Chapter 265: Setting Sail

Chapter 265: Chapter 265: Setting Sail

Inside the hospital room, the sea breeze continued to blow gently.

Rocks’ gaze lingered on Charlotte Linlin’s face for a few seconds; the forced air of unbridled boldness gradually settled, transforming into a more complex calm.

He looked out the window again, remaining silent for a moment before speaking in a raspy voice, though without the tone he had been deliberately maintaining just now:

"During this time... thank you, Linlin. This old man looking like this must have caused you a lot of trouble."

Charlotte Linlin walked to the window, her back to him as she looked toward the harbor, her tone flat: "No matter what, you are the Captain I acknowledged. This bit of trouble is nothing."

"Wuhahahaha!" Rocks’ slightly weak laughter came from behind, tinged with self-deprecation.

"I didn’t expect... that even at this stage, you’d still be willing to admit I’m your Captain."

Charlotte Linlin turned around and leaned against the windowsill, arms crossed, her massive frame casting a shadow across the room:

"Is there any reason not to admit it? The winner takes all, and the world is fickle, but the fact that we once sailed together and challenged the world won’t change. As for you, Rocks D. Xebec,"

Charlotte Linlin looked him straight in the eye, "What do you plan to do next? Like a fallen legend, find some unknown corner to silently rot away until the last of your vitality is spent?"

The smile faded from Rocks’ face, and his gaze drifted further out the window, as if trying to pierce through the sea level to see an unknown distance. His voice was low, carrying a rare weight and confusion belonging to a mortal man:

"Finding Teach and Alice... that’s the only thing I can still call a ’goal’ right now. It’s just..."

He raised his hand, clenched his fist, then let it go weakly with a bitter laugh.

"I don’t know if this burnt-out husk of a body can hold out until I find them, or... if I even have the right to disturb their lives again."

Rocks didn’t want to give Alice and her son hope only to bring them new despair.

As the master of his own body, he knew his condition better than any doctor.

It wasn’t pain, but a massive void and a continuous sense of ’drainage’ left behind after his life’s essence had been forcibly extracted and consumed.

Fighting with full strength? He might manage it once or twice. But the price would be accelerating that irreversible demise.

Every diagnosis pointed to a cruel fact: without a miracle, he had at most one year of life left. And that was under the premise that he didn’t lift a finger against anyone and took meticulous care of himself.

Charlotte Linlin looked at the man before her who had lost his Haki, leaving only exhaustion and loss, and she frowned: "The Rocks I know wasn’t a coward who liked sighing and waiting for death."

Rocks snapped his head back, a faint but stubborn light reigniting in his eyes:

"What? From your tone, do you have a way to fix this body of mine?"

There was suspicion in his tone, but even more of the urgency felt by a dying man grasping at the last straw.

"There is a way," I said, my tone still showing no ripples, "However, with your personality, you’d probably rather die than agree to it."

"What way? Let’s hear it!" Rocks leaned forward slightly.

"I have a subordinate who ate the ’Book-Book Fruit’,"

"One of her abilities is to’seal’ living beings into book pages, causing their time to stop. Theoretically, if you were ’made’ into a’specimen’ in her book, your process of decay would be delayed indefinitely. Even in the future, if a solution is found, you could be ’taken out’."

Rocks was stunned for a moment, then a flush of red, mixed with absurdity and fury, surged onto his face: "Impossible—!!! Are you kidding me?!"

He growled; even in his weakened state, the rage of a conqueror was still intimidating.

"I am Rocks! The man who is going to become the king of the world! How could I become a motionless’specimen’ inside a book?! That’s worse than killing me!!"

He panted for a few breaths and sneered: "Besides, you want to ’make me a specimen’? That person’s Haki would have to be strong enough to suppress my will! Does she have it? Is her Haki at the level of you guys?"

"No," Charlotte Linlin answered bluntly.

"Then why the hell are you talking about it!" Rocks lay back against the headboard irritably, the tiny spark of hope that had just ignited seemingly extinguished again.

"However," Charlotte Linlin changed the subject, her gaze falling on his face which had dimmed once more, "Have you heard of ’pure gold’?"

"pure gold?" Rocks frowned, seemingly searching his memory for the term. A few seconds later, a flash of realization crossed his eyes, followed by deeper suspicion.

"You mean... the legendary ’pure gold’ that can stop the human body’s time and grant near-eternal life?"

"Yes."

"Ha!" Rocks let out a laugh full of dismissiveness. "Isn’t that just a fairy tale for kids? How could such a thing really exist! Wuhahahaha! Linlin, I didn’t expect someone like you to actually believe in such an ethereal legend?"

He shook his head as if he had heard something hilarious.

Charlotte Linlin continued to look at him calmly, speaking slowly. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it struck his heart like a hammer:

"Isn’t Nika... also a legend?"

Rocks’ laughter came to an abrupt halt. The expression on his face froze instantly, and his pupils contracted slightly.

Charlotte Linlin continued to ask, her voice exceptionally clear in the quiet hospital room: "Rocks, do you think... ’Sun God Nika’, the Warrior of Liberation, is also just a child’s fairy tale that doesn’t exist in reality?"

The room fell into a brief, dead silence. There was only the sea breeze and the sound of their light breathing.

The suspicion, mockery, and exhaustion on Rocks’ face receded like the tide, leaving only a deep contemplation.

A few seconds later, a low laugh escaped his throat. It was suppressed at first, then grew louder and louder, finally turning into his signature, boisterous laugh that seemed ready to burst through the roof:

"Wuhahahahahaha!!!!"

