Chapter 176: Charlotte Linlin's Invitation
In the span of a blink, the Charlotte family arrived.
The moment Charlotte Linlin saw Loki bound from head to toe in Sea Prism Stone chains like a small mountain, the feral snarl on her face melted away. In an instant, it flipped to a gentle, spring-breeze smile.
A true master of changing faces.
"Mama mama… Loki, you do not look so good. Let Auntie Linlin help you."
Her tone was soft, her smile kindly, like a doting old lady from next door fussing over a junior. Her words, however, left no room for refusal.
As she spoke, the twin-horned pirate hat on her head, Napoleon, leaped of its own accord.
Midair, it shifted shape into a massive sword and landed neatly in Linlin's hand.
The fight was a breath away.
At that life-or-death instant, Kai stepped forward and planted himself between Loki and Charlotte Linlin.
He smiled, calm as ever. "You are late. Loki is my crewmate now. He does not need your help."
Linlin's kindly smile froze.
You are late?
Translate that for this old lady. What the hell do you mean by "late"?
Her mouth twitched once. She forced a smile back onto her face and tried one last angle. "Loki, tell Auntie Linlin. Did they force you? Are they threatening you? Say the word and Auntie will stand up for you."
In her mind, Loki had just been beaten half to death by Kai. Hearing such "warm" concern, he should burst into tears and switch sides on the spot.
Reality slapped that thought away.
Loki turned his head aside with open disdain and shouted at the Beasts Pirates around him, who had gone stiff under Big Mom's pressure. "What are you standing around for? Hurry up and get these chains off me."
He did not spare Linlin so much as a glance.
Reckless, he might be. Stupid, he was not.
He had already chosen to board Kai's ship. There was no room left to wobble.
Linlin's cheap tricks for coaxing children did not work here.
Snapped at by Loki, the Beasts Pirates snapped out of their daze and scrambled to unlatch the chains.
Linlin's face went rigid. A volcano of fury erupted in her chest.
How many years had it been?!
How many years had it been since anyone had dared ignore her words?!
As the last chain clattered to the deck, Loki pushed himself up, strength trickling back. He grabbed his hammer and bellowed at Kai, "Let's go already. After that fight, I am starving. I want a proper feast."
"Hungry?"
Light flashed in Charlotte Linlin's eyes.
Good.
She forced her rage down, piling an enthusiastic smile back onto her face as she boomed, "Mama mama! Since you have come all this way into Totto Land, let this old lady play host and treat you properly. Just in time. This old lady will hold a grand Tea Party."
"Huh?"
At her side, Cracker blinked.
The next Tea Party was still months away.
He instinctively glanced at Katakuri and Smoothie. Seeing both brother and sister keep their faces impassive and say nothing, he buried his doubts and stayed quiet.
"Tea Party?"
Behind Kai, his crew traded confused looks.
They had, of course, heard of it.
Once a year, the Big Mom Pirates' most important gathering, their grand company event.
Unlike a normal company's year-end party, you did not get to skip Big Mom's Tea Party.
Get an invitation and dare not show up.
You might as well dig your own grave.
But it was only the beginning of 1518 by the Sea Circle Calendar. What Tea Party?
And they were not even one of her subordinate crews.
Perhaps sensing their doubts, or perhaps eager to show Loki how much she "valued" him, Linlin laughed aloud. "Mama mama! Just having the honor of hosting Prince Loki of Elbaf is reason enough to move the Tea Party up."
If she could get close to Loki and use him as an intermediary, her relationship with Elbaf could finally turn.
Then the giant strength she had dreamed of for a lifetime would no longer be out of reach.
Everyone turned to Kai in unison, waiting for his call.
Even Loki glanced his way, unconsciously looking to him for the lead. The sight made Linlin grind her teeth with envy.
Why.
Those two had just been beating each other half to death, and now they both followed Kai's word like this.
Why had she never had that kind of treatment when she was young?
So what if she had accidentally killed a few giants and flattened a village? Did they really have to hold it against her forever?
She had been the one there first. She had gone to Elbaf first and made friends with the giants first.
Yet somehow, Kai had swooped in and stolen the giant prince's friendship out from under her.
Kai had stolen the life that should have been hers.
The more she thought about it, the blacker Charlotte Linlin's mood grew. Her eyes narrowed to slits, her gaze like knives as it slid to Kai. "Mama mama. You are not thinking of turning down this old lady's kindness, are you?"
The threat in her voice could not have been clearer.
Kai did not blink. "What if I am? You going to start a fight?"
He and Loki were both battered and drained, but at a moment like this, he could not yield an inch in spirit.
Linlin was taken aback by how solid he sounded. Instead of flaring up, she pulled her Haki back, pasting a big grin onto her face again. "How could I? Kaido and I are as close as siblings. He still owes this old lady a huge favor. Naturally, that makes our two crews natural partners."
Right.
And I am the Pirate King.
Kaido had taken the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, with his own skill, and somehow that had become her 'favor.'
Kai swore silently.
But he knew Kaido did, in his own way, recognize that debt.
Exactly how big it was, only the gods knew.
"What a troublesome brat," Linlin thought, grinding her teeth.
Seeing that Kai would not be swayed by words alone, she forced her voice to stay warm. "Kai. Why do we not speak alone for a moment?"
Finally, the real negotiations.
Kai gave nothing away. "Of course."
"Kai-san?"
Worry colored every gaze.
After that last fight, anyone could see Kai was far from peak condition.
If Linlin tried something underhanded, things could go bad.
