December 1, 1503
Time passed by quickly, and just like that, it's the start of winter again. As the season turns cold, the last shipment of liquor for this year is picked up by the Kuja Pirates, the official delivery partner of Sixis Liquors.
The Kuja Pirates will pick up the barrels of wine here at East Blue, then they will pass the Calm Belt and directly enter Paradise as a shortcut. They will deliver it to Sabaody Archipelago, where Shakky and Morgans will divide it to sell. As for the liquors ordered by Saint Jobert Randall, his liquors are picked up by the CP agents.
Raeven will pay the Kuja Pirates 100 million every delivery, which made the Kuja Pirates give up attacking other pirates and merchants. After all, they are the ones who are being attacked usually now. Shipping the wines is not that hard; you just have to haul them on the ship and make sure they won't roll around, but bringing them to Sabaody is quite challenging. Luckily, with Tritoma's strength now rivaling Elite Vice Admirals, shipping the booze became easy, and if some pirates attack them, then they welcome it; it's another bonus for them. They can even turn in their bounty at the black market on Sabaody Archipelago.
The biggest news this year is Whitebeard declaring the Fishman Island his territory, which made a lot of slavers scared to kidnap some mermaids, but there are still daredevils who tried to kidnap them. After all, mermaids are expensive, and if you encounter a Celestial Dragon, selling it for 500 million is easy.
This year 5 trainees graduated, and they were granted the Grim Reapers emblem. When Tritoma took them, they proudly clipped it on their cloaks' epaulettes.
As for Tritoma and Mihawk, the two of them are still on the talking stage, which is surprisingly good progress. Mihawk even helped Tritoma to turn bounties in using his warlord status. When Raeven heard this, he was happy; finally, Mihawk is doing something right with his warlord position.
The end of the year is approaching, so Raeven invited everyone he knows to have a New Year party at Sixis Island. The Kuja Pirates, Shakky and Rayleigh, and the Shimotsuki Family accepted the invitation. Morgans wanted to come, but he said he's busy expanding his News Journal, so he passed. Shanks is in the New World busy climbing the ranks, and Gloriosa is currently guarding Amazon Lily.
The year-end party was very successful, and Raeven said that it will be a yearly event starting next year. Everyone agreed that having a get-together like this once a year is great.
January 10, 1504
A 3-year-old Ace is currently running away; on his back is a long staff that he stole from Kozaburo's smithy. The old man is currently chasing him down together with Rogue, who is holding a cloth hanger.
Raeven just laughed at them; since Ace learned how to run, he has become a headache, especially on his mother's and Kozaburo's side. This time is like the same; after Ace was caught, he returned the staff he stole, and he got an earful from his mother.
After that, Ace headed to his big bro Raeven; when Raeven saw him, he just smiled. Ace is here to complain. Every time something like this happens, Ace will complain to Raeven about why it happened like that. Fortunately, the kid Ace listened very well to Raeven. After Raeven told him the reason, he headed to Kozaburo's smithy to apologize, which made Raeven smile.
Raeven decided to let Ace do some basic exercises like squats and jumping jacks—just 10 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 jumping jacks, and 10 minutes of shadow boxing—so he can channel his energy into something more meaningful.
And it became effective; Ace never stole something again after that. He even followed Raeven wherever he went, and Raeven taught him the proper discipline, which made Rouge really happy.
March 9th, 1504
It's Raeven and Mihawk's 23rd birthday today. Surprisingly, Mihawk is here at Sixis Island, which is rare, so the brothers had a small drinking party, and then Mihawk showed something that surprised Raeven and Robin.
"Where did you get this red poneglyph?" Raeven asked.
"I found it on Fishman Island; it looked like it's not important, so I took it with me," Mihawk said, which made Raeven laugh. Robin looked around the stone for a while.
"It's telling a direction; it's also noted that another 3 kinds of this stone are out there," Robin said.
"That's right, there are 2 kinds of known Poneglyph based on color. The blue ones have records of events, messages, or places where you can find the ancient weapons. The other one is red colored; there are only 4 of them, and they are called the Road Poneglyph," Raeven said.
"I read about that before; it's said that if you have the coordinates from these four stones, you will reach the final island, where the true history of this world lies," Robin said.
"That's right; as for this stone, we should just store it inside the tower's treasury," Raeven said.
"Big bro, are you interested in ancient weapons?" Robin said as she sat down on Raeven's lap.
"Ancient weapons, huh? I'm interested in seeing them in action, especially the ancient super warship weapon Pluton. A single shot from its cannon can wipe out an island. If you think about that, it's not that strong; a single attack from me can wipe out an island too," Raeven said.
"Are you interested in them, Robin?" Raeven asked.
"I'm not; all I want to know is the true history, the void century," Robin said.
