The little boat drifted along the current, riding the wind across the vast, open sea.
At the bow, Sager sat cross-legged, lazily sipping from his wine flask. He drank in no particular rhythm, letting time trickle by with each gulp—until the last drop finally slid into his mouth. He clicked his tongue with mild annoyance.
At the stern, Lily was fishing—if you could call it that. She used an oar as a makeshift rod and a thin rope that came with the boat as her line. Somehow, she'd managed to dig up a fat wriggling worm and tied it to the end, dangling it into the water with full confidence.
"Relax. After that thunderstorm hit the other side, plenty of fish must've swum this way. I guarantee we'll catch something," she said brightly.
Sager, on the other hand, was just as confident—but for entirely different reasons.
Fishing? With him around?
He once had three thousand fish leap past him—and didn't catch a single one. Not one.
Even hiring help didn't improve things. As long as someone was remotely connected to him, forget fish—you couldn't even smell the scent of seafood in the air.
Sager let out a low chuckle. Even if she'd somehow managed to dig up decent bait…
Bait?
His gaze landed on the dangling rope and narrowed. The longer he stared, the more his expression twisted into something strange.
He finally broke the silence.
"Lily…"
"Hmm?"
"Where'd you get that worm?"
"Pulled it out from the cracks in the boat," she said, completely unfazed. "I may be a princess, but I'm a pirate now, too. Gotta act like one. A few bugs? Doesn't scare me at all."
To prove her point, she freed one hand and scratched around in the wooden seams again—pulling out another couple of plump, pale worms. They writhed like soft, creamy bread dough in her slender, delicate fingers.
"See—"
CRACK!
"Geppo!"
Sager stomped the air with sudden force, snatching Lily by the back of her collar and launching them both skyward with a rapid volley of kicks in midair.
That strange crack from earlier? It had been the final warning.
Their little boat gave out completely—splintering apart in an instant, its wooden frame dissolving into planks that scattered like leaves across the waves.
The boat was gone.
"Huh? But… how?" Lily blinked, stunned.
"Where the hell did you find a termite-infested boat?" Sager snapped.
It had probably taken a beating from cannon fire too—and the storm certainly hadn't helped. No wonder it fell apart.
"That was the only one left," Lily admitted sheepishly. "I managed to grab it when I came to find you. I did have a better ship, but a Navy warship showed up too fast. I couldn't risk my crew getting caught, so I ditched them and came down alone."
"…Sorry."
She hung her head. "Didn't think you could walk on air."
"It's fine. No big deal." Sager was surprisingly calm.
"You're not mad?" Lily looked up in surprise. "We had a shot at a real ship, and I blew it."
Sager tugged at the corner of his mouth in a dry, ironic smile.
"As long as you don't blame me, we're square."
He was used to this kind of bad luck.
Honestly, he thought missing out on all those ships at the port had already maxed out his misfortune for the day—but apparently fate still had more in store.
"You think a little setback like this can stop me? You're underestimating me." He gave a confident grin, bouncing lightly in midair like it was second nature.
Ordinary Geppo couldn't maintain flight like this. But Sager understood the human body so deeply, he could push it beyond its normal limits.
The Rokushiki were deceptively simple in form—six martial arts moves that turned the body into a weapon. But each technique carried layers of physical mastery. Geppo, in particular, required exceptional precision and control.
Unlike the Hokuto Shinken from his memories—where most "techniques" were basically different ways of poking pressure points with fancy names—Rokushiki had structure, categories, and real technical content.
Hokuto was about striking secret vital points. He'd already been trying to increase his raw strength, but it wasn't enough. Rokushiki filled that gap perfectly.
As for Haki…
Hokuto Shinken had a similar energy called Fighting Spirit. In this world, it transformed into Haki.
Sager hadn't mastered it yet—but he'd brushed against the edge of it.
His system hadn't just granted him power. It gave him a damn textbook. One that required grinding, studying, and real effort.
To be able to grasp the true mechanics of these arts? He considered that a sign of his brilliance.
"Alright then—where are we headed? Pick a direction. I can't float up here forever. Ideally, we find an island with a town and some supplies."
Even his enhanced Geppo had a limit. It didn't matter how good his form was—his stamina would run out eventually.
But what Lily said next made him pause.
"…I don't know."
"…Huh?"
"I really don't know." She shook her head. "Without a map, I have no idea where we are or where to go."
A navigator could read currents, stars, and winds—but not divine a location from thin air.
"I thought you were a navigator! Don't you know the routes?" Sager frowned.
"I'm good at the theory," she said meekly.
Sure, she excelled in books—but she'd never actually sailed before. Never even left dry land. Of course she didn't know the routes.
And Sager? He was even worse. Not a clue.
He looked out over the endless ocean—flat as glass, with no land in sight—and sighed.
"…Pick a direction. We need to move."
The boat had drifted too far earlier, pushed this way and that by the wind. Any sense of orientation was long gone. Otherwise, he might've tried returning to Oykot.
Lily glanced at the sun, then back at the water. She pointed north.
"Let's try that way. Don't worry, Sager—there's always ships out here. Even far from shore, you'll run into something eventually. And I can swim. Worst-case scenario, we just swim for it."
"I'd really prefer not to end up in the water. Also…"
He gave her a dry, mocking smile.
"You seriously underestimated me."
"Underestimated?" Lily looked puzzled.
Sager didn't bother explaining. He just grabbed her again and kicked off into the sky, heading north.
And it didn't take long—barely a day—before Lily finally understood what he meant by "underestimated."
There are always ships out at sea. Even in the outer reaches, there should be traffic. Especially from the sky—any normal person would spot one eventually.
But from sunrise to sunset… then from moonrise to another sunrise… there was nothing.
Nothing but the whoosh of Sager's feet slamming against the air.
Not a whisper. Not a wake. Not a shadow of a ship.
"Ships?"
What were those again?
Did such things even exist on the sea?
"…Sager, you…"
Lily wasn't just sharp—she was very sharp. Not only had she finally grasped what he meant by "underestimated," she now understood why he'd said not to blame him later.
She pressed her lips together, hesitated, then glanced up at his deadpan expression and said gently:
"Are you… unlucky or something?"
"Why do you think I'm still stuck in the goddamn East Blue instead of swimming in riches?"
Sager gave a cold, bitter laugh.
"That's right. I'm a walking jinx."
"W-Well, it's fine… It's just a bit of bad luck. Not seeing a ship in two or three days isn't that rare. Maybe we just missed them. If we'd stayed where we were—"
"Nope."
He cut her off with a smug grin.
"That's where you're wrong. I know how this works. If we stay in one place, the ship will pass by exactly where we were heading. If we leave, it shows up where we stayed. That's how it goes. I call it—'Schrödinger's Ship'."
Lily didn't know who Schrödinger was—and frankly, she didn't want to know anymore.
She'd chosen a captain—
And ended up with someone whose superpower…
…was catastrophic, ship-repelling, apocalyptic-level bad luck.
So now the only question left was…
Would she even survive being a pirate at all?