Inside the royal reception room, the atmosphere was thick with tension.
Guards stood on both sides with weapons in hand, safeguarding their king and princess.
Igaram, Chaka, and Pell had silently formed a perimeter, surrounding the visitor in the center.
And yet…
“Hmm…
I don’t really like tea.
Got any Cola?” Wearing a dragon-head mask, Dragon stared at the hot tea in his cup and turned toward the attendant beside him.
His sudden movement startled the tightly wound servant into an audible gasp.
Dragon shrugged.
“Never mind.
Forget I asked.” “Bring him another drink,” King Cobra said in a deep voice.
Only then did the attendant snap out of his daze, hurriedly taking the cup and leaving the room.
“Sir…
Dragon.
I shall address you as such,” Cobra said, breaking the quiet that had fallen over the room.
“What is your purpose in coming here?
And what did you mean by your earlier statement?” He naturally remembered the words Dragon had spoken outside the palace gates.
“I cannot simply ignore statements regarding Alabasta’s rebirth and destruction!” “I meant it literally.” Dragon leaned back against his chair.
“Someone is planning to destroy this country and usurp your throne—in fact, he has already put his plan into motion.” Although his expression behind the mask remained hidden, everyone could hear the faint mockery in his tone.
“I doubt a king as wise as you, King Cobra, truly believes a nationwide six-month drought is ‘normal,’ right?” At those words, the expressions of everyone present changed drastically.
Vivi, who knew relatively little about state affairs, gasped and widened her eyes, covering her mouth.
“Wait, what do you mean?
Are you saying…
the seven-month drought across the entire country is man-made?
How is that possible…” Yet King Cobra remained surprisingly composed.
As Roy had anticipated, this wise ruler had long sensed that something was amiss with the drought—especially the suspicious detail that the royal capital was the only place in the country receiving rain.
He had even ordered Igaram to investigate in secret, but the mastermind hid behind deep layers of deception, leaving few clues.
The ongoing national crisis and the suffering of his people had prevented Cobra from pursuing the matter further.
Even so…
“Is it Dance Powder?” Cobra asked softly.
“That is the most likely possibility I can think of.” Dragon clapped his hands.
“Spot on.” Behind the mask, Roy showed no surprise.
Naturally, he knew the truth behind Alabasta’s drought—it was Operation Utopia, orchestrated by Sir Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Crocodile had established a massive criminal syndicate known as Baroque Works and launched the operation after years of meticulous preparation.
His goals were to usurp Alabasta, one of the oldest kingdoms on the seas, and to locate clues pointing to the ancient weapon Pluton.
“Dance Powder can bring rain to one region, but at a cost—the surrounding areas are plunged into severe drought,” Dragon explained.
“If our intel is correct, when the drought drags into next year, a massive shipment of Dance Powder of unknown origin will suddenly appear in the royal capital—and be ‘coincidentally’ discovered by the citizens.” As Dragon spoke, every face in the room turned pale.
“Bastards!” “They want to frame His Majesty?!” “His Majesty would never do such a thing!” Igaram and the guards fumed with rage, while Vivi turned deathly pale.
She was far from foolish.
Dragon’s brief explanation was enough for her to grasp the full, terrifying scope of the plan.
The drought in Alabasta had lasted for only seven months, yet the kingdom was already on the brink of ruin.
If it dragged on for a full year, one could hardly imagine the misery the people would endure.
If a secret stash of Dance Powder were discovered in the capital—the only place in the kingdom where rain fell—a rebellion would inevitably erupt, no matter how beloved King Cobra was.
“Using Dance Powder to trigger a drought, then instigating a war…” Cobra’s face grew dark.
“Completely disregarding the casualties of my people—unforgivable.” “Indeed.
He is a truly despicable ambitious man,” Dragon remarked casually before shifting the topic.
“Now that we’ve cleared that up, I believe you understand why I’m here, Your Majesty.
I came to negotiate this matter with you.
We happen to have a slight interest in this mastermind, so…
we will handle him and his organization for you.
We can also bring rain to Alabasta to solve your immediate crisis, and long-term cooperation after that isn’t off the table either.
As far as I know, despite the Sandora River, Alabasta’s water resources are still far from abundant.” He pointed upward, his meaning clear.
“As you can see, I possess the ability…
Oh, thank you.” The attendant returned, placing a fresh cup of Cola on the table, prompting a polite word of thanks from Dragon.
“It sounds tempting,” Cobra said, his sharp gaze fixing upon Dragon.
“However…” His voice suddenly resonated with regal majesty.
“You don’t expect me to trust a sudden visitor who refuses to show his face based on a few words without a shred of evidence, do you?
More importantly, before discussing any cooperation, I want to know—what is your relationship with this man?!” As he spoke, Cobra pulled a bounty poster from his robes and slapped it onto the table.
Unsurprisingly, the face on the poster belonged to Rooster.
As the ruler of a World Government affiliate nation, Cobra naturally paid close attention to the recent Heavenly Tribute robbery.
Although Rooster’s bounty picture was a drawing, the Sea Beast Mask on his head was instantly recognizable.
Almost the moment Dragon appeared, Cobra had connected the two.
What followed confirmed his suspicion.
“Ah, you mean Rooster,” Dragon said casually, glancing at the bounty poster before taking a sip of his Cola.
“He and I belong to the same organization.
You could call us colleagues.” The moment those words left his mouth, Igaram, the two guard commanders, and the soldiers instinctively reached for their weapons.
The implication was far too dangerous.
Rooster—the crazy criminal who had recently robbed the Heavenly Tribute—was a colleague of the man sitting right before them!
And this dangerous individual was sitting less than ten meters away from their king and princess.
However, in the very next instant…
Igaram and the others froze.
Terror flared in their eyes.
They realized they couldn’t draw their weapons.
In fact…
“I…
I can’t move!” They couldn’t move a single muscle.
Even Chaka and Pell, whose Zoan Devil Fruit powers granted them physical strength far beyond ordinary humans, were completely immobilized.
“It’s so cold…
Wait, this is…” A bone-chilling cold swept through the room.
“It’s ice!” Layer after layer of frost had crept over everyone except King Cobra and Princess Vivi, freezing their bodies solid and trapping them in place.
“Ah, the Cola is room temperature…
That won’t do.
Unchilled Cola is pure heresy.” Dragon’s voice drew their attention.
He was touching the cup, cold mist slowly rising from the dark liquid inside.
He lifted his mask slightly, shielding his face with his hand as he downed the drink in one gulp.
Then, he casually waved his hand.
*Whoosh!* A surge of heat erupted.
The frozen guards watched in shock as the ice on their bodies melted away, running down their armor in streams of water.
Within moments, they regained their freedom of movement.
Igaram was still breathing heavily, unable to tell how much of his wet state was from melted ice and how much was cold sweat.
*This guy…* From those few seconds alone, he understood that the man sitting before them was an absolute monster.
Dragon acted as though nothing had happened.
“In truth, King Cobra, you don’t need to worry about Rooster.
Aside from obeying our Leader’s orders, we executives usually don’t interfere with one another.
Our styles and goals are entirely independent.
Take Rooster, for instance—like a typical pirate, he likes using brute force to solve problems.
But I’m different.
As you can see, I’m a moderate.” He pointed to himself with a smile.
“I might not be the best money-maker in the organization, but I consider myself something of a ‘businessman’.”