Recently, Blake had been challenging the young Kizaru once every day.
The younger version of Kizaru was not especially strong, and with the Iron Balloon talent, Blake was by no means weaker than him.
Even so, even as a young man, Kizaru still displayed the traits of a slippery veteran, making it very difficult for Blake to seize an opening.
The current problem was that while it was not difficult for Blake to gain the upper hand, defeating Kizaru completely was far too hard.
"Forget it. I'll just treat Kizaru as a way to train my Observation Haki..."
"But this Kizaru is seriously asking for a beating. Luckily, the people in the card space can't talk, otherwise I might get so pissed off that I wouldn't even be able to use my Observation Haki."
"If this guy really is an undercover Revolutionary, then sooner or later I'm definitely going to settle both old and new scores with him."
After silently making up his mind, Blake looked into the distance.
An island appeared ahead, and he turned his head and asked,
"Where are we now?"
"Your Highness, at our current speed, we will arrive at Baterilla in another half hour."
Blake nodded without giving anything away.
"A tiny island like that isn't worth seeing. Let's restock here, then head over to the West Blue for a look."
Baterilla?
Wasn't that the island where Roger had gone into hiding before turning himself in?
At this point in time, Roger had already been executed by the World Government, but Portgas D. Rouge should still be on that island.
But Blake had absolutely no intention of meeting Rouge.
Many transmigrators who chose to take Rouge back for themselves were elite Celestial Dragons, people already known to the Five Elders, who were destined to join the Holy Knights or even become members of the Five Elders themselves in the future.
Blake, however, was aiming to ascend to the top in a single leap, so he had no intention of showing off like that.
As for bringing Ace back and raising him into one of his own people?
Give me a break. Are you sure the environment of the Holy Land wouldn't just make him even more rebellious?
If he started thinking about the meaning of life like Uchiha Itachi, then things would get very lively.
One year later, West Blue.
Because the South Blue and the West Blue were separated by the Red Line, Blake had to return to Mary Geoise first in order to travel from the South Blue to the West Blue. A good amount of time was wasted on the journey, and together with the time he spent staying in Mary Geoise, a year passed very quickly.
That year was boring, but Blake's strength grew steadily.
Six months earlier, as the intensity of Blake's Haki kept increasing, his Observation Haki finally broke through the critical threshold and reached the realm of Future Sight.
If Katakuri's Future Sight was an elevation of technique, then Blake's Future Sight was pure stats. It was simply a case of quantitative change producing qualitative change.
Relying on Observation Haki at the level of Future Sight, Blake successfully defeated the young Kizaru.
Flipping through the ability card in his hand, Blake felt both excited and helpless.
Ability Card: Glint-Glint Fruit.
That's right. Blake had gotten the highest-tier reward from Kizaru: the Glint-Glint Fruit.
However, the card system had not removed the curse of the Devil Fruit. Once he used this ability card, it would be no different from actually eating the Glint-Glint Fruit.
"I can stand above the world with stats alone, so why should I give myself a weakness?"
That was how Blake saw it.
So he planned to give this ability card to someone who actually needed it.
After all, he could only eat one Devil Fruit, or use one ability card.
Even if he was going to use a Devil Fruit, he had to choose carefully.
At present, Blake had only one subordinate: Aramaki.
Aramaki was already a Woods-Woods Fruit user, so naturally he had no way of using this card. This card would likely remain in Blake's possession for quite some time.
Blake's strength had also grown rapidly over the course of that year. At this point, even if he faced the original-story forty-one-year-old Doflamingo, it would no longer be a problem. He could be considered to have reached Yonko Commander level.
Aside from that, Blake's chances of drawing swordsmen had started increasing during that year.
The card space seemed intent on cultivating him into an all-round fighter.
Thanks to the efforts of those swordsmen, Blake's swordsmanship improved at an astonishing pace. In just one year, he had already reached roughly the same level as Zoro when he had just entered the Grand Line, only one step away from becoming a swordsman capable of cutting steel.
"Your Highness, there seems to be some situation up ahead."
At that moment, the CP agent behind him suddenly spoke up in warning.
Blake did not look up. Since his Observation Haki had been improved through ability cards, it had always been enhanced in an all-round manner, and its range was already no worse than Enel's in the original story. Naturally, he had long since noticed what was happening ahead.
On the sea, two ships were racing along, one in pursuit and the other fleeing.
"Fire! Force that merchant ship to stop!"
A burly pirate wielding a broad-bladed saber stood by the rail, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind him and smacked the back of his head with a loud slap.
"Don't fire, you idiot! If you blast the treasure into the sea, then you're the one jumping in to fish it back out!"
