One by one, memories flooded her mind like a tide. The gentleness and happiness that she had deliberately forgotten, that she had hidden behind a facade of coldness and strength, could no longer be concealed in the face of this bowl of porridge.
"Ugh..." A sob that had been suppressed for too long, mixed with endless grievance and longing, escaped from the former empress's throat. The next second, two streams of hot tears rolled uncontrollably from her resolute eyes, dripping into the bowl and merging with the hot white porridge.
She cried. She cried like a lost child, heartbroken. She ate the porridge spoonful by spoonful, as if she wanted to swallow this long-overdue warmth along with all her sorrow.
On the deck, everyone watched this scene in silence. Gatz scratched his head, thinking for the first time that women were truly difficult creatures to understand. Linlin pouted. She thought the porridge didn't look as good as her cake, but seeing Gloriosa cry so sadly, she, for once, didn't make a sound. Newgate and Wang Zhi exchanged a look, both seeing a hint of understanding in the other's eyes. They understood that what Ren had cooked in this bowl of porridge was not food, but the human heart.
Rocks stood with his arms crossed, a smile of pride and admiration on his face. Conquering a strong person with force was no great feat. To melt a frozen heart with a bowl of porridge—that was the unique, irreplaceable power of his Head Chef.
After finishing the bowl of porridge, Gloriosa also stopped crying. She wiped her tears. Although her eyes were still red and swollen, the sorrow and coldness that had enveloped her for years had mostly dissipated. She handed the empty bowl back to Ren. Her voice was no longer cold, but a little hoarse and tired. "Thank you... and, I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Just wash the bowl," Ren replied calmly, as if he had just done something trivial.
Gloriosa looked at him for a long time before giving a wry smile. She walked over to Rocks and re-examined the man who had almost killed her just now. "Who are you? And what are you doing on my island?"
"My name is Rocks," Rocks grinned, his smile arrogant and domineering. "I came here to invite you to join my ship."
"Invite me?" Gloriosa was stunned.
"That's right," Rocks's eyes burned. "I saw your strength, and I saw your unwillingness. To hide on this broken volcano and cry over a man, don't you think you're wasting your talent?" Rocks's words were harsh, but they hit the mark. "This sea is vast, much more exciting than your little love affair. Instead of rotting here, why not follow me and see the real scenery of this world, and burn everything that makes you unhappy to ashes."
He offered no comfort, no sympathy, but blatantly showed her a brand-new path filled with destruction and conquest.
Gloriosa was silent. She looked at Rocks, then at the group of monsters behind him, each with a different demeanor but all exuding a terrifying aura. There was the incredibly strong Whitebeard, who could have easily defeated her but didn't use his full strength. There was the giant woman who could control the weather. There was the drunken but unfathomable Wang Zhi. And... a mysterious child who could make her drop all her defenses with a single bowl of porridge. There were no weaklings on this ship. Here, she might really be able to forget the past and start anew.
"Why should I trust you?" she asked.
"You don't need to trust me," Rocks laughed. "You just need to trust your own strength, and... my Head Chef's skills. On my ship, you'll never taste the flavor of sorrow again."
This sentence was the last straw. Gloriosa looked up, and a fire was reignited in her eyes. It was not the fire of sorrow, but the unyielding fighting spirit of a strong warrior. "Fine. I'll join you."
And so, the former empress of Amazon Lily from three generations ago, Gloriosa, officially boarded this ship of a future hegemon, which was destined to overturn the world, in a way that no one had expected.
"Great! Another comrade!" Gatz shouted excitedly. "Uh... Your Majesty, are you hungry? Big Bro Wang Zhi has a few grilled fish left. They're delicious!"
Gloriosa glanced at him, then at the crispy, tender fire-scale fish that Wang Zhi was offering from nearby. Her stomach grumbled. She took the grilled fish and took a bite. Her eyes instantly lit up again. Spicy, hot, and full of vitality. Perhaps this was the taste of her new life.
With the addition of Gloriosa, the concentration of monsters on the Behemoth soared once again. This top-secret Marine warship had now truly become a moving den of demons. And the first person on the ship to feel this pressure was the shipwright, Dolum. His daily work was no longer simple maintenance and repair, but walking around the ship with a special ruler that could measure energy waves, knocking here and there, muttering to himself like a deranged fortune-teller.
"The mainmast's energy resonance index has exceeded the limit again! It's because of the Haki that leaked out when Lord Whitebeard and Lord Wang Zhi were having a drinking contest!"
"There's a barely visible metal fatigue on the port side alloy armor! It must be from when Miss Linlin accidentally bumped into it when she turned over in her sleep!"
"The keel at the bottom of the ship is crying! It's saying it can't hold on any longer! Oh my god, how many monsters are on this ship!"
Dolum hugged his small notebook and squatted in a corner, drawing circles, his face filled with the happy yet painful frustration of a father whose children were too mischievous. He began to frantically study the structural blueprints he had copied from the abandoned Kuja ship, trying to integrate the Kuja's unique, highly flexible shipbuilding technology into the Behemoth's modification plans.
Daily life on the ship also became more colorful. Gloriosa and Linlin, two equally strong female powerhouses, soon established a strange competitive relationship. They would argue over whose training had made a bigger dent in the deck that day, and they would bicker over who got a larger share of Ren's dessert. But more often than not, they would team up to beat the challenging Gatz and Wang Zhi black and blue. Wang Zhi's Drunken Fist was no match for Gloriosa's exquisite, vital-point-targeting fighting style. His treasured wine gourd was nearly kicked away by Gloriosa several times.
The deck was the scene of god-like battles every day. The aftershocks of their fights made all the Sea Kings within a hundred-meter radius of the Behemoth disappear, all taking a detour.
And at the center of all this chaos was still Ren's small kitchen. Like an outsider observer, he calmly recorded everyone's physical data and energy consumption.
"Wang Zhi's Drunken Fist, catalyzed by alcohol, can make his Haki flow in a disordered, unpredictable trajectory. If I stimulate his nerves with ingredients containing lightning energy, perhaps this disorder can become even more violent."
"Gloriosa's Haki is filled with a scorching and destructive aura, which is related to her state of mind. Gentle, life-energy-containing dishes can neutralize the hostility in her Haki, making it more condensed and stable."
"Linlin... just make more cake."
Ren's recipes were constantly being adjusted and evolved. He was like a top-tier armorer, performing the most precise maintenance and upgrades for these self-aware, humanoid weapons on the ship. In these noisy, chaotic, yet vibrant days, the Behemoth sailed for another half a month.
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