The Customer Is God

"An island..."

Hearing Kuta's mutter, Kuina quickly sat up from the lounge chair beside him.

She reached a hand toward Kuta and said with great interest, "Let me see, Kuta."

"Here, take it!"

Kuta handed the page of the newspaper to Kuina and muttered with a sigh.

"The Sea really is amazing. One second, they might still be eating hot pot and singing songs, and the next, they're buried by an island falling from the sky. I wonder who they're supposed to reason with about that."

Kuina took the newspaper and began reading.

As she read, she seemed to think of something and lowered her head in thought.

"What's wrong?"

Kuta noticed Kuina's state and asked softly.

"I think I've seen a similar scene somewhere before."

"You have?"

"Mm! I have."

Kuina suddenly raised her head, her face showing sudden realization.

"Oh! I remember now."

Kuta sat up straight, curiosity flashing in his eyes as he stared at Kuina. "What did you remember?"

"I think I saw similar news ten years ago."

She paused, then continued.

"One time, my father brought back a newspaper after going out to sea. It recorded news very similar to this."

"An island falling from the sky, destroying everything in the same way."

She looked up at Kuta, her brows drawing together slightly, her mood somewhat downcast.

"That was probably around the time you first arrived!"

"Oh! So it was ten years ago!"

Kuta nodded. Back then, he had not yet developed the habit of reading newspapers.

"No wonder I didn't know."

He lowered the newspaper and sighed silently, then raised a hand and smoothed out the furrow between Kuina's brows.

"Hey! There's nothing anyone can do about natural disasters like this. Hopefully, no one was hurt."

He knew it was impossible for no one to have been hurt, but he still prayed silently in his heart.

The Sea was simply too unreasonable. Even the East Blue was not free from natural disasters.

Perhaps this island had been swept into the sky by some ocean current and then happened to fall onto Corgi Island.

That was how the East Blue was. The Grand Line was even more unreasonable, with weather and environments that made no sense at all.

Many Pirates and merchant ships that entered the Grand Line were not necessarily killed by enemies.

Most of them were left forever on the seafloor by the Sea's bizarre weather and ferocious Sea Kings.

Kuta shook his head, tossing away those thoughts.

He looked up at Kuina. "All right, all right. Frowning all the time will make you develop wrinkles early."

"How could that happen? I'm only sixteen, and I'm as beautiful as a flower. It'll be a long time before I get wrinkles!"

Kuina slapped Kuta's hand away, and a smile returned to her downcast face.

"Besides, Kuta... You're a year older than me. You should be the one to get wrinkles first. Then you'll be an old man."

"If I'm an old man, then you're an old lady. Besides, haven't you heard a saying?"

"What saying?"

"The older a man gets, the more charm he has. And young girls and maidens all love old men."

Kuta looked at Kuina's improved mood and said it with a perfectly serious expression.

"Hahaha..."

Kuina burst into delighted laughter.

A tender look flashed through Kuta's eyes. He watched Kuina laugh heartily, the corners of his mouth gradually lifting as a gentle smile spread across his face.

These matters had nothing to do with them. No matter how great the natural disaster or how ferocious the beast, nothing could make them stop moving forward.

"Kuta, there's a huge ship ahead. It should be the sea restaurant Baratie."

At that moment, A-Luo's shout suddenly came from the sky.

Hearing him, Kuta gently set down the cup in his left hand, lifted off the small blanket covering him, put on his slippers, and stood up.

He walked to the bow and looked toward the place where the sea and sky met in the distance.

The midday sunlight made the distant surface of the water look hazy, like steam rising inside a steamer.

Through the distorted air, they could see a huge ship shaped like a fish.

The ship had a three-story structure on its deck, the outside painted blue-green.

From a distance, it looked just like a huge blue-green fish.

The sails on the ship's huge mast had not been raised. At its top fluttered a flag with a red border, a white background, and two black lowercase letters: "bt."

They had no idea what the two letters meant. Somehow, it felt as if they were cursing someone.

It looked as though the restaurant had been operating in these waters recently.

When they drew closer, they could see a white Navy Warship and more than a dozen small sailing ships of various sizes moored behind the huge ship.

Those small sailing ships were probably passing merchant ships.

They moored the Fake Merry beside the Navy Warship, lowered the sails, and dropped anchor.

Looking up at the Navy Warship beside them, they could see sailors resting on it.

The sailors only glanced at them before paying them no further attention. As long as they were not Pirates, that was enough.

Since Baratie could not be reached directly, they could only approach by Skiff.

