Chapter 267: Philosopher, Orator, Prophet!
The conference room at Galley-La Company had never seen such a heated atmosphere before.
Iceburg sat at the head of the table, tapping his fingers on the surface.
Beside him stood his secretary Kalifa, along with five foremen.
Opposite them were the members of the Straw Hat Crew.
Everyone was examining the rough sketch of the Going Merry laid out on the table.
"Honestly," Kaku held a pencil and drew a circle on the blueprint, "If we only keep the keel and the main frame, dismantle everything else, and let that dinosaur eat and fuse them..."
He looked up at Munch-Munch in Ralph's arms.
"Even if the keel is truly repaired, we'd still have to reconstruct the ship's structure on top of it."
Kaku continued, "The workload wouldn't be small. How is that any different from building a new ship?"
Usopp sprang to his feet.
"That's not the same at all!"
Kaku looked at him, waiting for an explanation.
Usopp opened his mouth but couldn't find the right words.
His face flushed with frustration, and he finally turned to Ralph.
"Ralph, say something!"
Ralph scratched his head.
Because he realized this involved a rather profound philosophical question.
"If every single plank of the Going Merry is replaced, is the Going Merry still the same ship?"
The shipwrights exchanged glances.
Iceburg shook his head.
Lucci delivered the conclusion, "No. That would be a new ship."
"It's like how there are no two identical trees in the world, so naturally, there are no two identical ships."
Usopp grew anxious.
"That's wrong!"
He couldn't articulate it, but he felt it was wrong.
Yet the question was too profound.
He tugged at his hair, growing more confused the more he thought about it, as if his head were steaming.
He could only blurt out one sentence:
"Merry is still Merry!"
After struggling for a moment, Usopp seemed to grasp a key point, "Because what you said, Sanji, is wrong! You said ships don't grow through storms and hardships, but that's incorrect!"
Sanji raised an eyebrow.
"Every plank Merry replaced is part of its growth!"
Usopp grew more impassioned as he spoke, "It's been through so much with us! Every scar is its medal! Even if the planks are replaced, it's still itself!"
The conference room fell silent for a few seconds.
The shipwrights' expressions were subtle.
In their decades in this trade, they had never heard such a claim.
A ship can grow?
Ships are made of wood, not alive.
In most people's understanding, a ship has a lifespan at sea—it constantly wears down.
They understood sailing out on a small boat, earning money, and upgrading to a larger one.
But if you said a ship could grow on its own, what would that leave for shipwrights like them to do?
Yet Usopp's gaze was too earnest, too sincere to dismiss outright.
Ralph sighed.
He stood up, walked to the window, and looked out at the ships being built in the dockyard.
"There are no two identical ships in the world, just as there are no two identical people."
He shifted the topic, "People grow, and ships do too."
He turned back to face the shipwrights.
"It's just that most ships' growth isn't very noticeable, and they rarely encounter miracles!
They don't have a natural Treasure Tree Adam as their keel, nor are they crafted by the world's finest shipwrights.
They can only fish or deliver goods, and perhaps one day, due to natural disasters or human error, they shatter and sink to the bottom of the sea.
But we can't deny their existence, nor can we deny their growth.
The simplest example:
Every ship, when first built, has gaps between its planks before it's launched into the water.
Once they truly entered the great sea, their planks would swell from soaking in seawater, growing tighter and tighter.
This was the first step of their growth!
No one spoke.
Everyone present was stunned by Ralph's words!
Especially the shipwrights.
A new ship entering the water, swelling upon contact—how could they not know of such a phenomenon?
But they had never considered it from this perspective.
Ralph continued:
"The Going Merry entered a whale's stomach once and was nearly digested. If there's a next time, we'll armor it with iron plates."
"The Going Merry ascended to Skypiea—back then, we gave it wings."
"The Going Merry is battered and bruised today, but the fault isn't its own."
He looked at the shipwrights and then at his companions beside him.
"The fault lies with us. It's us, its crew, who failed to protect it. It's you shipwrights who lack the skill to repair it."
Iceburg's eyelid twitched.
Ralph's voice softened.
"The Merry will only grow better in our hands!"
"As long as Merry's soul remains."
"No matter how many planks we replace, it will always be Merry."
"Not a new ship identical to it."
He raised a hand and wiped the corner of his eye.
Damn, he got a bit too into it.
He glanced around.
Several shipwrights had reddened eyes.
Even Kalifa adjusted her glasses, her shoulders trembling slightly.
Lucci remained expressionless, but the pigeon on his shoulder flapped its wings, restless.
The Straw Hat Crew was in even worse shape.
Usopp was already crying, tears streaming down his face.
Chopper clung to his leg, sobbing and sniffling.
Nami wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
Sanji offered his shoulder to Nami.
The brim of her straw hat hid Lufia's eyes. She bit her lip, making no sound, but tears fell one by one.
Robin stood in the corner, watching Ralph with a complex gleam in her eyes.
By the time the meeting adjourned, it was already dark.
The Straw Hat Crew walked out of Galley-La Company, making their way back along the intricate network of waterways.
Ralph walked in the middle, explaining the next steps to everyone.
"To put it simply, repairing the Merry is no less complex than performing spinal replacement surgery on a person."
Sure enough, putting it that way, the ship's doctor Chopper understood immediately.
"The spine! That's the body's support! Replacing it would be nothing short of a miracle in the medical field!
"Now, we're going to use a Devil Fruit to create a miracle.'
"The Merry's keel is its spine."
"Munch-Munch's ability has limits—it can't simply swallow an entire ship to repair it."
"The larger and more complex the structure, the harder it is to achieve perfection."
He patted Munch-Munch's head.
"So, we have to dismantle it.
Strip the ship down to just the keel and main framework, then have Munch-Munch fuse in new materials to reinforce the critical parts."
"Fusion requires materials."
Robin suddenly spoke up, "Treasure Tree Adam?"
This was something Ralph had mentioned earlier in the meeting.
The other crewmates turned to Robin, asking what that was.
Robin explained, "I've read about it."
"Treasure Tree Adam is a legendary type of tree."
"It's said that an island once ravaged by war saw everything destroyed—except for the Treasure Tree Adam, which stood unshaken."
"Its wood is renowned for its extraordinary toughness."
"It's said that Pirate King Roger's ship was built from Treasure Tree Adam."
Lufia's mouth fell open.
"That's amazing!"
Ralph smiled.
"Right! We'll use this to evolve the Going Merry."
Nami raised her hand to ask:
"But where can we find such a legendary material?"
Ralph pointed to his own head.
"In here."
Nami was taken aback for a moment before she caught on.
"Ah, the great prophet."
Seeing how much trust everyone placed in him, Ralph couldn't help but reflect inwardly—being a prophet truly was a good role to have.