Chapter 9: War And Boat Troubles
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Year 1520: The Great Pirate Era Year 20

WEST BLUE: Kano Country

Palace of Kano: Meeting Room

 

*Knock~♪ Kno~Knock~♪ Kno~Knock~♪          Knock~ Knock~♪*

“Special delivery for King Noodles~! Highly classified information from the enemy countries~!”

I knock on the meeting room door in a nice rhythm and announce my presence with a melodious and jokey tone.

Without waiting for a response, I open the door and enter with a skip in my steps.

 

A big collection of sighs and disgruntled noises and tired faces greet me.

Ahh… It feels so good to be back.

Looking at other people’s misery just makes me feel so much better.

Well when things get really out of hand, then it’s not funny anymore.

 

“Dravde! You dare disrespect His Highness Ramen!? I should have you executed!” One of the old farts from the ministry starts running his mouth like usual.

“Calm down, old Shengqi. You should know by now that this brat is uncontrollable.” Old man Chinjao comes for my defense.

Some perks for dealing with the Chinjao family are to be expected when I have to deal with that Sai all the time.

Thank goodness for Boo not having the same temperament as his big bro.

 

“Urgh…” *Sigh* “Fine. Let’s just get this over with and figure out how to stop this war.” Red faced angry old fart calms down and looks away.

“Yes, it would be great if Dravde’s report would help us with the current situation. Please, give us your report Dravde.”

It seems that this time King Ramen is hoping quite a lot from my report.

Well I can’t disappoint him now, now can I? “Thank ye. Thank ye, kindly.”

 

“Well, for starters, everyone is quite familiar with the situation. Kano Country has been in a state of war with the neighboring nations for a few years already.”

“For an unknow reason the neighboring nations found the will and strength to start a war with Kano.”

“From what we have gathered over the years is that, they have gained a substantial amount of weaponry from an unknown source.”

“Two years ago, I found information that showed the source of weapons to originate from the Grand Line.”

 

“At that time there were numerous different underground weapon dealers that visited our neighbors.”

“At first they all looked like they were independent dealers but from one clue after another I finally found a connecting point.”

“They get their weapons from a man they call ‘Joker’.”

“From what I’ve gathered, Joker is a famous merchant in the underground world.”

 

“He sells all sorts of illegal merchandise to anyone who is willing to pay the price.”

“And from the looks of it, he is also sending some minor merchant to do some of his more out in the open deals, so that he couldn’t be traced.”

“From what I can tell is that, Joker is a very capable individual who has a substantial control in the underworld and has a massive organization under him.”

“Such a powerful person would definitely have his base of operations somewhere in the New World.”

 

“Do you have any leads at which island could their base possible be?” Queried King Ramen while keeping his hands inside his sleeves.

“For now, I have no idea.” I shake my head in denial while shrugging.

“The weapon dealers and other underground merchants that come to West Blue are all expendables with minimal information.”

“All I could think is that you should follow where the money flows. The islands with most wealth gathered seem most suspicious.”

 

“Thank you. This has been quite helpful. We will send people to the Grand Line and try to get to the bottom of this.” King Ramen said and then looked at the Old man Chinjao.

“Chinjao, could you help me arrange this? Also remember that you and your grandson are accompanying me to this year’s Levely.”

“I really don’t want to bring Sai to that place but very well. Also don’t worry, I’ll send a small squad of elites to look around the Grand Line for more information.”

Old man Chinjao doesn’t look happy about the Levely. Good thing I don’t have to deal with that.

 

After nodding to old man Chinjao, King Ramen turns back to me.

“So, what else did you find about?”

“Next would be about the details of the armed forces gathered in the neighboring nations.”

I continue telling what I found out to the King and ministers while wondering when I can get my money and leave.

 

-

 

“I’ve gotten a lot better at this.” I say while sailing on my very own ship.

*Beep* Just by pressing a button, I can change so many things in the ship.

I grab a cola that came along a pipe from the fridge/fuel storage.

Thankfully, the madman who built this ship has a great taste on beverage.

 

~ Pirate Era Year 1519 ~

 

“I know what I said about not caring about who built the ship but WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?” I shout as I point at my new ship.

“Calm down, Dravde. I know how it looks but it is just as you wanted.” For once it was Sai who was trying to calm me down.

“It works really well despite the appearances. A bit of remodeling and it will be a great ship!” Even Boo tries help out.