They had no choice but to lower the spare Skiff and row toward the sea restaurant.

Chapter 16: The Customer Is God

The sea restaurant Baratie.

It was said to be the most famous restaurant in the East Blue. Many people came here specifically to taste the delicious dishes made by its owner and head chef, Zeff. Even important members of the Navy would come here to eat.

Once they arrived here, it did not matter whether they were Navy or Pirates.

It also did not matter whether they were Nobles or Civilians.

As long as they arrived with empty stomachs, the restaurant would make sure they left full.

Creak—!

The somewhat old, heavy wooden door of Baratie let out a slightly dull squeal, masking the soothing music coming from inside the restaurant.

Kuta pushed open the restaurant door and entered first, with Kuina and the Ahua Trio behind him.

The diners inside all looked toward the entrance in unison, then quickly stopped paying attention.

Only then did the restaurant's soothing, elegant music, the clinking of cups and cutlery, and the soft conversations of the diners rush toward them all at once.

"Welcome."

The moment Kuta and the others entered, a fierce-looking man wearing a pink neckerchief and resembling a powerful sailor seemingly appeared from nowhere.

He stood in front of them, bent at the waist, rubbed his hands together, and looked at them with a broad, beaming smile.

Patty noticed Kuta and the others the instant they entered.

So he rushed over at his usual fastest speed to welcome them.

The main reason was that these guests clearly looked wealthy. Patty most enjoyed serving wealthy people.

He liked the generosity and munificence of rich people and hated poor wretches.

Kuta looked at Patty standing before him, a trace of amusement flashing in his eyes. He spoke politely.

"I heard this place serves the best food in the entire East Blue. We came especially to try it today."

"Could you please introduce the dishes to us?"

Patty was slightly stunned by Kuta's sunny smile. It had been a long time since he had encountered such a polite customer.

This was a sea restaurant, and its primary customers were Pirates.

One could not expect Pirates to be polite, after all.

He came back to his senses. His professional smile gained a hint of sincerity as he smiled at Kuta.

"Gentlemen, please come inside first. Allow me to give you a detailed introduction in a moment."

This man had originally been a vicious Pirate. Later, he joined the sea restaurant under Red-Leg Zeff and became a chef. He was now a chef and combatant at the sea restaurant Baratie.

That was why he called everyone "gentlemen."

Patty rolled his eyes and counted the number of people in Kuta's group. Then he turned toward the kitchen and shouted, "Five guests entering!"

He then bent slightly and pointed with his right hand toward an empty seat by the window, signaling for Kuta and the others to follow.

"Five gentlemen, this way, please. The sea restaurant Baratie will do everything in its power to serve you."

Patty walked ahead to the round table and pulled out chairs for Kuta and the others.

After watching them take their seats, he accepted the glasses and lemon water handed over by another chef behind him and poured them each a glass.

He then stepped back and stood to one side, speaking enthusiastically to Kuta.

"Gentlemen, please have some tea first."

"Well, tell us what dishes you have."

Kuta lifted his glass and took a sip of the lemon water. It was sour and sweet, and not bad.

Patty took a notebook and pen from his pocket and began introducing the dishes.

"Five gentlemen, our restaurant serves different dishes every day. It mainly depends on what kind of ingredients we receive that day. Today, we have the largest abalone and sea cucumbers in the East Blue, as well as saury unique to the Golan Kingdom."

He paused, then continued.

"However... the best ingredients today aren't those. They're a batch of sea fish and lobsters from the Grand Line."

Seeing the yearning looks in Kuta and the others' eyes, a glimmer of money flashed through Patty's eyes, and his smile grew even more radiant.

"What do you think, gentlemen? Would you like to try them?"

He said this to every wealthy customer. The ingredients were indeed excellent, just a little more expensive than usual.

Only wealthy gentlemen like these could afford such ingredients. As for poor wretches, they were not even worthy of lemon water. Patty was simply that realistic.

Ahua had been excited ever since entering Baratie. At last, he could not hold himself back.

He shouted toward Patty, "Forget the ingredients for now. Can you have your owner and head chef, Mr. Zeff, cook for us?"

Zeff had already been a famous chef more than a decade ago.

After opening Baratie, he became the most renowned chef in the East Blue.

Ahua was also a chef, so of course he knew Zeff. He had heard Zeff's name from his Pops more than once.

Although his own career as a chef had only lasted around two years and was rather lacking in substance,

that did not affect his desire to see for himself what dishes the East Blue's greatest chef could make, and just how delicious they would be.

That way, he could work toward that goal in the future.