Chapter 183: Arrival (part 1)
Aoxi never imagined she would see such a disgusting thing in reality… forcibly stuffing a human soul into a creature or even non-living thing that is fundamentally incompatible with it.
To her, who is abnormally sensitive to souls, this was an act even more grotesque than fusing a daughter with a dog into a chimera.
Fortunately, these were not complete human souls, just very small fragments, and their owners should still be alive in the world.
Otherwise, she would forcibly send these things to the Underworld no matter what.
Souls should not be treated like things that can be played with at will.
“Eh? What’s going on?”
“Why did the ship suddenly stop moving? Perorin~”
Perospero, who was originally sitting on the Homies’ autopilot ship, discovered that the ship under his feet suddenly stopped moving, and the annoying song also stopped, so he felt surprised.
You know, normally, no matter how he tried to stop them or make these Homies shut up, it would have no effect.
These things were like perpetual motion machines, with that silly laughter seeming to never stop.
“Whatever, never mind.”
“You few, hurry up and get the oars! These are people from the Beasts Pirates that Mother specifically instructed, I must personally greet them. Perorin~”
“Yes, Lord Perospero!”*n
The various factions participating in the ceremony could not sail their ships directly into Cake Island, the venue for the ceremony, but had to first dock at the nearest Candy Island.
This island, governed by Big Mom’s eldest son Perospero as the Candy Minister, would handle the preliminary reception for the various factions participating in the ceremony.
Of course, Perospero could not entrust this quite tedious and important task to anyone else; if any suspicious characters were let in and disrupted Big Mom’s ceremony, then…
Perospero didn’t continue thinking further, just found the factions on the list that required his personal welcome from the island, then quietly waited for intelligence from the sea slugs lurking at the seabed.
Twenty minutes later, under the strenuous rowing of more than a dozen crew members, Perospero’s ship finally arrived in front of them.
“Welcome to the ‘Whole Cake Island’, everyone from the Beasts Pirates. I am Mother’s eldest son, the Candy Minister Peros… Hm?”
Having straightened his appearance and carrying his candy cane, Perospero first elegantly greeted them, but before he finished speaking, he saw the situation on the ship clearly.
Apart from the obviously ordinary crew member faces, the ones standing in the middle position were a blond man and four children: two boys and two girls.
He found that the visitors were neither Ember, whom Mother had always coveted, nor the other Fish-Man Burufaruto, but…
Perospero confidently looked at that imposing blond man, finding him more and more familiar… These past few days he had reviewed the big figures at sea again, and he was absolutely sure he had seen this man’s photograph.
『Blond hair, glasses, scar on the right eye…』
Suddenly, his pupils shrank!
“【Dark King】 Rayleigh! It’s you!”
“Why are you on a Beasts ship!”
Perospero immediately assumed a vigilant posture; he didn’t recall issuing an invitation to the Roger Pirates.
“Haha! Don’t be nervous, young man.”
“I have an invitation here.”
Rayleigh took out the unsigned pink invitation from his pocket and waved it toward Perospero.
“So it’s an unsigned invitation, no wonder…”
“But why are you on a Beasts ship, where are the Beasts Pirates people? Perorin~”
Seeing that the other side hadn’t forced their way in, Perospero breathed a sigh of relief, even picking up his forgotten verbal tic again.
“We’re here, Mister Peros.”
“This is our invitation.”
Ra, who had been standing by Rayleigh’s side, spoke up in response, also taking out the invitation and sending it to Perospero.
Looking at the invitation slowly floating toward him in the air, Perospero was slightly surprised but still took it and carefully inspected it.
At the same time, he curiously sized up Ra on the opposite ship.
『What a pretty little girl, and… the intelligence was real after all.』
After the Hachinosu Island incident, the Beasts Pirates had officially entered the public eye, and the major factions were naturally full of attention toward this suddenly rising new star.
For a time, all sorts of intelligence about this pirate crew was flying around in the Underworld.
As the Big Mom Pirates, who boasted the best intelligence capability in the New World, they naturally had one of the most detailed sets of intelligence among them.
Moreover, the Beasts Pirates hadn’t tried to hide their major reorganization half a year ago from anyone.
Therefore, the news that the Beasts Pirates had five core executives, three of whom were children, was actually no secret within the Big Mom Pirates.
It was just that no photographs or portraits of these three had leaked out yet, so Perospero couldn’t recognize Ra right away.
“The invitation is fine, however…”
Perospero still looked suspiciously at the two factions that had arrived together; as the first minister of Whole Cake Island, he had to conduct necessary scrutiny.
“The Roger Pirates members had no extra ships, so they hitched a ride on our ship to come together.”
“Haha, that’s right. We just happened to meet… young man, don’t overthink it.”
Rayleigh also saw the other’s concerns and explained.
After all, this time he was really just bringing the children to attend the banquet and didn’t want to cause any trouble.
“I see, what a coincidence. Perorin~”
“In that case, please follow me first. According to procedure, you all need to rest temporarily on my Candy Island, then head to Cake Island before the ceremony begins.”
Perhaps afraid that this arrangement would seem rude, Perospero explained again:
“Because Cake Island is still preparing the specific procedures for the ceremony and it’s inconvenient to open to the outside now, guests who arrive early will stay on my Candy Island first.”
“In that case, we’ll follow local customs and go along with your arrangements.”
“Thank you for understanding. Perorin~”
Perospero nodded, his favorable impression of the pretty blond little girl in front of him rising quite a bit.
『Eh… if only everyone cooperated like her.』
Recalling Hainar from the Golden Lion’s crew who had arrived not long ago, that arrogant and unreasonable attitude had really given Perospero a headache.
Following the sailboat Homie that had woken up but was still playing dead, Ra’s group arrived at the port of Candy Island.
……
“That’s?!”
As soon as they docked, before the group disembarked, the World Economic News Agency reporter who had been lurking here disguised as a trash can for several days raised his Picture Den Den Mushi.
But when he saw the scene in the lens clearly, he froze for a moment, then immediately pressed the shutter and took out the Den Den Mushi for contact.
“Bad news! President!”
“Big News!!!”
