Chapter 17 Wapol with Anorexia.

Chapter 17.

The sea is not always calm.

At this moment, Suzuki had packed all his belongings and was on his way to Drum Island, following a merchant ship.

Today marked the fifth day of sailing, and they were about to reach their destination, Drum Island.

Drum Island is closer to Reverse Mountain than Alabasta among the seven initial routes.

Starting from the Twin Cape of Reverse Mountain, if the first stop is Whiskey Peak, the second stop is Little Garden, then one can choose to go to Drum Island or switch routes to Alabasta.

In the past few days, Suzuki had experienced a change in weather from clear skies when leaving Alabasta, to heavy rain halfway through, and now to snow and hail; it felt as if he had gone through all four seasons in just a few days.

However, this is quite normal; Drum Island is a winter island, while Alabasta, known as the sun island, is a summer island.

Although Drum Island and Alabasta are sequential in the initial routes of the first half of the Grand Line, the distance between the two islands is much greater than it appears on the map.

Before long, they arrived at Drum Island.

Suzuki put on the down jacket he had purchased in advance, said goodbye to the crew, and stepped onto the icy island.

"Hu~"

"Heh... Hu~"

Walking on Drum Island, Suzuki found the ground covered in thick ice and snow. With each step, he left deep footprints, and each breath turned into white mist; the weather here was indeed quite cold!

He walked leisurely on the road to the capital of Drum Kingdom. The reason he chose to come here was for the Devil Fruit that exists here—the Paramecia-type, Baku-Baku no mi.

Long before in Alabasta, Suzuki had received information about Drum Island.

This island, besides the common snow and ice of winter islands, is most famous for its doctors. But why do all these doctors gather in Drum Island?

This brings us to the current king of Drum Kingdom—Walpurgis, who is the father of the tyrannical king Walpo that Luffy and his friends encounter over twenty years later.

Walpurgis is not known for his good character, but he is an ambitious and visionary king.

Decades ago, Walpurgis obtained a batch of extremely valuable medical books from somewhere and then used these books to attract many doctors to Drum Island.

He successfully joined the World Government and later his son even dared to bully Princess Vivi of Alabasta. If the current king is arrogant and ambitious, Walpo later on is brutal and foolish.

Suzuki had his own speculation about the origins of those books:

There is a doctor over a hundred years old on Drum Island—Dr. Kureha. Although this doctor is relatively low-key, Walpurgis still became aware of her.

He then tried to persuade her in various ways. Although he was wary of this old monster's strength and didn't dare to force it,

he couldn't successfully invite Dr. Kureha out of retirement but managed to leverage her sense of responsibility as a doctor to obtain almost all the medical books.

Of course, Suzuki wasn't too concerned about the twists and turns of this matter; his goal was the Devil Fruit.

Not long ago, while still in Alabasta, Suzuki received news that the king of Drum Island—Walpurgis had spent a fortune to purchase a Devil Fruit, supposedly to treat his son Walpo's anorexia.

This news surprised Suzuki, but he wasn't sure of its authenticity, and it was possible that by the time he received the news, Walpo had already eaten the Devil Fruit.

However, he had attracted too much attention at the port recently, so Suzuki decided to come and take a look.

"Hello, is there an inn here?"

Suzuki braved the wind and snow to reach the village at the foot of the royal capital's mountain and asked a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, who was also wrapped in a cotton coat.

The middle-aged man looked a bit surprised: "Inn? This is it!"

"Ah? This?" Suzuki looked at the wooden house in front of him with confusion; it was plain and unremarkable, just like the other houses in the village.

Seeing Suzuki's confusion, the middle-aged man looked around and then smiled a bit awkwardly: "Hahaha, sorry, sorry, the snow is too heavy, the sign for my hotel fell down and got covered."

After saying that, the middle-aged man walked to the door of the wooden house, used his right hand to dig through the thick snow on the ground, and soon found a wooden sign, which he forcefully planted in front of the door.

"..."

Suzuki silently watched him rearranging the sign, thinking about how to start asking about the Devil Fruit.

"Young man, are you looking to stay?" The middle-aged man turned around to ask Suzuki.

"Ah, yes, I want to stay. How much is it per day?"

"Hahaha, not expensive at all, five hundred Berries a day, and if you book for a month, it's only ten thousand, plus three meals included!"

"Okay, old man, I'll book for a month."

"Hahaha, come on in, young man, I'll get you a cup of hot water."

Then, Suzuki followed the boss into the hotel. The first floor of the hotel was decorated like a restaurant, and Suzuki casually chose a seat by the window to sit down.

Before long, the hotel owner brought a cup of hot water to Suzuki, smiling as he said, "Here, warm yourself up. If you want alcohol, I can heat some up for you too."

Suzuki took the hot water, thanked the inn owner, and then held it in his hands to warm them, seemingly casually saying, "Boss, you have so many doctors here; does that mean a lot of people come here to get treated?"

The hotel owner replied with a smile, "Of course! Ever since a few decades ago, more and more people have come here, and quite a few have stayed after getting cured."

Suzuki appropriately showed a curious expression: "That's great, boss! So do the locals never get sick, or if they do, can they easily get treated?"

At this point, the owner had a look on his face as if to say, "How could you be so naive?" He shook his hand: "How could that be? When we get sick, it is indeed a bit cheaper, but there are also many illnesses here that are hard to cure, and those patients often have to stay on the island for long-term treatment. Some diseases even those doctors can't do anything about, like..."

The owner glanced at Suzuki, hesitating to continue. Suzuki promptly noticed his concern. "Don't worry, boss, I'm not a reporter. Besides, how could there be a cure for every disease in this world? Otherwise, what would the term 'terminal illness' even mean, right?"

The owner thought for a moment and agreed; besides, there was nothing he couldn't say. Even if he didn't say it, Suzuki would find out what he needed to know after staying here for a few days. So he continued, "Like that old pirate on the west side of the village; he was quite robust when he arrived, but now, half a year later, he's become skin and bones."

"And there was a merchant who used to stay at the place ahead; he wasn't very old, around thirty or forty, but he came down with some strange illness and left after just a few days."

"And..."

The more the owner spoke, the more animated he became, while Suzuki responded with expressions of seriousness, sympathy, or exclamation until the owner began to say, "And you know about our prince, right? He has anorexia, and despite so many doctors, they can't cure him. Not long ago, the king even bought a Devil Fruit, but he refuses to eat it."

"Tsk, when a person has a poor appetite, their mood also suffers. Moreover, the prince already has a bad temper, and now he's even more irritable. I heard he even killed a servant who brought the Devil Fruit."

Upon hearing this, a glint flashed in Suzuki's eyes.