00049. Trading at sea?

A ship glided across the water at top speed as the mid day sun beat down from overhead. Three young boys were on the deck making sure the sails stayed trimmed as a fourth stood at the helm. After they finished checking the rigging, one of the boys moved closer to the helm before he asked, "Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?"

Marcus lifted the compass he was carrying and checked it again before he said, "Yup. There's an island in this direction, it's just far away from Foosha Village and the Goa Kingdom."

Ace glanced at Luffy who was busy climbing to the crows nest as he asked, "Are we gonna have enough food to last the trip?"

Marcus also glanced at Luffy before he said, "Probably… But we should set some fishing lines just in case. And maybe pick up a drag net when we reach the next village to catch fish as we sail."

"We should also find someone who knows how to cook." Sabo said as he walked over.

Ace nodded in agreement as he said, "I almost feel like we're training with grandpa again, just eating roasted meat every day."

"Speaking of grandpa, isn't he supposed to come back soon?" Sabo asked.

"Yup and he will probably be pissed when he finds out we left the island." Marcus said with a hint of a smile.

"Maybe we should have waited till after he left to set sail."

Marcus shook his head as he said, "No, he would have sunk our ship if he found out about it… And it's not like we have a place to hide it from him anyways."

"Hey! I think I see something over there!" Luffy said as he pointed to the port side of the ship.

All the boys glanced over to see a tiny black dot on the horizon. Marcus didn't ask if the others wanted to investigate before he turned the ship to port as he said, "Trim the sails."

"Why do you wanna check that out? What if it's nothing?" Ace asked as he moved to fix the sails.

"Because we came out to explore East Blue and have fun. But there won't be any fun, unless we go out and look for it."

After the ship changed course and the sails were fixed to catch the wind properly again. The boys all focused on the little dot as it slowly got closer to them. It took about half an hour before the object came into view, which turned out to be a small island maybe a few hundred feet in size.

The island itself was mostly sand with a handful of trees and some rocks. The boys did a loop around the island but didn't stop as they fixed their course for their original destination. In the late afternoon Marcus handed the helm off to Ace so he could rest for the next before he took over again. Helm duty was split between Marcus, Sabo and Ace, since Luffy couldn't be trusted with it.

As for staying rested, each of them would sleep for at least six hours at some point during each day. Luffy on the other hand didn't have many responsibilities and would sleep comfortably through the night.

The next morning when Marcus took over again he double checked their course as Sabo headed to get some rest. It was early in the morning and the sun was just cresting the horizon when Marcus noticed a dot in the distance on the starboard side of the ship. He maintained his own course but turned the helm to port a tiny bit.

Within ten minutes it was obvious that the dot Marcus found was actually a ship and it looked like it was heading straight for them. Since the distance was still so great and he didn't have a spy glass because Luffy broke it within hours of setting sail. Marcus just stayed on his course and waited to get a better look at the incoming ship.

After half an hour passed Marcus could see what looked like a merchant ship. But looks could be deceiving so Marcus locked the helm in place for a moment before he ran into the ship to get the others. Within a few minutes all of the boys were on the deck of the ship as they waited for the other ship to get closer.

Eventually the other ship closed in enough for Marcus to get a decent look at it. It was definitely a civilian ship that looked like it had seen better days. It was a bigger three mast ship with a wider hull, designed to carry a lot of cargo and looked like it was fully loaded. The ship with its weight and low bow line was slow as it crept through the water at a steady pace.

On the deck of the other ship was a full crew of sailors who wore matching uniforms as they worked. As the ship approached Marcus had everyone raise the sails because it was clear the other ship was getting close for a reason.

Once the other ship was a hundred feet away a fat man in a captain's uniform appeared near the bow and waved at Marcus and the others as he yelled out, "Ahoy there!"

Marcus and the others moved near the starboard side of the ship before Ace asked, "What do you want?"

The fat man smiled as he lifted his hat and did a little flourish and said, "My name is Slugo Robertson, greatest trader this side of the Grandline. I was wondering if you could ask the owners of this fine ship, if they would like to browse my wares."

Ace looked towards the others and thought about refusing before Marcus said, "We could use another spyglass."

Ace let out a sigh as he remembered that Luffy broke their only spyglass within hours of setting sail. He turned back to Slugo and asked, "Do you happen to have any spyglasses?"

