Walpo Suffers from Anorexia

Chapter 17 Walpo Suffers from Anorexia

The sea is not always calm.

At this point, Suzuki had already taken all his belongings and was on his way to Drum Island with a merchant ship.

Today is the fifth day of our voyage, and we will soon arrive at our destination, Drum Island.

Drum Island is the island that is closer to Reverse Mountain than Alabasta among the seven initial routes.

Starting from Twin Points of Reverse Mountain, if your first stop is Whiskey Peak, your second stop is Little Garden. Then you can choose to go to Sacred Island, or you can change your route to Drum Island, or even go directly to Alabasta.

In the past few days, from the clear blue skies when we left Alabasta, to the storms halfway through the voyage, and now to the rain, snow and hail, Suzuki has experienced as if he had gone through all four seasons in just a few days.

That's quite normal, though. Drum Island is a winter island, while Alabasta is located on Sun Island, which is obviously a summer island.

Although Drum Island and Alabasta are one after the other in the initial route of the first half of the Grand Line, the distance between the two islands is much farther than it appears on the map.

A short while later, we arrived at Drum Island.

Suzuki put on the down jacket he had bought in advance, said goodbye to the crew, and set foot on the icy island.

"Phew~"

"Heh... Hoo~"

Suzuki walked on Drum Island, where the ground was covered with thick ice and snow. Every step he took left a deep footprint, and every breath he exhaled turned into white mist. The weather here was indeed quite cold!

Suzuki walked unhurriedly towards the capital of the Drum Kingdom. His purpose in coming here was to find the Devil Fruit residing there—the Paramecia-type Gluttony Fruit.

Back in Alabasta, Suzuki had already received information about Drum Island.

Besides the ice and snow common on winter islands, the most famous thing about this island is its doctors. So why do these doctors gather on Drum Island?

This brings us to the current king of Drum Kingdom, Valkyrie, who is the father of Wapol, the tyrannical king Luffy and his crew encountered more than twenty years later.

Valkyrie was not a particularly good person, but he was an ambitious and visionary king.

Decades ago, Valkyrie somehow acquired a collection of extremely valuable medical books, which she then used to attract many doctors to Drum Island.

He then successfully joined the World Government, and even later his son dared to bully Vivi, the princess of Alabasta. If the current king was arrogant and ambitious, then Wapol was cruel and foolish.

Suzuki had his own speculation about the origin of those books:

On Drum Island lives a doctor who is over a hundred years old – Dr. Kureha. Although this doctor is relatively low-key, Valkyrie still knows about him.

Then he used a lot of gentle persuasion, though he didn't dare to be forceful because he was wary of the old monster's strength.

They were unable to persuade Dr. Kureha to come out of retirement, but they still managed to obtain almost all of Dr. Kureha's medical books by taking advantage of her sense of responsibility as a doctor.

Of course, Suzuki didn't care much about the twists and turns involved; his goal was the Devil Fruit.

Not long ago, Suzuki, who was still in Alabasta, received news that the King of Drum Island, Valkyrie, had spent a lot of money to buy a Devil Fruit, supposedly to cure his son Wapol's anorexia.

This news surprised Suzuki greatly, but he wasn't sure if it was true or not. Moreover, by the time he received the news, Wapol might have already eaten the Devil Fruit.

However, Suzuki had been too conspicuous at the port for a while, so he decided to come and take a look.

"Hello, is there a hotel around here?"

Suzuki had already braved the wind and snow to reach the village at the foot of the mountain in the capital, and was asking a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties who was also wrapped in a cotton-padded coat.

The middle-aged man looked somewhat surprised:

"A hotel? This is it!"

"Huh? What's this?"

Suzuki looked at the wooden house in front of him with a puzzled expression. It was unremarkable and no different from the other houses in the village.

Seemingly noticing Suzuki's confusion, the middle-aged man also looked at him, then smiled somewhat sheepishly:

"Hahaha, sorry, sorry, the snow is too heavy, and my hotel sign has fallen down and is covered up again~"

After saying that, the middle-aged man walked to the door of the wooden house, and with his right hand, he dug around in the ground covered with thick snow. Soon he found a wooden sign and forcefully stuck it in front of the door.

"..."

Suzuki watched silently as he rearranged the signboard, pondering how to begin asking about Devil Fruits.

"Young man, are you looking for a hotel room?"

The middle-aged man turned around and asked Suzuki.

"Ah, yes, a hotel room. How many peles per day?"

"Haha, not expensive at all! Five hundred Berries a day, or ten thousand a month, and it includes three meals!"

"Okay, boss, I'll take it for a month."

"Haha, come in, young man, I'll get you a cup of hot water."

Afterwards, Suzuki followed the boss into the hotel. The first floor of the hotel was decorated like a restaurant, and Suzuki casually chose a seat by the window.

A moment later, the hotel owner came to Suzuki with a cup of hot water and said with a smile:

"Come on, warm yourself up. If you want some wine, I can heat it up for you."

Suzuki took the hot water, thanked the hotel owner, then warmed his hands with it, saying casually as he did so:

"Boss, with so many doctors here, do many people come here for treatment?"

The hotel owner replied with a smile:

"Of course, since decades ago, the number of people here has been increasing. Many people have been cured of their illnesses and have settled here."

Suzuki appropriately displayed a curious expression:

"That's great, boss. So, do none of the locals get sick, or if they do, they can get easily cured?"

At this moment, the boss gave him a look that said, "How can you be so naive?" and shook his head.

"How could that be? It's true that it's cheaper for us when we're sick, but we also have many difficult-to-treat illnesses here, and many patients have to stay on the island for long-term treatment. There are also some illnesses that even the doctors can't cure, like..."

The boss glanced at Suzuki, seemingly wanting to say something but hesitating. Suzuki immediately noticed his worry.

"Don't worry, boss, I'm not a reporter. Besides, how could every disease in this world be curable? Then there wouldn't be such a thing as a terminal illness, right?"

The boss thought about it and agreed. Besides, there wasn't anything he couldn't say. Even if he didn't tell, Suzuki would find out eventually after staying here for a few days. So he continued:

"Like that old pirate on the west side of the village, he was so strong when he came, but now, half a year later, he's all skin and bones."

"There was a merchant who lived in that house before. He wasn't very old, maybe in his thirties or forties. I don't know what kind of strange illness he had, but he left a few days after he arrived."

"besides……"

The boss got more and more excited as he spoke, and Suzuki responded by making expressions that were sometimes serious, sometimes sympathetic, and sometimes wistful, until the boss began to say:

"And then there's our prince, you know, he has anorexia, and so many doctors can't cure him. Not long ago, the king even bought a Devil Fruit, but he still refuses to eat it."

"Tsk, when a person has a bad appetite, they're in a bad mood too. Besides, the prince was already short-tempered, and now he's even more irritable. I heard he even killed a servant who was delivering a Devil Fruit."

Upon hearing this, a glint of shrewdness flashed in Suzuki's eyes...

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(End of this chapter)