Pirates: Your emperor has returned!

"No, that... no one has ever called me that, not even my teacher."

The thin young man waved his hands repeatedly.

But Rowan gently stroked the pages and continued asking:

"So, have you heard of the Four Seas Alliance?"

[Chapter 57 Body and Soul]

"The Four Seas Alliance?"

The thin young man blinked blankly.

Rowan patted him on the shoulder, gesturing, "Shall we talk over there?"

The thin young man hesitated, pointing to his stall and saying, "But I also need to sell books..."

Luo Wendao said, "I'll buy them all, how about that?"

"no!"

The thin young man's tone suddenly became agitated, and he stammered, "These were all left behind by the teacher. I... I didn't want to sell them, but everyone else is out of food, I..."

The young man seemed unaccustomed to speaking so much in one breath, gesturing wildly and turning red in the face.

Clearly, he didn't want to sell the books at all, but he had no choice but to because of the food shortage.

Rowan flicked his finger and used the fine sand thread to tidy up the thin young man's stall, then draped the package over the young man's back.

"Come with me, I'll take care of the food."

After saying that, Rowan turned and left.

The thin young man watched Rowan's retreating figure, hesitated for a long time, but remembering that the other party had promised to solve the food problem, he gritted his teeth and followed Rowan's footsteps.

……

The three of them traveled together to the beach, which was not far from the market.

There aren't many people here, so it's relatively easy to talk.

Rowan was chatting with the skinny young man, but Crocodile noticed that the mysterious, tall, thin, dark figure had appeared for the third time on the rooftop in the distance.

The man leaned against the roof beam, his arms crossed over his chest, seemingly observing when Rowan and Crocodile would notice his presence.

I've already seen you!

Crocodile sighed inwardly and turned his gaze to Rowan.

Rowan, as always, chose to ignore it.

At that moment, he was having a pleasant conversation with the young man.

The people of the Sky Island are mostly simple and hospitable, and Rowan gave the young man a very friendly feeling, so the young man gradually lowered his guard.

“My name is Hab. I am not a meteorologist; my teacher is.”

Habu then introduced his background to the two men from Qinghai.

“My teacher and I usually live on a small island. My teacher is responsible for researching meteorology and writing books. My teacher is mainly responsible for taking care of me, and occasionally I read books and take notes in them.”

"I didn't write anything in the book on purpose!"

Hab emphasized, "Sometimes teachers write so fast that they forget what they've written, so I have to mark it clearly so that the teacher can understand it."

Rowan asked, "Where's your teacher?"

"They disappeared four years ago."

Hab scratched his head and recalled, "That night he suddenly asked me several questions from the book. I remember I had marked them, but the teacher said I hadn't, so I told the teacher what I remembered I had marked."

"The teacher nodded and said that he was leaving all of these to you because he had to go investigate some things, and then he disappeared the next day."

Upon hearing this, Rowan and Crocodile exchanged a glance.

Crocodile: "What are you looking at me for?"

Luo Wen: "Yeah, I just feel that we should give some response at this time."

"Boring, I'm not interested!" Crocodile snorted and turned his head to the side.

On the other side, Habu seemed to suddenly remember something, "That's right, there are many unfinished books left by the teacher. I thought about it and realized that the teacher had forgotten to write them, so I finished them for him!"

Upon hearing this, both Rowan and Crocodile couldn't help but narrow their eyes slightly.

"I finished writing it for him"—those were just a few words, but they were not simple.

Krocdale had just skimmed through Hab's book and knew it contained very complex meteorological knowledge.

The fact that Hab was able to complete a meteorological work of this caliber shows that his expertise in meteorology is absolutely no less than that of the "teacher" he mentioned!

But this young man, who is not good at interacting with people, seems unaware of this.

"By the way, gentlemen from Qinghai, have you met my teacher before?"

As Habu spoke, he pulled out a portrait of a small old woman, her body hunched over, with a kind smile on her face.

Rowan and Crocodile both shook their heads; they had never seen that person before.

"Oh no, where did the teacher go?!"

Habu lowered his arms and sighed, "I've asked all over Sky Island, even Bika, but I still haven't found any clues about the teacher."

"Perhaps they went to Qinghai?"

Habu muttered to himself, "But Qinghai is so big, there are so many people, I can't ask them..."

Rowan continued flipping through Habu's book, explaining the Four Seas Alliance to Habu with a smile as he did so.

Crocodile had heard those words many times, and they all meant the same thing, so he was too lazy to listen to them again.

However, this was the first time Hab had heard of such a concept.

He paid no attention to the huge commercial benefits that the establishment of the Four Seas Alliance would bring about by fixed shipping routes, but instead focused on the level of information exchange.

"If I could travel freely across the sea, would I be able to find my teacher quickly?"

Hab's eyes began to light up.

"I haven't read a new book from my teacher in a long time, so I have to write one myself, but reading my own book is so boring..."

Hab made such a startling statement so casually that Crocodile was slightly taken aback.

He chuckled sinisterly a few times, then suddenly asked Hab, "Are books useful?"

"Ok?"

Habu was taken aback.

Crocodile pointed to Hab's stomach. "That's just useless paper. No matter how many books you've read and written, when you're hungry, you still can't buy half a fish, can you?"

Upon hearing this, Hab scratched his head, unsure how to respond.

However, just when Crocodile thought Hab was speechless, Hab suddenly said:

"No, that's not right."

"What's wrong with it?"

“My teacher said that books can fill your stomach,” Habu said earnestly.

Crocodile laughed and asked, "How do you want to eat it?"

“Here,” Hab pointed to his head, “the teacher said that books can feed this part of you.”

Klock Dalton stopped and didn't ask any more questions, because there was no need to.

After all, what they're talking about isn't even a problem!

Luo Wen chuckled softly, "Books, no matter what knowledge or culture is written on them, are ultimately just a combination of paper, ink, and thread."

"Shells can shatter book covers, and fire can burn pages, but that only destroys the physical container."

Rowan closed the book, handed it back to Hab, and then grinned:

Food sustains your body.

"And what books carry is the soul."

"Only when the soul and body come together can one be considered a 'human being'."

……

The conversation continued.

Hab was very interested in the Four Seas Alliance because it sounded like it could help him find his teacher as soon as possible.

"If Sky Island could really be connected to Qinghai, that would be something to look forward to!"

But Hab still needs Rowan's help with something: getting enough food.

It wasn't for him, but for the children who stayed in his tent.

Rowan was figuring out how to catch fish.

Crocodile's gaze shifted slightly as he turned to look at the rooftops in the distance.

The dark figure from before was still watching them!

Is he observing?

Yes, he was observing.

[Chapter 58 Enel, Waiting]

Yunwan Village Market.

Near a small building, you can faintly hear someone humming a song.

"Hmph...hmph~ um, hmph..."

It was a rather languid tune, drifting intermittently from the rooftop.

A young man was leaning against the flagpole on the roof.

He wore a headscarf, a pair of lantern pants, and was bare-chested and barefoot. He wore gold rings and bracelets on his hands and feet, and had a thunder drum on his back.

What is most striking are his extremely long earlobes, which sweep past his golden sideburns and hang down to his chest, adorned with two earrings made of the same gold material.