Chapter 62: Arrival at the Sweets Sea

“So this is the place?”

“The Sweets Sea!”

Karl steered a small boat he’d snatched from a group of pirates and finally reached his destination.

The locals all knew about this infamous, dangerous stretch of ocean. After asking around, Karl had learned the exact location, but standing before the vast sea now, he was stunned by the countless swirling vortices blocking any clear path through.

“No wonder it’s considered one of the forbidden zones in the second half of the Grand Line. Anyone who stumbles in by accident would be in real trouble…”

Karl stood on the boat, thinking things through, but he hadn’t forgotten his real goal.

“Alright, time to go in!”

Karl had never been to the Sweets Sea. Without familiar landmarks, there was no obvious way in.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to sail the boat all the way—his stamina was more than enough to get himself directly to Cake Island.

He gave up on the small boat without hesitation.

With a leap, he shot into the air, using Moonwalk to soar deeper into the sea’s heart.

The abandoned boat was quickly swallowed by a whirlpool and disappeared on the waves.

At the very center of the Sweets Sea sat Cake Island.

“Hurry up!”

“Hey, you, stop eating! If you can’t finish the job, I’ll send you all back to Fishman Island!”

Krell watched as a group of fishmen kept snacking and lounging around instead of working, feeling his head throb. These fishmen really were something else.

Still, he had to admit, Cake Island was living up to its name. Even the ground underfoot was edible—the earth formed the cake’s base, soft and fragrant.

The tree trunks were made of chocolate, the leaves out of candy, and even the rivers flowed with sweet drinks.

Pretty much everything on Cake Island could be eaten.

Krell had even prepared a gift for Lord Karl.

After they landed, they’d searched all fifty-six surrounding islands and Cake Island itself, turning up a total of seventeen Devil Fruits.

Sweeping the surrounding islands served two purposes: to avoid drawing attention to their presence in the Sweets Sea, and to eliminate any hidden threats.

Almost all of the Devil Fruits were of the Paramecia variety, related to desserts, explaining why Charlotte Linlin possessed so many food-related powers.

The Sweets Sea had gone undeveloped for years, leading to a build-up of Devil Fruits.

Since the islanders rarely left, they didn’t know much about these fruits. No one had realized their uniqueness, but Karl had gotten lucky this time.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

Karl used Moonwalk to fly deeper into the Sweets Sea. After about ten minutes, a massive island appeared ahead—the legendary Cake Island, surrounded by a spread of smaller, scattered islands.

From afar, it felt just like arriving at a grand pastry shop.

“Step!”

“So this is Cake Island?”

Karl had landed on the island, feeling the soft ground beneath his feet as he took in the sights.

The first thing he noticed was the land itself: a foundation of pillowy bread, with a wild mix of sweet scents drifting in the air.

“I thought Cake Island was redesigned by Charlotte Linlin later on. Guess it always looked like this from the start.”

“What a pleasant surprise!”

Even the manga hadn’t explained how Cake Island was made. Karl always thought it had taken years of collecting Devil Fruits for Charlotte Linlin to craft something like this.

He’d been prepared to spend years rebuilding—but from the looks of it, he could just move in right away.

“Hey, I mean you—cut it out, stop eating!”

He listened carefully and heard Krell shouting from the far side.

That piqued his curiosity, so he wandered over.

Karl crossed through the chocolate forest and spotted Krell in the distance dragging down a massive octopus fishman from a tree. The fishman was happily chewing on the candy leaves, grinning from ear to ear, completely ignoring Krell’s yelling as he munched away.

Krell finally yanked him from the tree—by now, the poor thing was so gnawed up it looked ready to topple over at any second.

“You of all people are the worst! Get moving and carry those supplies, or you’re skipping dinner tonight.”

To be fair, Krell couldn’t keep blaming them. Fishmen had never tasted food this good while growing up in the underworld.

For days now, he’d been wrangling fishmen like this nonstop. There were so many of them that he’d have to run a boot camp once the basic construction was done.

Still, the island’s construction was steadily moving forward and hadn’t slowed down at all.

“Lord Karl!”

Krell was still lecturing the octopus fishman, but as soon as he spotted Karl approaching, he hurriedly sent the octopus away and rushed toward Karl, excitement all over his face.

“Thump, thump, thump!”

“Lord Karl, you’re here! Why didn’t you let me know so I could greet you?”

“No need. I was in a rush, and it’s not exactly easy to call on the way.”

Karl gazed out toward the enormous cake—they were reinforcing it as fishmen swarmed below, working hard.

Since the cake was completely solid, they planned to turn it into a fortress, using tough chocolate wood and candy to strengthen its walls.

