A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

“Aldoron’s palm alone is bigger than Magnolia’s, and people have built towns on it. Its entire body is the size of several kingdoms of Fiore, much larger than this elephant-headed beast before us!”

"Eh?! Is this real?!"

Katakuri glanced curiously at Kira and the others who were chatting, unsure whether he was bragging or telling the truth.

The Hope was fast, and in less than a day, the group arrived in Zou from Whole Cake Island. They then headed towards the Whale Forest. To avoid trouble, Kira activated an invisibility spell on the Hope, so they traveled smoothly without any obstacles, and not a single Mink noticed Kira and his companions.

"They infiltrated so easily? I thought I was going to have to fight those minks... Weren't the waypost texts supposed to be very important? How come the defenses are so poor?"

"Of course! Good stuff is hidden away, and we only check on it occasionally! If we keep people guarding it, wouldn't that be like trying to hide something obvious? These mink are too naive to notice us!"

"Were those the Mink Tribe we just saw? They looked like animals with human-like intelligence. This world really has all sorts of strange and wonderful creatures..."

"Kira, your maneuvering looks so practiced. Are you always going to these weird places?"

"Nonsense...nonsense...!! Don't slander me! I'm a respectable person!!"

"Really?? You sound so guilty..."

"The Forest of Whales... it really does live up to its name, the trees here look a lot like whales."

After arriving at the Whale Forest, Kira unleashed his magical senses and quickly found the cave in the tree. The so-called hidden door was useless to Kira, who broke it open in no time. After walking a short distance up the stairs, they arrived at a large cave, where the red Poneglyph was placed openly in the center.

"Got it!"

They used spatial magic to collect the Roadmark text, then returned the way they came, boarded the Hope, and swaggered away. Until they left Zou, none of the Minks noticed that anyone had come, nor did anyone know that the Roadmark text they were guarding had been stolen.

"Isn't it wrong for us to steal like this?"

"What do you mean by stealing? Can you call it stealing when it's a mage's business? That's taking! If something is just lying there and nobody's watching, it's unclaimed property, and unclaimed property belongs to whoever takes it!"

Under Kira's eloquent persuasion, the naive Wendy learned a great deal of knowledge that she had not learned in the classroom.

On the Hope, Kira first had Katakuri complete the rubbing, and then threw the road sign text to Robin to study.

"As expected... following you was the right thing to do!" Robin was so excited that his whole body was trembling.

Less than a month after joining these mages, they obtained two texts, and are about to receive a third, all of which are the most important roadmap texts...

I never dared to think of such a thing before, and I've never been this bold in my dreams!

"Where are we going now, Kira?"

Killer glanced at Happy, who was leaning closer, and said matter-of-factly, "Of course I'm going to Wano Country to collect my debt. Kaido has already given me the Road Poneglyphs, so of course I'm going to get them!"

"Should we bring that guy along too?"

Natsu pointed to Katakuri, who was drinking black tea and eating donuts. Since he came to the Hope, the space on the airship has become smaller.

"Kaido and Big Mom also have a deal. As temporary allies, it's no big deal to give him a ride."

Katakuri wisely put down his afternoon tea and said to Kira very politely and sincerely, "Thank you very much!"

"You're welcome, just pay the fare!" Kira said, taking a donut from in front of him, pouring himself a cup of black tea, and starting to enjoy it.

Katakuri: "..."

Chapter 965 An Encounter at Sea

The execution of 'Fire Fist' Ace was scheduled for a week later. At that time, the Navy and the Whitebeard Pirates were bound to have a bloody battle. On the eve of this storm, more than 80% of the people on the entire sea were not sleeping soundly.

A few days ago, the "Buggy the Clown beats up a Celestial Dragon" incident occurred in the Sabaody Archipelago. Although Kizaru captured "Fire Fist" Ace, the main culprit "Buggy the Clown" escaped. In order to give an explanation to the World Government, he began to arrest other pirates on the island. In the end, he captured about 500 pirates before withdrawing.

