Insistent Assistant 28 (Patreon)

Insistent Assistant

Chapter 28

-VB-

Alan Marris

As our two ships began its journey toward the Red Line, I began to think about exactly how I intended to get our ships off of South Blue and into the Grand Line. I remembered that there were at least three ways to cross the Red Line.

The first, and the one most likely for us to succeed, was to just get permission to cross it. While I knew that many crews - not ships - can pass through Mary Geoise, I learned after coming here that there were other such “passes” along the Red Line. One such location was south of the Centaurea Kingdom.

This was also why I was passing by Centaurea because I needed to reach one of those passes. The main problem here was that Centaurea was in a bit of a revolutionary mood, and shit was going down. I didn’t want to be caught up in that.

The second method was to use the reverse mountain, which was on the other side of the South Blue and also, inconveniently, very fucking dangerous. This was, also, not in the direction that my compass was pointing.

… technically, if I went that way, I would eventually go to the direction that my compass was pointing because this world was a globe, but I wasn’t going to needlessly risk my people’s lives for that.

The third way was to go through the Fishman Village, but this method was irrelevant to me because 1) I was not on the Grand Line and thus incapable of accessing it in the first place and 2) this method required a very expensive coating that only very few people in this entire world could do… and it would see us getting close to Sea Kings. Yeah, no thanks. I’m good.

Technically, there was the suicidal method: sail straight across the Calm Belts that surround the Grand Line. Again, this was suicidal because Calm Belts were Sea King breeding grounds. I unfortunately did not take enough antidepressants and antipsychotics to come full circle and become suicidal.

Our only real option was to use the Red Line passes, which would mean I would have to sell my ships and buy new ones on the other side. It sucked but what else was I going to do? Climb the Red Line with my own hands? I wasn’t Fishman enough for that.

So, really, there was only one method: passing through the passes. As a privateer under one of the kingdoms that was a member of the World Government was sure to count for something, right? If not that, then the money I got from bounty hunting had to count for something, too.

But I still felt wary about this choice because it would leave me vulnerable to the whims of the Marines and the World Nobles that controlled the Red Line. If one of the “celestial dragons” decided to be a dick, then I was screwed because I was nowhere near what I considered to be strong enough to get away without causing too much damage. I could probably get away but I had no guarantee that I wouldn’t cause enough damage and deaths to get the Marines after my ass (and also say goodbye to the state-sponsored piracy/bounty hunting).

“Hey, captain.”

I looked down from the crow’s nest at Jeanne, who had been climbing the nets for her shift up here.

“Yeah?”

“Why not just ask the Marines to ferry us across the Calm Belt?”

I stared at her.

“What?”

“That’s a thing merchants do for a fee. Did you not know?”

I stared at her as she jumped into the wooden bucket that was the crow’s nest.

“Huh?”

My mind might still be buffering from what she just said.

She sat down next to me and huffed. “The Marines have a branch called the Merchant Marine, and they protect people as they drag them across the Calm Belt. You gotta be some kind of official, though,” she sighed. “So normals like us can’t-.”

“I’m a sanctioned privateer.”

She blinked and looked at me. “Huh?”

“I’m a sanctioned privateer with a paper to show for it.”

“... Holy shit. We don’t have to go through the Red Line.”

“Wait, what?”

“You don’t have to go through the Red Line! You’re trying to get into the Grand Line, right?”

I blinked.

Was I? No, I didn’t think that I was. I was trying to -.

I paused and then jumped out of the crow’s nest, making Jeanne shriek in surprise at my sudden burst of movement. I ran into my quarter and slammed next to the map table. I quickly set Jack’s Compass down and then set another regular compass and began to plot a course without end. Just straight in one direction. I compensated for the curvature of the planet, the degrees of error, and -.

I stared at the map.

Illaoi appeared next to me from nothing, and stared down at the map.

“I mean, I’m not going to say no to that,” Illaoi chuckled. “But I guess you know now what you want, huh?”

I looked down at the map where Jack’s Compass was pointing towards once its heading had been compensated.

“I don’t think we should go there right now.”

“What? Why not?”

“We’re not strong enough,” I replied plainly with a huff. “God, I was looking too far away. I should have been looking closer.”

She snorted. “Life can be like that.”

My goal wasn’t on the other side of the Red Line like I had initially thought. It was across the Calm Belt.