Chapter 8

After paying for the meal, Rowan rented a room in an inn for a night. Amazingly enough, for some unknown reason, the price was much more expensive than he had imagined! Dubious, Rowan went to check every inn within the Dia town, and found out that the original inn was the cheapest of all.

'My 5 thousand Beli, gone just like that?! Even the food cost around 500 Beli! This town is too expensive!' Rowan huffed as he stomped out of the inn in the morning. 'Ugh, at this rate, I am going to run out of money fast.'

Visiting here and there, Rowan managed to scuffle few goods. The first one was the map of the Tempus island. Since it was a valuable information, it was sold at a very expensive price of 20 thousand Beli. He also bought a knuckle from a weaponry, which had sharp spikes, which cost him 10 thousand Beli. Finally, he bought a bag of salt, which was surprisingly cheap with 5 thousand Beli, for hygiene.

'So according to this map, Dia town is at the west edge of Tempus island, proving that I indeed arrived at my destination. Now, to get to Aurum city, I need to go north. It shouldn't be that hard, since there seems to be a clear trail.'

'Although I bought a meal because of the bar owner's pressure before, I shouldn't need to purchase any food for few days, with these rations I got from Cocoyasi. However, getting to Aurum city will take quite some time, it seems. I will have to go through 3 towns: Argentaria, Brinza, and Pazoc. I just hope that there won't be much consequences during my travel.'

Having finished at viewing the map, Rowan placed it back into his sac, which was originally used to contain the rations, and began to speed up towards the first town on the way: Argentaria.

Unknown to him, someone came out from the back; it was Jimmas Claise!

"Mariohohohoho! He seems to be heading towards Argentaria!"

"Brotha, so he's the big fish you talked about?!" Another person with a mustache, standing next to Jimmas, spoke out.

"Yes! Look at this poster." Jimmas handed a bounty paper to the one next to him. "Youchiha Bob, bounty: 10 million Beli! Surely, catching him will bring us a huge fortune!"

"It only shows back though. How are you sure?"

"Mariohohoho! Do not judge my intuition! I knew it was him the moment I saw him yesterday!!"

"Alright! If it's just as you said, then soon, we, Jimmas Claise and Teachus Callm, will be swimming in money!! Luigihihihihihi!!!" The duo laughed out loud, before speeding their way after Rowan.

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'...Those idiots.' Rowan thought as he secretly gazed at the dwarf duo who were hiding behind a tree in opposite way (the way Chopper hides), with one standing on top of the other's head.

For the past few hours, Rowan tried to shake them off by speeding up, but somehow, they managed to find him! Rowan didn't dare to try to fight them for two reasons: from his experience, one of the duo, Jimmas, was a very tough dude to fight, and in order to wash his identity, he must restrain himself from standing out.

'Ugh, they are like cockroaches! When will they give up?!' Rowan continued to run fast, in which the duo barely caught up, while looking for anything that can get the pursuit off of him.

'Hmm? Who's that big dude?' Rowan sighted a bulky and tall man with wild red hair from a distance. 'Alright, let's do this.'

"Heyy, boss!!" Rowan shouted as he faked an excited face, while running towards the red haired man. "Here, I brought the money you asked for!! Please deal with those dudes behind me!"

Before the red hair could respond, Rowan threw approximately 15 thousand Beli at him, and the red hair caught it without any emotion.

Rowan instantly regretted the moment he has done this. It just sounded so dumb! No way anyone would believe this act!

"Pff, only 15,000 Beli? Besides, who are you?" The red haired dude made an amused grin, before looking at dwarves behind Rowan. "Hm?"

Looking at the red haired man, the duo stopped, before their faces went pale. "M-Mad Treasure!! The strongest man in Tempus island, with bounty of 25 million Beli!!"

After a brief glance, Mad Treasure turned his gaze around to fleeing Rowan, not even minding the duo, who decided for a tactical retreat.

"Black haired boy... I remembered your face. Pray that you won't see me again!!" Mad treasure broke into a scary grin, before walking away.

Meanwhile, unaware of what happened, Rowan was just sighing in relief, since the duo were no longer following him.

'Alright. Speaking of which, the town of Argentaria should be near.' Rowan looked at his map again just in case, before continuing his way through.

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Meanwhile, in Cocoyasi village, Nojiko was holding a piece of paper, in horror.

"10 million Beli!! That's so high!!" Looking at Rowan's bounty, Nojiko sighed.

"We can't do much but hope that Ro... Bob won't be caught by them..." Nojiko placed the paper down in front of Nami, who was sitting on the table.

"Hmpf! He just left without even saying goodbye to me! So what if he has 10 million Beli!! He can die for as long as he wants!!" Nami briefly looked at the paper before turning away.

After some silence, Nojiko decided to break the atmosphere and asked, "So Nami, now that Arlong is no longer here, what are you planning to do?"

"...I'm not sure. How about you, Nojiko?"

"Haha, well, nothing much for me. I am pretty much satisfied with just tending the mikan grove." Nojiko said joyfully. "You are free, Nami. You should do what you want to do."

Nami truly didn't know anymore. Although her goal at a young age involved drawing the map of the world, her recent life solely involved the endless thefts to earn 100 million Beli.

"Well, I don't really have any plan at the current moment. I think I will stay in the village for now."

What Nami needed at the current moment was some rest.

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In the town of Argentaria, Rowan successfully found an inn to stay. To his relief, the cost was less than Dia town, at 3000 Beli.

'Haah, another long day gone. Time to rest up-' As Rowan was about to enter his room, the door next to him opened, and to his surprise, it was those two dwarves again!

"Mariohoho..." Jimmas grinned with a hint of greed in his eyes.

"Youchiha Bob..." Teachus muttered Rowan's name as he rubbed his hands together in glee.

'I thought I lost them!' Rowan was exasperated. He wondered if they placed something akin to a tracking device on him.

""So we meet again, Mariohohohoho/Luigihihihihihi!!!""

'Do I really handle this right now?' Rowan thought sluggishly, with his body full of fatigue.