Chapter 108: The Healing

Although Clorcas was nearly seventy years old, he remained vigorous, robust as an ox, and his mobility was astonishingly high.

After learning from Garen about the whereabouts of the missing person Brook, the old man Clorcas immediately demonstrated his incredible strength by dragging a sea vessel with his bare hands:

His burly, powerful muscles tensed with explosive definition as he hoisted a two-deck-high ship out of the warehouse behind the Gemini Cape lighthouse, then casually tossed it into the sea.

The tremendous crash drowned out the restless coastal waves, and towering white surf splashed against the sheer cliffs rising over ten meters.

“Wait... didn’t he say he was a doctor?” Nami watched, momentarily stunned.

She had been deeply worried about Clorcas, who dared to oppose the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Now, all she could feel was utter shock.

“Yes, Clorcas really is a doctor,” Garen nodded, then casually explained, “But a doctor who roams freely along the Grand Line would surely have some means of self-defense.”

Nami reluctantly accepted the image of Clorcas as a doctor with devilish muscles and secretly reminded herself: when seeking medical help in the Grand Line, she must be mindful of the doctor-patient relationship.

After setting the ship afloat, Clorcas briskly waved goodbye to Garen.

“Thanks for the information, young man!”

“When I find Brook, I’ll come back to thank you in person!”

“Just a small favor,” Garen waved nonchalantly and proposed, “Are you setting off now? We’re heading to the Alabasta Kingdom; if it’s on the way, we could travel together for a while.”

“No need,” Clorcas smiled. “I want to reach the Sabaody Archipelago as soon as possible to meet an old friend. The route through Alabasta is not the shortest.”

“Sabaody Archipelago, huh?” Hearing that name, Garen immediately thought of Clorcas’ old companion: an elderly man who spent his days idling and playing, yet was a formidable swimmer crossing the Calm Belt — “Dark King” Rayleigh.

Garen was unsure of Clorcas’ true combat prowess, but if he were to bring along that teammate into the Devil’s Triangle again...

Garen silently mourned for Gecko Moria for a full three seconds.

“Well then, goodbye!”

Clorcas and Garen waved once more. Eager to find Brook, Clorcas prepared to board his ship and depart.

“Goodbye!” Garen, showing no hesitation, waved back and turned to return to his ship.

“But...” Garen muttered, furrowing his brow after only a few steps, “I feel like I’ve forgotten something...”

“Don’t overthink it!” Nami tugged his hand forward a couple of steps, chiding gently, “We just went through a sea battle, and Vivi is still busy cleaning up and repairing the ship.”

“You’re the captain, after all. Come back with me quickly!”

“True,” Garen nodded lightly, suddenly recalling that his ship had just been showered with cannon fire.

The deck and hull were battered to ruin by those pirates; several sails were destroyed. The once magnificent and imposing dreadnought had been reduced to a pitiful wreck.

As someone who refused to rest until his health bar was full, Garen felt a deep pain for his scarred flagship.

“Those pirates are truly despicable!” he said with righteous indignation. “They brought ruin upon themselves, but dragged my entire ship down with them.”

“Now I have to pay for the repairs myself!”

Fifty million in bounties, experience from numerous grunts, and a technologically advanced ironclad warship — in the end, nothing remained, not even a single hair.

“Uh...”

“I did manage to salvage something...” Garen suddenly stopped, finally recalling what he had forgotten.

He hurriedly turned back and called out to Clorcas, who had not yet gone far.

“Doctor! Come save someone!”

...

Garen had underestimated his own strength and overestimated the resilience of the middle-aged man he had thrown like a javelin.

So when Garen found the poor fellow lying unconscious in a large human-shaped pit he had dug himself, he was like a puddle of soft clay, completely limp.

Had Garen been any later, he might have earned a trivial amount of experience points.

But Garen had also underestimated the black-tech medical arts of this world.

This unremarkable middle-aged man had, by a twist of fate, received the treatment befitting a Pirate King, personally healed by Clorcas, the world’s top doctor.

As the ship’s doctor of the Pirate King, Clorcas’ profound and unfathomable medical skills seemed almost magical, shattering Garen’s understanding of medicine:

Naked-eye X-ray scans, auscultation from a distance, bone resetting without tools, mysterious restorative medicines resembling magical artifacts, and rapid healing bandages...

After a series of procedures, the middle-aged man, who had been crushed nearly to pulp, crawled energetically out of bed.

Saying “energetic” might be an exaggeration, as the man remained somewhat dazed and listless.

But judging by his ability to get out of bed and walk back and forth, he might just survive another toss from Garen.

“It’s been a long time since I last treated someone...” Clorcas said calmly after only twenty minutes, “My skills have become a bit rusty.”

Nami stared with wide eyes, silently resolving to cultivate a good relationship with this Dr. Clorcas for future specialist consultations.

Clorcas, clearly accustomed to such awestruck gazes, unfazed, explained the patient’s condition to Garen:

“He’s no longer in critical condition. After a few days of proper rest, he should recover.”

“However...” Garen tensed, dreading whenever doctors, leaders, or teachers uttered such a turning phrase in front of him.

He quickly composed himself, remembering that this time the patient was not himself.

Clorcas continued, “For some reason, this man is inherently weak — with feeble limbs, dull eyes, slack muscles, and slow thinking — in short...”

“Fragile.” Garen summarized with one succinct word.

Though he didn’t know how the system’s automatic translation rendered a concept understood only by the Celestial Empire, Clorcas brightened at the word and nodded.

“Yes, fragile indeed.”

“This man’s body is worse than mine, an old man. He’ll need to take good care of himself and exercise regularly.”

“Uh...” Garen glanced silently at Clorcas’ massive muscles, barely restraining a quip.

But Clorcas was a world-class doctor, dedicated to his profession.

Though this patient was an obscure, frail middle-aged man, Clorcas carefully prepared healing medicines and designed a comprehensive rehabilitation and exercise plan tailored to his frailty.

Once all arrangements were complete, Clorcas bid farewell to Garen and the others again, embarking on his mission to find Brook and team up with Rayleigh to confront their foes.

Garen and Nami finally returned to the Dread Vanguard, bringing the rescued middle-aged man aboard.

Beforehand, Garen had tested this stranger’s level of malevolence with his greatsword.

The man passed Garen’s test; otherwise, Garen would not have allowed Clorcas to treat him, but rather would have dealt a finishing blow while he lay in that pit.

Back on the ship, Garen asked the middle-aged man his identity.

Still wrapped in bandages, the man understood that this man before him was both his savior and the one who controlled his fate.

He quickly answered, “My name is Kentucky, a scientist from the North Sea.”