Come Be My Son-in-Law!

"Is he really that powerful?"

Snag furrowed his brow.

He wasn't doubting Brother Katakuri's prediction. On the contrary, it was precisely because he had such unwavering faith in this pillar of the Charlotte Family that he couldn't help asking, his heart heavy with disappointment. For Snag, who was determined to turn the "Sweet Three Generals" into the "Sweet Four Generals," this was a serious blow.

If he wasn't mistaken, the person sitting in the carriage was the so-called Black Prince, who was only twenty years old. Twenty... He was only twenty, and already had Brother Katakuri acting so serious. It was hard not to feel jealous!

"Snag."

As if he had seen through his ambitious younger brother's dark thoughts, Katakuri spoke again. "Jealousy won't help you do better than you did yesterday. Only hard work will bring you closer to your ideals. Don't let pointless emotions cloud your eyes."

"I understand, Brother Katakuri."

Snag lowered his head. For the moment, he really had calmed down, managing to keep his ever-growing jealousy in check.

The Queen Mama Chantilly was entering the harbor,

but it was already very close to the shore and the pier. The luxurious carriage, encrusted with gold, silver, and jewels, came into clearer view for the pirates.

"Brother Katakuri, let me lead the charge!"

The voice came from a burly man wearing a horned helmet, with a long beard and black-and-white biscuit-patterned armor. He held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Judging by his appearance, he was unmistakably one of the Sweet Three Generals named on the Navy's Bounty Posters.

The Biscuit Minister of Totto Land, known as "Thousand Hands," and also called the "Biscuit Knight"—Charlotte Cracker.

"Cracker, do you want to go?"

This time, Katakuri didn't say no.

He trusted the ability of this younger brother, whose strength in the family was second only to his own. Cracker's fighting style was especially well suited to leading the charge and probing an enemy's strength.

But this time, it wasn't up to him to decide.

"Mother, may Cracker go after this prey?"

This pillar of the Charlotte Family turned and looked toward the enormous mound of flesh seated on a giant chair straight out of a fairy tale. No—that was to say, a tall, obese woman. She wore thick lipstick and light purple eyeshadow, a red pirate hat trimmed with yellow, and a loose pink dress dotted with red circles.

She was—

Charlotte Linlin.

One of the Pirate Emperors ruling the New World, Queen of the Totto Land Kingdom, and captain of the Big Mom Pirates. A Mad Emperor who wouldn't hesitate to wage a war of annihilation for the sake of sweets.

At that moment,

Her Majesty the Mad Emperor was wholly absorbed in devouring the desserts the chefs kept bringing her in a steady stream. Devouring, not eating—this wasn't an inaccurate figure of speech. It was, in fact, the more precise description.

With that savage, greedy, intoxicated grin and her gaping maw, wide as an abyss, it was impossible to think of her as dining. The scene looked more like a monster wearing ugly human skin, devouring everything in sight.

"No!"

She roared.

Crumbs at the corners of her mouth flew toward them with the force of the sound waves. The three Sweet Commanders standing on the foredeck calmly shifted aside, avoiding the crumbs flecked with saliva as corrosive as sulfuric acid.

The unexpected refusal

left Katakuri silent for a moment. He was surprised, but... this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

"That's my prey."

The Mad Emperor, whose craving for sweets had temporarily been satisfied, stopped eating. She looked down at her sons and daughters standing on the deck, a delighted smile on her face. "Katakuri, that's my dessert. No one can touch it—not even my own children!"

"Mother, we won't touch your dessert. We only want to bring it to you."

Katakuri knelt on one knee, and the younger brothers and sisters behind him knelt in unison.

"Mama~~"

Charlotte Linlin laughed merrily.

"Katakuri, you're not to touch the prey I've set my eyes on. Such a delicious dessert... Mama has never come across one before!" Her happy laughter echoed across the deck. As her children, Katakuri, Smoothie, Cracker, Snag, and the others could all tell that their mother was truly happy.

