"Hey... Hey hey... Karl, just change one more time! (Pleading.jpg)"
"No! (Indifferent.jpg)"
"Please, just one last time, okay? At worst, tonight Nami, Perona, and I will reward you properly again? Or, I can pull Sister Robin in too, and the four of us will reward you properly? (Tempting.jpg)"
"Gulp... Really? (Swallowing.jpg)"
"Of course, it's true, I swear! (Serious face.jpg)"
"Alright! As Big or Small as I Please—"
"Ah... Kawaii!!!!!"
"Save... save me! (Painfully struggling.jpg)"
"..."
Top floor of the Golden Hotel.
Not counting the few days of the return journey, Karl, who had been traveling and adventuring for over a year, planned to rest at home for a while.
Not only him, but even the active Yamato had also quieted down for a rare moment.
To make up for it to Carina, Tama, and Shiro, Karl spent the next period of time accompanying them.
Carina, who had learned from Nami that Karl had completed his third evolution and obtained a super cute third trait, coquettishly asked Karl to use As Big or Small as I Please once.
To compensate Carina, his most beloved woman, Karl naturally did not refuse.
Then, after changing back to the childhood appearance that was faintly blurry in Carina's memory, even Karl, whose physique was number one in the world, was almost played to death by Carina and the other girls.
Women have no immunity to cute little children.
Among them, Robin and Perona were the most affected, followed by Nami.
Above them all was Carina, the most of the most.
For other cute things, the very rational Carina might not be as affected.
But the childhood Karl, to Carina, was definitely an ultimate, final-move-level attack.
To this day, Carina has not forgotten that at the age of 7, it was for him that she chose to abandon the orphanage director and her little friends, leave the orphanage that was not comfortable but not a hard life either, and follow this child out to sea to adventure and brave the East Blue.
Besides his personality, wasn't it that face?
Carina had originally thought that as he grew older, from being shorter than her at first, to gradually becoming dozens of centimeters taller, to becoming an 18-year-old adult next year, Karl, in a few more years, might forget that face with its infinite lethality.
Unexpectedly, Karl's new trait had actually made the originally fading memory become clearer.
In an instant, Carina wished she could hug Karl and rub that childish face until a layer of skin came off.
In front of the girls whose maternal instincts had flared up, Karl finally experienced what was called a fate worse than death.
Suffering all kinds of torment, the physical pain was secondary; the mental struggle was the greatest.
Karl, with his male pride, could not tolerate being at the mercy of Carina and the girls like a child of a few years old.
And so, Karl decided to completely seal the shrinking form of As Big or Small as I Please.
However...
While Karl had his tricks, Carina was a step ahead.
Faced with Carina's irresistible reward, Karl ultimately couldn't hold back and threw his male pride to the dogs.
And so...
Karl's mentality suddenly underwent a world-shaking change.
Since he couldn't resist, he could only learn to enjoy it! (Amitabha.jpg)
And so...
Robin, who was pulled in by Carina, became a member of Karl's list of close relationships with feigned reluctance.
The time was August, Sea Circle Calendar 1519.
Karl, who was living the carefree life of the world's richest man at home, suddenly received good news from Doflamingo's side.
His new clothes were ready!
Hearing this news, Karl immediately ordered his subordinates to have the Island Turtle pull Gran Tesoro towards the Dressrosa Kingdom.
Gran Tesoro was a mobile, the world's largest entertainment city, and it didn't move aimlessly. It would change its route every month.
Because not every rich person and noble would sail a galleon to Gran Tesoro.
After all, the New World was the strongest sea ruled by pirates, and they would also worry about being robbed by pirates on the way.
So, every time Gran Tesoro passed an island, it would stop by for a while.
Some guests would choose to disembark here, and some would choose to board here.
The wealthier ones would even live in Gran Tesoro, and only after several months, when Gran Tesoro returned to the route they had boarded on and passed the island they had boarded from, would they leave.
These people were Gran Tesoro's biggest customers.
In fact, not only Gran Tesoro was like this, but also the business of a certain king of the underworld.
That was the Pleasure District's flower boats.
The Pleasure District's flower boats were all over the world. Every time they passed an island, countless people would board and disembark.
Even pirates, upon encountering them at sea, would proactively board the flower boats.
As for robbing the treasures and women of the flower boats, these pirates naturally did not dare.
Because the owner of the flower boats was the oldest in the underworld, who had connections in both the light and dark, and even had excellent relationships with the overlords of the seas—the Queen of the Pleasure District, Stussy.
Her true identity was even a member of CP0.
To create the intelligence source of the Pleasure District, the CP organization, one of the three major institutions under Mary Geoise, had spent an unknown amount of manpower and resources to make the Pleasure District one of the giants of the underworld.
In the beginning, it wasn't that no scum had set their sights on the flower boats and women of the Pleasure District.
But...
After these scums of the sea robbed the flower boats, the news would not spread, and these robbers would also be buried at sea afterward.
For so many years, there had been no news of flower boats being robbed by pirates on the sea.
Over time, naturally, no pirate dared to set their sights on the flower boats of the Pleasure District.
After all, not everyone was a fool!
But I digress...
Gran Tesoro's sudden change of route did not arouse the anger of the customers.
Because they didn't dare, and at the same time, if they left, there would be galleons with the little dragon's flag to escort them away.
In the first half of the Grand Line, there might be fools who dared to set their sights on Gran Tesoro's galleons.
But in the New World, this strongest of seas, no one dared to provoke an overlord of the seas, unless they didn't want to live.
<><><><><><
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247
~ Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]