Chapter 50:

A Sense of Fulfillment

One Piece: The Black Ledger

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After realizing Bailey's potential value, Corvin decided to keep him.

At the same time, Corvin became very interested in the rookie pirate Sol had mentioned.

Once dinner was well underway, he pressed Sol for more stories about that rookie pirate.

Perhaps because Sol had remembered the past, he was in the mood to talk. One cup followed another, and one story followed another.

Corvin and Sunny acted as proper listeners, silently taking in the memories Sol described.

Only when Sol was drunk enough to sink into a stupor did the trip through memory finally end.

After Sol returned to his room to rest, Corvin helped Sunny clean up the mess. Then they each went back to their rooms.

As for Bailey, his value had risen sharply, so he no longer needed to purify the bathroom air. But not a single chain had been removed.

Corvin returned to his room, took off the weights, and sat on the bed.

With a thought, the black ledger appeared.

His gaze swept over the faint specks of starlight on the cover. Among them, only the star representing Hiton Sam had gained a tiny extra point.

He opened the ledger directly, took a pencil, and began writing and sketching across the blank pages.

Every line and stroke had to do with the story he remembered.

This was the daily homework he insisted on doing.

Its purpose was to strengthen his memory, letting the images that had started to blur gradually become clear again.

It was dull work, but it was important.

After finishing his daily review, Corvin dismissed the black ledger and took out the copied notebook to read.

He read through it twice before putting it away and lying down.

After lying down, Corvin summoned the black ledger again.

He looked at the second blank silver line on the cover and fell into thought.

The fight with Aibe had pushed him further toward choosing swordsmanship.

Compared with fists, a long blade held an obvious advantage in length and hardness.

A longer attack range also meant lower risk.

That fit Corvin's preferences.

He drew the quill from the spine of the ledger, but he did not immediately write.

There should have been no need to hesitate, yet the rookie pirate Sol had mentioned tonight had made many ideas rise out of nowhere.

According to Sol, that rookie pirate had not only been skilled in physical techniques. His mastery of blades, guns, and even more uncommon weapons had not been weak.

On top of that, the pirate had even eaten a Zoan-type fruit that improved his overall physical ability, then paired himself with a hunting cat that had eaten the Arms-Arms Fruit, forming a special and powerful combat style.

Only, according to Sol's story, that rookie pirate had been dazzling in the early stages but dimmed quickly afterward.

"Everyone knows you can't chew what you can't swallow. Even with talent, he could only go so far in the end."

Those had been Sol's exact words, filled with irony.

At the end, Sol had even given Corvin a warning look.

Corvin agreed with that example.

He also understood the logic of not spreading oneself too thin.

Of course, that assumed there was no Hunter's Ledger.

With this ability, Corvin could save more time and energy than others, so he would not necessarily end up like that rookie pirate.

In that case, if Bailey ate the Arms-Arms Fruit, and if Corvin wrote down a requirement such as weapon mastery...

When he needed a gun, Bailey could become a gun.

When he needed a blade, Bailey could become a blade.

When he needed an axe, Bailey could become an axe.

A shifting combat style like that would definitely be a headache for enemies.

That was why Corvin hesitated and did not write immediately.

He had originally rejected weapon mastery as a choice, but Bailey's appearance and Sol's story had brought the option back from the dead.

If he could use Hunter's Ledger to survive the difficult early and middle stages...

Then the many images waiting in the future were enough to make Corvin's blood heat.

Thinking of that, Corvin inevitably felt excited.

But he did not let the future he imagined rush to his head.

If he could not even make it through the early stage, there would be no later future to discuss.

Besides, never mind making Bailey loyal to him. He could not obtain the Arms-Arms Fruit in any short amount of time.

If he tried to force it, he would need to be mentally prepared to oppose Doflamingo.

Most importantly, there was still the unavoidable difficulty of splitting his returns.

Corvin gradually calmed down.

The future he had imagined was certainly beautiful, but it was full of barriers. If he could not cross them, every idea would remain fantasy.

"I can't split my returns any further. In the future, I'll still have to account for Haki or a Devil Fruit."

After thinking for a long time, Corvin was not shaken by the rookie pirate's story. He set the quill down and wrote the requirement for swordsmanship mastery.

Even after making his decision, Corvin still held considerable expectations for Bailey's future.

If he could make Bailey eat the Arms-Arms Fruit, that would naturally be best.

Even if he could not, he could still choose a Devil Fruit with a support function.

Corvin dismissed the ledger and slowly closed his eyes.

His mind was full of strange ideas for bringing out Bailey's potential as a tool.

Over the next few days, Corvin stayed in the shop as planned.

Even after filling in the second requirement, he remained careful.

He was certain Aibe and Kazt would come looking for trouble.

So to make use of Sol as his strongest backer, Corvin used his desire to learn shooting as an excuse to keep Sol from going to the pleasure district for morning exercise each day.

But after several days passed, not even a shadow appeared.

The peace left Corvin deeply surprised.

'That makes no sense.'

Unable to make sense of it, Corvin quietly collected the returns from neighbors No. 6 through No. 10.

After cleaning out the easy targets near the shop, Corvin even went to ask Sunny if there were any new targets nearby.

Unfortunately, perhaps because he had been picking off nearby targets too often, the people in the area had grown nervous.

As a result, not only had no new targets moved in, but even some targets Corvin had no interest in had moved away.

Bailey, the newest member of the household, happened to listen from the side as Corvin and Sunny spoke about all this lightly.

From that point on, Bailey often did not dare look directly at Corvin.

He knew that the humans who lived in this town were rotten in one way or another, but whenever he imagined Corvin holding a gun and expressionlessly shooting them down one by one, fear rose in him.

On the fifth day, Corvin no longer held Sol back.

After Sol left, Corvin finally stopped restraining the urge to touch a blade. He drew a long sword with a relatively pleasing appearance from the shelf.

Sunny, who was reading the newspaper, noticed what Corvin was doing and looked up.

"What are you doing?"

"Testing how it feels."

Corvin held the sheath and grinned at Sunny.

Sunny frowned.

"If Sol finds out, he might skin you."

"If you don't tell him and I don't tell him, how would Sol know?"

Corvin held the hilt. As soon as his hand closed around it, a faint, familiar feeling curled through his chest.

Unlike the sense of safety he felt when holding a gun, this was a strange, solid sense of fulfillment.

Under that strange feeling, simply holding the hilt gave Corvin the urge to draw.

Unfortunately, there was no enemy in front of him, and the shop had no practice dummy.

Thinking of that, Corvin subconsciously glanced at Bailey.

When Corvin glanced at him, Bailey, whose upper body was still tightly bound in chains, shivered. He wriggled to the inside of the counter and hid behind Sunny.

Seeing that, Corvin walked behind the counter and asked with concern, "Bailey, what's wrong? Are you feeling sick?"

"N-No."

"Oh. Good."

Corvin turned to Sunny.

"How much is this sword?"

He suddenly realized that he did not necessarily need to buy a blade outside. There were plenty of ready-made ones here.

"Two million six hundred thousand."

Corvin silently put the sword back.

Considering that he did not want to increase Sunny's workload, he did not pick up a second one. He simply pointed.

"What about that one?"

"One million seven hundred thousand."

"That one?"