Chapter 76: Banquet
“Haha! La brat, you’re back safe! I heard you ran into Zephyr and Garp, nothing happened to you, right?”
Brother Burufaruto looked La up and down as she just stepped off the ship, asking bluntly with obvious concern in his tone.
“No problem, those two Navy guys are decent people, they didn’t give me or anyone else on the island a hard time.”
“Hmph! What good people could there be in that Navy bunch.”
“Since nothing happened, let’s head to the banquet hall. Mr. Kaido and the others are still waiting for you there.”
Ember seemed to have quite a prejudice against the Navy, and seeing that La wasn’t injured, he left directly.
“Another kid who’s not honest with his feelings, clearly he got here earlier than me to wait.”
Brother Burufaruto muttered softly while watching Ember’s departing back.
“Maybe he’s just not used to expressing his goodwill to others yet.” La saw right through the essence of Ember’s behavior.
“Basically, he’s just tsundere~ What a awkward guy.”
Obei mercilessly pierced through Ember’s mask.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough on this topic.”
Brother Burufaruto waved his hand and led everyone in one direction.
“Let’s head to the banquet hall first. Boss Kaido is holding a grand banquet there, just waiting for you all to arrive before it starts.
This is the biggest banquet I’ve seen since joining the Beasts Pirates. I saw a lot of wine the boss brought out that I’ve never even seen before.”
“Later, I’m gonna drink until I puke. Hahaha!”
“Let them drop off their luggage first. Carrying all that stuff around, they can’t enjoy the banquet properly.”
La hadn’t forgotten the logistics pirates she brought with her.
“Oh yeah~ Right, right, I almost forgot.”
Brother Burufaruto slapped his forehead:
“Hey! You few, take them to the current logistics department, arrange rooms for them, then come straight to the banquet!”
“I’ll save you a few bottles of good booze!”
Brother Burufaruto said to the few pirates still on sentry duty.
“Yes! Brother Burufaruto!”
The pirates assigned to night duty tonight were instantly beaming with joy, cheerfully leading the logistics personnel toward the new logistics department location.
La had no issue with Brother Burufaruto directly pulling the guard personnel.
Her belated awareness during the previous ‘Navy landing incident’ made La start reflecting on her deficiencies in capturing external dynamic information.
So she spent some time ‘optimizing’ her current perception system.
It not only greatly improved the range and precision of her perception, but also kept it in a semi-activated state at all times, immediately detecting any large energy objects approaching.
For true geniuses, finding the ‘need’ is often the most time-consuming part; the rest is just solving the problem as a matter of course.
She had originally planned to include all energy-carrying objects around her in her perception, but after thinking it over, she gave up.
It wasn’t because her current mental power was insufficient; mainly, La felt that this sense of controlling everything wasn’t good for her right now.
Her already somewhat faint sensibility couldn’t withstand the ravages of ‘omniscience’ anymore.
……
The luxurious banquet hall was brightly lit, pirates toasting and drinking.
Crystal-clear alcoholic beverage splashed casually onto the stacked delicacies amid the back-and-forth, but no one minded; for them, this free and even wild atmosphere was what they pursued.
Laughter, cursing, finger-guessing shouts, clinking glasses……
A pirate banquet has no gentlemanly pianists, no elegant violinists, and certainly no social etiquette revered by nobles.
It only has the most primal desires and the most unrestrained venting.
“Gulp gulp gulp… Ha~”
“Ember, you’re back.”
At the host seat of the banquet, Kaido was pouring Woka Kingdom specialty booze from a new wine gourd into his mouth; the light on his face surprisingly showed a rare flush.
“How is it, is that La brat okay?”
“She’s fine, should be here any moment.”
Ember walked to Kaido’s right side and sat down in his own seat.
On the low table in front of him was a plate of flying fish sashimi, the glistening fish meat neatly arranged piece by piece on the plate like mutton-fat jade, looking pleasing to the eye.
Ember slightly lifted his mask, picked up a piece and put it in his mouth, but his brows furrowed slightly.
Hmm, not as good as last time’s taste. Looks like they changed chefs.
Just as Ember was about to call the kitchen to remake a plate of sashimi, the banquet hall’s gate was forcefully pushed open.
A little red one rushed in excitedly, followed by Brother Burufaruto’s shouts.