The fat man nodded which made his three chins jiggle as he said, "Of course young man, Slugo always has at least one of each item you could imagine in stock!"

"How much for one?" Ace asked.

The man wore a greasy smile as he said, "Let me bring out my stock first and you can pick whichever one you like."

Ace frowned as he said, "That didn't answer my question."

Slugo smiled as he said, "I can't give you a price because I don't know which one you will pick."

"You can't even give us a price range?" Ace asked in a frustrated tone.

Slugo shrugged helplessly as he said, "It would depend on how many I currently have and the overall quality of the one you pick."

Ace seemed to be getting upset so Marcus placed a hand on his shoulder as he said, "Don't worry about this guy too much. If it's over priced we just won't buy it."

It took about five minutes for the ships to come close enough to tie off. Slugo was a little disappointed that the boys were the only people on the ship, but he still had his men open up the cargo to show them his wares. The inside of the cargo hold was packed with boxes placed on to what looked like large sleeving and secured in place with large straps.

Slugo led Ace, Marcus and Luffy through the hold as he pointed at the boxes around and said, "If you see something interesting, just let me know and I will have my men get the box for you to check out."

Luffy was the only one who seemed excited about the whole thing as he looked around at everything. As they passed a box marked 'secret disguises' he pointed towards it as he said, "Oh! I wanna see that one!"

Marcus rolled his eyes as Slugo snapped his fingers and said, "Bring that one with us."

Luffy pointed out a few other random boxes before they found a box marked 'spyglass'. Slugo had his men grab that one before he led everyone back up to the deck of the ship. On the deck each of the boxes were lined up before Slugo's men undid some latches and touched a small button on the side of the box.

Each box made a hissing sound before they opened up and expanded to show off their contents. The boxes were almost magical with how much stuff they held stuffed inside of them. After Marcus and the others recovered from the shock, Marcus focused on the box for spyglasses.

While it wasn't as packed full as the box for secret disguises Luffy was in the middle of rummaging through. It still had over fifty spyglasses neatly displayed for Marcus to look at. Marcus picked up the closest one and started to test it out as Ace did the same thing to another one.

As Marcus placed the first one back and picked up the second one, he noticed something off about the spyglass and brought it closer to look at. On the side of the spyglass was smeared bloody fingerprints. Marcus held on the spyglass to Slugo as he asked, "What's up with this? Why is it bloody? Did you forget to clean it?"

"Oh, that one is a collectors item. It was once owned by a famous pirate captain in North Blue. As he died, he cradled that spyglass in his hands because it was a gift from his loving grandmother before he went out to sea." Slugo said as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Marcus rolled his eyes at the story and picked up another that had some initials scribed into it and asked about it… It turned out it was also another collectors item with a sad backstory. So did the next spyglass and the next one after that… It turned out every spyglass was a collectors item.

After Marcus realized what was going on Luffy approached wearing large comic looking glasses along with a fake mustache, overly large trench coat and hat. He smiled as he asked, "Can I have this stuff?"

Slugo looked over everything before he started to go into a story about each item and where they came from to inflate the price. As he did that, Marcus grabbed the first spyglass he asked about with the blood stained finger prints and wiped it clean.

Once Slugo was done with his story for each item Marcus handed him the spyglass in his hand and asked, "What about this one?"

Slugo glanced at it before he said, "Oh, this spyglass was once owned by a famous navy captain who."

Marcus cut the man off as he said, "You said it was owned by a pirate from North Blue just a little while ago."

Slugo looked over the spyglass for a moment before he said, "No, this was definitely owned by a marine."

"Are you sure about that?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I swear on my honor that this was owned by a famous marine and not a pirate." Slugo said as he placed a hand over his heart.

"Alright then where was the one that was owned by that famous pirate? That's the one I want to buy from you."

Slugo glanced at the display for a few moments before he frowned and said, "That's weird, I don't see it."

"That's because you're holding it in your hands."

Slugo looked at the spyglass in his hands for a few moments before he started to sweat. Marcus smiled at the man as he asked, "How about we talk about some prices now?"

Marcus ended up buying three decent spy glasses from Slugo after some intense negotiations. He picked up one for each person besides Luffy who would just break it. As for Luffy he ended up with a bunch of random things including the disguise he wanted. Why he wanted it, Marcus had no idea. But it made Luffy happy, so he bought it for him. Afterwards they said goodbye to Slugo the conman trader and headed towards their first stop on their way around East Blue.