“A BIT!? FUCK! THIS NEEDS A LOT OF REMODELING TO NOT LOOK LIKE A FUCKING TOY BOAT!” I really wish I could strangle the guy who made this.

 

“WHAT DID YOU EVEN TELL THE BASTARD WHEN YOU ORDERED THE SHIP FOR IT TO LOOK LIKE THIS!?”

“Well… we were in a hurry to continue our task that Gramps left us with, so we simply explained that it was going to be a gift to our ‘small little brother’.” Sai explained while sweating bullets.

“We told him that we will come back in a month and left one of our officers to periodically check the progress.”

“AND THAT OFFICER DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS ABSURDITY!?”

 

“Well… you see. Everything was going well and the design was looking good from the beginning to the end…” Boo explains what the officer saw.

“But suddenly on the last day. The normal looking ship had a huge makeover!”

“It was so sudden, and we had to return back to Kano so we didn’t have the time to ask for a redesign.”

 “HOW DID IT SUDDENLY JUST CHANGE ITS DAMN DESING IN A GODDAMN DAY!?”

 

“We don’t know. And it’s not like the officer was watching the situation all the time. He only checked every few days.”

“Look at it this way. It doesn’t look that off if you are the one manning it.”

“I’VE GOTTEN TALLER, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”

“… But you still look like a cute kid especially your squishy cheeks are still there…” Boo quietly murmurs.

 

“WHAT WAS THAT!?” I glare at Boo while my hair is rising in anger.

“Nothing!” Boo hides behind Sai in an attempt to defend himself.

“Well, why don’t you have a quick test on what it’s capable of before getting it remodeled? I didn’t really understand much, when I took a look.” Sai said in a hurry.

“Hmph!” I took my attention back to the childishly colored ship.

 

The keel was colored in a vivid red while the hull was painted like sky blue with clouds all around.

The deck had been colored grassy green and cute paintings of smiling flowers and playing animals could be seen all around.

The masts were painted red adorning flags with stripped patterns with the colors of yellow and red.

And worst of all… Walls colored in light blue with the tips of the spires having a dark blue sparkly paint on them…

 

The goddamn cabin looks like a kids toy castle!

I furiously slam the ‘Gate’ open and enter the cabin.

Luckily the insides aren’t that over the top. Cute design here and there but mostly normal.

I walk towards the spiral stairs that lead to an elevated part of the cabin where the helm is located.

 

As I open the hatch, the shutters open and I can see the outside.

It seems that this is the tallest spire of the castle and I can see everything from here.

Now then… what on earth do all these buttons do?

I press a button and suddenly the sails start spinning and knock Boo off the ship while Sai grabs the sail and spins along with it while screaming.

 

… Yeaa… Is there a manual somewhere?

 

~

 

After a month of thorough testing we could finally remodel everything without destroying the contraptions.

I had the ship painted to match the colors of the sea.

It would be better that way so that pirates won’t notice my ship easily.

Most of the time, my ship goes unnoticed and I can just practice in peace.

 

Disregarding the original appearance of the ship, the workmanship is great.

Though I still think that the guy who made this has quite a few screws loose.

After all, I still had to rename the ship to Cloud Chaser because the original name was just too horrible.

 

Like, seriously. Who names a ship ‘Battle Franky’. And this was not even made for combat.

I stop my reminiscing and take a sip from my cola as I continue my little leisure cruise in the West Blue.

 

Hello World!

Dravde is back in business! Well not really... I'm tired and I have a severe dose of despresso. (Man that sounds awful and funny at the same time. Is despresso even a thing?)

I've been thinking about how to lift my mood and I heard that Terraria got once again another "FINAL" update. I still remember when I played it when it was only in beta and not even in Steam. It has gone a long way. Maybe I'll open a server and stream for a bit... Just gotta find the motivation.

In other news. Ladies and gents, it is time. This is what you've all been waiting for. In next chapter our MC will finally start his journey! He will leave Kano and head towards the Reverse Mountain! I've plans for the next few chapters but currently I'm seriously depressed and even this chapter was supposed to be completed 3 days ago but I just couldn't write. I hope that I can at least get the chapter done this week...

Stay well everyone. Keep away from despresso. Too much depression is bad for you so find something fun to do and JUST DO IT. I'm trying my best to cheer me up so you should try too.

Happy readings everybody.

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