While Perospero was away, Sherwin and the others were led by the Homies soldiers inside the castle to an unused room, where some tea and snacks were served to them.
Sherwin and the Felynes naturally didn't stand on ceremony. Even though they had already eaten breakfast, they still enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
From time to time, Klee Meow and Haibara Meow even fed a few pieces of pastry to Dodo and Sherry.
Just as Sherwin was petting cats with one hand while savoring what were absolutely world-class treats from Cake Island, Perospero, who had been gone for quite a while, finally returned, bringing Prometheus and Zeus with him.
Without Klee Meow and the others saying a word, the two Homies came over on their own with flattering expressions. Prometheus even transformed himself into Dodo appearance.
However, Klee Meow already had a new idea. She grabbed Prometheus as he flew over to her, and after some skillful kneading, quickly molded him into Sherry appearance.
"Meow hahahaha! Big sister Ai, look, Klee has her own Sherry now too, meow!"
(=`=)
The little ragdoll placed Prometheus, now in an axolotl form, on top of her head and smugly showed him off to the original Haibara Meow.
Shermie Meow didn't mess with Zeus much. She simply hopped onto him and used him as a "Flying Nimbus."
Of course, the clone that the little forest cat had secretly placed inside Zeus earlier was also quietly retrieved by her while she had the chance.
And this time, aside from bringing back Prometheus and Zeus, Perospero also had several female members of the Charlotte Family following behind him.
Given the Big Mom Pirate fondness for political marriages, the reason these women appeared here was naturally self-evident.
Sherwin: "…"
It seemed Big Mom still hadn't given up on recruiting him after all.
The Hunter, feeling slightly smug, swept a glance over the several women standing behind Perospero…
Mm, he could only recognize two of them.
There was no helping it. Big Mom had far too many children—there was no way the manga could show them all, and many character names only ever appeared in setting materials.
As for the two Sherwin managed to recognize, they were naturally ones who had a certain amount of screen time in the manga.
One was a half–shark fish-man mermaid who would later marry Aladine, the vice-captain of the Sun Pirates—he couldn't remember her name.
The other was the three-eyed tribe mixed-blood who would eventually become engaged to Sanji—Charlotte Pudding.
Aside from those two, there was also a half-octopus fish-man mermaid, a Longarm Tribe woman, a Longneck Tribe woman, and a girl wearing enormous fluffy beast-paw gloves on both hands, whose race was completely unclear…
In short, among these "blind date candidates," there was basically not a single normal person.
Sherwin: "…"
Actually, he could more or less guess a bit of Big Mom—or rather, Perospero—thinking.
The people around him were either merfolk or "cat Mink Tribe," and the only normal human was Robin.
Being misunderstood as having abnormal aesthetic preferences was, in that sense, understandable…
Like hell it was!
Sherwin rubbed his temples, which had been twitching nonstop since the very beginning, feeling a sharp headache coming on.
That said, to be fair, although most of Big Mom daughters in front of him were mixed-bloods of different races, judging purely by appearance, they were basically quite normal—some were even outstanding.
And a Three-Eyed Tribe member like Pudding was actually a bonus point for Sherwin. After all, in the eyes of people of his old Country, having three eyes looked extremely imposing.
Unfortunately, Sherwin had no intention of becoming Big Mom son-in-law.
Even setting aside the issue of the Big Mom Pirates, there was no way he could truly have any emotional entanglement with Pudding.
It wasn't because he cared about Sanji Meow being Pudding "official pairing," but because…
Pudding was only thirteen years old, the same age as Shirahoshi—still just a little girl.
Could it be that Perospero misunderstood me as some kind of lolicon just because the Felyne ages are on the small side?
Thinking of this, Sherwin felt his headache growing even worse…
Of course, even though he had no thoughts about any of the women in front of him, and even though he seemed to be stuck in an awkward situation where his reputation was taking collateral damage, Sherwin wouldn't be so rude as to drive them all away without giving any face at all.
At worst, it was just being forced into a matchmaking situation. It wasn't like he hadn't experienced that before.
Fortunately, this group of "blind date candidates" who came along didn't seem to have much interest in the matter either.
For example, the half-merfolk twin sisters Charlotte Prim and Charlotte Praline, after briefly getting to know Sherwin, ran off to chat with Shirahoshi.
As for the others, after exchanging a few simple words with Sherwin, their attention was mostly drawn to the adorable Felynes instead.
Seeing Perospero frown, as if he were about to urge his sisters to "pursue" him, Sherwin decisively spoke up.
"Shouldn't you be taking me to the library now? After seeing the rare and exotic creatures in your collection, I'd also like to tour the other thirty-four islands of Totto Land.
If you don't mind, I might even publish something like a Totto Land Travel Guide in the World Economy News Paper later on."
"Kukukuku… of course we wouldn't mind. I doubt there any fool who would dare barge into a Yonko territory just because of an article," Perospero replied confidently.
"Just remember to make the island I'm in charge of—Candy Island—sound a bit more appealing when you write it… lick~"
"No problem."
Sherwin nodded with a smile, though he didn't quite agree with Perospero statement.
If Luffy ever found out about a place filled with food everywhere, then even without that whole Sanji affair, he would definitely find a way to come and take a look.
With Sherwin interrupting things like this, Perospero also realized that he had been a bit too hasty.
He gave up on urging his sisters and instead led Sherwin and the others toward the library.
The library inside Cake Castle was enormous. This place wasn't just a "zoo," but also a "prison." Some humans with special bloodlines or unusual appearances were also kept here as part of the collection…
Still, Sherwin couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. What possible value was there in "collecting" this sort of human, especially among pirates—and particularly in Totto Land?
Was there really a shortage of people in the Charlotte Family with special bloodlines and strange appearances?
Silently complaining in his heart, Sherwin casually pulled out a book and opened it.
He had to admit that although Big Mom way of collecting things was rather hard to describe, she was very serious when it came to the production of these books.
Every animal sealed inside had an accompanying introduction, and the information recorded was extremely detailed…
At the very least, it was far more detailed than the monster illustrations in Sherwin stingy Hunter Handbook.
So Sherwin began flipping through the books in the library with great interest.
However, after reading more than ten volumes, he realized that he might have been a little too optimistic…
Because among the rare and exotic creatures collected by Big Mom, quite a few had already been recorded in the Hunter Handbook, and many of the so-called rare beasts were actually products of technology and Devil Fruit abilities.
Sherwin even saw zombie beasts created by Moria among them.
And back when he was on the Thriller Bark, Sherwin had already learned that this kind of "artificial exotic beast" could not be recorded in the monster illustrations of the Hunter Handbook.
With this back and forth, his idea of piling up a summoning ticket fragment by relying on the number of rare beasts collected here suddenly seemed rather shaky…