Courting Death

The state Mousse called "Soul Scream" was dangerous to Charlotte Linlin herself, but it posed far less of a threat to others than Food Addiction. When she screamed, she generally did not move, and Conqueror's Haki usually only knocked people unconscious rather than killing them, so its destructive power was limited.

But that did not mean everyone could relax once Charlotte Linlin calmed down.

One had to know that unleashing Conqueror's Haki at full force consumed an enormous amount of energy. Charlotte Linlin, in particular, had released it continuously without pause. Throughout the process, and even after it ended, her body had been replenishing her Haki at the fastest possible rate, so her stamina naturally plummeted as fast as water flowing from an open faucet.

Thus, the moment she regained her senses, she felt hungry and instinctively rubbed her stomach as it began to growl.

Katakuri and Mousse's expressions changed at once. Charlotte Linlin was hungry while her mind was still somewhat muddled, which was precisely one of the situations most likely to trigger Food Addiction.

Fortunately, their eldest brother Perospero had made preparations in advance as they suggested. Before the two of them went in to report, people outside had already been preparing all kinds of food their mother liked.

The moment the Soul Scream ended, the freshly prepared food was rushed inside as quickly as possible.

Thanks to the thorough preparations, they only had to wait a few short minutes.

Yet psychologically, it felt as though years had passed. They were terrified that their mother would suffer an episode before the food could be brought before her.

Fortunately, luck was on their side this time. The instant Charlotte Linlin saw the food, she rushed over and began eating. Only then did Katakuri finally let out a small breath of relief.

Although the mechanism behind Food Addiction was still unclear, it had never occurred while she was full. She was also relatively safe while eating.

Charlotte Linlin's face broke into a satisfied smile once her belly was round and stuffed. Looking at her, no one would have imagined that just moments ago, she had been in such agony that she went mad.

Seeing this, Mousse finally relaxed completely. It seemed that her earlier madness had released the negative emotions in their mother's heart, so she probably would not pursue responsibility from him and Katakuri any further.

Still, as he watched the innocent expression on Charlotte Linlin's face, Mousse could not help feeling conflicted.

Amid his amusement, Mousse also felt a faint trace of envy. There are advantages to never growing up. No matter how painful something is, you can let it go quickly. Even though I have a child's body, I'm already mature mentally, so I can't enjoy that benefit.

However, Mousse was only half right. Children did indeed emerge from negative emotions easily, but that did not mean they completely forgot them. In fact, once children held a grudge, they could remember it even more deeply and for longer than adults.

Charlotte Linlin did not blame her sons for their incompetence, but that was only because she saw things clearly and knew who the true enemy responsible for her mother's death was.

Although he had thought of harvesting the souls of those prisoners of war to strengthen their side, Charlotte Mousse never expected his mother to be so ruthless. She had directly taken every last bit of lifespan from all 4,762 Marine officers and soldiers.

In the end, she only left a few Marine soldiers alive as witnesses and released them to report back to Marineford.

"What? She killed them all? Not one left? She let a few go back to deliver the message? That's worse than leaving none alive!" Mousse broke out in a cold sweat when he learned of it.

Killing all the prisoners was fundamentally different from killing half of them. The latter was cruel too, but people always harbored a sense of luck, so they might still surrender when they could not win. The former left absolutely no chance of survival, meaning they could only fight to the death.

Once the reputation of slaughtering prisoners spread, resistance would increase dramatically in any future battle against either the Marines or pirates.

But that was not even the biggest problem. Slaughtering prisoners was itself a grave provocation, especially when Charlotte Linlin had deliberately spared several and sent them back to report to Marine Headquarters. It was practically a vicious slap across the faces of the Marines and the World Government!

Now, it would be impossible for the World Government not to focus on dealing with the Charlotte Family. Mousse had plans to oppose the World Government too, but he had never imagined launching an all-out war this early. After all, the family's current strength was still far behind that colossal entity, the World Government.

Charlotte Linlin's actions were simply courting death!

"This is obviously revenge, isn't it? Fine, I admit Mom and Xu Zhu aren't quite the same. At least she isn't as softhearted as he is. But while we're still not strong enough, I'd rather she were a little more softhearted than pull this much aggro!" Mousse now thoroughly understood why parents committing sins was even more screwed up than their children committing them.

Unfortunately, the slaughter of prisoners was already a fact and could not be changed. Mousse could only rack his brains for a way to deal with the coming crisis.

If the Marines come right away, we won't be able to beat them no matter what. We can only find a way to run. Perhaps Pharaohs could be a destination? As long as the big mirror there can be set up, we won't need to stay in Totto Land and fight the Marine main force head-on. We can just pass through the mirror to Pharaohs. It won't be easy for the Marines to fully mobilize, and if they make one wasted trip, they'll have to spend a lot of effort cleaning up the mess it creates. That will give us time to build up our strength. Thinking of this, Mousse prepared to find Katakuri and have him call James Glenn to urge him along.

But Katakuri came to find him first, bringing news that left him dumbfounded. "The Faros Kingdom is finished? So soon?"

It turned out that just after Katakuri's group returned to Totto Land, an enormous Marine fleet descended upon Faros. Having learned from their previous mistake—when they had not expected the Marines to come to destroy Faros themselves and thought they were merely passing through, only to lose any chance of escape after the Marines suddenly landed and attacked—James Glenn directly fled without a fight with only a handful of trusted followers. The Elephant Elephant Fruit offered high defense and great endurance, but speed was its weakness.

The king had temporarily saved his own life, but neither Faros nor its ordinary soldiers and civilians could escape. The fall of the nation was already inevitable.

With the country gone, the big mirror was naturally no longer an option. Mousse's plan died before it could even begin.

But after thinking it over carefully, Mousse actually relaxed somewhat.

The Marines had just carried out such a major operation, so naturally they would lack the strength to launch a full-scale attack on Totto Land again in the short term. That was the perfect opportunity to settle the matter of the "King's Fist"!

But this time, Katakuri had considered things more thoroughly than Mousse. "The Marines may not have deployed all their main forces to attack Faros. Even if we had stayed instead of leaving, Sengoku or Garp alone, or several of those powerful Logia type users together, would have been enough to deal with us. So the Marines may still be capable of dispatching another large fleet in the near future. If they can't swallow this insult and immediately come attack Totto Land while I happen to be away... Mousse, you know that without me watching over her, Mom is just too easy to manipulate."