By evening, both Eust and Lyra had completed their tasks. Despite being a bit tired, they were visibly pleased.
On one hand, completing their tasks and receiving rewards meant that both had grown stronger. Eust estimated that he could now easily handle a dozen or so ordinary pirate grunts. Having consumed the enhanced Lilith Fruit, Lyra could comfortably take on two or three grunts.
On the other hand, Lilith had stored up enough energy. Everyone was curious to see how she would complete the ship evolution process. Curiosity, after all, is the driving force of human progress.
When Lilith began her ship evolution, the scene left everyone speechless. A cloud of smoke emerged from Lilith’s small fishing boat form, enveloping the small sailboat meant for evolution. They couldn’t see what was happening inside the smoke. After a short while, Lilith completed the ship’s evolution.
Eust, Lyra, and Sunny had high expectations and were momentarily dumbfounded. They had anticipated a spectacular transformation but instead got a cloud of smoke obscuring everything. Were mosaics trending in the pirate world now?
Despite their disappointment, they were all happy that Lilith had successfully evolved her ship form. Lilith’s ship evolution ability allowed her to switch between different forms. She now had three ship forms: the original form, the small fishing boat form, and the small sailboat form.
They had Lilith demonstrate the original form, which turned out to be a small, model-like ship—unexpectedly cute.
They were more familiar with the small fishing boat and small sailboat forms. From the outside, there was no discernible difference between Lilith’s transformed ship and a real one, which was beneficial for her concealment.
Eust had an immediate concern and asked Sunny to question Lilith about it. He wanted to know if Lilith could monitor everything inside the ship’s cabin.
Fortunately, Lilith explained that while she could be aware of what was happening on her ship, doing so consumed energy, so she usually kept that function off to save energy.
Relieved, Eust ordered Lilith not to “spy” on the cabin without permission, ensuring the crew’s privacy.
Currently, Eust had only one human crew member, Lyra, and they were still on a small sailboat. He was already thinking ahead, concerned about the crew’s privacy in the future—at lEust, that’s what he told himself.
With the ghost ship issue on Ghost Island resolved, there was no reason to stay on Spike Island. Eust decided to set sail the next day.
That night, they didn’t worry about sudden silence. Lyra and Sunny got along well, though they did argue, with Lyra usually winning since Sunny loved her cooking.
The next day, Eust and his crew went to the island’s only restaurant to say goodbye and restock their supplies before setting sail.
The restaurant owner had been helpful, providing useful information, even if Eust hadn’t used much of it. His “encounter” with the ghost ship was more luck than anything else. Bidding farewell and restocking there was a normal gesture.
Eust subtly indicated that he was abandoning the search for the ghost ship and leaving the island—a strategic move to divert any suspicion.
Eust didn’t expect anyone to follow him, but they wouldn’t suspect that he had “taken” the ghost ship if anyone did.
Well, “taken” wasn’t the right word. He had taken in the young ghost ship, Lilith, and was now responsible for protecting, nurturing, and educating her, treating Lilith as his own child.
Having said goodbye to the only acquaintance on Spike Island, Eust and his crew set sail. Their destination was Syrup Island, home to Usopp’s village, Syrup Village.
Based on the timeline, Usopp should have already joined Luffy’s crew. Eust’s goal wasn’t to poach him.
Syrup Island was close to Lilith’s previous location. More importantly, Eust wanted Merry, a loyal servant of Miss Kaya and a talented ship designer, to help remodel their ship’s cabin.
Merry, the designer of the Going Merry, had built a ship that survived many adventures with Luffy’s crew.
This time, Eust’s crew sailed with two boats: Lilith’s small sailboat form and the larger sailboat left by the cunning Malfoy’s crew. Though it appeared the larger boat was towing the smaller one, Lilith’s boat could sail independently, merely appearing to be towed by the larger ship.
Lilith could act on Eust’s command in an emergency and even tow the larger boat.
Eust found the smaller boat of high quality and decided to use it as material for Lilith’s next evolution. So, he brought it along.
Even if he didn’t use it for Lilith’s evolution, he could sell it elsewhere for a good amount of Beli, which he could then use to buy a suitable ship for Lilith’s evolution.
Eust was dissatisfied with the current ship’s cabin and hoped to remodel it. It wasn’t ideal for him and Lyra to share a single cabin indefinitely.
He wanted the cabin divided into three parts: one room each for himself and Lyra and a storage room.
That’s why Eust thought of Merry in Syrup Village, making Syrup Island their next destination.
Lilith explained that the cooldown period for her ship’s evolution was related to the size of the evolved ship. This meant they didn’t need to always find the largest possible ship for Lilith to evolve. Any preferred ship within her evolution limit was a potential target.
The sailboat Eust had in mind exceeded Lilith’s previous evolution limit. While she couldn’t evolve it in one go, she could eventually complete its evolution after some time.
Lilith’s various ship forms followed a basic principle: smaller forms were faster, while larger forms were more “practical.”
For example, if her original form’s speed was 100 and its size was minimal, a small fishing boat four times the size wouldn’t have a quarter of the speed but about 95, indicating that the small fishing boat was more practically useful overall.
With the thought of remodeling the cabin, Eust set sail for Syrup Island.
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