Chapter 65: A Suspicious Background
Frowning in confusion, Ian found this quite unexpected. To him, where he was born didn't really matter—whether it was the East Blue or the West Blue, it was just a location. He didn't have much attachment to it.
Continuing to read, the letter said: "At that time, Kuina had just been born, and Kuina's mother and I decided to return to the East Blue to settle down. While on the ship, we suddenly spotted a broken little boat floating on the sea. At first, we didn't pay it much attention, but just as we were about to leave, we heard the sound of a baby crying from the boat."
"Your master's wife handed Kuina to me to hold, and despite her postpartum weakness, she jumped into the sea to rescue you. I will never forget the smile on her face when she pulled you up. She said it must be a miracle."
"Only afterward did we realize that the little boat carrying you had been drifting at sea for quite some time. It truly was a miracle—on the dangerous ocean, you survived."
Reading this, Ian felt a cold sweat break out. Indeed, a broken little boat drifting on the sea, not capsizing in a storm, not being attacked by sea beasts or Sea Kings, and eventually encountering Master Koushirou's ship to be rescued—this was beyond what could be described as a miracle.
However, from the lines of the letter, Ian could sense that perhaps the master's wife's death might have something to do with him. Just after giving birth to Kuina, daring to jump into the cold sea to save someone—that wasn't something an ordinary person could do. It might have been this act of rescue that left her with lingering health issues.
Ian was hearing these things for the first time. He could understand why Koushirou hadn't mentioned them face-to-face and chose to write a letter instead—he simply didn't want to see Ian's apologetic expression.
"The place where we rescued you was over a hundred nautical miles from a small island. We inquired and learned that the island was called Banbanor, and it was said to be inhabited. So your master's wife and I thought you might have drifted from there. We wanted to take you to find your family. However, when we approached the island, we found it was sealed off!"
"We were not allowed to get close, and not long after, a major event occurred in the West Blue. We couldn't stay there any longer, so we had to leave with you and settle in the East Blue."
"Ian, you're an adult now. I think it's necessary to tell you this. When you feel you're capable enough and want to search for your own family, then go and take a look at the West Blue."
The letter ended there, but it left Ian full of doubts. Some things Master Koushirou mentioned in the letter seemed deliberately vague, as if he didn't want to state them outright. This gave Ian a bad feeling.
When the master's wife found him, he was a baby. Though he couldn't determine the exact age, he was probably no more than a year old. Now he was eighteen, meaning the events happened about seventeen to eighteen years ago. At that time, a major event occurred in the West Blue?
As Ian thought about it, his heart suddenly pounded: No way!?
The major event in the West Blue that Ian remembered most vividly was the Ohara Incident! Could Master Koushirou be referring to that?
Counting on his fingers, indeed, that time period coincided with when Ohara, the island researching history, was erased from the map by the World Government using a Buster Call. Although the World Government tried hard to cover it up, such a huge event couldn't go completely unnoticed in the West Blue. Master Koushirou must have heard about it and suspected Ian's background was related to Ohara.
But what about the Banbanor Island he mentioned in the letter?
Calm down, calm down. Let's verify this properly.
Ian carefully put the letter into his pocket, then ran out of his dormitory to the Marine base's archives. Opening the door, he saw several Marine soldiers working.
As soon as they saw Ian enter, the soldiers recognized him and immediately saluted, saying, "Greetings, Instructor!"
Ian, hired as a swordsmanship instructor, held no official rank. However, due to respect for his strength, the base's Marine soldiers treated him with deference, not looking down on him because of his age. But since this was the Marine base's archives, a classified area, after saluting, the soldiers hesitated and said, "Instructor, according to regulations, this area is not open to you."
"It's fine, it's fine!" Ian waved his hand and said, "I just wanted to ask if you have a map of the West Blue?"
Hearing that Ian only wanted a map, the soldiers relaxed. A map wasn't considered classified, so they found one and handed it to Ian.
Ian followed the rules, took the map, and stepped outside the archives to look at it.
"Banbanor... Banbanor..." Ian began searching for the name on the map.
"Found it!" After carefully looking for a while, Ian finally located the spot. The island was very small, making the text tiny and hard to find, but at least he had confirmed the first location.
"Banbanor, territory of the Ilusia Kingdom..."
That was all the information he got from the map. He then started checking the surrounding islands to see if Ohara was near Banbanor.
Strangely, no matter how he searched, he couldn't find the name Ohara on the map.
Ian slapped his forehead. He was being foolish—hadn't Ohara already been destroyed? Checking the map's production year, he found it was made two years ago. So Ian quickly ran back and asked the soldiers in the archives, "Do you have any older maps of the West Blue?"
The soldiers were taken aback and asked, "How old do you need?"
"Eighteen... no, preferably a map of the West Blue from twenty years ago!" Ian said.
The soldiers shook their heads and replied, "We don't have that. With maps, when a new version comes out, the old one is usually destroyed. The oldest map in the archives now is only five years old."
Ian felt disappointed. He had been somewhat relieved that agreeing to Smoker's request to be a swordsmanship instructor for a month would allow him to access Marine records, but in the end, it led nowhere.
Seeing his expression, the soldiers asked curiously, "What do you need such an old West Blue map for?"
Ian thought for a moment and asked them, "Have you heard of a place called Banbanor?"
"In the West Blue? No, I don't know that," the soldiers shook their heads, but one added, "You could ask Sergeant Rona at the base. He seems to be from the West Blue."
That's right! Marine soldiers were recruited from all over the world; just because they were in the East Blue didn't mean they were from there.
Sergeant Rona was a man in his forties who worked as a chef in the base's cafeteria. Ian knew him, so he easily found him.
But Ian didn't dare mention anything about Ohara. He could only use the name Banbanor to ask questions, while carefully observing Rona's expression to see if he noticed anything.
To Ian's surprise, as soon as Uncle Rona heard Ian mention Banbanor, he said knowingly, "Of course I know that place. A big incident happened there back then!"
Ian pressed further, "Tell me about it!"
"You're asking about around seventeen years ago, right?" Uncle Rona sat on a chair, took a puff of his cigarette, and said, "I was in my twenties then, just became a Marine, and hadn't been transferred to the East Blue yet. Banbanor was territory of the Ilusia Kingdom, but at that time, a plague broke out there. It was said to be very severe. The Ilusia Kingdom's army sealed off the island and sent medical teams to treat the people. But unexpectedly, the plague spread too fast, and everyone on the island eventually died!"
A plague? Ian felt a headache coming on. There was something like that?
So, he had been mistaken? His background had nothing to do with Ohara?
But Ian felt something was off. If he had drifted from Banbanor Island, and the island had a plague, why didn't Master Koushirou mention in the letter that he was sick when found?
If the plague was really that deadly, a baby a few months old couldn't have been completely unaffected.
Or maybe there was something suspicious about the plague?
There were too many doubts. First, he couldn't know the location of Ohara Island or whether it was near Banbanor. That was a key point. If Ohara was in the same area as Banbanor, then he might be a survivor of Ohara. But if Ohara was far from Banbanor, his birthplace might be the plague-stricken Banbanor.
However, after Ohara's destruction, under the World Government's control, the island had been erased from the map. New maps didn't have that location, and older maps were hard to find. Unless he asked some older West Blue natives, who might know, but whether they'd be willing to talk was another matter.
Master Koushirou wasn't from the West Blue and probably wasn't familiar with its geography, so he couldn't be sure either. Moreover, the Ohara Incident was strictly suppressed by the government, and letters weren't safe, which was why his account was so vague.
So Ian had to set this matter aside for now. He took out the letter, a flame flickering in his hand, and directly burned it...