He ignored everyone's reaction and slowly picked up a lamb chop with his fork, continuing to enjoy his meal.
It was as if that sky-high bounty and the surrounding panic had nothing to do with him.
This attitude of ignoring everything caused some ill-intentioned individuals, whose eyes had shown greed, to instantly shiver. The delusions in their heads were washed clean by a bucket of ice water.
What a joke!
This was a monster who had single-handedly frozen a fleet of three thousand people!
Just then, the restaurant door was kicked open roughly.
"Bang!"
Seven or eight pirates, reeking of alcohol and clearly not good news, swaggered in.
The leader was a burly one-eyed man, holding a blood-stained cutlass, arrogantly surveying the room.
"Where's the boss! Bring us your best wine and meat! Today, we, the Black Scorpion Pirates, are going to celebrate here for taking down a ship of Marines!"
Their appearance broke the eerie silence in the restaurant and drew everyone's attention.
The one-eyed pirate immediately saw the conspicuous bounty poster on the table. He grabbed it, and after seeing the numbers and photo clearly, he was first stunned, then burst into a wild laugh.
"Ohohoho! One hundred and eighty million! A brat is actually worth this much money!"
His single eye flashed with greedy light, and he scanned the restaurant, quickly locking onto Lorne.
"Hey! Kid! You're that 'frost fairy'?"
The one-eyed man pointed the tip of his blade at Lorne, his face full of provocation.
"You don't look like much! If you're smart, come with us, and save me the trouble of getting my hands dirty!"
Lorne finally put down his knife and fork.
He slowly wiped his mouth with a napkin and then looked up, calmly gazing at the group of fools who didn't know they were courting death.
"You're disturbing my meal."
"And... you're very noisy."
The one-eyed man wanted to say something more, but found he could no longer make a sound.
A bone-chilling cold began to spread from his hand holding the blade. He looked down and saw a thin layer of white frost covering his cutlass at a speed visible to the naked eye, climbing up his arm.
"Crack."
The blade in his hand froze without warning and then shattered into a floor full of metallic ice crystal shards.
The one-eyed man discovered with even more horror that his body had become incredibly stiff; even moving a finger was now a luxury.
His several companions behind him suffered the same fate, each frozen in place while maintaining their arrogant postures, their faces filled with terror.
Lorne stood up and glanced at those frozen fellows.
Their eyes were wide with immense fear; they wanted to flee but couldn't move an inch.
Zeff had been standing at the kitchen door, watching all this with a cold eye.
He blew out a smoke ring. Amidst the swirling smoke, his expression was exceptionally serious. He turned to look at Sanji and the other chefs beside him.
"Remember this..."
Zeff's voice was low and powerful.
"That guy is a true monster. Don't provoke him, and don't disturb him. Do you understand?"
Sanji and the other chefs nodded heavily. They had witnessed Lorne's move with their own eyes—that power to freeze everything in an instant filled them with sincere dread.
Lorne walked to the counter and pulled a stack of Berries from his pocket. The amount far exceeded what was needed for his meal, enough even to compensate for the damaged tables and chairs.
He placed the Berries on the counter and glanced toward the kitchen.
Zeff was standing there, his wooden leg particularly prominent, his expression serious to the extreme.
"The cooking was excellent, Boss."
Zeff's face was tense, and he just nodded slightly.
"Thanks!" Zeff's voice was low. "You... caused quite a commotion."
Lorne shrugged, his tone casual.
"Trouble always finds its own way to the door; it has nothing to do with me."
He was about to turn and leave when suddenly a familiar and powerful aura came from the waters on the outskirts of Baratie.
Lorne paused in his movements.
He turned his head and looked out through the window.
A familiar dog-headed Warship was rapidly sailing toward Baratie.
Lorne's gaze shifted back to Zeff, and he took a few more Berries from his pocket and placed them on the counter.
"Two more servings of dessert!"
Lorne spoke calmly and then sat back in his original seat.
Almost at the same time, a tall figure jumped onto the deck of Baratie with a gust of wind.
Just as everyone in the restaurant was confused, a hearty laugh loud enough to be deafening descended from the sky.
"Wahahaha! I heard there's good food and an interesting brat here!"
With a thunderous boom, the entire Baratie shook violently as a tall, burly figure smashed down directly from the sky.
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