He just waved them off, tone steady and reassuring. "Relax. It will be fine."
"Exactly," Linlin chimed in, smiling with all her teeth.
She leaned forward slightly. Her gaze traced over Kai's handsome features, and a hint of hunger flickered deep in her eyes. "How could this old lady ever bear to hurt such a pretty boy?"
A chill crawled down Kai's back.
Honestly, punching him might feel better.
He shoved the thought down. The two of them rose into the air and drifted out of earshot.
"Brat. Listen up."
The second they were beyond the others' hearing, Linlin dropped the mask. What little gentleness she'd shown vanished without a trace. "I know you are in business with that bastard Tesoro. This old lady can guarantee your trade enters every island in Totto Land without obstruction. On top of that, the Big Mom Pirates will personally protect your business."
Then her tone flipped, naked menace dripping from every word. "But if you refuse, this old lady will not only shut you out of Totto Land. I will put the word out to every ally and tell them to crush your trade together."
Just making up cards now.
Might as well rename yourself Donald Linlin.
Kai had to admit, for someone obsessed with eating, her brain worked when it mattered.
But if she thought that kind of empty promise plus threats would net her Loki for free, she was dreaming.
He spread his hands, putting on his most sincere, helpless face. "Loki is dear to me. Family. A brother. How could I ever sell him out for personal gain?"
"You are still going to refuse this old lady? Do not forget the state you are in."
Her grip tightened on Napoleon. The air itself went sharp.
If she did not care about burning her bridge with Loki completely, she would have already swung.
Kai acted as though he had not heard the threat at all. "What I mean is, you have to pay more."
"The favor Kaido owes me. Wiped clean."
Linlin's jaw clenched.
Kai snorted. "Be serious. You and I both know what that 'favor' is really worth. Let us talk about something tangible."
She froze.
He knew that much?
Was his relationship with Kaido really so close that the Yonko had spilled even that?
"What do you want?" she forced out between her teeth.
"On top of what you just promised, I want territory."
Kai raised five fingers, eyes sharp. "Five islands. And do not fob me off with empty rocks. Each one needs at least ten thousand permanent residents."
"Five? You are insane."
The refusal snapped out instantly.
In the whole of Totto Land, there were barely over forty islands on that level. He wanted an eighth of her holdings for free?
Dream on.
"One island." Linlin jabbed a finger at him. "Do not push your luck, brat. Showing up at one Tea Party and walking away with a whole island is not a miracle that falls from the sky every day."
"Three," Kai said. "That is my bottom line."
She hesitated. In the end, she ground her teeth and nodded.
Territory lost could be stolen back.
Miss this chance with Loki, and no one knew how many years it would be before the next one.
"In return, until the Tea Party ends, you will cooperate fully with this old lady's arrangements."
"Deal."
The look on Linlin's face said she was one breath from biting someone. Kai knew he had hit the limit and did not push further.
"Mmph. Then this old lady will go prepare the Tea Party."
She clearly found even looking at him infuriating now. She shot him one last murderous glare. "Remember your promise."
Before the words finished, she was already streaking away on Zeus, not even bothering with courtesy.
By the time Kai drifted back down, the Charlotte family was gone.
"Kai-sama, are you all right?"
Hiyori was the first to reach him, scanning him up and down with worried eyes.
Linlin's mood before leaving had been terrifying. Aside from Loki, she had looked at them all like enemies.
"Nothing serious. Just did a little deal," Kai said, waving it off.
Anyone else would vent a bit after getting fleeced that hard.
"Deal?" Loki asked, a spark of interest and mischief lighting his face. "Come on. How much did you sell me for?"
"A good price," Kai said, and sketched the terms.
"Three islands?" someone yelped.
"Not just that. Plus Kaido's favor and the business routes," another added.
They could hardly believe it.
Was Charlotte Linlin that easy to talk down?
Signing a treaty that looked like national humiliation on paper?
That was how desperate she was for giants.
Hearing he had fetched such a "price," Loki did not feel even a flicker of anger. He stroked his beard and laughed proudly. "So I am worth that much. Just showing my face at a banquet gets you three islands."
"That is only because she does not know Elbaf's throne has already changed hands," Kai said, expression turning odd.
Linlin's whole plan revolved around using Loki's title as prince to soften relations with Elbaf, laying the groundwork to claim their strength later.
She had no way of knowing Elbaf already belonged lock, stock, and barrel to Kai.
Worse, Loki's so-called crimes had turned him into a pariah among the giants.
His favor would not just fail to help her; it would actively hurt.
To Elbaf, it would simply look like two walking disasters hooking up.
"Paying that much for nothing… if I were Charlotte Linlin, I would die of frustration."
Once Kai spelled out the missing pieces, his crew could no longer hold their composure. Laughter tugged at every mouth.
They were not alone.
On the way back to Whole Cake Island, after Mama laid out the "deal," the hearts of the three Sweet Commanders sank like stones.
Even if someone claimed otherwise, it would not have hurt this much if their real mother had died.
Islands with ten thousand residents were not something you just picked up. In the current New World, with its borders mostly fixed, every such island was already claimed.
Either a Yonko's domain, a great pirate's turf, or under Marine protection.
But for the Charlotte family, Mama was the sky.
Her decisions could not, would not be opposed.
Smoothie and Cracker traded a look. They saw only resignation in each other's eyes and sighed silently.
Katakuri's face was hidden behind his scarf, but his clenched fists spoke clearly enough about the anger raging inside.