Above Pirate King - Chapter 154
Central Street of St. Martin City
“Clatter, clatter!”
The wheels rolled as Old Newcastle and Mary sat at the front of the carriage, driving the cart filled with various fresh vegetables toward the palace.
St. Martin’s palace was vast and had many gates. Old Newcastle’s destination was the kitchen, specifically the front kitchen, where all the palace attendants dined. Over a thousand attendants ate there daily!
To enter the front kitchen, they needed to pass through the small gate on the west side of the palace, as it led directly to the front kitchen and was designated for deliveries like theirs.
Expertly, Old Newcastle brought the cart to the West Small Gate.
“Halt!” Seeing the approaching cart, Seiya, the gatekeeper, immediately shouted.
Yes, the gatekeeper here was Seiya!
Normally, every entrance to the palace was guarded by a group of attendants led by a Bronze Saint. The West Small Gate was a hot commodity because it was the passage for food ingredients to enter and leave the front kitchen. Apart from a few carts delivering food and meat and purchasing various ingredients, nobody else came here. The palace residents didn’t use this gate to enter or leave.
As a result, this gate was relatively idle, and the powerful Bronze Five Main Characters controlled it!
“Routine inspection!” Seiya said solemnly. He naturally knew Old Newcastle, but that’s just how the palace worked – even if you knew someone, inspections were still strict!
Seiya beckoned, and a group of attendants approached the cart to conduct a thorough inspection.
“Seiya, have you had breakfast?” Old Newcastle greeted with a smile.
“Yes, I did!” Seiya smiled back and pointed at Mary, asking, “Is she your granddaughter you adopted a few days ago?”
“Yes!” Old Newcastle nodded happily and said, “Isn’t she cute? Envious, huh?”
“Yeah, she’s pretty cute!” Seiya reached out and patted Mary’s head, who didn’t shy away but instead showed a docile expression.
“Haha, no need to envy, once you get married, you can have your own!” Old Newcastle teased and playfully nudged Seiya with his elbow. He continued, “Let me tell you, not to brag, but I’m famous in our village as a matchmaker. I have all the information on nearby village girls. Just tell me what you want – tall, petite, or with a suitable hips for childbearing?”
“Ahaha! No need, no need!” Seiya blushed and quickly waved his hands, rejecting the offer. After all, he was just a young boy in his teens, and his face was still thin-skinned. How could he withstand Old Newcastle’s teasing?
Just then, the inspection was completed, and Seiya hurriedly said, “Inspection is done. Please go in!”
“Hahaha!” With a hearty laugh, Old Newcastle drove the carriage inside.
Watching his departing figure, Seiya gradually recovered from his embarrassment.
“Phew.”
He sighed deeply, furrowing his brows, and turned to the nearby attendant, asking, “Old Newcastle has been living in the kingdom for so many years. Is there really something suspicious about him?”
The morning sun cast its light on the attendant’s ordinary face, revealing Devin.
“You know, there’s something in the world called a Devil Fruit!” Devin replied casually.
“Good morning!”
“Has Old Newcastle had his breakfast? Does he want to have something in the kitchen?”
“Old Newcastle, your adopted granddaughter is so adorable!”
“Come on, let Auntie hug you!”
“Here, Auntie will give you a bun to eat!”
“Little one, have a cup of soy milk!”
“Sweetie, how about a youtiao (Chinese fried dough stick)?”
At first, Old Newcastle kept exchanging greetings and being greeted, but gradually, Mary’s cute appearance captured the attention of everyone. People couldn’t stop playing with her and even fed her treats.
And Mary pretended to be cute and well-behaved, carefully taking the treats from everyone.
Yes!
It’s definitely not because the food smelled so good!
She’s an emotionless spy; there’s no way she could be attracted by such things, right?
Delicious!
With a steamed bun in one hand and soy milk in the other, Mary followed Old Newcastle into the courtyard outside the kitchen.
“Blumer, get a few people to unload the goods!” As soon as Old Newcastle entered, a chef with a large head and thick neck, wearing an apron and holding a kitchen knife, saw him. So, he immediately turned and shouted towards the kitchen.
“Alright!” A response came from inside the kitchen.
Soon, several kitchen assistants came out to help Old Newcastle unload the goods.
Meanwhile, Mary finished eating what she had in her hands, threw the trash into the garbage bin, took a deep breath, rubbed her cheeks, and showed an anxious expression.
“Grandpa, I need to use the restroom!” Mary tugged at Old Newcastle’s clothes as he was unloading the goods, anxiously saying.
Old Newcastle was busy and couldn’t accompany her, but fortunately, the restroom wasn’t far from here, just two turns away. So, he pointed to a nearby path and said, “Go through that gate, turn left, then turn right, and you’ll find the restroom!”
“Okay!” Mary obediently nodded and quickly ran off.
She passed through the small gate, turned left, then right, and came to a slightly odorous public restroom.
Without hesitation, she entered the door next to the restroom!
And so, Mary successfully got herself lost!
But that was just the beginning; the real challenge was yet to come.
How would she avoid the palace’s patrolling guards?
Soon, she encountered the first group of patrolling soldiers, and she was spotted!
Fortunately, she was just a five-year-old girl. After using tactics like pretending to be silly, acting cute, and playing adorable, she successfully fooled her way through!
Even she couldn’t believe how easily she got past them!
However, she didn’t know that these soldiers had been instructed beforehand, and someone had been keeping an eye on her every move.
————————————
The Palace, Monitoring Room.
A group of people were watching the surveillance footage from the monitoring Den Den Mushi. The protagonist of the footage was Mary.
“Inform Lord Aphrodite that we can capture Number One and Number Two!” Devin sat on a chair, staring at the screen, watching Mary’s poor acting, and solemnly ordered the subordinate next to him.
“Yes!” The subordinate respectfully responded and immediately turned to leave.
“Devin, what should we do with this little girl?” Yabuki furrowed her brows and asked.
Devin thought for a moment and said, “Take some people to follow her and see what she’s up to. This way, we can figure out their intentions!”
“But, the direction she’s heading is where the Crown Prince and Crown Princess are playing! If I just watch from afar, what if she harms the Crown Prince or Crown Princess?” Yabuki expressed her concern.
“How do you think her strength is?” Devin didn’t answer her but pointed at Mary on the screen and asked instead.
“From the way she walks, she seems to have received some training, but she’s too young, so she probably hasn’t been trained for long. Her strength may be slightly better than ordinary kids her age!” Yabuki carefully observed Mary for a while and analyzed.
“Alright, then there shouldn’t be a problem!” Devin waved his hand and sighed, “Although the Crown Prince and Crown Princess are not even a year old, their strength, well, they’re like two little monsters!”
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