Chapter 11

Olympios turned out to make a lot of products that couldn't be found anywhere else, not even on other Sky Islands. Such as feathered cloaks made from the residents' molted feathers that were surprisingly warm and comfortable. He wound up buying two.

The Olympiosans had a special technique they used for weaving, and the resulting cloth was very durable, he learned from the tailor taking his measurements. Since he was so much taller than the man's other clientele, any clothes he ordered would have to be custom-made from scratch, but the man welcomed the challenge, or so he said. The despairing look on his apprentice's face said the man was probably the only one. He felt a tad bad for the kid, but if the Queen was going to insist on giving him and Rouge's crew discounts at all the stores on the island, he was damn sure going to take full advantage.

He was a bit embarrassed to admit that he went on a bit of a spree, combing through every store and market-stall on the island and then going through them again to see if he missed anything interesting on his first pass. He bought a waver just because it looked like fun (the swearing as the mechanics went to work on adjusting it for his height sounded oddly cheerful). He joined Rouge and her crew for lunch, which promptly turned into an eating contest between the two D's. Rouge's crew was left sitting to the side and gaping at the sheer quantity of food they put away.

A crowd of Olympiosans gathering around and placing wagers on who would win.

(Marshall won, but only because he was bigger and still growing. Rouge insisted he only won because the restaurant ran out of food while he was in the lead.)

After that was more shopping, and he spent an unusually long time trying on hats. Most of that time was spent laughing at how ridiculous he looked in them. Before he knew it, he and Rouge's crew had been there a week longer than he thought they would be, guests in the Royal Palace and essentially on vacation. Three days in he had the strangest feeling they were stalling them, but Rouge brushed it off and said he was worrying too much.

As a matter of fact, they were being stalled, but not for the reasons he thought.

When he finally bought so many things that it was hard to move around his assigned guestroom, he gathered up his bags and headed towards where his boat was docked. Only when he got there, his boat wasn't the same as it had been the last time he saw it. In fact, it bore little resemblance to his boat at all.

His boat was now the size of Rouge's caravel, the body and frame composed of gleaming white wood with the trim painted dark purple. The white mast sported a pristine flag with none of the wear that his own had accumulated. At first he thought the Olympiosans had replaced his boat with a new ship entirely, then he went below deck and saw hints of familiar wood. He found an officer's room that turned out to be his old cabin, not a pelt or chest out of place. He checked to make sure, but it looked like whoever was responsible had transplanted it whole and didn't touch anything else.

At a loss, he stowed his purchases in one of the empty rooms and wandered back up to the deck, opening the door only to be greeted by a loud cheer.

"Surprise!" A host of Olympiosans, including the Queen and her younger brother, and Rouge and her crew cheered. Right, it made sense that they were in on it, he touched his jaw in disbelief (It amazed Rouge that while everything was going on he still found time to shave).

Rouge grinned broadly, and yup, definitely the ringleader. He listened in disbelief as she explained how they'd all kept him busy for a week while a group of Olympiosan shipwrights went to work on disassembling his boat and building it into a new ship. The head shipwright chortled, saying, "This beauty is made of almost a hundred percent Angel Tree Wood! Light as a feather, but strong enough to bounce back cannonballs! With the addition of the Jet Dials we installed along the back and bottom, anytime you want to visit a Sky Island you can just fly right up!"

Rouge chimed in, "They installed the same thing on our ship, which'll definitely come in handy!" For escaping, went unsaid but definitely heard.

He wasn't ashamed to admit that he sputtered a bit before shouting, "This is was too much! You already gave us all that stuff for practically free!"

That's when the Queen stepped forward, smiling as she said, "It was the least we could do, especially after you helped so much, teaching both me and my brother this amazing technique," a second of thought, and her wings turned pitch black so there would be no mistake about what she meant, "and then helping to train my guards. That alone would be worth the ship, but you also insisted on trading us those furs from the Blue Seas and Captain Rouge even traded a jar of vearth!" She shook her head, the other Olympiosans nodding along as she said, "Truly the people of the Blue Sea are generous!"

He shut his mouth, kind of wanting to know why Rouge was carrying around a jar of dirt but also not really caring. He'd mostly taught the siblings Armament out of boredom, but they'd caught on surprisingly fast. He wasn't about to say that though.

(It never occurred to him that part of that was just him being a good teacher.)

Finally, he sighed and gave in. Looked like he had a ship now...that he would have to figure out how to operate without a crew.

"...Damn, I've actually got to name it now, don't I?" He wondered aloud.

Rouge and her crew roared with laughter. Oh, like they could talk! Theirs had been a ship from the start and it still didn't have a name!

The accidental vacation continued for another few days in honor of the newly created Pirate's Revelry.

"A festival celebrating our heroes," the Queen's brother - his name was Descalion or something? - explained, grinning mischievously as the pirates groaned and Marshall cackled at their misery. Apparently Rouge had the same attitude towards being called a hero as Luffy did, he was amused to discover.

The party that followed was the first thing he recorded on his new recording dial: a night of singing and dancing, fun and joy.

(The fact that he recorded Rouge's face when the Queen gave a speech was really just icing on the cake.)

Right before they left, he along with the rest of the island got to witness the christening of Rouge's ship.

Holding a bottle of liquor by the neck, Rouge gleefully exclaimed, "May this vessel carry us through thousands of adventures, through fair winds and stormy seas. I now introduce...THE QUEEN OF SPADES!" with that, she smashed the bottle of alcohol against the hull, the sound of breaking glass lost beneath a rousing sea of cheers.