Chapter 708: The Intruder
“Why is it sweet again!?”
The entire Dragon Hunter Pirates had been busy for many days, and today they finally managed to gather for a group meal. But the moment Ian saw the food on the table, he immediately became displeased!
Not just him, even Crocodile and Enel wore looks of disgust. In fact, every member of the Dragon Hunter Pirates reluctantly put down their knives and forks.
The reason was simple—they had eaten so many sweets lately that they were sick of them!
“There’s no helping it!” Reiju sat beside Ian, one hand propping up her chin and the other holding a fork, lazily poking at a donut on her plate. “Most of the food supplies on Whole Cake Island are desserts—sugar, chocolate, cream, cookies, and the like. What else are we supposed to eat?”
Ian slumped forward, his upper body collapsing onto the table in exhaustion. “I want meat! Vegetables! Something salty!”
Robin was spreading jam on a slice of bread. Seeing Ian like this, she smiled and said, “You’re a Yonko now. How can you be so lacking in dignity?”
“Damn it, Yonkos are still human!” Ian began pounding the table. “If this keeps up, our entire Dragon Hunter Pirates will turn into the ‘Three Fat Pirates’! Matthew! Where’s Matthew!?”
“He’s in the kitchen!” Enel held a piece of Black Forest cake that looked delicious, but the moment he smelled the sweet aroma, he felt nauseous. He tossed it aside and stood up. “I can’t take it anymore either. I’ll go get him!”
With that, Enel transformed into lightning and vanished with a crackle.
“I really miss the taste of grilled meat and beer…” Urouki muttered after Enel left, making everyone in the crew even less inclined to eat.
One by one, they dropped their utensils and started chatting instead.
However, there was one exception—Dorry. While everyone else avoided the sweets, he devoured them without hesitation, stuffing pastries into his mouth like a glutton. The others found it speechless and simply pushed their own plates of desserts in front of him.
Ian watched Dorry and said helplessly, “Sometimes I really envy Dorry’s Glutton-Glutton Fruit. He can eat so much…”
“Being able to eat is a kind of happiness sometimes!” Konenai laughed. “But I’ve actually been wanting to ask—what did you feed Big Mom back on Skypiea? Why did she have such a blissful expression on her face when she died?”
Recently, everyone had heard about the battle on Skypiea and knew that Ian had thrown a bag of pastries to Big Mom. So, not just Konenai, but the entire crew was curious about this.
“Here we go again…” Ian sighed in exasperation.
Lately, rumors about the blissful smile on Big Mom’s face at her death had been spreading, and Ian could feel the strange looks everyone was giving him. It made him extremely uncomfortable. Although he had tried to explain, it was only within the Dragon Hunter Pirates. He had no idea what the outside world was saying…
He finally understood why the envoys who had come to the island recently had all brought plump women with them…
But honestly, Ian himself couldn’t figure out why Big Mom had smiled like that.
“Don’t ask me. I really don’t know!” Ian raised both hands in surrender. “If you want to know, you should ask Law. He was the one who went to the kitchen to collect the pastries. Only he knows what he grabbed!”
So, everyone turned to look at Trafalgar Law, only to find him sitting sideways, one arm draped over the back of his chair, smiling as he watched Walnut drink juice beside him.
“Hmph! Lolicon!” Under everyone’s gaze, Sugar, who was sitting with Walnut, suddenly threw this remark at Law.
“You… you brat…!” Law gritted his teeth at Sugar’s jab, but his face flushed with embarrassment.
Baby-5 was still a bit afraid of Law, so she quickly covered Sugar’s mouth and shushed her, telling her to stop teasing him…
“Ahem!” Seeing the amused looks from everyone, Law pretended to cough twice, then coldly spread his hands. “I don’t know either! I just grabbed whatever was there… Who knows what Big Mom actually ate!?”
“It shouldn’t be like that…” Ian frowned. He knew that the reason his Black Cero had taken down Big Mom so quickly and easily was because she had experienced a sudden burst of happiness from eating some pastry. At that moment, she had completely let her guard down, taking his attack head-on without any defense.
But… there was absolutely no wedding cake among the pastries Law had brought! How could that have snapped Big Mom out of her hunger pang attack?
