One Piece: Kaido the Beast Playing House.

Chapter 24 Lunch at the Palace

After sobering up, King Riku took the water brought by the maid, and then began to think about his conversation with Kaido yesterday. After thinking it over for a long time, King Riku made a decision.

At noon, in the tavern, Kaido was still sleeping soundly, and Lily had already gotten up and started studying the sea chart. For both of them, they were in urgent need of a stable territory to develop. As the saying goes, without money, you can't move forward. Whether it is developing the territory, recruiting soldiers, or buying things on the black market, money is needed, so a stable and wealthy territory is necessary.

Just as Lily was writing and drawing on the nautical chart, the sound of a parade was heard outside. Lily used her Observation Haki to scan over and found a small guard of honor walking towards the tavern, led by Prince Riku from yesterday.

Lily glanced at Kaido who was soundly sleeping and sighed helplessly. Conqueror's Haki gushed out from Lily and flowed precisely towards Kaido without any unnecessary leakage. Kaido, who was lying on the wooden bed, opened his eyes instantly, jumped up with the Eight Rings in his hand, and breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that it was Lily's Haki.

Soon after, Kaido also heard the noise outside. Like Lily, he used his Observation Haki to scan the area and frowned strangely.

"It looks like a guard of honor, not a combat unit." Kaido muttered in a low voice.

"It seems that His Majesty King Riku has some plans." Lily stood up and straightened her clothes. Looking at Kaido who was still standing there, she raised her hand, grabbed Kaido's horn and walked downstairs.

"Slow down, slow down." Kaido, who was caught by Lily, did not resist. Instead, he bent down and followed Lily's steps. Lily glanced at Kaido who was showing off and let go of her hand.

"Knock, knock, knock." The two had just gone downstairs when the door of the pub was knocked. Yvette, who was wiping the table, had no time to greet them and hurried to open the door.

After opening the door, Prince Riku, dressed in formal attire, stood outside the door. Looking at Lily and Kaido behind Yvette, Prince Riku bowed slightly and said solemnly:
"Mr. Kaido, Miss Rose Lily, I am Riku Dord III, and I am here by order of King Riku Andot II to invite you both to the palace for a chat."

"Thank you, Prince Dold. Shall we go over now?" Lily said after bowing slightly in return.

"If you two have something to do, we can wait here." Prince Liku is now completely different from yesterday, speaking in an official tone.

"Well, we have nothing to do, let's go now." Kaido said with a smile without any concern. For Kaido, when he is not strong enough, he needs to use conspiracy and tricks, and when he is strong enough, he just needs to be reckless. Moreover, King Riku is a smart man, he believes that King Riku will not do anything strange, even if he is really confused, he can just fight.

"In that case, please follow me." Prince Riku was obviously relieved, walked sideways out of the door, and made a gesture of invitation.

In this way, Kaido and Lily followed Prince Riku to the palace under the escort of the honor guard.

.........fast forward.......

After arriving at the King's Highlands, Kaido and Lily looked up at the palace in front of them. The kingdom was large and gorgeous, but it had an old feeling.

"It's very strange, isn't it?" Prince Riku glanced at the guards behind him and said in a low voice. He knew that these two people were strong enough to hear his voice.

"It's quite strange. It feels as awkward as a luxurious thatched house." Kaido spoke first.

"Because this palace was not built by the Liku family." Prince Liku said, "This palace has a history of more than 800 years. It belonged to the previous generation of the Dresroz royal family - the Don Quixote family."

"Don Quixote? I seem to have heard of this last name." Kaido held his chin and thought for a while, and suddenly a name from the Valley of the Gods flashed in his mind, "Celestial Dragon?"

"Yes, after the Don Quixote family became Celestial Dragons, the entire clan moved to Marijoa. At that time, the Riku clan, who were nobles of Dressrosa, were elected as king. Over the years, the family rules of the Riku clan prohibited extravagance and waste, so apart from the necessary repairs, this palace was not taken care of too much." Prince Riku gave the two of them a brief introduction to the country's history.

