Chapter 194: The Two Little Ones’ Perilous Adventure
Old Media’s already somewhat hunched body became even more hunched after hearing Aoxi’s words; his so-called final chip seemed like a worthless plastic piece in the other’s eyes.
Beasts Pirates is not a gambler and wouldn’t gamble with prey much weaker than itself.
He passed over the seats of the underworld bosses and glanced in the direction of the main seat.
There, Big Mom was eating dessert in big bites while talking about something with Ra next to her.
But Ra made no move to reply, just quietly listening and occasionally looking toward the Cake Castle.
Those few people at the main table never turned their line of sight this way from start to finish.
Fair enough, after all, this was the kids’ table; no matter how much commotion they made, it was just children’s playfighting.
“Sigh~”
Old Media let out a deep sigh and dragged his son, who still wanted to say something, back to his seat.
But after searching for a long time, he couldn’t find where his seat was, so under the crowd’s mocking gazes, he took Caspar and walked out toward the plaza.
Getting old after all…
Aoxi glanced at the new and old generations of Media who were already arguing nonstop before they were even far away, then disinterestedly withdrew her gaze.
She really had no mood to care about the pervert’s affairs and was too lazy to kill him over a few offensive words; as long as he didn’t bother her anymore, that was fine.
Don’t think that just because she usually spoke without restraint and couldn’t even pay back the public morals Buddha ancestors she cursed on her mouth, Aoxi actually had the best personality among the three sisters.
Compared to the cold and arrogant Obei and Ra who was gradually unaccustomed to “treating people as people,” the optimistic and natural Aoxi was the most approachable of the three sisters.
Even if someone accidentally made her angry, as long as it didn’t touch her principles, she would easily forgive others.
“Hm? Where are those two little ones?”
Retracting her gaze, Aoxi turned back and found that Little Shanks and Little Baki, who had been noisily arguing, were gone now.
“Earlier, a guy with an orange head came and called away his younger brother, and those two brats quietly followed.”
“Probably following to find the toilet, who knows.”
Obei didn’t care about where the two little ones went; she just frowned while looking at the pile of gun parts disassembled on the table.
“Going to the toilet~ Hope they don’t fall into the pit…”
Having eaten and drunk her fill, Aoxi no longer cared about others’ dining experience at all; luckily, everyone at the table was a child, so no one minded.
……
“Hey~ Shan, Shanks. Are we really doing this? If, if we’re discovered, we’re done for!”
Inside the Cake Castle, Shanks and Buggy were hiding in the shadows of a corner, sneakily eyeing Oven and the other ahead of them.
“Shh~ Buggy, keep your voice down!”
Little Shanks quickly covered his childhood friend’s mouth, which was out of control from excessive tension.
“Didn’t you hear what that pretty boy said? There’s a red Poneglyph in the castle’s treasure vault!”
“That’s the thing Captain Roger has always been looking for; if we can bring it back, he’ll be so happy.”
Hearing Captain Roger’s name, Little Buggy stopped struggling and nodded firmly with determined eyes.
The “pretty boy” they mentioned was Big Mom’s nineteenth son, Charlotte Mont D’Or, about the same age as them.
Because he recently accidentally ate a Superhuman-type fruit called the Book-Book Fruit, Mont D’Or gained the power to create a Book World and could bring things from the outside into the book.
Because of this, Big Mom got the idea to hide some of the precious treasures from the Cake Castle’s underground treasure vault into the Book World.
The red Road Poneglyph was one of them.
……
The two little ones quietly followed behind Oven all the way to the deepest part of the castle.
It was a huge room spanning several stories full of treasures.
On the stairwell passages between floors, countless treasure chests were messily placed.
Peering through some slightly open gaps, the chests were filled with either dazzling gold, gleaming pearls, or gems.
These were treasure chests perfectly matching people’s stereotypical impression of “treasure chests.”