They hadn't heard their mother laugh so happily in a long time.

If they remembered correctly, the last time she had laughed like this was when Pirate King Roger was executed.

Just then,

As the Queen Mama Chantilly entered the harbor, the carriage waiting at the pier finally stirred.

"Your Highness, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course."

"Even if one little mistake could cost someone their life?"

"I can't wait to do it."

That was right!

He couldn't wait any longer. Aleus lifted the carriage curtain and stepped out, planting his feet on the ground paved with great slabs of granite. He rolled his wrists, his emerald eyes burning with a flame that was both ardent and calm.

After defeating Umit without much effort, Aleus had been troubled by a question ever since.

He couldn't figure out exactly where he stood in terms of strength. He urgently needed a touchstone to test his mettle, but the problem was that even Umit hadn't helped him determine his level. For a while, he couldn't find a suitable touchstone.

He had even wondered whether he should challenge Whitebeard after he finished dealing with the Shipping Network.

He hadn't yet put his idea of challenging Whitebeard into action, and already another Pirate Emperor had appeared before him.

"Your Highness, that's one of the Four Emperors. We might really be done for this time."

Fran stood beside Aleus, smoothing the wrinkles in his coat while continuing to try to persuade him not to take such a risk.

"All right, Fran, you talk too much. Instead of worrying about me, worry about yourself! The enemy isn't just the Pirate Emperor; it's also the loyal subjects of our Mad Empress. If you don't leave soon, you might have to fight too. If you don't want to get mixed up in this, you'd better keep your distance."

Aleus flicked his sleeves.

Good.

His mental state was excellent, and his body was in peak condition.

"Huh?"

Fran, dressed in her Maid Outfit, stared wide-eyed and pointed at her own nose. "I have to fight too?"

"They're the Four Emperors' subordinates, after all. Fran, stay back for now. You're not a match for those monsters yet."

"I understand, Your Highness."

The maid finally gave up trying to persuade him. She had been at it the whole way without getting anywhere, and continuing probably wouldn't help. Besides, staying here might really get in Aleus's way and interfere with his actions.

So,

"Then, Your Highness, please forgive me for leaving first."

After leaving those final words of apology, a pair of magnificent wings suddenly sprouted from the maid's back, wreathed in shimmering golden-red flames that seemed both real and illusory. She beat her wings and shot into the sky like an arrow loosed from a bow, fleeing in the opposite direction from the Big Mom Pirates.

Everyone in the Big Mom Pirates naturally saw Fran fly away.

However,

Without their mother's word, no one dared to make the first move. If their mother thought they were trying to steal her prey, she would definitely eat them.

"Now I can finally stretch my legs."

Aleus turned his gaze away from the sky and toward the enormous pirate ship slowly pulling up to the pier, as if it had sailed straight out of a fairy tale. His eyes settled on the figure on its foredeck: Big Mom, like the most vicious, hideous witch in a fairy tale.

The next instant,

The wail of the air tearing apart rang through the sky.

A mountain of flesh

came crashing down.

The pier, built from great slabs of granite, was smashed into a massive crater. The whole dock trembled from the terrible impact, and the dust that billowed up swept in every direction like a storm. At the center of the crater stood a towering woman, as huge as a giant.

"But honestly, it's hard to imagine! How did she go from being a beauty to looking like this?"

Aleus raised a hand and brushed away the dust drifting toward him. He didn't take a single step back, merely tilting his head up and looking Big Mom over. At a full 880 centimeters tall, she was truly enormous! She was a whole head taller than Whitebeard. Standing before Big Mom, Aleus, at 205 centimeters, looked like a runt.

"Boy, was it you? The one who killed Umit."

Big Mom lowered her head and looked at the handsome young man.

Not bad!

Too bad she already had human children. Otherwise, she might have taken him back as her husband.

"I did it."

Aleus smiled and nodded.

