One Piece: Under the Throne

Bang, bang, bang! Fireworks went off into the sky, and the annual food festival of Star Island opened. More than 3 of the most outstanding chefs from all over the world will compete for the qualification to enter the world's number one chef competition in these three days.

Charles in the crowd seemed a little nervous. He vowed to take back his father's legendary kitchen utensils this year. In addition, due to the bet with Grady, he would have no chance to fulfill his wish if he lost. So Charles gave his all for this last cooking competition.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the annual food festival of Star Island has begun. Please welcome the respected Lord Grady to deliver the opening speech." The host's loud voice spread throughout the archipelago through the video telephone bugs placed in various places on the island.

Leo didn't listen to the Lord's opening speech on the stage, he was busy looking for the chef. Leo felt that Charles should be very strong. He was beaten up by a group of people yesterday, but he was fine. Except for seeing Grady showing anger, he was very calm throughout the whole process. Such a person is either a hidden master or an idiot with a problem in his brain. Leo definitely leans towards the former, so Charles is definitely the most suitable chef for their team.

At the same time, Grady also finished speaking. What was unexpected was that there were Celestial Dragons among today's guests, which also added a lot of uncertainty to this event.

"Saint Kamael, please move to the VIP seats. This year's competition will not disappoint you." Grady had a flattering smile on his face and served the Celestial Dragon carefully.

"Oh my, my personal chef is about to be born. I finally don't have to eat food made by mediocre people anymore." Although he answered like this, Kamael Saint kept half-closed his eyes, as if he was not very interested. Every year, he said that he would produce the world's best chef, but he was always disappointed. Kamael Saint was kind enough not to get angry immediately. In his heart, he kept complaining about what was the point of watching these ordinary people compete, unless the chef was wearing a naked apron... Hey! This is a good idea, should I give it a try?

……

All diners need to exchange a large number of food coupons before landing on the island to consume on behalf of Bailey. If you want to taste the food of a chef, you only need to pay the corresponding number of food coupons. After three days, the top eight chefs with the total amount of food coupons will advance to the knockout round.

"Leo, where should we start eating first? That place looks good." Will felt like his eyes were not enough.

"Assholes, don't just focus on eating, don't forget to find our chef... Hey? Will, look, there are sea snake dishes over there, let's go and try them." Under the temptation of delicious food, Leo and the others quickly forgot about finding a chef.

Leo and his companions were having a great time eating in the eastern part of Star Island, but they didn't know that the people they were looking for had started a fight in the west. Charles finally found an open space and immediately set up a stall to start business.

Due to the poor performance in the past few days, Charles could only enter from the outermost island. The food quality of the Star Food Festival was also increasing from the outermost to the innermost. The outermost islands were all popular dishes. Although there were many diners, the prices were relatively low. If you wanted to enter the quarterfinals, you had to open a store on the inner islands. However, the minimum requirement for opening a store in the inner islands was to obtain a food voucher worth one million Baileys.

Most of the diners on the periphery are civilians, merchants, and even pirates. Charles plans to make sea king skewers to decide the winner for this group of people. This is a smart choice. The aroma produced when cooking skewers can help him quickly gather diners, and skewers also have the advantage of fast serving. It seems that Charles is ready to quickly harvest the food coupons in the hands of diners.

Soon, a long line formed in front of Charles's stall. The aroma of the sea king skewers with his secret sauce could be smelled across four or five islands. The rich aroma was like Cupid's arrow, easily capturing the hearts of every diner. And Charles's cuisine seemed to have magic, making everyone who ate it smile happily.

If Charles was an angel distributing food, Leo and Will were passing locusts. Their food trip was not in vain. They cleaned up all the ingredients on the islands they passed by, and even more than a dozen chefs were exhausted. If there was a big eater competition at the food festival, the duo could definitely compete for the first place.

"Leo, I can't eat anymore. Let's go find some dessert." At this time, Will had grown from a killer whale to a pufferfish. From his little hands that kept patting his belly, it was obvious that he was very satisfied with the meal.

"We've had enough fun, it's time to get down to business and see how our chef is doing."

"Ah, are you going to find someone? Leo, I seem to have a disease that makes me unable to move after eating, why don't you go first?" When Will heard that he had to work, he started right away.

"Tsk! You're so fat, forget it. We don't have to look for it ourselves. Don't forget that we still have a secret weapon."

After a while, Leo brought out the surveillance Den Den Mushi aircraft that had not been used for a long time. The little guy was so fat that even the shell could hardly cover his body. Fortunately, the performance of the aircraft was still good and it could still fly up shakily.

Leo and Will huddled in front of the Den Den Mushi, their eyes fixed on the screen. "Will, look carefully, don't miss the green-haired chef. This is related to our jobs."