Because this large-scale manhunt came suddenly, many pirates who had already arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago and were planning to enter the New World had not even finished their coating process and had to temporarily leave the island to avoid the crisis, wandering in the nearby waters until now when they returned to the island.

Noon, in the waters near the Sabaody Archipelago.

The Straw Hat Pirates' Going Merry and the Buggy Pirates' Big Top, two pirate ships, were some distance apart, heading towards the Sabaody Archipelago.

After leaving Thriller Bark, the islanders split into three groups. Lola and her crew headed to Water 7 for their sea adventure, while Luffy and his crew, along with Buggy and his crew, went to Sabaody Archipelago as planned to buy the Permanent Log Pose and coat their ship.

As for Stinger, Roger, Rector, and Frosh and their two cats, they naturally followed them, taking advantage of the BIG TOP to travel to the Sabaody Archipelago to meet up with Gildarts.

Out of friendship with Gildarts, and also to curry favor with the mage, Buggy generously made things convenient for them, treating them to good food and drink along the way.

"Baggi-san, I have a question about the plan you devised for Luffy and the others."

Although young, Roger was always meticulous. He took the sketch that Bucky had drawn for everyone and walked towards Bucky, who was drinking and lying in a pile of treasure counting gold for a hundred years.

"What's wrong?" Bucky was completely drunk, not even lifting his head, as if he were already absorbed in the treasure.

Rogge spread out the sketch in front of him, pointed to the arrows representing the direction of ocean currents, and asked, "The ocean currents on both sides of the Gate of Justice are outwards, which means that entering the inner current from the seabed shouldn't be such a simple matter, right?"

Bucky's eyes widened in shock, and his hand, which was counting the treasure, trembled. A gold coin fell onto the deck and rolled away with a clatter. But he had no time to pick it up. Instead, he got up and looked at the sketch.

As he looked, cold sweat broke out on his forehead: "Hmm...it seems so..."

Oh no! I overlooked the most important part!!

If you think about it carefully, if this triangular circulation were really that easy to invade, it wouldn't have become the Navy's exclusive shipping lane, and the 'Gate of Justice' wouldn't have become an 'unavoidable obstacle'!

If this method doesn't work, then all the bragging I did in front of Straw Hat Boy will have been for nothing.

In the original storyline, the Whitebeard Pirates were able to break through the ocean currents because they had fish-men in their crew, and fish-men can change the direction of ocean currents, but Buggy's previous plan obviously did not take this into account.

Upon realizing the flaw in his plan, Bucky panicked instantly. The alcohol he had just drunk turned into a cold sweat that poured down his body, and a sense of guilt welled up from the bottom of his heart.

But this sense of guilt was quickly swallowed up by the greed of making a fortune. He casually tossed the sketch aside, leaned back, and lazily lay down on the pile of treasure he had extorted from Luffy: "Whatever! Anyway, I've got the treasure and given the method to Straw Hat Luffy. If they can't get in, that's their own problem!"

"Besides, Impel Down is so dangerous. Forcing our way in would be tantamount to suicide. It's better not to go! This indirectly saved their lives. They should be thanking me!"

Roger patted Bucky's remaining treasure expressionlessly: "You took so much money, but you didn't even get things done. Is this how you do business?"

Buggy scoffed, saying dismissively, "Please, I'm a pirate! Not a merchant! What's with all this talk of integrity?"

As he spoke, Bucky controlled his right hand to fly out and pick up the gold coin that had just rolled away. He placed it in Rogue's hand and said calmly, "Here, take this. And don't tell anyone about this. Just pretend you didn't find out anything!"

"If others knew that my brilliant plan just now failed, it would have a huge impact on my reputation!"

“…You’re so shameless!” Roger was shocked. Looking at the hush money in his hand, his eyes twitched uncontrollably.

Buggy, looking completely unfazed, said, "You're still too young, kid! You'll understand once you've seen more of the world. That's how selfish pirates are on this high seas!"

