One Piece: Under the Throne

The moonlit night enveloped the Star Island. After a busy day, all the participating chefs were counting the day's harvest.

"Yo, we have more than 1000 food coupons. We will move to the middle area tomorrow." Charles was very satisfied with today's results. He passed the most competitive outer area. He also completed his goal before sunset. Next, he will think carefully about the food for tomorrow's competition. After packing up the stall and taking a last look at the Lord's Castle, Charles clenched his fists.

At the same time, on the Lord's Island, Leo and Will climbed up the cliff behind the castle under the cover of night.

Click!

"Hush... keep your voice down. There seems to be guards in the back hills." The first time they played stealth infiltration, the two felt very excited. In Leo's imagination, the devil fruit was like a princess in the attic leaning on the balcony fence to admire the moonlight, and he was the poor boy who longed for the princess's heart (or body). As the saying goes, a wife is not as good as a concubine, and a concubine is not as good as stealing. If you can't steal her away, then kidnap her. If the princess doesn't obey tonight, don't blame yourself for forcing her.

"Who's over there!" The noise still alarmed the guards. A guard in a black suit came over following the sound, but after a careful check, he gave up after finding nothing.

After the guards walked away, Leo jumped out from under Will. Fortunately, Will's back was pure black, which was the best protective color in the dark night.

I carefully bypassed the guards and came to the bottom of the castle. After searching for a long time, I found only a balcony on the second floor that could be entered.

"Will, push me up, and then you stay here, hide yourself and wait for me to come back." Only two people can enter at this height by stacking on top of each other, and Will's body size does not allow him to enter from the small balcony, so they had to leave him outside.

Click, squeak..., Leo pushed the balcony door open a little, and rushed in. This is a dressing room, one wall of the room is hung with gorgeous clothes, and the air is filled with a strong smell of powder. Seeing this, Leo's eyes turned and he had an idea, and soon a small figure pushed the door open and came out.

Leo found himself a black suit, combed his hair back, and disguised himself as the Godfather. He wore black clothes and black pants and he was going to pretend to be a gangster today.

……

After investigating for a while, Leo became more and more confused. He wondered why there was not even a servant in the lord's castle. Was Lord Gridi so frugal?

I walked downstairs before I saw a few figures. The maids pushing the dining carts were in a hurry and walked very fast. They entered the restaurant and never came out again. Leo quietly slipped to the first floor, poked half of his head out to look into the restaurant, and then he was shocked.

Where are the people? How come those maids just now disappeared in the blink of an eye? Just when Leo was puzzled, a surprising scene appeared. Two figures appeared out of thin air from the wall at the end of the restaurant.

A Devil Fruit user? Or some other mechanism? Seeing that the figure had already walked out of the restaurant, Leo flashed behind him and grabbed the figure by the back of the neck. The [Deep Sea Cage] ability was activated, directly trapping the man in a water ball.

He is not a user with special abilities and there is no reaction from the devil fruit, so there must be something wrong with the wall. After figuring it out, Leo threw the drowned and unconscious guard directly under the dining table, where he was blocked by the long tablecloth and no one could find him.

Leo carefully sneaked to the background wall of the restaurant, and suddenly realized that there were two walls here. Because they were staggered, there was no problem from the angle of the restaurant's main entrance. There was a small door in the middle of the back wall. Leo carefully pushed the door open, revealing the dark passage behind.

After going several dozen meters deep, torches began to appear on the walls. In the dim light, Leo discovered that there was a big door at the end of the corridor.

What's going on? Something mysterious must be bad. After hesitating for a while, curiosity got the better of him, and Leo came to the door again and pushed it open carefully.

"What the hell, what's going on?" Leo screamed in his heart. There was a big theater at the door, which was full of people. The host on the stage was talking eloquently and introducing several slaves. It turned out that this was a secret slave auction.

Grady is indeed a bastard. While no one was paying attention, Leo walked directly to the dark corner and watched this devil's feast without blinking.

Looking around, there were more than 500 people in the auction hall. They all wore masks and raised their placards to indicate the slaves they liked. In the VIP seats in the center of the stage, the Celestial Dragons were sitting lazily. Grady was standing next to them, bending over and talking to them flatteringly.

1.2.3...There are about 20 guards from the Star Island around the auction venue, and there are 8 bodyguards in black suits around the Celestial Dragons. They look like they are not easy to mess with.

Since this was the case, Leo was not going to be polite with Grady, and a plan to rob the lord's treasury gradually formed in his mind. However, Leo was not in a hurry, as there were Celestial Dragons here tonight, and the risk of taking action was too great.

He returned along the same route, took out the guard hiding under the long table in the restaurant, and then jumped out of the dressing room.

"Will, let's go."

Whoosh… Whoosh… Zzzzz…

A tic-tac-toe pattern appeared on Leo's head, and then he slapped Will hard.

"Ah? Is it daybreak?"

"Show your head, hurry up and leave."

