Chapter 78: Big News
“Eh? Sister La, you’re back.”
In front of the washstand, Aoxi had just gotten out of bed and was now standing on tiptoes on a stool, haphazardly wiping her face with a towel.
Next to her was Obei, who had her arms crossed with an impatient expression while waiting; clearly, with only one washstand, she hadn’t managed to beat Aoxi to it.
“Yeah, I wandered around on the island casually. This is breakfast for you all.”
La placed a set of roasted meat burritos and fish porridge on the table.
This was the best-selling breakfast combo on the island, and under La’s authority, they still retained the taste they had right when they were sold.
As for those snacks, La planned to give them to her after finishing the meal.
“Ah woo~”
“Sister La, what do you think of this island?”
After washing up, Aoxi grabbed a burrito still steaming hot and stuffed it into her mouth, while not forgetting to ask how La’s morning stroll had gone.
“Aoxi, don’t talk with food in your mouth.”
La tapped her upon hearing Aoxi’s mumbled words.
“This place is indeed much better than the previous stronghold.
Whether in terms of area or population, it’s an order of magnitude larger, and the port and dock are also much more expansive than before. It seems there are frequent trade relations with the outside world.”
“And not just that, Big Sister.”
“Besides Fenrir, this main island, we also took down two slightly smaller sub-islands and many affiliated small islands this time.
In terms of total area, it’s at least ten times larger than before.”
Obei, who had finished washing up a bit later, also sat down now, picking up the steaming fresh fish porridge and taking a small sip.
Mm, fresh, fragrant, tender, and smooth—indeed delicious.
After swallowing the porridge in her mouth, Obei added:
“This sea area also has two dedicated sea transport currents passing through. Whether it’s trade circulation or resource development, it’s a world of difference compared to before.”
La nodded as she listened to Obei’s words, clearly very satisfied with this harvest as well.
“It seems that after this battle, the Beasts Pirates can barely be called a major faction carving out territory in the New World.”
“By the way, has Burufaruto woken up yet?”
Remembering the news published in the newspaper, La felt it was about time to go find Kaido and the others.
“Don’t know, I didn’t see Uncle himself.
But when getting up, I did hear the masked man’s voice. That guy seems to have left pretty early last night too.”
This time, Aoxi obediently swallowed her food before answering La’s question.
“Mm, in that case, you all eat first.
I’ll go to the banquet hall to check. There are some things I need to discuss with Captain and the others.”
With that, La stood up to leave.
“Got it, Big Sister. You take care on the way… Hey! Aoxi, you brat, don’t steal my fish slices!”
“I’m just tasting it~ Worst case, I’ll compensate you with the lettuce from my burrito.”
“Here~ Take it.”
“You!”
“Aoxi, no being picky with food.”
“Oh…”
……
“Knock, knock, knock~”
La arrived at the gate of last night’s banquet hall and gently knocked on the door a few times, but as expected, got no response.
Pushing open the gate of the banquet hall, sure enough, inside were pirates sprawled all over the floor, dead drunk.
Some lying down, some sitting, some sprawled, some stacked… in short, each one drunk beyond recognition.
Her gaze swept to a spot inside, where Burufaruto that fish-man was directly head-down, legs propped on the wine table in an inverted hang, with an empty wine bottle still hooked on his horn.
『Looks like I need to find a time to talk with the Captain. The binge drinking trend within the organization should be reined in a bit.』
La’s face remained expressionless as she bent down to pick up a wine bottle that had rolled to her feet and placed it back on the table.
Though she didn’t want to disturb their sweet dreams, she felt the banquet time was about up.
She slightly released a bit of her own divine might—this was La’s “Conqueror’s Haki” formed by imitating the way Kaido released Conqueror’s Haki.
People who possess Conqueror’s Haki have mental power and will that are extraordinary; they can release special energy fluctuations to influence or even shake others’ souls. This is a special attack originating from the essence of life.
And La, being similarly unique in this aspect, could naturally do it as well.
In fact, due to her mental power’s quality and status far surpassing that of normal people, the “Conqueror’s Haki” La released already faintly showed signs of evolving into something else.
As an invisible fluctuation centered on La spread out in all directions, all the pirates instantly opened their eyes in terror.
Burufaruto directly tumbled off the wine table, while Kaido had even subconsciously reached for his weapon.
“Everyone, good afternoon.”
An ethereal voice rang out, its gentle tone as if to pacify the souls just startled.
This action was indeed very effective; the pirates’ originally ferocious expressions, as if throats gripped, instantly softened.
“Urgh~ It’s you.”
Kaido released the wolf fang club, rubbed his head with his hand, and sobered up from the hangover.
“Hey hey! Miss, could you not scare us like that~”
Burufaruto, climbing up from the ground, complained; he was so scared his form of address had changed.
That sensation just now was like being stared at by some indescribable terrifying existence.
This chilling, suffocating feeling involuntarily reminded him of the ancient god legends of slumbering at the seabed that he heard in his childhood—truly his childhood trauma.
“Sorry, waking you one by one is too inefficient. Next time I’ll use a gentler method.”
La gave a brief explanation, then handed the newspaper in her hand to Kaido.
“Back to business. Captain Kaido, here’s today’s newspaper.”
“Mm… Huh?”
Kaido rubbed his somewhat blurry eyes, then carefully looked at a bold headline on the newspaper.
『New World’s Collision! Hero Garp Fierce Battle with Admiral Zephyr Against Flying Great Pirate!!!』
“What’s up, Boss Kaido? What’s in the newspaper?”
Seeing Kaido dazed, Burufaruto curiously leaned over too.
“Ah?!”
“That Golden Lion guy actually ran into Garp and Zephyr! And they even had a huge battle!”
Seeing the content in the newspaper, Burufaruto was also greatly shocked.
What luck does Shiki have?! To run into the Navy on their return trip, and unusually engage in intense conflict with them.
From the on-site photographs, this time it absolutely wasn’t like before, where both sides symbolically clashed a couple times and then parted.
The image was full of warship wreckage and corpses; Burufaruto even spotted one executive under Shiki whom he recognized, with his chest blasted apart.
“Boss Kaido! This…”
“Uro-ro-ro-ro! Looks like Shiki that guy was hiding something!”
Kaido had also noticed the clues.
With the Golden Lion’s mobility, there was no need to clash head-on with the Navy like this.
Unless there was something he absolutely had to get that was in the Navy’s hands, or for some reason they couldn’t bypass this Navy force.
Thus, the outwardly brute but inwardly scheming Kaido fell into thought…
