Gourmet Kingdom

"Mhm, mhm, mhm." The little girl nodded excitedly.

Seeing this, Ye Mu gave her another precautionary warning.

"Very good. What a good girl... Then starting today, aside from being Vice-Captain Enel's personal maid, you're also the head maid of our Sky Pirates. From now on, you can only listen to Vice-Captain Enel and the people of our Sky Pirates. Don't listen to anyone else, all right?"

"Mhm, mhm, mhm."

The little girl, who had already been named Baby-5, had even brighter eyes now, and she hugged Enel's leg even tighter.

At that moment, seeing that Ye Mu had accepted the little one, Tiger felt relieved and continued.

"However, Captain Ye Mu, there's a problem..."

"What do you mean?"

"When we were taking care of those slave traders, they told us they were a slave ship under the Donquixote Family Pirates. I checked their leader. That guy called Doflamingo has a bounty of 140 million berries, and his surname..."

After Tiger finished speaking, he secretly glanced at Kuzan and Dragon nearby.

Ye Mu also understood Tiger's worry. He waved a hand and said indifferently.

"No need to worry. We're not even afraid of real Celestial Dragons, so why would we be afraid of a guy who's already lost his Celestial Dragon status... Besides, don't we have the Navy here too... I imagine the Navy won't let a pirate who sells people go, right... What do you say, Vice Admiral Kuzan..."

Kuzan's face was full of helplessness, and he sighed.

"You seem to be a pirate too, you know..."

"That's true... Hahahahaha..."

Ye Mu did not care at all. At this moment, seeing that he could not shake off the little one Ye Mu had named Baby-5, who had even become a member of the pirate crew and was hugging his leg, Enel also gave up struggling.

"Tiger, I told you not to worry a long time ago. Ye Mu would never take that kind of guy seriously."

"Yeah."

Tiger nodded as well. When it came to hatred for slave traders, Tiger surpassed everyone present, but that did not mean he was willing to bring trouble to the pirate crew because of his own personal emotions.

At this moment, Enel immediately asked another question.

"Speaking of which, even including this clingy little girl, there are only four people on our ship, aren't there... Where did five people come from? Who's the extra one you were talking about?"

"Freya, the cook. The future head chef of our Sky Pirates..."

"!!!"

As soon as those words came out, Kuzan and Dragon were both stunned, then they understood.

"So that's it..."

No wonder Ye Mu, as the captain, had actually spent so much time in this little restaurant. It turned out he was looking for a chef for his pirate crew.

At this time, in the back kitchen, Freya and her father, who had been secretly listening to everything happening outside from the moment Morgans came in, were startled.

Freya's old man's expression instantly became panicked, and he hurriedly said to his daughter.

"We're done for... So his target was actually you, damn girl... This is bad... Run, quick... Don't worry, your old man will hold them off for you..."

"Dad, you..."

Freya also grew a little nervous. Looking at her father, who cared about her, she felt deeply moved.

Should I run... No...

If she really ran away, then what would happen to her old man...

At that moment, Freya made up her mind and decided to risk it all.

"Hey... Damn girl... What are you doing..."

Under Freya's old man's somewhat panicked gaze, before he could stop her, he saw his daughter run out and say coldly to Ye Mu with a frown.

"I won't become a pirate..."

She had originally thought that after saying this, she would provoke Ye Mu's fury. But to her surprise, after hearing it, Ye Mu did not react much. Instead, he merely glanced at her lightly and said.

"Don't misunderstand. Although I have my eye on you, whether you're actually qualified to become the chef of the Sky Pirates, the No. 4 on our ship, isn't for you to decide. You still haven't earned my approval... The chef of our Sky Pirates isn't a position just anyone can take... So only if you earn my approval in the upcoming cooking competition will you have the right to refuse me. Do you understand... As you are now, you're still far from good enough..."

"!!!"

This was an answer Freya had never expected, and it struck deep into her stubborn, competitive nature.

But at least she was no longer afraid. After hearing it, Freya's old man also let out a long breath of relief.

"You bastard..."

At that moment, Enel looked at the pretty girl who had run out, tilted his head, measured Freya's height with his hand, and added fuel to the fire as he asked Ye Mu.

"It's her? She's so small. No matter how you look at her, she doesn't seem like she'd be that good at cooking..."

Compared to the two of them, who were around two and a half meters tall, Freya's height of only around one meter seventy really did seem a little small.

"!!!"

This time, it was Freya's turn for veins to bulge on her forehead.

Freya's old man seized the chance and laughingly chimed in.

"Exactly... Exactly... Freya is too young... Her cooking skills are nowhere near worthy of the position of head chef on your pirate crew, Captain Ye Mu... You must think it over carefully..."

"What nonsense are you talking about, Dad..."

Even though Freya knew perfectly well that her father was trying to help her, the moment she heard him belittle her cooking, she instinctively opened her mouth to argue.

"Idiot... shut up..."

Freya's father was getting anxious too. How could he possibly be willing to let his own daughter become a pirate, to push her straight into a fire pit?

But just then, a sentence no one expected suddenly rang out.

"Boss, you wouldn't happen to be called Xikexin, would you...?"

Everyone looked over and saw Tiger staring somewhat doubtfully at Freya's father, who stood before him, and calling out that strange name.

After hearing that name, Freya's father froze for a moment, then seemed rather surprised as he said, "You actually know me...?"

Freya, on the other hand, asked in confusion, "What is it, Dad? Is there something strange about your name...?"

Seeing Freya's father admit it, Tiger suddenly laughed and said to Ye Mu, "Captain Ye Mu, it looks like our luck really is good. No matter how this cooking competition turns out, if this girl can become our head chef, then we really are fortunate..."

Tiger's words left Ye Mu a little puzzled as well. Clearly, what Tiger valued about this girl was different from what he did.

"What is it, Tiger? Did you discover something new?"

Tiger nodded and explained, "I never expected to meet Xikexin here, the legendary man from the Gourmet Kingdom, nicknamed the Super God of Cookery... Since this girl is Xikexin's daughter, her cooking definitely can't be bad..."

That only made Freya even more puzzled as she said, "What Gourmet Kingdom... Super God of Cookery... Hey, Dad, is this guy talking about you?"

Freya's father, the man named Xikexin, now looked calm as he lectured his daughter.

"Tch... I told you long ago, didn't I? Your old man is amazing. If you want to surpass me, you've still got a long way to go..."

"Hey... Dad, what nonsense are you talking about...?"

Freya could not understand it at all. Tiger, however, spoke up.

"Your father is right. He held the title of God of Cookery in the Gourmet Kingdom for three consecutive terms and occupied the Gourmet Kingdom's No. 1 chef spot for twelve straight years. That's why he's known as the Super God of Cookery..."

"..."

Freya was completely dumbfounded. She looked at her father in shock—the man who seemed utterly ordinary, whose hair had almost all fallen out, nothing more than a stubborn middle-aged old man.

"Is that true?"