Looking at the stunned crowd, Souta Kiryuu let a faint smile tug at the corner of his mouth. He just wanted to see how Big Mom would handle this and what kind of performance she planned to put on. Kaido of the Beasts had already offered up a powerful daughter, and now Big Mom still wanted to act reserved and bargain from a position of superiority.
When she heard that Yamato possessed a mythical zoan and had already mastered advanced Conqueror's Haki infusion, Big Mom's expression froze for a moment. Her narrow eyes darkened with irritation. In her mind she was cursing Kaido as a reckless oaf, an idiot, a complete fool. This was basically destroying the value of the marriage market. Just what kind of benefits had Kaido received from Souta Kiryuu that he was willing to send out a top-tier fighter like Yamato?
What these people under Big Mom didn't understand was that while Yamato was indeed immensely strong, she was also a troublesome source of constant headache. Not only was she useless to the Beasts Pirates, she regularly opposed Kaido, and had even gone as far as attacking Beasts Pirates officers. Keeping a troublemaker like that around was a loss. Tossing her out early in exchange for profit was much better than letting her stay on Onigashima and annoy everyone.
"That one doesn't listen, does she?" Big Mom's lips twitched, but her little eyes spun with sudden amusement. Seeing the seastone cuffs and shackles on Yamato, combined with Yamato being a Conqueror's Haki user, Big Mom guessed easily that Yamato's personality and temper would never submit to this so-called husband, Souta Kiryuu.
Meanwhile Big Mom's daughters were famously obedient and loyal, a much better bargain overall. She still wanted to use her daughters to extract greater benefits from Souta's crew.
"She's making a bit of noise for now, but a few days of conditioning should fix that," Souta said with a mild smile. By throwing Yamato into the deal first, he had already seized the upper hand in this marriage negotiation. Big Mom wanted to talk business with him while demanding an absurd price? Not happening. Souta Kiryuu was notorious for never taking a loss.
"Mama mama! My dear daughters have none of those problems," Big Mom laughed. In her view, her daughters were not inferior to Yamato. They lacked her strength, sure, but their obedience and competence were major advantages. After all, most of the adult Charlotte children had experience managing islands. Their overall capabilities were excellent.
What Big Mom didn't know was that the moment she started thinking like this, she had already stepped into Souta's negotiation trap. The high-value "premium product" Smoothie, who could originally be sold for a high price, suddenly seemed ordinary before the far stronger "Princess of Onigashima," Yamato. Big Mom's final psychological price would only continue to drop.
"Let's talk about this after we finish eating. I still haven't properly greeted all the powerful guests here." Souta shifted the topic, cutting off Big Mom's attempt to continue selling her daughters. Choosing among Charlotte daughters was something both sides would negotiate slowly later.
Looking around, he saw that aside from the underground dark emperor, many chieftains and kings of rare races had been invited by Big Mom to attend this Tea Party. Especially the Longleg Tribe, Longarm Tribe, and the Snake-Neck Tribe, all long-standing allies of Totland. Among Big Mom's children were large numbers of offspring from these minority races. Her "all races" philosophy indeed succeeded in attracting many rare races to live in Totland.
However, living safely on Cake Island and the other thirty-four islands came at a price. Besides paying monthly protection fees, every six months each resident had to surrender one month of their lifespan. The massive amount of souls collected by Big Mom were infused into objects using the Soul-Soul Fruit, turning them into living Homies, which then served as soldiers and workers on Cake Island.
Right now, the Beast Path of Souta's Seraphim Six Paths only harvested soul energy from enemies and prisoners. He did not, like Big Mom, seize lifespan from his own citizens.
···
With Big Mom's introductions, Souta met many leaders or representative powerhouses of various rare races and factions at this grand Tea Party. Some were kings, nobles, or generals of powerful non-affiliated nations, with strength equal to elite pirate captains. These factions all actively tried to show goodwill toward Souta, the new hegemon of the New World. Everyone was putting on polite faces.
As the main luncheon of the Super Tea Party gradually came to an end, members of each faction began their own talks, deals, and reminiscing. Big Mom's crew also prepared for full-scale negotiations with Souta's group.
Charlotte Mondor, wielder of the Book-Book Fruit and keeper of Big Mom's collections, including the Poneglyphs, would represent Big Mom in negotiating with Nico Robin to complete the translation. As compensation, Robin would receive a rub-copy to take back, including the precious red Poneglyph.
Lafitte would negotiate diplomacy and collaboration with Perospero, Big Mom's strategist.
Capone Bege and Big Mom's finance minister, Charlotte Noisette, would handle weapon and food trade.
···
Before Souta and Big Mom finalized their marriage negotiations, Stussy secretly contacted Souta and relayed a mission from the World Government.
"If you want me to keep my cover in CP0, I need to bring back results today. Cover me. Let me kill Feld. If you don't need me anymore, then I'll just expose myself and go back to being Queen of the Pleasure District~"
Stussy's seductive voice came through the specially modified Den Den Mushi, brushing against Souta's ears in a way that made a person itch, like fingertips lightly trailing across the skin. To Souta, Stussy was practically a little demon with a Charm-Charm power. No wonder she ruled the red-light Pleasure District. Her allure was maxed out.
"So the World Government wants to make a move on the Shadow Bank family? Then I want a share as well."
Souta rubbed his chin thoughtfully. After Stussy and Gild Tesoro divided up Doflamingo's underworld assets, they still couldn't access the rest of the dark industries. If the World Government was about to launch the first strike on the dark world's shadow-banking industry, Souta would naturally take advantage of the chaos.
Tesoro's Gold-Gold Fruit gave him absolute leverage in the massive black-market gold trade. This industry monopolized the sale of stolen pirate treasure.
Many pirates were muscle-brained fools who sold their plunder at dirt-cheap prices to the shadow-bankers' exchange houses. The profits involved were absurd. Even someone as sharp as Nami had almost sold the gold she brought back from Skypiea for pennies at the Water Seven exchange house. Gold worth hundreds of millions of berries could be instantly devalued by an appraiser who casually "tested the market" by offering a mere tens of millions.
Countless major pirates and underworld families also kept their fortunes in the Shadow Bank family's underground bank. The underground bank had excellent credibility and global reach. Even Doflamingo's dark brokerage relied on the Shadow Bank for worldwide transactions with its clients.
"Then please help me, Souta-sama," Stussy whispered, licking her lips, "Create a bit of chaos so I can assassinate Feld." She had no objections to acting as a spy among spies. After all, she was only a clone. In her own sense of identity, she wasn't even a true living person. Yet deep down, she longed to become a real human.