[Holy Land, Mary Geoise, the Jaygarcia Family Residence]
In front of the grand palace at the center, the figures of Rosse, Sora, and Otohime slowly appeared.
This luxurious palace originally belonged to Rosse alone, but during the years he spent campaigning in the world of the Shinigami, he specially allowed a few of the people closest to him to stay here.
"Hmm ~♪ Hmm~♪ Hmm~♪"
The moment they stepped onto the white jade stairs, a heavenly humming drifted out through the half-open palace doors.
The singing was clear and lingering, as though it could wash away the weariness of the soul. Even though it was only a casual tune, it still carried a kind of magic that made people feel completely at ease.
The crisp sound of a harp flowed like rippling water, occasionally accompanied by the distant notes of a flute, weaving together into a cheerful melody.
Hearing that familiar voice, a gentle smile naturally appeared on Otohime's usually composed face.
Rosse also chuckled softly. He did not stop and simply took another step forward.
As he approached, the heavy and magnificent palace doors seemed to sense their master and silently opened to both sides on their own.
The sudden movement outside caused the harmonious music inside to stop abruptly.
What followed was a burst of frantic rummaging.
After a series of rustling sounds, a delicate little head cautiously peeked out from behind the dragon-painted screen at the deepest part of the hall.
It was an exceptionally beautiful girl. Her features carried some of Rosse's handsomeness and boldness, while the shape of her face looked strikingly similar to Otohime in her younger days.
"Shirahoshi! What have you been doing in here this time?"
Otohime glared at her daughter with a mix of helplessness and reproach.
The name Shirahoshi had been personally chosen by Rosse. She did not know what meaning lay behind it, but as long as it was a gift from that man, she accepted it gladly.
For this daughter, Otohime carried a particularly soft spot in her heart.
This was a child she had carried for ten months and truly given birth to herself. She was the result of her bloodline merging with Rosse's. Unlike the children born through the traditional Fish-Man race method of external egg-laying, she was fundamentally different, and the bond between them was especially deep.
"No! I definitely wasn't causing trouble!"
Shirahoshi visibly panicked for a second, her large eyes darting around.
But when her gaze passed over her mother and caught sight of that familiar tall figure, she immediately perked up again.
Like a happy little swallow, she shot out from behind the screen and rushed straight to Rosse's side.
Clinging tightly to his arm with her backer beside her, she stuck out her tongue playfully at Otohime.
"I calculated the timing perfectly to welcome Daddy home, so I was composing a new song with Sister Vivi and Conis!"
"You're lying! You know my Observation Haki can read people's hearts, so why do you keep telling these endless lies in front of me? Are you doing it on purpose just to annoy me?"
Otohime scolded her irritably, but her tone carried the resignation of someone who could do absolutely nothing about this little troublemaker.
Among Rosse's many children, Shirahoshi was not the oldest.
She was younger than Sanji, Sora's eldest son, and Vivi, Titi's daughter.
But without a doubt, Shirahoshi was Rosse's most favored daughter and the one he placed the highest hopes on.
She had been born carrying the greatest blessing of this world. Combined with her father's undisguised doting, she was practically loved by everyone.
Faced with a daughter like this, Otohime truly had no way to keep her under control.
"I'm not lying. Mom is the best person in the whole world!"
Still hugging Rosse's arm, Shirahoshi swayed back and forth, looking as carefree and cheerful as ever.
"Lie."
Otohime snorted expressionlessly.
Before her Observation Haki, which could hear the voices of all things and read hearts, very few people in this world could lie successfully. At least, the current Shirahoshi could not.
Besides, no one knew a daughter better than her mother. How could she not know what kind of schemes were hidden inside her own child's head?
On Shirahoshi's little ranking list, her own mother could at best come in second.
Sometimes, because she was too strict, she would even fall behind Sora, Gion, and the other aunts who only wanted to have fun.
As for the first place that always sat firmly at the top and could never be challenged, it naturally belonged to Rosse alone.
"Mom, you're so annoying! You're talking to a daughter who's this innocent, cute, and beautiful, yet you're still using Observation Haki all the time? Daddy, hurry up and do something about your eighteenth concubine. Her temper keeps getting worse!"
Shirahoshi puffed up her pink lips and shook Rosse's arm vigorously, immediately tossing a huge accusation his way.
"Hahaha! If both of you asked me for something at the same time, the one I'd discipline would definitely be you, little girl."
Rosse laughed helplessly when he heard that. He was not angry at all and simply watched the daily bickering between mother and daughter with amusement.
To him, Shirahoshi had always served as the buffer between himself and Otohime.
Although Rosse's excessive pampering had given her a somewhat lawless arrogance, this was, after all, a world under his control.
As long as Shirahoshi did not cross the line, he was happy to let her do as she pleased.
Besides, with Otohime, a mother full of empathy, watching over her, Shirahoshi's nature could never become too bad. In Rosse's eyes, she was simply a playful girl.
Of course, compared to the timid mermaid princess who cried easily in the original timeline, the current Shirahoshi had undergone a complete transformation because of the drastic changes in her bloodline.
Though she was still the Ancient Weapon destined to inherit the power of Poseidon, the ancient will belonging to Poseidon had been forcefully erased by Rosse at the moment she was born.
That originally uncontrollable power had been forcibly converted into the purest source energy and authority over laws, becoming the perfect nourishment for Shirahoshi's body.
Now, despite being only sixteen years old, Shirahoshi had already steadily reached the S+ level in terms of her own normal strength without relying on any outside power.
Sometimes the world was simply unreasonable like that. True monsters stood at the top of the pyramid from the moment they were born. They never needed to go through the long years of training and growth that ordinary people did.