In that laughter, the nearly vanished Haki and vitality seemed to be forcibly reignited. He laughed until he coughed, yet he still couldn’t stop.

"Interesting... so interesting!!" He wiped away the tears from laughing and looked sharply at Charlotte Linlin.

"So, regarding this ’legend’, my former dear crewmate, do you have any ’reliable’ news?"

"Not much," Charlotte Linlin confessed. "I only know that ’pure gold’ has indeed appeared in history. Its last appearance was related to a massive ’Golden Lantern Fish’ that roams the deep seas across the world. The pure gold is inside that fish."

Charlotte Linlin took two steps forward, looking down at Rocks as she threw the choice to him:

"That’s all the intel. The road ahead depends on whether you dare to ’bet against the heavens’—betting that you can find that fish and get the pure gold before you completely collapse. Or..."

Charlotte Linlin paused: "Choose the other path. Use your remaining connections and resources to find your wife and son, and use the little time you have left to live a perhaps peaceful ’remainder of your life’."

"Later, I will go find that Bacania Tribe boy who rescued your wife and son. I can give you a ride. So,"

Charlotte Linlin looked directly into Rocks’ eyes, which were Burning with fire again, and asked solemnly:

"Now, tell me your choice, Rocks D. Xebec."

Rocks didn’t answer immediately. He leaned against the headboard, eyes closed in deep thought for a full minute. When he opened them again, all the confusion, loss, and weakness were swept away, replaced by a Burning, molten ambition and fighting spirit that refused to lose even when pushed to the brink!

"Don’t you... already know my choice?" Rocks’ mouth split into a wild grin as he used all his strength to sit up from the hospital bed.

"Otherwise, you wouldn’t have told me about the existence of ’pure gold’!"

He took a deep breath, his voice not loud, but every word was powerful and full of the determination to rebel against fate:

"This ’bet against the heavens’... the winner will definitely be me!!"

"Because I am—Rocks!!!!"

The hospital room vibrated slightly from his low growl. The soul of that overlord of the sea once again let out an unyielding roar.

He threw off the covers and stood up, somewhat stumbling but firm. His gaze swept over the nearby clothes rack, where his signature fur coat hung.

He walked over, grabbed it, and draped it over his shoulders. The heavy fur on his shoulders seemed to help him regain some of his former majesty and spirit.

However, his hand habitually reached for the position at his waist where his sword used to hang, only to feel nothing. His brow furrowed, and he turned to glare at Charlotte Linlin with some annoyance:

"Hey! Linlin! When you saved me, didn’t you know to bring my sword along too?! That wasn’t just any ordinary blade!"

Charlotte Linlin shrugged indifferently: "Sorry. My weapon finds its own way home."

She meant that Charlotte Linlin didn’t have the trouble of losing her weapons.

Rocks was stunned, then his face twisted in jealous annoyance: "Tch... what an enviable ability."

He knew what Charlotte Linlin said was true. Although weapons with special abilities were rare, nothing on this magical sea surprised Rocks anymore.

He didn’t dwell on it further, tightened his fur coat, turned, and walked toward the hospital room door. Though his steps were unsteady, his back was straight.

"Your gibeck is docked at the harbor," Charlotte Linlin said behind him.

"When you find the pure gold, remember to bring a portion back for This lady. I have quite a few ’girls’ here who need that stuff."

"No problem!" Rocks replied without looking back, his hand already on the doorknob.

But at the moment he pulled the door open, he stopped. He didn’t turn around, but his voice was slightly deeper than before, carrying an indescribably complex emotion:

"However... Linlin."

"Helping me like this... even pointing out a ’way to live’... this doesn’t sound like something a pirate Captain should do at all~"

Charlotte Linlin was silent for a moment. The image of him on the shores of God Valley, face covered in tears yet attacking maniacally, flashed through her mind. She spoke slowly, her tone as flat as ever:

"Pirates have to have a sense of honor too."

Rocks’ silhouette at the door seemed to stiffen slightly.

"Honor... huh?" he repeated softly, a hint of realization in his voice, along with a deeper self-deprecation and sentimentality.

He seemed to remember something—perhaps it was Charlotte Linlin’s words of advice back then, or Whitebeard Newgate’s philosophy of always talking about ’family’, or perhaps the final moment at God Valley when those two teamed up to give him his ’end’... "Wuhahaha... indeed." Rocks laughed again. This time, there was less arrogance in the laughter and more of something real that had settled.

"If it weren’t for you and Newgate, those two ’honorable’ guys... I probably... really would have died on that island, or something worse than death."

He pulled the door open, the hallway light outlining his tall silhouette.

"The next time we meet..."

His voice drifted in with the sea breeze, clear and powerful:

"I will bring a... different Rocks Pirates, one that should probably talk about ’honor’ too (if it can be rebuilt)!"

"For me... thank Newgate!"

"This time, I... give my thanks!!"

With those words, he left without looking back, disappearing down the hallway with slow but exceptionally firm steps. The sound of his footsteps gradually faded, eventually merging with the hustle and bustle of the harbor.

The hospital room returned to silence, leaving only the sea breeze and the faint smell of medicine.

Charlotte Linlin walked to the window, watching the figure in the fur coat as he stumbled slightly but walked through the hospital courtyard toward the harbor without looking back.

It wasn’t until his figure disappeared among the crowds and ships at the pier that Charlotte Linlin withdrew her gaze. She looked out at the vast, blue sea and murmured softly:

"If only you’d been like this earlier... it would have been fine."

The sea breeze rushed into the hospital room, blowing away the last bit of stagnant air.

A new gamble had begun. And the tides of the sea never stop.

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