One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 439: Schmoozing Royalty



As the group of royals arrived at the front gate of Pangaea Castle and started to make their way inside, a young woman with her hair in ringlets and her nose tinged with pink was stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder.

King Ham Burger gave his daughter a serious look before saying, "Sandwich, I expect you to be on your best behavior. Do you understand?"

"I wasn't planning on being on my worst behavior," Princess Ham Sandwich whispered, words laced with sarcasm.

"I certainly hope not. I'm the chairman of this Reverie and the last thing I need is for you to get caught with some other princess in a broom closet!" King Burger spoke in a dead serious tone. "This isn't our own territory. We're surrounded by backwards thinking fools who unfortunately have just as much if not more power than our own country."

"I get it already. I'm not stupid," Princess Sandwich shrugged off his hand.

Her father felt like she actually meant her words, so he nodded in satisfaction. He adored his baby girl, but she really did have a penchant for getting herself into trouble.

As soon as they stepped inside the courtyard where the other royals were schmoozing with one another, Princess Sandwich immediately betrayed her father's expectations and made a beeline for some pretty princesses. King Burger briefly debated pulling her aside again, but now they had many eyes on them so he could only trust his daughter not to create too big of a mess.

'Maybe she just wants to socialize like a normal princess for once...' King Burger tried to convince himself hopelessly.

Meanwhile as a Princess Sandwich was trying to somehow casually speed walk towards a pair of total hotties, she saw the massive mermaid princess lean over them and audibly ask "Are you talking about Luffy-sama?"

The two human princesses jumped slightly as they turned to regard the newcomer. Princess Sandwich tilted her head as she slowed her pace a bit.

One of the merman princes started to whisper something to the mermaid princess frantically, only for the Dressrosan (she thinks so anyways) princess to ask "Did you say 'Luffy-sama'?"

"That's right! Do you also know him?" Mermaid princess asked. "I owe Luffy-sama, Cherry- sama, and they're friends a great debt!"

""So do we!"" the Alabastan and Dressrosan princesses agreed with great enthusiasm. 'Now that's interesting-' Princess Sandwich thought as she picked up the pace again and found herself standing right behind the two human princesses. The merman prince looked like he wanted to warn them to keep it down, but it was too late. "Are you talking about that famous rookie pirate from the newspapers?"

Princess Vivi and Princess Rebecca flinched, turning around with polite expressions, the latter of whom is obviously better practiced.

"Princess Sandwich..." Vivi said, clearly buying time to collect her thoughts. "I believe the last time we spoke was at the Reverie eight years ago?"

"That's right. Nice dodge, by the way," Sandwich smiled like a cat who found a new toy.

"Dodge? Did you fight at the Reverie eight years ago?" Shirahoshi asked.

'Oh, this one is good. If I hadn't seen you with that big ass trident at the port I would have bought your innocent act~' Sandwich was impressed.

Of course, Shirahoshi wasn't actually pretending.

"No, we didn't fight Princess... I don't believe we've been formally introduced!" Vivi latched onto the opportunity for a topic change.

"I'm Shirahoshi!" Shirahoshi gently shook Vivi's offered hand.

Vivi and Rebecca both formally introduced themselves. The merman prince, Ryuboshi, gave a polite introduction as well, but he seemed far more on edge than the ladies.

"And I'm Princess Ham Sandwich. My father is acting as the chairman of this Reverie," Sandwich said, delighting in how Ryuboshi stiffened at the declaration. She thought, 'Seems like the Ryugu kingdom is here for a specific purpose this time...'

"So did any of you four actually get to meet the Straw Hat pirates? I understand that they traveled through each of your kingdoms," Sandwich brought the conversation full circle back to the topic she wanted to poke and prod at most.

'Why are you so insistent?' Vivi, Rebecca, and Ryuboshi all thought behind their polite smiles.

"Oh, yes! Have you ever met them?" Shirahoshi blurted out without any thought for consequences.

