Four Homies carriages styled like storybooks for little children passed through the central street of Dessert City, heading north.
Two led the way, with two following behind. The front pair were driven by an honor guard of Homies Soldiers to clear the way.
The two carriages behind carried the Great Angel and the Mechanical King respectively.
Looking like oversized, open-top pumpkin coaches, the carriages advanced toward Whole Cake Chateau as residents gathered to watch.
Sephiroth, Reiju, and four Holy Knights rode in one carriage. Their accompanying hostess was Mozart, the clown girl. The atmosphere seemed fairly congenial.
Their conversation mainly covered Whole Cake Island's local customs, so it was not exactly awkward small talk.
The other carriage held the Mechanical King Babbage and four Mechanical Soldiers. Their accompanying hostess was Custard, the purple-haired older sister. Things looked rather awkward there.
The main problem was that Babbage rarely initiated conversation, and even his replies were exceedingly brief. Custard found him a little difficult to handle.
She had, in fact, been assigned a particular task: to sound out the Mechanical King's interest in cooperation.
Yes, cooperation.
Big Mom was certainly greedy. In the original story, for instance, she had intended to swallow up Germa. What she coveted, however, was its Lineage Factor technology.
She had no particular designs on the Mechanical King.
She did not value Titans' "purely mechanical" technology all that highly. Homies were much "smarter" than those robots.
Still, Big Mom did have some interest in ordinary cooperation.
It was no secret that Artificial Angels were essentially robots through and through. Even members of the Imperial Guard had been recorded as destroyed during the Dressrosa Restoration War.
The various factions had also gained some understanding of the Imperial Guard's basic specifications, combat effectiveness, and so on.
One question of particular