“Hey!”
“Little Brat Aoxi, slow down, and that’s my seat!”
Aoxi completely ignored Brother Burufaruto behind her and directly sat in the empty seat with the most food in front of it.
“Eh?! You all already started? You didn’t wait for us!”
“Pirate banquets don’t have time rules; it starts when the mood strikes. Gulp gulp gulp~”
Kaido glanced at the bustling Aoxi, then shifted his gaze to the doorway.
Right behind Aoxi came Brother Burufaruto, who was now tugging at Aoxi who had taken his seat.
Behind the two, La and Obei followed unhurriedly, seeming to chat idly about something.
And as that golden figure stepped into the banquet hall, the surrounding air instantly stilled, the clamor coming to an abrupt halt.
It felt a lot like a self-study class halfway through when the homeroom teacher suddenly appears at the door.
“Captain Kaido, I’m back.”
After entering, La didn’t plop down like Aoxi; instead, she first greeted Kaido at the head seat.
“Now that you’re here, hurry and sit down.”
Kaido scanned the pirates around who were all standing obediently, saying somewhat helplessly.
Who knows what magic La has; those usually unruly pirates all shrank back like chicks the moment they saw her.
In Kaido’s impression, La hadn’t fought any Beasts Pirates members besides himself, so he didn’t know why they feared her so much.
“Mm.”
La nodded, then glanced around.
She didn’t head toward the head seat area, instead sitting directly in the nearest seat to her; Obei also promptly sat beside La.
And with La seated, the pirates relaxed again, the banquet resuming its lively atmosphere.
The pirates continued their arm-around-shoulder camaraderie and feasting.
Some bolder pirates even gathered around La and the others, asking this and that.
“Lady La, I heard you ran into a Navy Admiral; tell us what kind of guy he is?”
“Yeah, yeah, tell us. I haven’t even seen any Navy above major general rank.”
“I heard not only an admiral, but also that ‘Navy Hero’!
I heard that guy has a face full of fierce flesh, and one punch can directly smash a pirate ship! Is that true?”
“Eh~ I also heard some Navy like collecting pirates’ heads. Is that true, Lady La?”
“You’re all wrong!
I heard from those Flying Pirates crew guys that that Navy Admiral can transform into over ten meters tall, glowing all over, and slap someone into meat paste with one palm!
Sometimes when hungry, they even eat pirates raw!”
“Not just that, I heard they carry condiments with them and…”
……
Amid the pirates’ chatter of one word here and one there, the Navy’s image gradually shifted toward something bizarre.
La found it somewhat amusing.
Perhaps in those young Navy’s hearts, New World pirates are all blue-faced with fangs, devouring flesh and blood raw.
Clearly both humans, yet just because of differing positions, they demonize the other into clawing monsters.
So, humans are truly interesting~
“The Navy admirals aren’t as terrifying as you think.”
Hearing La speak, the surrounding pirates all fell silent, looking at her expectantly to continue.
“Well… Overall, that Navy Admiral named ‘Zephyr’ looks like a kindly middle-aged uncle on the surface, pretty ordinary.
Of course, in terms of strength, he should be no less than Captain Kaido.”
“As for that ‘Navy Hero’ Garp…”
“Mm, he’s a quite childlike middle-aged uncle, or more like a big kid who never grew up.”
“Ordinary? Middle-aged uncle?! Big kid?!!”
“No way, my drinking buddy didn’t say that.”
One pirate was somewhat disbelieving; a grand Navy Admiral, the Navy’s top combat power, how could he be so mundane!
“Give it up, York! That drinking buddy of yours must’ve fooled you.
Forget admiral, he probably hasn’t even seen a vice admiral!”
“I know, you met him at that ‘Roronoa tavern,’ right? That place is full of bragging liars!”
“Exactly, Lady La saw them with her own eyes, way more reliable than what your shady friend said.”
“By the way, didn’t that ‘Hero Garp’ make the newspaper a few years ago? Don’t you all remember?”
……
The pirates started discussing animatedly one after another; for them, as enemies, the Navy’s star figures made for decent gossip.
From hearsay rumors to secondhand snippets, from personal strength to personal scandals…
Pirates clutching wine bottles and holding wine glasses immersed themselves in the free atmosphere of chatting about everything, enjoying the rare merriment.
