Chef Freya

At that moment, Freya stared at her father in utter shock.

It was not as if Xikexin had never explained this principle to Freya before, but Freya had never truly taken it to heart. In her mind, it was only the stubborn rambling of her old-fashioned father.

But now...

"But..."

"It's fine if you don't understand for now. You'll understand one day. Back then, I didn't understand it at all either, but I had doubts in my heart. I knew I couldn't find the answer in the Gourmet Kingdom. After becoming a Super Food God, I had already stood at the very top of the Gourmet Kingdom. So I secretly left the Gourmet Kingdom, planning to travel the whole world and search for the answer..."

At this point, a bitter smile appeared on Xikexin's face.

"However, my journey wasn't exactly smooth. I had only just gone out to sea when I ran into waves and was washed onto an unfamiliar little island. Everything I had on me was gone. Fortunately, I met a group of pirates fleeing from the New World to the North Blue. After a brush with death, we were lucky enough to cross the Calm Belt and arrive in the North Blue. I originally thought that with my cooking skills, finding work as a chef in the North Blue and continuing to travel the world would be easy. But what I never expected was that I, a Super Food God, almost starved to death because I couldn't find a job as a chef."

"Huh!!?"

Xikexin smiled and said, "The reason was simple. At the time, I simply hadn't figured it out. I couldn't accept ordinary dishes made from ordinary ingredients. I believed that was a stain on my cooking skills. In order to make the most top-tier dishes and select the most top-tier ingredients, I wasted ingredients and was kicked out of many restaurants. And what made it even harder for me to understand was that even when I made dishes I was satisfied with, sometimes I still didn't earn the customers' approval. I couldn't make sense of it no matter how hard I thought. Back then, I also believed those crude people simply couldn't distinguish true deliciousness. So I kept wandering, until I came to the East Blue, to Loguetown, and met your mother."

"The first time I came here, I was stunned. Back then, this restaurant wasn't as large as it is now. It could only hold a little over twenty people, but it was packed every single day. And those customers praised your mother's cooking to the skies. Not a single person was dissatisfied. But to be honest, I didn't understand it at all back then. In my eyes, just as you said, what your mother made was nothing but cheap food, only good enough to fool those idiots who couldn't tell what was delicious at all."

"But at that time, I had already been hungry for a long while and had no job. So I had no choice but to swallow my pride and become a lowly helper here at your mother's place."

"Afterward, I found the answer I wanted here. But how exactly I found that answer, I can't tell you, because you have to search for it yourself. Even if I told you, you might not understand..."

At this point, Xikexin suddenly looked at his daughter seriously and asked, "Now, do you still think you've already surpassed me and your mother, and want to continue the cooking competition...?"

"I..."

Although Freya still felt a little unwilling to admit defeat, she already knew that before her father and mother, her current self really was like a frog at the bottom of a well. And she had actually thought she had already surpassed the two of them.

"Then what do I have to do to truly surpass you?"

Hearing this question, Xikexin's face filled with reminiscence as he thought for a moment and said, "At the very least, you have to reach the level where you can become a Food God in the Gourmet Kingdom, just like your old man here. Only then will you have the right to compete with me..."

"But didn't you say the Gourmet Kingdom is a chef's graveyard?"

"Idiot. Your old man already became a Super Food God, so naturally I'm qualified to say that. As for you right now, you don't even have the qualifications to be buried in that graveyard..."

"..."

Freya instantly glared at her father through gritted teeth, but now that she understood her father's glorious past, she could not say a single word in retort.

And right then, Freya saw her father, Xikexin, actually bow deeply to the pirate Ye Mu before him and say, "I'll be leaving my daughter in your care from now on..."

"!!!"

Freya jumped in fright.

"Hey, old man, have you lost your mind? How can you entrust me to a pirate...?"

At this moment, Xikexin also returned to his earlier fatherly manner and shot back at his daughter, "If you want to go to the Gourmet Kingdom, you definitely have to go to the New World. Are you planning to go alone...?"

"But even becoming a Marine... would be better than becoming a pirate, right...? Besides, isn't there one right here...?"

"Idiot... Look at those two. Which one of them is interested in the path of cooking...? Besides, although I don't like pirates, I can't bring myself to like Marines or Marine traitors either..."

"Uh..."

Kuzan and Dragon, who had been suddenly dragged into this, were also slightly speechless. They really wanted to argue, but it seemed that what Xikexin said was not exactly wrong.

All at once, the whole situation had flipped. Xikexin, who had originally been firmly opposed to his daughter becoming a pirate, suddenly began recommending his daughter to Ye Mu.

"Um, Captain Ye Mu, don't worry. Although my daughter's cooking skills can't compare to mine, she has inherited half of both my skills and her mother's. Also, she's a cook who ate the Cooking-Cooking Fruit. She absolutely won't hold you back."

"Cooking-Cooking Fruit!?"

"Mm... I found it in the North Blue. Freya's hands can freely transform into all sorts of cooking tools, and she can also easily process any ingredient and cook any dish however she wishes. She was absolutely born with the makings of a chef. What do you think?"

As Xikexin spoke, he rubbed his hands together and waited for Ye Mu's answer.

But unexpectedly, Ye Mu suddenly shook his head and said, "To be honest, I'm extremely tempted right now, and I really want to agree. But what I'm looking for are companions... Besides, I'm not willing to force anyone..."

When Xikexin heard that, the admiration in his eyes toward Ye Mu only grew stronger. He turned his head and said to his dazed daughter, "Captain Ye Mu, what you said makes a lot of sense... Freya, your old man is only pointing out a path for you... But how you walk it is still up to you..."

At that moment, for Freya, this was the most important choice of her life.

"Become a pirate?"

In truth, although she felt some resistance toward it, if it was this person before her...

Thinking of the two times she had been held in his arms, and how he had agreed to her nonsense, as well as the warm instant when he protected her from the bone-chilling cold, Freya unexpectedly did not reject the idea.

But...

In the end, Freya asked one question with great seriousness.

"If I become your companion, will you help me make my dream come true?"

Ye Mu shook his head.

"No... Something like a dream is more interesting when you work to achieve it yourself. But as your captain, I will become your strongest support... So, as long as you're on my pirate ship and become my companion, then don't be lost, and don't hesitate. Just charge toward your dream. Even if you turn this whole world upside down, as long as I'm still alive, I will always stand behind you and give you the strength to keep moving forward..."