"What I mean is... you think you can get rid of me with just one gold coin? You're seriously underestimating my sense of justice."

"You need to pay more!"

Now it was Bucky's turn to be shocked.

He opened his eyes and stared in disbelief at the pale-faced, gloomy 14-year-old boy, feeling for the first time in his life that he had met his match: "I feel that you have a real talent for being a pirate. Why don't you join my pirate crew?"

"No way! I'm a mage from Fairy Tail!!"

"Really? That's a real shame!"

Three minutes later, Roger returned to Frosh's side with his bulging pockets. The silly little cat was munching on the fresh grilled fish that the pirates had fed him.

"So, Roger? Did Bakisan explain the strange parts of the plan you mentioned earlier?"

Stinger was also eating and drinking heartily, completely oblivious to the fact that he was an outsider.

With his sunny, enthusiastic, and somewhat naive personality, he easily became friends with the pirates. In addition, because of his young age and strong abilities, he was also very popular on the ship.

Roger weighed the heavy object in his pocket, secretly marveling at how much useful he had learned from Kirasan: "Well, let's talk about this later..."

"Oh, okay then." Stinger clearly had no idea about these things and had no interest in them, so he continued to eat with his head down.

Just then, a pirate crew member suddenly shouted.

"Captain Buggy, a pirate ship has been spotted ahead!"

The lookout called out three or four times before Bucky slowly walked to the bow and asked, "Do you know who it is?"

"Judging from the pirate flag, the opponent should be this year's Supernova, from the North Blue, the 'Surgeon of Death' Trafalgar Law with a bounty of 2 million Berries!"

The pirate henchman handed him a bounty poster. Buggy glanced at it, compared the two men's strength, and figured he probably couldn't beat them. So he turned and shouted, "Ignore it, let's just keep going!"

"But……"

"what happened?"

"They look like they're coming this way!!"

Bucky's expression changed drastically: "What did you say?!"

On the other side, aboard the Polar Diving ship, Captain Trafalgar Law stood at the bow, gazing intently at the BIG TOP in the distance.

"I never expected to run into the two of them here... Indeed, it was the right decision not to enter the New World so early, but instead to linger in the surrounding waters!"

Crew member Pekin asked with a puzzled look, "Captain, why are you so eager to meet them?"

Luo, clutching the 'Demon Sword' Guiku, leaned against the ship's railing and said with amusement, "That's the first person in hundreds of years to dare to fight a Celestial Dragon in the street. Don't you want to see what kind of person he is?"

"I am interested, but I think it's very likely to get me into big trouble..."

"Is it troublesome...maybe, but that's what sea adventures are all about! Are you guys sure you don't want to go?"

"Absolutely not!"

"I want to sail the boat!"

Luo smiled and said, "Then I'll go by myself! ROOM!"

He spread his five fingers on his right hand and released a pale blue surgical field out of thin air, enveloping the Polar Diving Ship and the BIG TOP Ship. Then, he looked into the distance, selected a small pebble on the other ship, and used one of the abilities of the 'Op-Op Fruit'.

Space displacement!

In the blink of an eye, Luo had arrived on the BIG TOP.

The members of the Buggy Pirates were both surprised and frightened when they saw someone suddenly appear on the ship. They all stood up and looked at Law, who was leaning against the side of the ship, with their eyes full of vigilance.

"How did you get up here? What are you trying to do?!"

"Don't be careless!! This guy has a bounty of 2 million Berries, and his men have killed countless people. I think we should let Captain Buggy handle this..."

"Huh?? Oh!! That's right, Captain Bucky, it's up to you!!"

"Captain Bucky, unleash your power and teach him a lesson!!"

"..."

The pirates were initially worried that this madman with a bounty of 2 million would slaughter them like cutting melons and vegetables, but when they saw Law holding a knife, they immediately relaxed.

Since he's a swordsman, he's completely outmatched by Captain Buggy!