Just as everyone was puzzled, a slow, drawn-out voice suddenly spoke up: “It… was… Sa… mu… la…!”
Enel had returned, bringing Matthew with him. That slow, dragging tone was unmistakably Matthew’s.
“Samula? What’s that?” Crocodile asked in confusion.
Sardine suddenly spoke up. “Samula is a ceremonial delicacy from our Giant Tribe!”
He turned to Matthew and asked, “Did you make Samula that day?”
Matthew nodded and slowly began to explain. Before everyone could be driven crazy by his pace, they finally understood what had happened.
It turned out that before landing on Whole Cake Island, Sardine had told Ian he didn’t want to see Big Mom. After Ian and Reiju went ashore, Sardine, who had stayed on Skypiea, was pressed by the others to talk about the Giant Tribe’s legend of Big Mom as a “demon god.”
Matthew had been listening at the time. As the conversation went on, Sardine mentioned how Big Mom had destroyed the Elbaf warrior village and killed the Giant Tribe elder over the Samula pastry. As a chef, Matthew was naturally intrigued by this mysterious pastry and asked Sardine how it was made.
Sardine couldn’t explain it clearly—he was a warrior, not a cook—but he described the appearance and taste of Samula. Based on that, Matthew tried to recreate it.
Since it was a test batch, Matthew left it in the kitchen. When Law went to collect the pastries, he must have packed the Samula as well…
Hearing this, even Ian was stunned. He knew Matthew was a skilled chef, but he never imagined that a test batch of Samula could make Big Mom rediscover the taste of her memories!
That had to be the only explanation. Otherwise, Ian couldn’t figure out why Big Mom had suddenly snapped out of her hunger pang attack at the end…
“Alright, the mystery is finally solved!” Ian said. “But Matthew, you’re the head chef of our Dragon Hunter Pirates. Can you please stop making us eat sweets? Even if there’s no other food on Whole Cake Island, don’t the gifts from the envoys include meat or vegetables!?”
“Yeah, yeah!” The Dragon Hunter Pirates all protested in unison.
However, Matthew innocently pointed at Dorry, who was still stuffing his face, and said, “There… was…! But… Dorry… ate… it… all…!”
Everyone’s mouths hung open, and it took them a moment to snap out of it. When they did, they immediately ganged up on the gluttonous Dorry!
“Well, it looks like we’ll have to keep eating sweets until the supply ship returns from the outer seas…” Baccara shrugged, then looked worriedly at her waistline, fearing a major crisis for her figure.
She wasn’t the only one—several of the girls were also concerned…
“Speaking of which, has there been any news from Uncle Fujitora?” Once the idle chatter was done, Ian turned to business.
“No,” Crocodile shook his head, biting his cigar. “That old man didn’t even bring a Den Den Mushi… You know how Wano is—it has almost no contact with the outside world. Unless we send someone there in person, we’ll just have to wait.”
“Don’t worry,” Reiju comforted Ian. “With Uncle Fujitora’s strength, nothing will happen…”
“I’m thinking I should visit the Whitebeard Pirates,” Ian said thoughtfully, tapping his fingers. “It was Marco and the others who called to tell us about Wano. They might have news.”
Given Ian’s current speed, flying there and back wouldn’t take much time, so the others exchanged glances and said nothing.
Just as Ian was about to make a decision, a sound of breaking air reached them.
Looking up, they saw Yonji of the Vinsmoke Family flying toward them from the sky.
Yonji landed quickly, his jet shoes keeping him floating a dozen centimeters above the ground. Reiju, seeing it was her brother, asked in confusion, “Yonji, weren’t you stationed on the outer islands?”
“I was going to use a Den Den Mushi, but Father told me to come in person!” Yonji grinned, taking a moment to glance at the beauties—Robin, Konenai, and Baccara—before speaking to Ian. “The territory snails raised an alarm. A ship has entered the territory of Totto Land without permission!”
“Pirates?” Ian asked. “Then just drive them away, right?”
“Well, it’s a pirate ship, but they don’t seem to be enemies!” Yonji said. “You’d better go see for yourself. These pirates are asking to meet you by name. They seem to be your acquaintances…”