"An incurable disease. He had maybe a year left when I boarded, perhaps slightly more if managed carefully." He turned the bottle in his hands. "He wanted a doctor who could keep him functional long enough to finish the journey. Not to cure him. He was clear about that from the first conversation. Just to keep him on his feet until the end."
Nobody said anything.
"I told him I couldn't cure it. He said he knew. I told him I could manage the symptoms and extend the functional period, but there were no guarantees. He said that was fine, he only needed enough time." Crocus drank again. "So I went."
The fire settled lower. Law had stopped pretending to read.
"Did he make it?" asked Lucien.
"He reached Laugh Tale," said Crocus. "Make of that what you will."
He set the bottle down beside him and looked out at the dark water and said nothing else, and nobody asked him anything else, and the fire burned down slowly with the four of them around it and the lighthouse turning steadily overhead.
"Then what about him being captured and executed in Loguetown? Did they know he was sick and attacked him at his weakest point?" asked Lucien, curious. He had carried this doubt for the longest time. How could the most powerful pirate in all the seas get captured by the Marines? It never seemed logical.
"Heh, the Marines? They didn't capture him, of course. Garp is strong, insanely so in fact. But he wasn't strong enough to capture Roger. It was Roger's own choice to surrender, knowing he was about to die. I am sure he planned it all out, including that ridiculous last speech of his. Because of him, every year I see so many pirates coming into the Grand Line trying to find his treasure," explained Crocus.
Lucien just nodded as he looked up at the stars. Hearing all of it once again ignited his desire to find the so-called treasure of the Pirate King. What was it that Roger had seen at the end of the world to make a statement like that and begin an entire new age of pirates?
"Where is his treasure?" murmured Lucien, more to himself than anyone.
"Oh, you want to find it? Then reach Laugh Tale. All the answers will be there. It has all of Roger's treasure, the Pirate King's treasure, and the truths the World Government desperately tries to hide. So if you are curious, like Roger said, set sail and find it if you can," responded Crocus.
"Laugh Tale. Is that the end of the world? How do you reach it?"
"Everything in the Grand Line leads to Laugh Tale. You can get there as long as you are strong enough and have the right people with you. Do you know about Log Poses?"
"We do. We have one to reach Water 7 to get a newer and better ship. Our current one is half finished and we had to set sail because a crazy marine was right on our heels."
"Oh, that's good. Log Poses are the only instrument you can use to navigate the Grand Line accurately. The one you have sounds like an Eternal Log Pose that points straight to Water 7, and that's it. When you get there, you'd better look into buying a normal one. It will point to the next island naturally once you arrive somewhere new," explained Crocus.
Lucien looked down from the stars and back at Crocus. "A normal Log Pose points to the next island naturally. What decides which island that is?"
"The island itself. Each island in the Grand Line has a magnetic field. The Log Pose reads it and locks on. How long the lock takes depends on the island. Some take a day, some take weeks. You don't choose your path so much as the path reveals itself one island at a time." Crocus picked up his bottle again. "Which is either poetic or deeply inconvenient depending on your temperament."
"Both," said Lucien.
"Yes," said Crocus. "Both."
Law had his book open again but he was not reading it. He was looking at the lighthouse beam making its slow rotation over the water.
"The people who came before us on the Grand Line," said Law. "The ones who didn't make it. What happened to them?"
Crocus looked at him. "Most of them weren't ready."
"How do you know when you're ready?"
"You don't," said Crocus. "You find out after."
Lucien went quiet and lay back, staring up at the stars, imagining all the wonders that lay ahead. The four of them slept outside that night, accompanied by the sound of the waterfall.
The morning came quickly. Lucien and Idris were up early to check the boat's condition before they set off. The hull had settled back overnight. No clean splits. The shifting from Reverse Mountain had corrected itself under the stillness.
"She'll make Water 7," said Idris from the other side.
"Agreed," said Lucien.
Crocus stood on the dock with his hands in his pockets, watching them. Law had already moved all the books Crocus had given him into one of the rooms below deck.
"If you are lucky, find a Three-needle Log Pose when you get to Water 7," said Crocus. "One needle won't hold in the New World."
"Noted," said Lucien.
Law finished with the books and came and looked at Crocus. "Thank you."
Crocus waved a hand. "Don't waste them."
Idris pushed them off the dock, and the boat moved out between the two lighthouses into open water. Laboon surfaced once somewhere behind them, slow and enormous, and then the Twin Capes were gone, and the Grand Line was ahead properly for the first time.
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1 Chapter For Every 50 Power Stones. Please Do Support.