……

On the second day of the food festival, Charles had found a good spot on the middle island. The island was large and there were only two competitors. Maybe these two chefs were stronger, so everyone avoided them, but Charles was not afraid. His goal was to be the champion, so anyone could be his opponent.

Inside the lord's castle, the guard stood straight in front of Grady and said, "Sir, the guard at the back hill disappeared last night, and we also found several footprints on the balcony of the dressing room."

"Huh? You bunch of losers, you didn't even notice someone sneaking into the castle? Are all the people you raised by Bailey good-for-nothings? Strengthen the guard force for me. If the Celestial Dragons are attacked, I will stuff all of you into barrels filled with cement and sink you into the sea."

The captain of the guards went down to arrange the guard duty for today. The more Grady thought about it, the more worried he became. He was afraid that the person who sneaked in was Charles, so he decided to see how he would react. After this incident, it seemed that the plan had to be changed. It was a pity that he could not give Charles despair in front of everyone in the final.

Looking at Charles, he had been busy on the middle island for most of the day and had just sent off the second table of guests. The diners praised Charles' cooking skills and even secretly invited him, but he rejected them all with a smile.

Bang, bang!

"Boss, bring the food up quickly." Five fierce middle-aged men in inappropriate suits sat at the dining table. One of them even put his feet on the table and shouted at Charles to serve the food.

Charles frowned. This last table of guests seemed to have bad intentions. However, he only needed this one table to qualify for the next round, and he didn't want to cause trouble, so he had to hold back his anger and ask the other party what they wanted to eat.

"Leo, Leo, I found the chef, look." Leo quickly looked at the image sent back by Den Den Mushi, and after confirming that Charles was on Island No. 22, he immediately took Will and set off.

At the same time, on Island No. 22, Lord Grady also came over: "Charles, how is your business today? Have you qualified for the promotion? Uncle, I am still looking forward to your promotion. When you really win the championship, I will return your father's relics to you."

Charles didn't want to pay any attention to this despicable guy, Grady, but he still frowned. He was afraid that the other party coming over at this time might be up to something bad again.

Just as Charles thought, when he was not paying attention, Grady exchanged glances with the last table of guests and left. The latter understood and smiled sinisterly.

So when Leo arrived here, he saw Charles arguing with a table of guests. He didn't know what the other party said, but Charles was so angry that his face turned red.

"Why are you rushing me? It's not like a chef would chase his own customers away."

"Yes, yes, I'm going to give you a bad review!"

"Boy, our Captain Kahn is willing to come to your place for dinner, which is a great honor for you. You don't serve him well and are still nagging here. Hurry up and get more wine. If you are slow, I will smash your store." It turned out that they were a group of pirates, and their purpose was obvious, which was to prevent Charles from entering the finals.

After being scolded, Charles returned to the kitchen dejectedly. He sat on a small stool with his head hung down and covered with a towel, exuding a decadent atmosphere.

"Hi, Chef Charles, do you remember me?" Just when Charles was in despair, a greeting suddenly came to his ears.

It turned out to be the middle school boy from yesterday. Charles was in no mood to fool around with Leo, so he just glanced at him without saying anything.

"Being bullied? Do you need my help?"

"Please don't disturb me, I want to be alone."

"Don't you want to compete for the championship?"

"Hey, don't be discouraged. Don't forget that you made a bet. If you lose, you will lose everything."

……

After a brief silence, Charles replied in a hoarse voice: "What's the point of thinking about it? They can just find a few people to stop me from the finals... I, wuwuwu."

Looking at the pirates at that table who were occupying seats by just ordering a glass of water, Leo's eyes started to roll around again. Maybe there was a solution.

Leo walked into the kitchen, looked at the remaining ingredients, and started to cook. About twenty minutes later, Leo came to Charles with two plates covered with a cover.

"Would you like to try my cooking?" Leo took off the cover on the first plate, revealing a plate of seafood fried rice.

……

Charles was too lazy to even raise his eyelids at this moment, and Leo was so angry that he shouted at him: "You coward, are you going to give up when you encounter such a small difficulty? Don't forget that your father's kitchen knife is still in the hands of that bastard lord."

"Don't bother me anymore. If you don't know anything, don't interfere. I'm done. People can't defeat fate."

"Bullshit, dare you try my cooking? All the answers you want are here."

Charles hesitated for a few seconds, but still picked up the spoon and took a bite: "Ahhh, ahhhh, puff."

"what about the taste?"

"It tastes like shit. Turns out you can't cook."

"Haha, sorry for making me laugh. Do you think I can cook for those bastards?"

"Asshole, are you going to poison my guest? No, what on earth are you going to do?"

"Hey, I have a way to solve your problem. But before that, please taste the second dish I made. This is a dish that symbolizes challenging fate and unyielding struggle. I hope you can cheer up after eating it." After saying that, Leo stuffed the plate into Charles' hand.

Charles took the plate in astonishment, and when he opened the lid he saw a pizza with a dozen sardine heads stuck on it, each fish's eyes staring at the sky with their eyes wide open.