"...Boy, you've got a lot of nerve! You're not even afraid of me. Mamamama~~~" Big Mom let out a loud, shrill laugh. It continued for quite a while before finally dying down. Then the smile vanished from her face, and her folds of fat twisted into a terrifying, savage expression of rage.

"Boy!"

"You killed Umit and cost my tea party a guest. I was going to eat you, but since you're so handsome, I'll give you a chance. Become my son-in-law, and if you join the family, I'll spare your life."

Aleus stared at her, dumbfounded.

Good grief,

What did that have to do with anything?

This wasn't how he'd expected things to go at all. Weren't they supposed to start fighting as soon as they met? Why had it suddenly turned into a son-in-law recruitment?

Aleus wasn't the only one who was stunned. Katakuri and the others aboard the Queen Mama Chantilly were nearly knocked off their feet by their mother's sudden move. Snag's mouth hung open beneath his scarf, his astonishment plain.

"Brother Katakuri, is this... really all right?"

In his surprise, Snag instinctively looked to Katakuri, the steadying presence all his siblings relied on.

They had meant to kill Aleus, the culprit who had killed Umit, to calm the Dark World's unrest. But now their mother had pulled this, and if it caused the Dark World's big shots to lose faith in them, it would be a problem.

"What could be wrong with it? If Mother thinks it's all right, then it's all right."

Smoothie, tall and long-legged, with beautiful wavy white hair, spoke coldly.

"Snag, you're too timid. Don't make those rats in the Dark World out to be such a big deal. In front of Mother, anyone who dares to defy her can just die. The New World belongs to the Four Emperors, not those rats in the Dark World."

"I understand, Sister Smoothie."

Snag hunched his shoulders.

Of the "Sweet Three Generals" in the Big Mom Pirates, the one he feared most was this ruthless older sister. If her subordinates made a mistake, she would drain every last drop of water from their bodies and hang their dried-up corpses from the ship's bow as a warning to the others.

Well, as long as they didn't make a mistake, Sister Smoothie wouldn't slaughter her subordinates for no reason like Mother did.

"So, a son-in-law, huh? I wonder which of our younger sisters Mother plans to marry the Black Prince to?"

Cracker chimed in.

"Hard to say! The Black Prince is supposedly only twenty. The only sisters in the family close to his age are Chiffon, Mable, and a few others. It may not be very nice of me to say this as their older sister, but... the Black Prince might not be interested in Chiffon and the others."

Smoothie frowned slightly, wondering which of her younger sisters Mother planned to marry off.

If Galette were a few years younger, or Purin a few years older, either of them could be used to win the Black Prince over. But Purin was only ten, far too young, while Galette was only twenty-five. The age gap really wasn't that big...

"Chiffon and Mable... Yeah, they're not really his type!" Cracker glanced at the handsome Aleus standing on the pier and laughed without a hint of restraint. Those sisters hadn't come with them and had stayed in Totto Land. If they'd been there in person, laughing at his sisters like that would definitely have earned him a beating from Brother Katakuri. But now—

"Cracker, quiet."

Katakuri merely reprimanded him, but Cracker obediently stopped laughing.

Katakuri continued, "What Mother does is her business. Our job is to do what we're supposed to. Cracker, Snag, go tell the ships farther back to pull away. We don't want Mother's fight to catch them in the crossfire."

"Isn't this far enough already?"

Cracker looked back at the many Tart Ships anchored outside the harbor instead of entering with the Queen Mama Chantilly. Keeping them there was a precaution against Mother getting carried away and wrecking her own ships.

"Just do it."

Katakuri didn't explain.

Cracker didn't dare argue with Brother Katakuri any further. He and Snag went to direct the Tart Ships farther back.

"Brother Katakuri, do you think the Black Prince would actually dare refuse Mother?" Surprise showed in Smoothie's eyes.

"Wait and see."

Katakuri said no more, his sharp gaze fixed on the figure standing on the pier, facing off against their mother.

Refuse her?

Or accept?

His Observation Haki couldn't "see" that far into the future, but to be safe, he had prepared for the possibility that Aleus would refuse.