Grand Line, Alabasta.
With Lirisk's appearance, staying on the merchant ship was out of the question. Celestial Dragons' etiquette also forbade him from being in the same room as a ship full of "lower race commoners."
Just a bunch of useless people he could easily kill.
With respectful farewells from the ship's captain, the two boarded Lirisk's Battleship and set sail eastward. Half a month later, they arrived at the desert Kingdom.
The landscape was dominated by shades of brown, with sand dunes rising and falling in the wind. The scorching sun beat down on the earth, and the air was filled with restless heat waves, making the environment incredibly harsh.
Nevertheless, despite all this, Alabasta was still known as the "Pearl on the Sea."
There was only one reason for that.
In this ocean dominated by small islands, Alabasta's territory was astonishingly vast!
Far exceeding the minimum standards of a "Large-Scale island," it was a super Large-Scale kingdom coveted by countless people!
To put it in perspective, the journey from the capital Alubarna to Yuba and then to Nanohana Port, the route taken by the original Straw Hats, took them nearly 10 days.
And that was just one of the shortest routes.
In addition, Alabasta maintained a standing army of up to 600,000 troops, spread across the country. Even Big Mom's territory, "Totto Land," couldn't afford such a massive army.
Places like Water 7, Marineford, and Mary Geoise, which were one city or one island, couldn't even be compared to Alabasta.
But this also indirectly proved one thing: in this sea, strength was paramount, and the strong held all the power!
In the face of absolute strength, numbers meant nothing.
How many people were there in the former Baroque Works? Just a few dozen.
In the end, they almost overturned the monarchy and took its place.
"Are you sure there's treasure here?" Lirisk asked hesitantly. Alabasta was a country that all Celestial Dragons disdained to visit. If it weren't for Rowen's insistence, he wouldn't have bothered coming.
"Could someone have fooled us into thinking there was treasure here 300 years ago?"
Standing on the deck, Rowen looked into the distance. "And even if we don't find anything, so what? I told you, I'm here on vacation!"
Lirisk remained silent, considering whether he should break his promise and return home now.
But he didn't have the chance. Just as the Battleship docked, a team of royal soldiers approached.
"Lirisk-Sama! Vice Admiral Soryu!"
The speaker was a middle-aged man with a dark complexion and a square face. Despite using polite language, he still seemed confident and composed.
"Welcome to Alabasta!"
This man was none other than Nefertari Cobra, Vivi's father and the King of Alabasta.
Upon receiving notice of the impending arrival of the Celestial Dragons, he personally led the royal army to welcome them here.
Glancing at Lirisk, who remained silent, Rowen grinned and approached.
"King Cobra, thank you for your hospitality. I apologize for any inconvenience these past few days!"
"Providing service to the Celestial Dragons is the duty of every Allied Kingdom member. Vice Admiral Soryu, you're too kind."
Cobra looked surprised at Rowen's ability to speak out of turn, but since Lirisk didn't object, he naturally wouldn't criticize.
"You don't need to worry about that much. This time, I'm just passing through. Whatever you want to do, ask him."
Seeing Cobra's uncertainty, Lirisk raised his head slightly and interrupted, speaking down to him. "Also, you don't need to think about how to serve me. I wouldn't dare accept anything from your house."
Cobra smiled bitterly. "Understood, Your Highness."
The Nefertari Family was also one of the Twenty Royal Families of the World Government, and Cobra was technically a Celestial Dragon. It was just a matter of "blood purity."
After all, now those Celestial Dragon Families, in order to maintain their so-called "pure bloodline," engaged in a lot of intermarriage. The descendants were half mentally disabled, and the other half were on the road to becoming mentally disabled.
Cobra, who didn't live in the Holy Land and married a descendant of a "lower race," naturally didn't receive recognition from the Celestial Dragons.
Even the whole of Alabasta was disregarded by the Celestial Dragons.
"Please follow me, your Highnesses. This way, the king has prepared rooms for both of you."
Cobra didn't say much more. He nodded and led the way ahead, with the group leaving the harbor and heading deep into the town.
This king was indeed a model of kindness and generosity, always prioritizing the citizens of his nation. As long as it didn't harm ordinary people, he didn't mind being looked down upon.
The accommodation was a palace left behind by Cobra's ancestors. The CP0 agents took the lead in searching inside and out, ensuring the safety of the residence before reporting back.
"It's safe inside, Your Highness."
"No need to state the obvious!" Lirisk impatiently snorted and pushed the door open.
"King Cobra just needs to find us some skilled workers for excavation. Remember, we must not overreach on this trip," Rowen added outside, not having as much face as Lirisk to speak directly to Cobra.
"Alright, Vice Admiral Soryu, rest assured, leave it to us," Cobra replied.
As they entered the residence, Lirisk had already had a bottle of wine uncorked. In the spacious hall, he asked Rowen, who had just entered, "Has Cobra left?"
"Would he stay back to be scolded?" Rowen retorted, then asked with a smile, "Is this the attitude of the Celestial Dragons towards the Nefertari Family in the Holy Land?"
Lirisk didn't have the typical arrogance of most Celestial Dragons. His behavior today was a bit unusual.
"You know, they are the shame of the Celestial Dragons. In the eyes of those old geezers in the Holy Land, they are even more despicable than the Donquixote Family."
Lirisk shrugged helplessly. At this moment, there was no trace of the arrogance he had just shown.
"800 years ago, the ancestors of the Nefertari disregarded the decisions of our other families, believing that a government disconnected from ordinary people was like a rootless weed. They directly abandoned the status of the Twenty Royal Families and returned to Alabasta to live their lives."
"In the beginning, for a hundred years, they were still considered one of us. But then they started intermarrying with ordinary people, which infuriated the old geezers in the Holy Land. They believed that they were defiling the bloodline of the gods and were no longer descendants of the gods."
"Now, 800 years later, the former royal families have been replaced by the Celestial Dragons, and our connection with the Nefertari Family has been completely severed."
Different paths lead to different outcomes.
In the eyes of others, to put it bluntly, the Nefertari Family were all traitors! And they were even more despicable than the recent betrayers from the Donquixote family, as they betrayed from the very beginning.
Living in the Holy Land, in order not to be seen as an outlier, Lirisk naturally couldn't get close to Cobra.
This was the first time the Celestial Dragons had publicly revealed their attitude towards outsiders. Rowen quietly noted the information and then said, "Well, since we won't have much interaction with them anyway, let's just dig up the treasure and leave."
"That would be best."
Taking a sip of wine, Lirisk suddenly turned his eyes. "But Rowen, are you sure we can leave smoothly?"
Zzzt!
A blue electric current ignited the cigar in Rowen's mouth, and he smirked, "Never lose vigilance for the sake of enjoyment. Should I praise you for that?"
The place where they landed wasn't a remote area where any pirate could enter like Nanohana Town. It was an interior port not far from the Rainbase.
However, even here, Rowen still noticed many pirates disguised among the crowd.
That murderous aura was something that any regular army, no matter how ruthless, could not cultivate.
(End of this chapter)
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