"I see. That's not surprising then." Kaido nodded, and his favorable impression of the Riku clan increased even more.

The three men walked into the palace, and the guard of honor disbanded at the gate. They were set up by the ministers to show respect for the king, and they would not normally enter the palace.

"Hahahahahaha, Kaido, Lily, you are here." King Riku did not sit on the throne, but stood in the hall waiting for the two.

"Well, Your Excellency King Riku, I had a great time drinking last night. Let's have a drink together someday." Kaido walked up to King Riku and hugged him, and deliberately increased his pace and swayed, revealing the mace behind him. When they just came in, the guards did not ask the two to hand over their weapons. Kaido's move was a small test. If he had nothing to hide, he would not notice this. If he had something to hide, he would definitely reveal his flaws. Very good, King Riku did not notice this at all, and reluctantly hugged Kaido who leaned over, and nodded to Lily who was standing behind him, and Lily also nodded and smiled.

"Come on, you two. You haven't had lunch yet. I asked the chef to prepare it. Yesterday you treated me to drinks, so today I'll treat you to dinner. Hahahaha." King Liku led the way generously, leading the two of them to the banquet hall.

There was only a round table, two enlarged chairs, and two elevated chairs in the banquet hall. King Riku sat at the main seat, with Prince Riku sitting next to him. Kaido and Lily did not hesitate to take their seats.

"Thank you for the wine yesterday. Now try my collection. Hahahahaha, this is a 40-year-old raisin red." After they were seated, King Liku personally poured wine for both of them and said.

"It tastes very good." Lily took a sip and smiled at King Riku, but Kaido was not a big fan of this wine. It was too sweet and not to his taste.

King Liku sat down again and clapped his hands. The waiter brought plates of delicious food to the table. The dishes were not exquisite, but they all smelled delicious and the most striking thing was that the portions were large.

"They are all Dressrosa's specialties. Please don't be polite, eat as much as you can. If you're not satisfied, there's more."

Hearing King Riku's words, Kaido didn't hesitate to pick up a large steak and swallowed it in two bites. Suddenly, Kaido's eyes lit up. The taste was really good. The steak was cooked just right. It was neither undercooked to make it difficult to chew, nor too soft to make it chewy. The sauce on it also had a faint aroma of wine, which was exactly what Kaido wanted. He raised his fork again and started to eat.

King Riku didn't mind Kaido's wild way of eating. Instead, he joined the food fight with a laugh. Immediately, the four of them started to concentrate on eating, and no one said anything more.

After a while, everyone, who had eaten and drunk their fill, started chatting while drinking the black tea brought by the waiter.

"Kaido, Lily, the food in our Dressrosa is pretty good, right?" King Riku said with a smile.

"Well, that's very good." Kaido nodded with a smile.

"Now that we're done eating, I have something to ask you two."

[Here they come] Kaido and Lily thought at the same time that if it was just a meal, King Riku wouldn't have to invite them so grandly.

"King Riku, please feel free to speak." Lily replied with a polite smile.

"That's right. I remember when we were drinking last night, Kaido said he wanted to create a pirate group, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Kaido nodded and put away his smile.

"That's right. I want to know if you two are planning to build a ship and go out to sea. Although we can't compare to professional shipyards, Dressrosa's shipbuilding technology is not bad. If you need a ship, I can provide it."

"Compared to building ships, our idea is to lay a basic foundation first to facilitate recruiting crew members." Lily and Kaido looked at each other and said with reservation.

"Really? That's great!" King Liku was delighted when he heard what the two said, and then he shouted to the guards, "Bring the sea chart!"

After a while, a guard came over holding a nautical chart with Dressrosa as the center.

King Liku spread the sea chart directly on the table, pointed to a place on the chart and said:
"What do you think of this place?"

Kaido and Lily looked down at the same time, and saw a line of words written where King Riku was pointing: "Iron Islands".

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(End of this chapter)