Judging by the progress, construction was almost finished. Karl was surprised—they were working faster than he’d expected, considering how huge that cake actually was.

Hold on a second…

“Krell, how many people did you bring me?”

From what Karl could sense, there were more fishmen here than he could even count.

He knew to expect many from Krell’s Den Den Mushi call, but not this many.

He quickly expanded his Observation Haki, carefully scanning the crowd—there were over five hundred thousand fishmen in front of him.

“Lord Karl, don’t worry: they’ll fish for food themselves out at sea.”

“Most of them are people who were oppressed on Fishman Island. For many, this was their one chance to stand in the sunlight along the shore, so they snuck out here. Even after I tried turning some away, there’s still this many left.”

Krell hadn’t thought so many would flock here either. But the draw of sunlight was stronger than fear itself. For lots of fishmen, living on land was a dream.

“But rest assured, Lord Karl, they’ll be self-sufficient. And they won’t live right on top of the island—I’ll have them settle in the sea beneath it.”

“If you don’t need this many, Lord Karl, I’ll send the extra back to Fishman Island.”

Krell worried Karl might send everyone packing, so he watched Karl nervously, almost holding his breath.

“It’s fine. I can feed as many people as you bring—honestly, this is a fantastic surprise.”

“Hahaha!”

Karl had expected just a few thousand, but this was his first real force, much better than he imagined.

Besides, fishmen weren’t just fighters—they could fish, rescue, scout, and hunt for treasure underwater. With so many possibilities, the more the merrier.

And with the Sweets Sea’s resources, feeding hundreds of thousands was no problem at all. With so much to develop, more people could only help.

“Alright, show me what you’ve accomplished so far.”

“Right this way, Lord Karl!”

Seeing that Karl wasn’t the least bit annoyed, Krell smiled with relief and eagerly led the way.

“Thanks for your effort.”

Karl grinned and glanced up at the fifteen-meter-tall main gate at the cake’s core.

“You honor me, Lord Karl.”

As the fishmen around noticed a stranger walking past, all eyes turned to Karl.

Once they heard Krell call his name, the entire group lowered their heads in respect.

“Lord Karl.”

All the fishmen called out in unison.

Karl straightened up, looking out over his new followers.

“Since you’re all here, you should know what challenges lie ahead!”

“What I can promise you is relative fairness, here under my banner.”

“I won’t demand much from you.”

“But my orders are to be obeyed. No exceptions.”

“All I ask is your unwavering loyalty.”

As his words landed, a heavy silence hung in the air.

The fishmen were left speechless. In a world ruled by strength, no one expected talk of fairness—let alone a leader who only asked for obedience.

Just the promise of relative fairness was something they’d never even dared to hope for.

And following orders? That was natural enough—Karl was their boss now. Obedience was to be expected.

“Thank you, Lord Karl.”

“If anyone dares hurt Lord Karl, I will lay down my life to protect him.”

Zack stepped forward, face set with steely determination.

“We swear to serve you with our lives!”

“Good. From this day forward, I’ll start by assigning you a few tasks.”

Earlier, Krell had introduced Karl to the four heads managing the fishmen: Zack of the swordfish clan, Brynn of the whale clan, Cassia of the electric eel clan, and Norman of the sea dragon clan.

After dismissing the crowd, Karl led them to the great hall at Cake Island’s center.

Seated in his chair, fire in his eyes, Karl began in a steady voice.

“First: speed up construction across Cake Island.”

“Second: I want no other forces left in the Sweets Sea.”

“Third: organize a salvage team to recover the ships that have wrecked here over the years!”

“If you run into trouble, report to me immediately.”

“Yes, Lord Karl! We will see your orders through, no matter what.”

Norman, eldest among them, was quick to grasp the purpose behind Karl’s three main tasks.

The first indicated more people would soon live here, so construction needed to move quickly. Not everyone could live just on the island, and fishmen didn’t need fancy houses anyway.

The second was a matter of secrecy—they’d clear out any rival presence from the Sweets Sea whether any existed or not, ensuring no news could leak.

The third was simple—treasure. They’d done salvage missions by Fishman Island before, but competition there was fierce. Here, the prizes might be better, and the risk lower.

“Krell will come with me.”

“Hopefully, by my next visit, the construction will be nearly done.”

“Don’t worry, Lord Karl.”

“We’ll have a result to be proud of when you return.”

Norman spoke with confidence. Since it took Karl seven or eight days just to travel here, they’d have ten days or so to get the early preparations ready.

“Alright, get started on those orders now.”

“Yes, Lord Karl!”

With a respectful salute, they all turned and left.