Den Den Mushi scanned the islands, from the periphery to the center, "Will, look, this insect cuisine looks good."

"Insect cuisine? It sounds special. Leo, should we try it?" Leo and Will obviously underestimated their resistance to delicious food. To two foodies, the latter would be easily overlooked when they had to find one person among a pile of delicious food.

Moreover, Leo saw the familiar face of Zhepu on the island of insect slaughtering dishes, so they both decided to try it, and poor Charles' priority was lowered again.

What Leo didn't expect was that insect cuisine was unexpectedly popular. Does the world have such a high acceptance of exotic foods? Leo was always skeptical, so he bought a portion of deep-fried exploding insects to try. But as soon as he took a bite, Leo's eyes lit up. The taste of this little thing was a bit like strange beans, which made people more addicted. He quickly finished a bag of insects and stopped in front of Zhepu's stall, and then he sat down naturally.

Pushing two food coupons in front of Zhepu, he said, "Boss, what kind of food do you have here? Just give me a few to try."

Zhepu glanced at Leo and casually brought out two sets of meals, which included caviar with pan-fried foie gras, clam cream soup, baked cod fillet with puff pastry, and creamy mashed potato salad. It was a bit like a simple Western set meal. Just by smelling the taste, you could feel the elegance revealed in it. Zhepu was really good at cooking.

In front of this set meal, Leo and Will both unconsciously began to pay attention to table manners. They picked up their knives, forks and napkins, and began to taste the dishes one by one in order.

After eating, the two wiped the corners of their mouths gracefully. Just when Leo was about to make friends with Zhepu, Will suddenly shouted, "Uncle, another serving of clam cream soup." Will looked at Zhepu with eager eyes.

Zhepu didn't say anything. He turned around and brought out another bowl of thick soup and placed it in front of Will. This time, the little fat fish didn't care about etiquette and picked up the plate to finish the soup.

After drinking, he continued to look at Zhepu and asked for another portion. Zhepu had no choice but to continue feeding Will.

"Moto-Moto!"

Leo thought he saw Zeff's eye twitch slightly.

Zhepu stopped serving soup to Will, and placed his hands on the table, staring at Will. Zhepu's younger brothers also gathered around him.

Will felt a little embarrassed when he was looked at: "Uncle, did I eat too much and make you unhappy?"

Zhepu's seriousness only lasted for a short while, and then he burst into laughter: "Ahahaha, how could I blame the guests for eating too much? Come on, we are all men of the sea, you can eat as much as you want, don't be polite to me."

All of Zeff's brothers cheered and admired Will's appetite. It was not until now that Leo finally confirmed that Zeff was indeed a pirate captain.

Leo looked at Zeff with a smile: "I didn't expect that the famous chef and captain of the pirate group, Mr. Redfoot Zeff, would be so easy to get along with. Hello, I'm Leo, he's my companion Will, nice to meet you."

"You knew my identity when you saw me for the first time yesterday, right? How dare you peek at me? Are you bounty hunters?" Zhep asked Leo with a hint of sarcasm, obviously not taking them seriously.

"Oh no, you misunderstood me. I was looking at you mainly because I wanted to invite you to be a cook on my ship."

It was an unexpected answer. Zhepu was stunned for a moment and sneered, "Haha, arrogant boy, you want to invite me to be your chef. Boy, do you not want to leave the Star Island?"

Leo knew that Zeff was joking with him. After all, as a pirate, he seldom killed ordinary people. Of course, Leo would not be afraid of him even if he did.

"Since Mr. Zhepu is unwilling, just treat me as a joke. Alas! It's a pity that I missed such an excellent chef. Then I have to settle for the next best thing and invite Charles to be the chef on my ship. Mr. Zhepu, do you know where he is?"

"As for him, forget about it. He won't go with you. That guy's ancestor was the lord of the Star Island, and it wasn't until his grandfather's generation that he was replaced by the current lord's family. So his goal is to restore the family's glory. And Charles is a very proud man. How could he possibly yield to a little brat like you? Hahaha!"

"Okay old man, just wait for me, I will beat up your apprentice later."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. I said it won't be easy for Charles to win. After all, his enemy is the lord here. He can kill him with just a flick of his finger. How can he take revenge? But if he can join us, the result will be different."

"Haha, it's a good thing to be confident, but don't blame me for not reminding you, there are Celestial Dragons here, so you two better not cause any trouble."

After chatting for a while, Leo and Will ended their day of eating. On the way back, Leo kept sorting out the intelligence he had collected today. It was really not easy to recruit Charles at the moment. It seemed that the only way was to help him win the game.

Thinking of this, Leo's eyes rolled around: "Will, do you want to go to the lord's castle with me tonight?"

"Ah? Boss, we can't be thieves."

Leo: “…”