After sailing for another two days, there was still no land in sight—but the News Bird showed up again.
Sherwin: ???
Could it be that Morgans doesn't accept dried sardines as payment, so the News Bird from two days ago came back to ask for proper compensation?
"That one not the same bird as before," Sanji Meow, arms crossed, gave him a disdainful look, "The scent is different, meow."
"Oh…" Sherwin understood.
So what going on now? Did some major event happen in just these two days? Or is the World Economy News Paper just that punctual with its updates?
"Coo—"
Definitely not the same bird—even the call sounds different…
After landing on the mast, the News Bird immediately stretched out its wings and started gesturing at Sherwin.
After a round of guessing and interpreting, Sherwin finally understood what it wanted—it had heard about the dried sardines from the previous News Bird and had come especially to try two for itself. In exchange, it would lead Sherwin to the nearest ship.
Now that was a deal worth making. After all, News Birds are capable of delivering newspapers across the vast seas, so they must have some special method to locate ships.
Compared to uncertain land that might be who-knows-how-far away and possibly dangerous, hitching a ride to an inhabited island was clearly a better option.
Even if the ship it leads to wasn't suitable for Sherwin and his group to board, they could at least gather information about the nearby waters. Worst case, they could disembark early.
"Deal!" Sherwin tossed two dried sardines to the News Bird. "Once we find the ship, you'll get three more."
"Coo!"
After swallowing the two dried sardines, the News Bird was clearly more motivated. Originally, it had only planned to stay on the mast and point the way, but now it flapped its wings vigorously and flew to the front of the raft to lead the way.
Sherwin also grabbed the makeshift paddle he had crafted earlier and began rowing with all his might.
Under the News Bird guidance, a small black dot soon appeared on the sea ahead. Judging by its direction... it seemed to be heading toward the place Klee Meow had pointed out earlier...
Oh well, meeting people earlier wasn't a bad thing either.
Feeling slightly shortchanged, Sherwin consoled himself inwardly.
"Klee, can you see what kind of ship that is?"
Still rowing with his makeshift paddle, Sherwin called up to Klee Meow, who had climbed to the top of the mast.
"It a big ship, meow~" Klee Meow stated the obvious, then added, "Klee doesn't see a pirate flag, meow."
Looked like their luck was holding up... Though with their current strength, even running into pirates wouldn't really scare them anymore.
As Sherwin and his group got closer, the ship of unknown allegiance also spotted them.
Perhaps it judged Sherwin raft to be no threat, or maybe it was just out of kindness, but instead of sailing on, the ship turned and headed toward them.
"Thanks for your help."
Now sure they could board, Sherwin tossed the remaining three dried sardines to the News Bird. The News Bird caught them, let out a "Coo," and flapped its wings as it flew off.
Soon, the large ship pulled up next to Sherwin small raft, and a rope ladder was thrown down from the side of the vessel.
"Come on up!"
A head peeked over the edge and shouted to Sherwin and the others.
"Let go."
Sherwin gestured to his two cats. Sanji Meow and Klee Meow nimbly climbed onto him, each taking a shoulder.
Once the two Felynes were in place, Sherwin didn't try to show off or anything—he simply grabbed the rope ladder and began climbing up.
"Who are you?"
As soon as Sherwin stepped onto the deck, he was immediately surrounded by a group of sailors armed with blades. They stared at him and the two cats on his shoulders with guarded and curious eyes.
Sherwin didn't find anything wrong with the situation. In a world plagued by pirates, it was perfectly normal to be cautious toward strangers.
Besides, the fact that they still chose to rescue someone under such conditions… the captain of this ship had to be a good person!
Giving a mental "good guy card" to the captain he hadn't even met yet, Sherwin raised both hands and half-truthfully explained,
"I'm just an ordinary person who ran into trouble. The ship I was on went down, and I lived on a deserted island for a long time. I only recently managed to escape from there."
To minimize conflict, Sherwin had already stashed away the longsword into his interdimensional pouch when he first spotted the ship from afar, so he now looked completely unthreatening.
The burly man, who appeared to be the boatswain, scrutinized Sherwin carefully. Maybe he found the beast hide wrapped around Sherwin too convincing, because after a moment of silence, he raised his hand and signaled the others to lower their weapons.
"You're lucky. Our boss is known around these waters as a good guy. If you'd come across another merchant ship, chances are they wouldn't have let you on board," the burly man finally said with a hint of a smile, then shifted his gaze to the two cats on Sherwin shoulders.
"They're from the Mink Tribe, right? I've heard some old sailors talk about them—supposedly they're rare even on the Grand Line."
"Maybe. I'm not really sure," Sherwin replied, continuing his half-truths. "I met them on the island after the shipwreck. They call themselves Felynes."
He had originally thought about passing them off as Mink cats, but considering that he'd be summoning more Felynes in the future, one or two Mink cats might pass, but a whole bunch of them would seem too weird.
And besides, there were still some differences between Felynes and the Mink Tribe, so he figured he wouldn't bother trying to cover it up.
In a world filled with all kinds of strange races, adding one more called the Felynes wouldn't matter much anyway.
The burly man didn't pay much attention to that and instead said, "You've been drifting at sea for so long—you must be thirsty and hungry. Let me take you to get something to eat."
"Uh… thank you."
Even though that wasn't really the case, Sherwin didn't reject the kindness and followed along with the two Felynes on his shoulders.
After eating some dry and hard bread, Sherwin got a general idea of the situation from the burly man.
This was a merchant ship that traveled between several nearby islands. The ship owner name was Cody, a somewhat well-known merchant in this region.
Even though there was only this one ship in front of him, Mr. Cody actually owned an entire fleet. But what truly made him famous was what the burly man had mentioned earlier—he was a rare good person.
As for the burly man himself, he wasn't the boatswain as Sherwin had assumed earlier, but rather Cody steward, named Bucks.
Judging by his burly build and the weapon hanging at his waist, it was pretty clear this steward doubled as a bodyguard too.
As for the sea area they were in, Sherwin managed to figure it out through some indirect probing—West Blue, also known as the Western Sea.
Sherwin didn't know much about the West Blue. All he remembered was that it was Shanks hometown and that Ohara was located in this sea…
He wasn't sure whether the Buster Call incident had happened yet.
Sherwin quietly muttered in his heart, though he wasn't particularly interested in Nico Robin.
Even though a lot of fanfic protagonists liked to recruit her into their crew, Sherwin didn't plan on becoming a pirate, nor did he care about the Poneglyphs.
Besides, his cheat ability meant he had to roam the world with his Felynes. If he brought someone like Nico Robin—who could read ancient text—along with him…
He might as well put a target on his back and beg the World Government to come after him.
The reason Sherwin wanted to know whether Ohara had already been destroyed by the Buster Call was simple.
He remembered Robin was eight years old when it happened, so if he could figure out her current age, he could roughly estimate what point in the timeline they were at now.
After all, knowing a ton of information yet being completely blind due to not knowing the current time was just way too frustrating.