'What game are you playing now?' Sandwich's eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to figure out the mermaid's angle in so casually admitting that.

Ryuboshi looked like he was going to have a stroke, whilst the color drained from Vivi and Rebecca's faces.

"I haven't had the pleasure of meeting such infamous figures, sadly," Sandwich said. "Well, except for Miss Harpin from the days before her first bounty. She had a ship constructed in my country, you see. The Cabernet, I believe."

Shirahoshi pressed her hands together. "I see! What was she like then? Was she as strong as she is today?"

Vivi, Rebecca, and Ryuboshi had calmed slightly, but now they looked at Sandwich with suspicion. After all, anyone could claim to know someone and if she was truly lying then Shirahoshi might get herself in trouble.

"Hmm, maybe not as strong as today, but I'm exactly a good judge for such things," Sandwich tapped her chin with a single finger, before an expression that wasn't appropriate for a princess crossed her face. "I'm a very good judge in bed, though. Let me tell you, she~ was a delight~!"

'Ah, there's the blushing. How innocent~' Sandwich marveled at the four beet red faces. Vivi sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I never knew that you liked to mess with people, Princess Sandwich."

Vivi found it hard to believe that Princess Sandwich would know that Cabernet was really a ship and also claim to have slept with Cherry if she wasn't being honest. The former wasn't exactly common knowledge and, honestly, she could easily see that Cherry would have done...

that.

"I would have messed with you last time too, if that brute hadn't stepped up and slapped you," Sandwich's eyes flicked to a certain someone in the crowd of kings.

Vivi followed her gaze and scowled. "What is Wapol doing here?"

"I'm just as surprised as you, but enough about him," Sandwich waved her hand like she was wafting away a stench. "Tell me about Cherry's pirate friends! Especially about those two

beauties~"

"I think you would get along with Sanji-sama," Shirahoshi commented. Vivi and Rebecca nodded in agreement.

"Does he also have great taste in women?" Sandwich asked.

"You could say that," Vivi answered.

The group settled into a much more casual conversation after the tension died down and

other people started to wander over to talk to them.

"Princess Vivi!" came the obnoxious voice that Vivi wished she could forget.

"What do you want, Wapol?" Vivi sneered.

"To apologize! I have been terribly rude to you on every occasion that we have met!" Wapol practically shouted. "I'm sorry about that!"

Vivi didn't know what to think about that. It didn't sound like a thinly veiled attempt to mask his contempt for her like the 'apology' that he had given her after 'accidentally' slapping her across the face at the Reverie eight years ago when she was only ten years old. It almost sounded, dare she think it, genuine?n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"What are you doing, idiot!" the woman standing next to Wapol snarled at him under her breath. "Are you trying to embarass me?!"

"A man has to set his wrongs right, my sweet!" Wapol declared loudly.

Kinderella looked furious as she glanced around hoping that nobody heard him insinuate that

she was the problem here, even if it wasn't his intention to do so.

"Wapol!" the person who approached this time was the king of the new Sakura Kingdom. "Stop bothering Princess Vivi. You've done quite enough of that already."

"Oh, Dalton! I need to apologize to you as well! Sorry!" Wapol waddled over to him.

"Heeheehee! I think Wapol here must have taken a good knock on the noggin!" Dr. Kureha

said from Dalton's side.

"Dr. Kureha! I'm glad to see you're alive and well!" Wapol greeted her.

"What's that? You want to know the secret of my youth?" Kureha asked.

"Oh! Will you tell me?" Wapol asked.

"Get lost, punk. Heeheeheehee!" Kureha laughed in his face, taking a swig from a bottle of

rum.

"Delightful woman, isn't she dear?" Wapol asked Kinderella.

"Sure..." Kinderella scowled.

Thankfully, Kinderella dragged Wapol away to talk to some "real kings", so they were no

longer accosted by Wapol who waved goodbye to them as if they were actually having a

pleasant conversation.