And Shirahoshi not only possessed the finest genes and talent in the world, but also resources beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
Beneath her seemingly spoiled exterior, she also worked far harder than most.
Play when it was time to play, fool around when it was time to fool around, but when it came to the training plan Otohime had personally designed for her, she had never slacked off in the slightest.
"Daddy's biased!"
Shirahoshi huffed, but her beautiful face remained full of joy and affection.
"Daddy, now that you're back, you'll be staying home for a long time, right?"
As she spoke, she looked up, hope shining openly in her sapphire-like eyes.
In truth, Rosse spent plenty of time with them. Even though his focus in recent years had been on the world of the Shinigami, he still returned frequently to accompany his family whenever he had free time.
But for a spoiled daughter, who wouldn't want an all-powerful father to stay by her side forever?
"I won't be leaving anytime soon. At the very least, I'll stay here and personally watch all of you complete the task I've given you."
Rosse smiled as he stroked her long hair and shifted his gaze toward the screen behind her.
There, the graceful figures of Vivi and Conis finally stopped hiding and stepped out.
At his beckoning, the two girls ran over like lively deer and threw themselves into his broad embrace from either side.
"Daddy!" ×2
The two called out together.
They had perfectly inherited their mothers' stunning beauty, excellent figures, and unique hair colors.
At the same time, Rosse's powerful and exceptional genes had also left their mark on them.
Compared to the weak princess and Sky Island girl from the original timeline, both their temperament and strength had already undergone a complete transformation.
"Then Daddy should keep his eyes wide open and watch carefully. A kid in a straw hat won't be able to stir up even the slightest wave on our home turf."
Shirahoshi giggled and gracefully released Rosse's arm, thoughtfully making room so her sisters could be close to him.
Based on age and birth order, she should have been the third princess of the Jaygarcia family, behind Sanji, Sora's eldest son, and Vivi, Titi's eldest daughter.
But in practice, she was the only princess publicly recognized as the eldest.
After all, Sora's and Titi's backgrounds carried certain sensitive issues.
Otohime had similar issues, but Shirahoshi had been able to freely switch between mermaid and human forms since birth, perfectly combining the traits of both races while also inheriting part of Rosse's Devil Fruit abilities.
These special qualities alone were enough to place her firmly in the position of first heir within Rosse's faction without any dispute.
More importantly, among all his children, her personality, methods, and the domineering nature in her bones were the most similar to Rosse's.
Even among her proud brothers and sisters, no one questioned her status.
"Don't be so confident. If you accidentally mess this up, then afterward you can honestly wait for your mother to hang you up and teach you a lesson."
Rosse smiled meaningfully and wrapped his arms around his other two daughters as he strode deeper into the magnificent palace.
Now that the battlefield had been set within his own world, there was no longer any need for him to personally deal with pirates.
At this point, he was more like a player moving the pieces on a chessboard. He wanted to use this opportunity to inspect his children and see how far they had grown.
This crisis was nothing more than a practical test with him serving as the safety net.
If Shirahoshi and the others performed well enough, he would not mind handing the newly conquered Soul Society over to them to manage as a reward, treating it as a new toy for the youngsters.
"Hmph! When it comes to power games and fighting, Mom is nowhere near as good as me!"
Looking at Rosse's back, Shirahoshi stuck out her tongue at Otohime.
A moment later, a solid slap from her mother landed squarely on her head.
Looking at her daughter, who acted completely without restraint in front of her, Otohime sighed.
If she did not know that this girl who laughed and joked all day had an entirely different face when dealing with outsiders, she would have ignored Rosse's objections long ago and disciplined her properly.
Still, Otohime knew the daughter she had raised.
Other than when she was in front of Rosse, Shirahoshi was every bit a ruler. She would never show such a spoiled side under normal circumstances.
———
The morning passed quickly.
After singing, dancing, and fully enjoying the carefree laughter and charm that belonged to daughters, the family gathering finally came to an end.
As she watched Rosse's figure gradually disappear into the distance, the brightness and playful expression on Shirahoshi's face seemed to be wiped away in an instant.
In its place was an unsettling calm.
Feeling the sudden change in the atmosphere, Vivi and Conis immediately put away all thoughts of fooling around and became serious as well.
"Sister Vivi, little sister Conis."
Shirahoshi turned her head slightly.
A smile still hung on her lips, but it did not reach her eyes.
"This time, we need to properly complete the task Daddy assigned us and present him with the most perfect performance."
"What's the point of telling us that?", Vivi pressed her lips together hesitantly, "In this performance, we're only support at best. Brother Ace, Brother Sanji, and the Marines standing on the front stage are the real main force, aren't they?"
"No, no, no, Sister. You're wrong."
Shirahoshi raised a fair finger and gently shook it as she corrected her with a smile.
"In a truly wonderful script, every person is an indispensable protagonist. What Daddy wants to see isn't one person standing above everyone else. He wants each of us to shine in our own position."
"Even if the role assigned to you only consists of a few scenes, the moment the spotlight falls on you, you become the god who decides fate."
As she spoke, Shirahoshi elegantly turned around and walked toward the center of the palace.
There was a crystal-clear indoor pool there.
To show his affection for her, Rosse had spent manpower and resources to directly channel seawater from ten thousand meters beneath the ocean into the palace.
In a sense, it was more than just a pool.
It was a passage connected to all the oceans of the world.
In this world surrounded by the sea, wherever there was land, there would be seawater at its edge.
And for Shirahoshi, who carried both the world's blessing and Rosse's favor, as long as there was seawater, she could arrive there instantly.
This was the authority she possessed over the world after completely mastering the power of Poseidon.
Splash!
Without the slightest hesitation, Shirahoshi leaned forward and instantly disappeared into the seawater without creating even a ripple.
It was time for her to move.
The performance was about to begin.
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