The Ocean, Isn't It Mysterious? (Part 2)

Sage looked at another photo, also taken in Log Town, showing Marika with a bright smile, only capturing her from the chest up, but in the background, a pile of ruins could be seen.

Marika, DEAD OR ALIVE, bounty of thirty million.

"What did you do?" Sage asked.

As a cook, she rarely got into fights, and suddenly her bounty shot up so high, even surpassing Renetia, which surely meant she had done something extraordinary.

"The rare ingredients in the food market were too few, but I found a large manor with plenty of good stuff inside. I wanted to buy it, but I had no money at the time, and the owner wasn't selling."

"So?"

"Well, since I'm a pirate, it's fine to steal. However, the defenses were quite strong, and they had a lot of reinforcements. I heard they were all nobles' subordinates. To speed things up, I had to lift the house, and that's how I dealt with it."

Marika crossed her arms, resting one hand on her cheek, and smiled gently, "In the end, I found that besides that manor, there were plenty of good ingredients elsewhere, so I took them all. It took quite a bit of effort, though."

With her arms crossed, her figure was accentuated against her impressive chest, rivaling that of Lily.

Sage nodded, understanding!

One destroyed the commercial street, another smashed the nobles' wealthy district; no wonder the bounty was so high.

"Sage, are we lacking some public funds?" Lily said at that moment.

Robbery should have a purpose; it can't all be about stealing. Some places still need spending, like seeing a doctor or renting a venue for a banquet. Why let small expenses turn into danger?

They were pirates, not vandals.

Sage agreed, "Not having money isn't a big deal. How about this: is it okay to reduce the shares for the higher-ups?"

The three of them shook their heads in unison.

Of course, they had no objections.

None of these three were obsessed with money. Lily just followed Sage, Marika only wanted to cook, and Renetia was focused on researching ship technology.

If it really came down to it, her own little money wouldn't be enough, and in the end, Sage would have to pay, but the results would belong to Sage, so it all came back to her.

As for the others, there was no need to ask.

Akin would definitely have no objections.

As for Paru, she didn't count.

Sage's distribution of spoils was already different from other pirate crews; reducing it further wouldn't matter.

"Let's uniformly reduce the shares by 2%. From now on, you higher-ups will take 3%, and the lower-ranking members will take 1%. My share and that of the ordinary crew will remain unchanged. That's it."

Sage nodded and continued to look, moving on to Lily.

Bounty Hunter Lily, DEAD OR ALIVE, bounty of thirty-six million.

The photo hadn't changed, and the bounty hadn't increased much, indicating she hadn't personally done much robbing, busy directing instead.

Next was her own bounty notice, which Lily pulled out from a newspaper obtained from a warship, saying, "I've seen the news. It says we destroyed four kingdoms and robbed Log Town, but nothing else. Even if the government considers Zefa's influence, isn't that still too high?"

Underneath the grinning face was an extremely large number.

Norton Sage, DEAD OR ALIVE, bounty of two hundred seventy million! "Over two hundred million?"

Even Sage was taken aback.

"Just for Log Town?" Sage raised an eyebrow.

The incident with the Bridge Kingdom, escaping from Garp, combined with the battle with Zefa, wouldn't cause the bounty to rise so dramatically; it seemed a bit excessive.

"Hmm."

Sage was still pondering when he suddenly froze. Below his bounty notice, there was another bounty notice, one that didn't belong to their pirate crew.

It featured a little girl with black hair and blue eyes, seemingly on a ship, looking sideways with vigilance and caution.

"Found it on the warship, a little girl," Lily said. "Nico Robin, bounty of seventy-nine million. She looks even younger than Reti."

"Yeah, what did she do to have such a high bounty?" Renetia asked curiously. "Did she rob a hundred towns?"

Lily glanced at Sage and then at the bounty notice of the little girl, feeling a strange sense of familiarity.

Although the girl had black hair and blue eyes, while Sage had white hair and black eyes, and despite the age difference, their facial contours looked somewhat similar at first glance.

But if they resembled each other, that was quite normal; the sea was vast after all.

"Ah."

Sage raised his glass and took a sip, gazing deeply at the bounty notice. "This isn't current; it's a bounty notice from twenty years ago. But why is it being brought up now?"

Lily was sixteen, Renetia was ten, and Marika was only twenty-four this year. Although they were very approachable, they were still quite young.

Twenty years ago, the oldest among them would have been just four.

Of course, they didn't know about past events, especially those that happened in the West Sea, which wouldn't justify such a high bounty. But now, such significant information had been uncovered?

"Forget it, it's not important."

He swept the bounty notices aside and said, "For the fallen subordinates, when I recruited them, I think I remembered their names and hometowns, right? Let's tally it up and store their remaining assets, so we can send them back to their hometowns when we have the chance."

He was determined to be a landlord, but he wasn't stingy, nor did he disdain to pocket the money of his deceased subordinates.

They didn't just pop out of nowhere; who doesn't have family or friends?

Orphans?

Orphans have hometowns too! Sage thought of a certain destroyed island in the West Sea, clicked his tongue, and picked up a Log Pose to look at.

"Hmm?"

Just a glance made him feel something was off, so he picked up another one to examine, his expression turning strange.

There were a total of twelve Log Poses, among which six were different pairs, each with the same words engraved on the hourglass.

The other six were identical! "ARABASTA."

Sage read the words, raising an eyebrow. "Alabasta?"

"Sage, didn't you say you can't read?" Renetia pointed out the flaw.

"Just because I can't read doesn't mean I don't know the pronunciation! I can't possibly not know how to read my own name, right?" Sage replied irritably.

He was indeed illiterate, but what he couldn't understand were the combined characters, not such simple pronunciations!

He tossed the pointer onto the table. "This isn't a Log Pose; it's a permanent pointer. If I'm not mistaken, three pairs point to the naval bases belonging to those warships, and these six are headed to Alabasta."

The Navy wouldn't mobilize for no reason; their deployments always came with missions, so they wouldn't carry Log Poses; a permanent pointer would suffice.

One for the destination, one for returning to base.

"What do we do?" Lily asked.

"Of course, we head to Alabasta. Are we supposed to go to the naval base? A ship has three hundred people; how many would a base have? Going to Alabasta is just right to find a doctor and see where we can get a Log Pose."

With the direction set and a place to go, there was no problem.

Sage had some recollection of what happened in Alabasta, but it had nothing to do with him; he was a pirate, not a justice envoy.

Perhaps when they got there, they could even rob a king.

He vaguely remembered that place seemed quite poor, but even if it was poor, a king wouldn't be too poor; at least in that royal palace, there would definitely be treasures worth stealing!