Ah Ling, Are You Serious?

Outside a guest room at the sunlit corner of the second floor of Cake Island Castle, Perospero clung to the door, trying to squeeze his head through the gap.

Ortolan stood inside, pushing against the door to stop Perospero.

Honestly, if he put any strength into it, he could have shut the door completely. But he was afraid of crushing Perospero's head!

"Won't you really invite me in for a chat? I'm your big brother, you know. Don't tell me Katakuri has dazzled you?" Perospero struggled as he spoke.

His bizarrely long tongue was practically drooling.

"Are all you Big Mom Pirates this enthusiastic?" Ortolan dodged that tongue in disgust and could not help complaining.

"I just want you to join my faction!!!" Perospero suddenly stopped forcing the door and said.

Ortolan froze at those words. Had the power struggle within the Charlotte Family and the Big Mom Pirates already reached this point?

Without a doubt, as the eldest son, Perospero, and Katakuri, Charlotte Linlin's most beloved son, were both highly likely to inherit Charlotte Linlin's power and legacy in the future.

And as Ortolan remembered it, more than twenty years later, Perospero's support would be far lower than Katakuri's.

Had this eldest son already realized his disadvantage?

After recognizing Ortolan's talent, had he become eager to recruit him before anyone else could?

Would there be any benefits in it for him?

As Ortolan considered this, the force he used to hold the door shut eased slightly. After all, he was just some poor nobody from the countryside. He could not compare to these princes of Totto Land. Maybe there really would be something in it for him.

He had no interest in any of this, but that did not mean he disliked getting free stuff.

"What faction?" Ortolan asked, his tone turning grave and his expression serious.

Perospero's expression also became extremely solemn. He used both hands to straighten his collar and said with great seriousness, "Of course, the Candy Faction!"

"Huh?" Ortolan stared at Perospero in confusion before asking, "That's the name of your faction? What exactly does this faction stand for?"

"Of course it's our faction's name! As for what it means, it means bringing together everyone who likes candy to fight against the donut tyranny of Katakuri and his two brothers!!! We'll make everyone fall in love with candy!" Perospero declared earnestly.

Ortolan's face twitched slightly. Then he slammed the door shut and shouted, "A ghost!"

Perospero was baffled. He turned and looked around, muttering strangely, "Where's the ghost?"

Still unwilling to give up, he knocked on the door again. After drawing a stream of curses from Ortolan, he finally left in frustration. As he went, he felt that this new little brother of his had an incredibly awful personality. His attitude toward his eldest brother was simply terrible, wasn't it?

"The moment I mentioned donuts, he shut the door... Could Katakuri have already bewitched him? Damn it!" Perospero muttered to himself as he went downstairs.

Meanwhile, Ortolan sat on the sofa inside the room and stared at the closed door, unable to stop himself from wondering, "Does the Charlotte Family really have hereditary mental illness?"

That guy Katakuri never slept lying down. He claimed that letting his back touch the ground was a disgrace for a man and an older brother, so he absolutely refused to sleep lying down. Usually, he slept standing up or leaning against a wall.

Back on the ship, Ortolan had once been unable to sleep at night and gone out for some sea air. He had been startled half to death by Katakuri, who stood in the corridor outside the cabins, snoring like a ghost!

Honestly, Ortolan had never been able to understand... What did keeping his back off the ground have to do with a bed?

If you can't find the book by its title, try searching for the author—it might have simply been renamed!

When you secretly ate donuts, weren't you lying down?

And that guy named Cracker spent all day wrapped in biscuits, looking like some person trapped in a shell, all flashy and ridiculous. If that was not mental illness, then what was? Being afraid of people finding out what he really looked like—wasn't that a textbook persecution complex?

As for Perospero, there was clearly something wrong with him too. They had only met on the first day, yet he kept going on and on about some Candy Faction. Did he have no sense of boundaries? Wasn't he embarrassed?

At that thought, Ortolan felt a chill run through his body. He hurriedly cleared those messy thoughts from his head, then looked at the small box that had been placed on the table earlier.

Before coming here, Katakuri had said Charlotte Linlin had a gift for him.

Now, it seemed that was indeed the case.

But what exactly was inside this box?

Without wasting time on pointless guesses, Ortolan quickly reached out and opened it. Inside lay a fruit covered in strange patterns!

A Devil Fruit!!!

It was a specialty of this world centered around the sea, an incredibly miraculous thing that could grant its eater all sorts of bizarre abilities. At the same time, it cursed them with the sea, turning them into landlubbers who could not swim and would sink the moment they touched water.

Devil Fruits were everywhere—truly everywhere. On the seas of the New World, it felt like any pirate you grabbed at random might have some strange ability.

But they were also undeniably precious. Known as treasures of the sea, even the most worthless Devil Fruit ability started at hundreds of millions on the black market.

Ortolan had been in this world for quite some time now—more than a decade—but he had never seen a Devil Fruit with his own eyes. He had encountered Devil Fruit users, though. Among the minor pirates and gang members who frequented the docks, a couple of lucky people with strange powers would occasionally turn up.

Still, even though he had never personally seen one, Ortolan had long heard of Devil Fruits. The instant he opened the box, he recognized what it was!

His expression grew complicated as he looked at the Devil Fruit. There was surprise in his eyes, then shock, and finally, as though he had remembered something, a trace of understanding.

"She's really generous..." Ortolan smacked his lips and remarked.

If it had been some trash-tier Devil Fruit, then without having seen the corresponding Devil Fruit encyclopedia, Ortolan would have had no way to identify its ability or value.

But the Devil Fruit in this box was so famous, and its power so formidable, that Ortolan could never forget it. It was one of those top-tier Devil Fruits that you would recognize at a glance the moment it was placed before you!

At first glance, it looked like a wild, spiky hedgehog hairstyle, golden all over. But upon closer inspection, the patterns resembling hedgehog spikes carried the beauty of lightning and thunder tearing through dark clouds!

That was right. This Devil Fruit possessed the ability known as "invincible," and in the original story, it had also suffered the most frustrating plot-induced defeat.

It was the legendary... Logia - Rumble-Rumble Fruit!

Ortolan vaguely remembered that after Katakuri first met him, he had wanted to recruit him into the Big Mom Pirates. Taking the opportunity, Ortolan had told him about his background and offered a pile of absurd reasons, including the Thousand-Ton Stone used to forge his Warhammer and a Devil Fruit ability.

Ortolan had only mentioned it in passing back then, saying that according to his father's last words, there was a Skypiea called Bika in the legendary White White Sea ten thousand meters above, where an invincible Goro Goro no Mi could be found. If they were sincere, they might as well bring him the Goro Goro no Mi as a gift.

The Thousand-Ton Stone had been delivered, but Katakuri had never mentioned the Goro Goro no Mi afterward. Ortolan had assumed they had not taken it seriously. After all, it had been nothing more than an offhand remark. Who would actually believe such baseless nonsense and go to all that trouble to obtain the fruit for him?

Even if they really believed that nonsense and got it, would they actually give it to him?

Well... Charlotte Linlin really was generous. Whether she had believed him at the time or not, she had truly gone, truly found the Goro Goro no Mi, and now truly given it to Ortolan!

Linlin, you actually did it? For a moment, Ortolan's favorability toward Charlotte Linlin rose quite a bit.