Chapter 418: The Legend of Nolan the Liar

“Gold?”

“Could it be some infamous pirate hid his treasure here?”

Nami asked in shock.

No matter how much money there was, it was never enough for Nami.

Robin leaned against the second-floor railing and watched Nami’s excitement. “That I don’t know.”

But just the thought was enough to send Nami into a frenzy. Her eyes sparkled with money signs as she jumped off the ship and began bossing Chopper around to start digging.

“Dig fast! There’s gold down there—whatever you dig up is ours!”

“Can you really just dig up gold so easily?” Innocent as ever, Chopper believed that a little digging was all it took, so he hurriedly swung his antlers, frantically tearing into the earth, hoping to unearth hidden treasure.

Sanji landed on shore and stopped by a pile of logs in front of the half-ruined castle, glancing around at the desolate land. “Somebody actually lives in this godforsaken place?”

Luffy arrived at the gates too. “Hello, sorry to intrude.”

Ever-blunt, Luffy just swung the door open and walked inside, leaving Usopp wide-eyed beside him. “Dude, that’s a little too forward.”

Once inside, Luffy called out, “Anyone here? Hello?”

He looked left and right, but the room was completely empty.

Usopp and Merry hurried over and crouched by the door, calling to Luffy. “Idiot! What if there’s a bad guy?”

Chopper was still outside digging nonstop when Ye Fan silently appeared behind him and patted his shoulder. “Chopper, don’t waste your energy. There’s no gold here.”

“Huh? But Nami said there was something buried down below.”

Staring into Chopper’s sincere eyes, Ye Fan couldn’t help but sigh. “If there really was gold here, there’s no way it would just fall into our laps. Trust me, we’re wasting our time.”

Chopper thought it over and finally stopped digging.

“Looks like there’s nobody here.”

“What’s this—a picture book?” Nami came to the stumps outside the half-destroyed castle and spotted a book left on the table.

She reached out and grabbed it. “Looks pretty old. The title says ‘The Great Liar: Nolan.’”

Hearing the words ‘Great Liar’, Usopp came over with his arms crossed and laughed loudly. “Now that’s a top-notch title. Bet it’s a good read!”

“The Great Liar: Nolan?” Sanji, cigarette dangling from his lips and hands in his pockets, sounded surprised.

When she heard him, Nami quickly glanced over and asked, “Sanji, have you read it before?”

“It says right here, this book was first published in North Blue.”

Hearing that familiar place, Sanji beamed with excitement. “I was born in North Blue! Didn’t I ever tell you?”

Usopp put his hands on his hips and turned to Sanji. “That’s news to me—I always thought you were from East Blue!”

“This story is actually famous in North Blue. Even though it’s called a fairy tale, the main character, Nolan, really existed.”

“It’s a tale from long, long ago—about four hundred years back.”

“In a certain country in North Blue, there was a man named Montblanc Nolan.”

“Nolan was an adventurer who always told his escapades in the wildest, most thrilling ways. No one in the village could tell if his stories were true or just tall tales.”

“One time, when Nolan returned from a journey, he rushed straight to the palace and reported to the king. He claimed there was a mountain of gold on an island in the Grand Line.”

“Brave as he was, the king wanted to know if it was real, so he gathered two thousand soldiers and set out for the Grand Line.”

“On the way, they braved storms and fought off all kinds of monsters. By the time they reached the so-called Island of Gold, only the king, Nolan, and a hundred soldiers were left.”

“But all they found was empty jungle. Not a scrap of gold in sight.”

“In the end, the king accused Nolan of lying to royalty and sentenced him to death.”

“His last words before he died were, ‘I understand now. The mountain of gold must have sunk to the bottom of the sea.’ But the king and his men were done listening, and nobody ever believed Nolan again.”

“Until the very end, Nolan was spinning tales, trying to fool the world. That’s why everyone called him Nolan the Liar.”

“Montblanc Cricket… could he really be one of Nolan’s descendants?” Usopp wondered aloud, starting to suspect this was all about a descendant trying to restore the family’s honor.

Meanwhile, Luffy, after failing to find anyone inside, pushed open a wooden door and stepped out to the shore.

Large bubbles kept surfacing near the edge of the water.

“Pop!”

Suddenly, a hand shot out of the water, trying to drag Luffy under. But there’s no way someone like Luffy would get caught off guard by that.

He grabbed hold of the arm and hauled the person out of the water, slamming him onto the ground.

The commotion caught everyone’s attention. Lying on the shore, gasping for breath, was a blond man with a bare chest.

“Who are you people? How can you just barge into someone’s home like this?”

But as soon as he managed to say that, he passed out cold.

“Huh? I didn’t even use that much strength,” Luffy scratched his head, puzzled. He really hadn’t pulled hard at all—how did a guy who looked so tough just faint?

Chopper quickly ran to help and moved the man into a nearby hut. Everyone followed. In no time, Chopper gave his diagnosis.

“It’s decompression sickness.”

“I get it—so this guy’s actually a patient?” Luffy was still a little lost.

That explained it—there was no way he’d knocked the man out just by pulling. The guy already had health issues.

“Right. Divers sometimes get this kind of ailment.”

“Normally, it wouldn’t become chronic. But coming up from the sea floor to the surface too quickly causes problems. Some dissolved elements in the blood can’t stay dissolved, turning into bubbles that expand in the bloodstream or even outside of it—hurting blood flow, muscles, joints, you name it.”

Chopper rambled off a bunch of technical stuff that totally went over Luffy’s head. “So basically, it’s a weird sickness.”

“He must not have waited long enough for the bubbles to clear from his body, diving back into the sea every single day,” Chopper concluded, pretty sure of his diagnosis.

“But why go through all that?” Nami found it hard to imagine why anyone would dive to dangerous depths so relentlessly.

Didn’t he get that it could make him really sick?

“No idea, but it’s super risky. Depending on the situation, decompression sickness can be fatal!” Even Chopper couldn’t understand why, knowing all this, the man still wouldn’t stop.

“Maybe he really is a descendant of Nolan the Liar,” someone mused.

“If he’s working this hard, it’s probably to prove his ancestor was innocent,” Ye Fan said, leaning against the doorframe.

If they didn’t need to ride the Upstream Current to Skypiea, Ye Fan would never have hung around wasting time here.

The real reason was that the Merry needed wings to stay stable in the Upstream Current. Only then could they reach Skypiea in one piece.

“He’s awake—the old guy’s finally up!”