The burly pirate shrank his neck.
"Yes, Captain!"
In the distance, Blake, who had been watching the excitement, suddenly sat up straight and looked in another direction.
An enormous island ship appeared in Blake's sight.
"What is this guy doing here?"
The newcomer was none other than Moria, who had suffered a crushing defeat in Wano not long ago.
The guy really had it rough. His entire crew had been wiped out by Kaido, leaving only Moria to escape alone.
The island ship was not especially fast, but its massive size was still eye-catching.
"Captain! Situation at four o'clock!"
The lookout on the pirate ship ahead shouted.
The captain, a tall, slender man with long silver hair, looked in the direction the lookout indicated and saw the gigantic island ship as well.
His eyes widened instantly.
"Th-This... what is that? The island... the island is moving?!"
The West Blue and the New World were separated only by a Calm Belt, and there was no shortage of powerful people there, but the silver-haired captain in front of them was obviously not one of them. Lacking experience, he panicked for a moment.
Then he was overjoyed.
"A moving island! Could it be the legendary One Piece?!"
"No wonder no one has found it for so long — so Laugh Tale can move!"
"As expected, I'm the man destined to become the next Pirate King! Quick! Stop chasing them! Turn the helm! Laugh Tale is right in front of us! We absolutely cannot let anyone else get there first!"
Hearing the silver-haired captain's words, the many pirates on the ship became excited as well.
"Long live the captain!"
"The captain is wise!"
"Owwoooo!"
Worked into a frenzy by his words, the pirates charged straight toward Moria's Thriller Bark.
Poor pirates. Even now, they still hadn't noticed the Sanctuary and the warship beside it.
Even more pitiful was the fact that while everyone else would be scrambling to avoid Thriller Bark, they were actually charging into it of their own accord.
Blake watched all of this with a cheerful grin.
It was easy to imagine what kind of mood Moria, currently in a brooding state, would be in when a group of low-level pirates disturbed him.
Compared to Moria, Blake was actually more curious about the ship itself.
At present, Moria had only just completed the transformation of the island and had merely managed to get the island ship moving temporarily. Its appearance was still very different from the original Thriller Bark, which was why those pirates had mistaken it for a real island.
Blake looked toward the buildings on the island ship.
"Hm... it really does seem a bit similar to the architectural style of God Valley..."
In his previous life, there had been a theory that Moria's island ship had been rebuilt from God Valley.
First, after his defeat, Moria had returned to the West Blue and transformed one of its islands into an island ship, creating Thriller Bark.
Second, several of Moria's zombies were suspected of having once been members of the Rocks Pirates.
Blake remained skeptical of that theory.
"Phew... we're finally saved."
On the merchant ship that had narrowly escaped death, a sailor lay flat on the deck, gasping for breath.
Several companions were lying beside him in the same state.
One of them asked curiously,
"I wonder what that island was. I think I heard the pirates on the other side shouting 'One Piece.'"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard it too."
Another sailor immediately chimed in.
"Then should we—"
Before he could finish, the man beside him cut him off.
"We didn't hear anything, and we didn't see anything."
He first emphasized it loudly, then lowered his voice and said,
"Are you crazy? We don't even have guns. Those are pirates who kill without blinking! How could we possibly fight them over the One Piece?"
The sailor who had spoken earlier seemed somewhat unconvinced.
"But that's the Great Treasure..."
"There's something happening!"
The greedy sailor was interrupted once again.
"Something again?!"
"Don't tell me pirates are chasing us again?"
The sailors complained all at once, but they still obediently climbed up from the deck.
After all, getting caught by pirates was no joke. Complain as much as you liked, your life was still more important.
Before they even had time to look over, an enormous shadow had already swallowed the merchant ship.
The sailors looked up and saw a cruise ship several times larger than their merchant vessel anchored not far away.
On the cruise ship, the flag of the World Government fluttered in the wind.
The gangway was lowered. This time, Blake did not ride down on a slave. Instead, he came down with Stella, Aramaki, and two CP agents.
"A... a Celestial Dragon?!"
"How is that possible? How could a Celestial Dragon appear in the West Blue?!"
"Kneel! Do you all have a death wish?"
Hearing their discussion, Blake let out a soft laugh, turned to Stella beside him with a smile, and said,
"The World Government's propaganda is really effective. Those ignorant fools actually recognized my identity."
"It is Your Highness's heroic bearing that leaves them without even the courage to raise their heads and look at you."
Hearing that, surprise flickered in Blake's eyes. He looked at Stella, who was smiling, and reached out to gently ruffle her golden hair.
"You're actually pretty good at providing emotional value."