Chapter 117: A Flight Path Taken in Reverse
Was the Empress no longer the Empress?
Even so, Hancock was still Hancock, no different from the original future Empress.
Just as arrogant.
Roy glanced at Granny Gloriosa, then at Hancock, who was stomping over in a fury. He had not even reached out to take her hand yet when a sweet fragrance swept past him.
And then.
Muamuamua.
It was over in an instant. She kissed him, then whipped her head around and glared at Gloriosa, snorting in defiance before dragging her dazed man out of the palace.
"This is outrageous. How can the woman be the one taking the initiative?" Roy complained, pretending to be upset.
He said that, but he was being pulled along by the hand and grinning so hard his cheeks hurt.
He had always treated Hancock as a child.
That was the line he had refused to cross all these years.
It did not matter that he himself was young. He carried the mind and experience of an adult from another world.
But if the other person was still young, then, as a former model citizen of Earth, there were things he absolutely could not do.
Copying talents was fine. Crossing moral lines was not.
...
This, of course, only made Hancock even angrier.
Roy was a scoundrel.
He had teased her, flirted with her, and made her heart race for so many years.
Now that she finally had a chance to vent all those bottled up emotions, she was going to have a serious argument with him.
And then persuade him. With actions, not words.
[Favorability with Boa Hancock increased by 5!]
[A breakthrough in the relationship with Boa Hancock!]
[New relationship with Boa Hancock: lovers!]
[Note: There are unclaimed rewards!]
Roy silently willed, Claim rewards.
[You have obtained one Talent Card Slot!]
Roy and Hancock's favorability had already reached 260.
But he had kept stepping back from the edge, again and again.
He had gotten used to that peaceful, ambiguous life.
In the end, Hancock launched a surprise attack.
Right now, Hancock's favorability was sitting at exactly 265.
Over the years, Roy had also been investing points into the rules that maintained the stability of chaotic spacetime.
If he wanted, he could probably live out an entire lifetime here without ever using that power to the fullest.
If he stayed in this time period all the way until the year 1522, it would be perfect. At that point, his age would reverse and line up with Toki's again.
Heh.
...
"Let us leave Amazon Lily."
Hancock lifted her chin and tugged Roy along, heading straight for the beach at the edge of the island.
"All right," Roy answered, nodding.
Hancock nodded as well, then happily hugged him around the waist.
Damn it.
When had this guy gotten so tall in just a few years?
Hancock was just over one point nine meters, while Roy was clearly on track to reach three.
Back when they were in the Snake Princess's palace, it had already been difficult to reach his lips, even with Roy sitting down.
Now, with him standing, she was stuck hugging his stomach.
With a little more growth, he would be three meters tall.
Why was he not joining the Navy just to show off that ridiculous physique? The uniform alone would cause a riot.
Splash.
The calm sea suddenly exploded outward, waves crashing as seawater rained down around them. Hancock tossed back her dark hair and laughed as she looked toward the churning surface.
A massive blue serpent rose from the sea, its cold, predatory eyes staring down at the figures on the shore. Its long body continued to uncoil from the water, casting huge shadows over the sand.
Then.
The monstrous serpent, the kind of creature even Sea Kings would hesitate to provoke, suddenly flicked its tongue, lowered its head, and squinted its eyes in delight, rubbing its snout fawningly against Roy's hand.
Snake, oh snake. Why are you living like a dog?
Of course, this serpent was one of the three snakes that Roy had tamed decades ago in the Calm Belt of the New World.
The same serpent he and Toki had once ridden.
Over the years, the three snakes had not stayed in Elbaf, the village of giants. They had drifted apart, each swimming their own path. Only this blue serpent had happened to wander into the Calm Belt in the first half of the Grand Line.
By sheer coincidence, it had met Roy again.
It was not one of the two serpents used by the Kuja Pirates.
After decades of growth, Aonami was now even larger than the Kuja's famed serpent Yuda.
"All right, sweetheart, let us go to sea," Roy said gently, rubbing Aonami's head. He took Hancock's soft hand and stepped up onto the serpent's broad forehead.
Once the two of them were seated, the blue serpent turned and began to swim away from Nine Snake Island.
If Aonami could eat the Human Human Fruit, he would definitely have whispered to Hancock,
That guy, he is even more dangerous than you think.
Unfortunately, he could not speak.
...
Granny Gloriosa stood on the sand, watching the distant serpent cut through the waves. After a long time, she let out a helpless sigh and turned away.
They would have to choose a less ideal Empress now.
The best candidate had already run off with an outsider.
They had escaped.
If she admitted that out loud, every Empress in Amazon Lily's history would probably rise from the grave to yell at her.
...
Several days later.
The first half of the Grand Line.
Water Seven.
Inside a hotel, the long exercise had finally ended.
Roy took a slow breath and calmed his racing heart.
He sat by the window in a coat, looking out at the canals below and listening to the constant roar of rushing water.
He extended his hand, and a Hancock Armament Haki talent card appeared in front of him.
Now that he had obtained Hancock's Armament Haki card, he needed to get serious.
He would have to spend more time with her, deepen their bond further, and raise this card to its maximum level as quickly as possible.
Still, he had to admit, once he was grown, he never imagined that his first battle in the real world would take this form.
It was Hancock.
And Roy had arrived at exactly the right moment. It had been Hancock's first time as well.
So those people in his previous life who speculated that Hancock might have been violated in Mary Geoise after being captured as a slave were completely wrong.
Her first blood.
Belonged to Roy.
"What are you thinking about?"
Hancock, wrapped in a light gauze nightgown, leaned lazily against the door frame, her eyes half closed as she watched him.
"I am thinking about booking a ship," Roy said.
In the past, traveling on clouds had been both cool and ridiculously fun.
Although there were a lot of food based trends that came with that image.
Riding a giant serpent over the sea was exciting, but the scales were too slippery.
If they did not find an island before nightfall, the serpent's body simply did not offer enough space for two people to sleep comfortably.
So he wanted to buy a ship.
...
Several months later.
Roy picked up his ship directly from the Water Seven shipyard and set sail, without bothering to get tangled up with Franky, whose name would be changed in the future to stay off the World Government's radar.
There were no women in Water Seven who particularly caught his interest anyway.
Roy kept the Eternal Pose safely in his pack. With Hancock at his side, he sailed from Water Seven to Long Land, then drifted past an unnamed island, and finally arrived in Alabasta under the guidance of the Eternal Pose.
His path along the Grand Line was so unconventional that it made every rookie pirate green with envy.
Other pirates followed the route step by step toward the final island and might still never find Laugh Tale.
Roy, on the other hand, was heading in the opposite direction.
And he was doing it while hopping around from island to island.
What a showoff.
...
"It is so hot. The heat here is unbearable."
Hancock raised a hand to shield her eyes from the blazing desert sun.
The next moment, she noticed Roy using a very practiced motion to hold something out to her.
He was offering her a set of clothing in the style of a desert kingdom.
"You will look amazing in desert clothes," Roy said, leaning against the cabin door frame with a smile.
The outfit was a little like the costumes worn by dancers in ancient desert kingdoms, but more conservative. It wrapped around the body tightly and covered the skin completely, offering excellent protection from the harsh sun.
Roy could already imagine how stunning she would look in it.
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