"I'm interested in that too, but right now is not the time. Once he comes to turn this world upside down, we'll move too. I'm not interested in that treasure, One Piece, but I want to know about that ancient kingdom too," Raeven said.
"Just keep on training, you too, Monet; the future is not that peaceful, so while the world is at peace, we should prepare," Raeven said, and the two girls nodded.
Raeven signed in for the first time on his birthday in a while, and the system gave him a storage belt with a mythical Zoan fruit inside.
Mythical Zoan Human Fruit Model Seraph—this is the first time the system gave a Mythical Zoan. Raeven took out the things inside his storage ring and threw them to Mihawk, then Raeven equipped his new storage belt.
"Now that you have the storage ring, leave Castle here at the island; he'll serve Stussy next," Raeven said, which Mihawk agreed to readily; as long as he had Strife, all is good.
For the next few months Mihawk stayed on the island, saying that he needed some rest. As his reputation about being the strongest swordsman of the current era started to spread on the seas, a lot of wannabe swordsmen came to challenge him, and Mihawk was not the one to turn down a challenge. The number of swordsmen his mini knife has slain is already in the double digits.
While Mihawk was having a day off, Raeven left the island and entrusted his farm to Mihawk, and he left heading towards Paradise. He first visited Crocus and gifted him a barrel of beer, and then Crocus explained to him how the weather and the sea of Paradise work. Raeven already knows about it, but having a refresher course is good too. After Crocus was done explaining, Raeven left the lighthouse. Sadly, he didn't manage to see Laboon; maybe the giant whale is sleeping right now.
Raeven, onboard Strife, toured the Paradise leisurely. When pirates here saw a flying cloud, they would always flee, especially if it had the flag of the Dracule family.
Meeting Mihawk in the middle of the sea is a nightmare, so the only thing they can do is to avoid him at all costs. Raeven just let them go; he only had one objective this time: he wants to go to Sabaody Archipelago and try to take some mangrove trees there.
He plans to plant them around Sixis Island, and he is also curious about the sunlight tree, a larger variant of Yarukiman mangroves. Raeven wants to have that plant on his island too.
After 8 days of flying, he finally arrived at the Saboady Archipelago. Raeven didn't hide at all; he let Strife fly straight to Grove 13, where Shakky's Bar is located.
Shakky's Bar right now is a lot bigger than the one in the story; after all, she is richer now. Her bar looked like the same one in the story, but it was bigger and taller. Raeven pushed the door, and the bell on it chimed. Inside the bar, a lot of pirates and underworld agents were having a drink. The atmosphere was rowdy, but it was not chaotic.
"Welcome, Ara~~ I never thought that you would visit here at all," Shakky greeted Raeven, and she even walked towards him, which surprised the patrons, but when they saw who Shakky greeted, their backs became wet with sweat.
A tall young man, almost 8 feet tall, his hair is neatly styled like a model; he wears black pants, black shoes, a white shirt, and a black cloak like the one that an admiral has, and his most iconic feature is those piercing crimson eyes. Just a glance from this young man made them freeze stiff.
"Don't scare my customers, Raeven-chan," Shakky added as she giggled, making everyone inside the bar melt.
"I'll order a coffee, Shakky-san," Raeven said as he walked towards the bar seat and sat down. The others resumed drinking, but they all kept their ears open. The relationship between the Kuja Pirates and the Dracule family is not a secret; there's even a rumor that they even have a connection with the Big News Morgans and Vegapunk, but those are not confirmed yet.
"It's rare for you to have a walk. Where are you going this time?" Shakky said as she placed the coffee on the bar, and she sat beside Raeven.
"I'm interested in the trees here. Mihawk is having a vacation right now, so I left the farm in his hands. Do you have any idea where I can find some saplings of the mangrove trees here?" Raeven asked.
"Saplings, huh? If you want to buy some, I can help you; I have connections on Grove 50-59. Some of the shipwrights there use mangroves to build specialized ships," Shakky said.
"I want to buy 10 saplings; how about the Sunlight tree, Eve?" Raeven asked.
"Ara, Raeven-chan, that kind of tree is unique. I heard the shipwrights working with Ray-san before that it's not yet time for another Sunlight Tree Eve to grow," Shakky said.
"Wait here; I'll call someone," Shakky said as she stood up and headed to the back of her counter. Then she took out a den den mushi; a few seconds later, she made a thumbs up.
"40 million per sapling, are you sure you want to buy 10?" Shakky said.
"Yes, 10 will be good. Can your contacts bring the saplings here? I can pay an additional fee for the delivery," Raeven said as he took out a silver briefcase from his storage belt and placed it on the bar countertop.
"Of course they can deliver it here without additional charges. What are you going to do with these saplings?" Shakky asked as she took the briefcase and opened it up. After counting the money inside, it totaled 500 million beli. Shakky returned the 100 million beli to Raeven.
"I'm going to plant them around Sixis Island."