Of course, besides these casually placed treasure chests, in the center of the treasure room, behind sturdy fences, there were prominently two Poneglyphs.
The one on the upper level among them had a red appearance completely different from other Poneglyphs.
“As expected, it’s the red Poneglyph!”
“Great, it’s really the thing Captain Roger has been looking for!”
Shanks and Buggy made eye contact and saw the excitement and joy in each other’s eyes, but the two little ones forcibly held back the impulse to high-five in celebration.
……
“Brother Oven, is this Devil Fruit going into my Book World?”
Mont D’Or, called over by Oven, asked curiously.
“No, not for now.”
“Mother’s intention is to keep it first as a reward for the younger brothers and sisters who perform merits in the future.”
“Take out the spare key for the treasure vault from your Book World first.”
“Yeah, okay, Brother Oven.”
Mont D’Or nodded, then waved his hand, and a small book with 《keys》 written on the cover appeared in his hand.
“Hm… I remember the key for vault 48 is in, is in…”
Mont D’Or flipped through the book in his hand, page by page with key patterns passing by.
“Ah! Found it!”
On a certain page, Mont D’Or finally found the corresponding key and directly took it out from the page to hand to Oven.
“Thanks, really convenient ability.”
Oven took the key and casually praised him.
“Haha~ No way, still far from Brother Oven and Brother Katakuri.”
After all, it was a non-combat ability with no boost to combat power, but Mont D’Or was happy to help Mother and his brothers.
Open vault 48, put the Devil Fruit in hand inside, then make the record.
After doing all this, Oven directly turned and left with his younger brother, the whole process meticulous.
After confirming the two had walked far away, Buggy and Shanks cautiously emerged from the corner.
“Phew~”
“That was suffocating~”
Buggy let out a long breath, wiped the nervous sweat from his forehead, and then seeing the treasures piled up like mountains around, couldn’t help but feel swayed.
“Is this Big Mom’s treasure vault? So amazing!”
“But these will soon be mine, Great Grandpa Buggy’s~”
“Haha—mmph!”
Once again covering his somewhat carried-away little partner’s mouth, Shanks said helplessly:
“Buggy, our goal is the red Poneglyph. Hurry up and grab it, then we slip away; no time to deal with these treasures.”
“Mmph…!”
“Woo woo woo woo（ I got it）.”
“Phew~”
Breaking free from Shanks’s hand, Buggy exhaled, then asked a core question.
“Shanks, us… how are we gonna take away such a huge Poneglyph?”
“?!”
Reminded by him, then looking at the Poneglyph on the second floor tightly protected by ten refined steel fences, Shanks’s eyes widened.
Earlier, upon hearing “red Poneglyph,” he had followed without thinking, completely forgetting how to steal the thing out.
Of course, it wasn’t too late to think now.
“Th-this…”
“Th-that… that…”
“Hm… hey! Since we can’t carry it, how about we use a Picture Den Den Mushi to take a photo and bring it back?”
Little hand slapping his palm, Shanks cleverly came up with a solution.
“But we don’t have a Picture Den Den Mushi~”
“Don’t those reporters up there have them? We can just steal one.”
“Good idea!”
Buggy also slapped his palm and then hurriedly pushed Shanks to head out together.
“Let’s go, quick round trip; we can’t let Mister Rayleigh find out.”
“This time we’ll give them a big surprise.”
However, just as Shanks was full of confidence preparing to execute his plan, a stern voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.
“Great idea, but theft is prohibited in Whole Cake Island!”
“?!”
“Buggy, watch out!”
Catching sight of the tall orange figure suddenly appearing behind Buggy, without time to think, Shanks directly pushed his little partner aside.
“Shanks?”
Boom!!!
Amid Buggy’s puzzled voice, a fist radiating astonishing heat waves directly hit Shanks’s chest!
Damn, running errands is so tiring! Especially when the leader’s leader is doing rankings! Next time, just name the annoying NPCs after the leader~
