them again when we have the chance."

Unusually, Lily didn't agree with his words.

She handed the telescope to Sage, blinking her beautiful eyes, and said strangely, "It seems... we've encountered them."

"Hm?"

Sage quickly took the telescope and looked towards the town. The first thing he saw was a huge mansion situated on high ground, brightly lit even in the darkness—clearly the home of an extremely wealthy person.

Looking down, he saw rows of houses below, and near the coast, smoke was rising from the buildings, drifting westward with the wind.

Further down, on the sea surface where the smoke was blowing, a ship was sailing out to sea. It was a two-masted fast ship, and through the telescope, Sage could see many people drinking merrily on the deck.

As for the mast... it was flying a black sail without any insignia! A black sail!!

Sage crushed the telescope with a bang and gritted his teeth, "Change course! Intercept that black-sailed ship for me!"

When he wanted to find them, he couldn't. When he didn't want to look anymore, they delivered themselves right to his doorstep!