chapter 47

Johnny's point of view:

After the man said all he wanted to say and left to explore the island at our leisure, our group of four split apart.

Elly and Laffite went to find us suitable accommodations to stay at during our time on Toroa island. Wilson did his own thing like usual without bothering to inform us of his destination, only saying that he'll contact us via den-den mushi when he wants to call it a day.

I decided to explore the town and even the surrounding forest if I had the time, so I began strolling through the streets of Sarton town while taking the sights it had to offer.

Sarton town truly lived up to its name as the hometown of musicians, as it had too many concert halls compared to its size, and even the streets were crawling with musicians trying to make a name for themselves by playing to the public.

I walked through the streets while listening to street performers play and sing many types of music, sea shanties, classic, rock, and even rap music. Most people I came across in the streets were either smiling or laughing and looked like they were having fun, and the few who weren't smiling didn't seem like they were sad or burdened either.

All in all, Sarton town looked like a decent place to live. It was free from the influence of the world government, and the town's people were hardy people able to repel both the great families of the west and hostile pirates who tried to gain a foothold in their home.

What's more, they didn't even have a royal family or an absolute ruler, either. The people of the island themselves keep the peace when necessary. They only elect a leader from amongst their strongest warriors during emergencies if the situation calls for it, of course.

I kept strolling through the town's streets with a smile on my face while enjoying its festive atmosphere until my eyes met the eyes of a blonde man with a scar on his face that goes down from the forehead to his eyebrow.

He stared at my face with shock for some reason, so I merely smiled at him and kept walking since I wanted to keep exploring the town, but I took a mental note of him just in case I come across him later.

'I wonder who that was? He seemed somewhat familiar. Whatever, I'll leave it to my future self if I meet him again,' I thought with some curiosity, but I shook my head and decided to let the matter go as I was enjoying my stroll too much to do anything productive right now.

The sky became dark before I knew it, and so I took out my den-den mushi to contact Laffite so I can learn where we will be staying from him.

"Gotcha," the snail in my hand sounded as it started morphing to Laffite's likeness and my navigator's voice came through its mouth soon after. "Hello, what can I do for you, captain?" he asked with his usual polite voice.

"Hello Laffite, I just wanted to know if you and Elly already found us an inn or somewhere to stay," I said and paused, waiting for him to answer.

"We found an inn located on the west side of the town called the symphony. It has a large sign so you won't miss it," Laffite stated. "All alright, I'll be making my way there shortly," I replied calmly and kept speaking after a brief pause.

"By the way, send Elly to get bob since this place has tight security, and there should be no problem if we left the ship unguarded for now," I concluded.

"Roger, do you need anything else, captain?" Laffite asked. "Not at the moment. I'll see you at the inn," I replied as I hung up and started making my way towards the Sarton town's west side.

It didn't take me long to find the inn as it had a large sign hanging above its entrance like Laffite said, and the words written on the sign were glowing with multi-colored, bright lights, so it was impossible to miss.

The inn was a large two-story building made of wood, with the only notable thing about it being the bright, colorful sign and the loud music coming from inside of it.

I took a second to take in the inn's sight, then made my way inside. Once inside, I only took a couple of seconds to locate where the crew was sitting, thanks to Laffite and Wilson's figures that towered over the rest of the inn's guests and employees.

I took a seat at the only empty chair and greeted my crew with a simple "Yo," as I made myself comfortable on the chair.

"so, what do you think about the island so far?" I asked my crew with a smile as I took out my whisky bottle.

"It seems like a nice place to call home, but that all there is to it," replied Lafitte, and it looks like he was talking for the rest of the crew as well since they all nodded at his words.

"I see, so I guess you found nothing interesting while gathering information?" I asked with a nod of my head as well.

"There wasn't much information for us to gather in the first place. The only potentially useful intel we got was about the hiding places of the pirates on the island," Laffite said and paused to take a sip from his drink. "But they're all small fries and not worth the time or the effort," he concluded as he shook his head in disdain.

"well, it doesn't really matter since this is merely a brief stop for us on our way to that place," I said with a smile as I took a big gulp of whisky from my bottle. "We'll stay here for a couple of days to explore the forest surrounding the town and leave if we found nothing interesting there too," I concluded with a shrug, and the rest of the crew nodded in acknowledgment.

"What about you, big guy? Seen or smelled anything interesting?" I turned to Wilson and asked him playfully with a smile.

"The only thing interesting in this town is the alcohol and the music. I didn't see anyone worth fighting when I was exploring the town," Wilson stated with an irritated expression on his face as he snorted in derision. I merely shrugged my shoulders, making no further comments on the subject.

"That reminds me," I said, as I suddenly had an idea. "I came across a blonde man with a scar on his forehead, who seemed quite shocked to see me for some reason," I said with a smile as I turned to Laffite.

"Could you look into him and find out who he is when you have the time, Laffite?" I asked after getting his attention.

Yup, I'm going to leave this matter to Laffite and shamelessly use the time I would have wasted trying to figure out the man's identity to explore the forest.

"Sure thing, captain. I merely need to know his general description, and I'll find out everything there is to know about him by tomorrow night," Laffite stated with a confident smile.

"Tehaha, how dependable," I praised him with a laugh and proceeded to describe the man the Laffite in greater detail.

Nothing interesting happened after this. We spent the rest of the night drinking and chatting until it was very late, and we decided to call it a day since tomorrow will probably be quite the busy day for us.