"Delicious!"
In the room where Luffy and the others were resting, Luffy sat at the dining table and wolfed down meat. Although Sanji was an excellent chef, the ship did not have many ingredients and they basically ate fish every day. Luffy had wanted to eat his favorite bone-in meat for a long time!
Luffy bit off a huge piece of meat and chewed rapidly as he said, "After eating this meat, even the spot where that guy's bullet hit me doesn't hurt anymore."
Usopp looked at the way Luffy ate with some disgust. After hearing him, he said, "Speaking of that, what was up with that guy's bullets? I've never seen bullets that powerful."
Zoro thought about what had happened beneath the city walls. He took a sip of wine and said, "He was probably using Haki, but it also seemed as if there was some other power involved."
"Anyway, that guy's Haki was incredible. That bullet almost went through my head." Luffy no longer looked as carefree as before, as though he had remembered the moment the bullet struck his head.
Usopp added, "And his aim was unbelievably good. We were running so fast, but every shot hit its mark."
"What, you should be able to do that too, shouldn't you?" Sanji looked at Usopp. Usopp normally fought from a distance, so he ought to be capable of something like that as well.
"I'm an archer, not a gunslinger. If we're talking about it, I'm actually better suited to long-range sniping." Usopp also stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth.
"Uncle Igaram seems to know him."
At that moment, the door was pushed open. The person who entered was Alabasta's king, Cobra, whom they had seen on the city wall earlier. His face carried an exhaustion he could not hide, making it clear that he had probably gone a long time without rest.
Cobra seemed to have heard whom they were discussing. After entering, he said, "Yes. His name is Koza. He was originally the leader of a children's group called the Sand-Sand Group. More than ten years ago, he lived in Alubarna for a while."
The room had three bedrooms and a living room. Luffy and the others were all in the living room at the moment, while Chopper and Nami were in one of the bedrooms. Nami had gone to sleep, while Chopper had first been dismantling the bomb and later wanted to examine Nami's blood to see whether he could use it to analyze some of the characteristics of demons.
Nami had said that Muzan Kibutsuji once searched for a great many doctors as well, hoping they could create medicine that would allow him to survive in sunlight. In the end, the only path left to him was the Blue Spider Lily.
Doctors on the Grand Line should be more capable and their medical knowledge more advanced than that of doctors in the East Blue. Perhaps they could discover something the doctors of the East Blue had missed.
Chopper wanted to take this opportunity to obtain some of Nami's blood. He knew that Nami had always wanted to become human again, and if he could find a way to turn her back into a human, she would certainly be happy.
The people in the living room did not react much when Cobra entered. They were pirates, after all, and were not especially respectful toward a king. After hearing Cobra, Usopp asked the question:
"Sand-Sand Group?"
"A group of children. Vivi was his deputy leader at the time." Cobra's face became complicated, filled with memories and longing. "His hometown was suffering from a worsening environment and economy, so he had no choice but to come to Alubarna and ask for my help. During that period, he and Vivi were very close."
He walked to the dining table and sat down before continuing, "Afterward, I planned a new town for them, hoping they could start over and develop there."
The Straw Hats exchanged glances. In the end, Usopp was the one who said, "He... he was very close to Princess Vivi, so why did he join the Cartel? And... why did he take Princess Vivi hostage?"
Cobra shook his head. "The country's economy continued to deteriorate. Even the town I planned for them could not support too many people. In the end, some of the young people were forced into the Lawless Zone, and that was where Koza met the Cartel's original members."
"These people, driven into desperation by their circumstances, had no choice but to form the Cartel. They quickly unified the entire Lawless Zone, and in the end... they developed into what they are now."
"You're a pretty lousy king." Sanji could not help commenting. "A country this huge can't even feed some of its common people?"
"You...! Show some respect!" Cobra had not even spoken when a man's voice came from outside the door. It was Bell, whom they had seen on the city wall earlier. As the king's guard, he stayed by the king's side at all times. After hearing Sanji, he immediately stepped forward. "What do you outsiders know?!"
"That's enough." Cobra stopped the agitated Bell and said painfully, "He isn't wrong. It was my incompetence..."
Sanji looked at Cobra, then at the indignant Bell. He took a bite of a pastry and said, "Not many people can admit their own incompetence. I'm starting to believe what your guard said about you."
"So what happened?" Zoro had not been very interested, but he suddenly thought about how his master had once left because the situation in Wano Country changed and had gradually fallen into despair. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I saw some of the people along the way. If you were a tyrant, they wouldn't have supported you like that."
Cobra had not yet spoken when Bell said, "Isn't it because of that Pirate King, Roger?!"
Roger?!
The words Pirate King Roger acted like a lure for Luffy. Luffy, who had been concentrating on eating, suddenly stared with shining eyes. "The Pirate King?!"
The others also looked at Bell in surprise, apparently unable to understand how this country was connected to Roger.
"Back then, Roger lured that demon here so he could fight Aatrox, then borrowed the kingdom's strength to defeat Aatrox."
Bell ground his teeth. "But their battle left nearly half the country ruined. Many places that had been suitable for people to live were destroyed by them! When the battle ended, they simply turned around and left, but we were the ones left behind to suffer!"
That was why the people of Alabasta had no favorable impression of pirates, even though Roger's opponent had been a demon...
Even though, without Roger, Aatrox might have destroyed the entire world...
For people who had truly been harmed, those two glib explanations could never make up for what they had lost.
Why should we have to sacrifice ourselves just because the world needed to be saved?
Why should we have to live badly just so the world could live well?
Fueled by such thoughts, many people in Alabasta became extreme and were easily drawn into the Cartel. In only a year after growing out of the Lawless Zone, the Cartel had already reached a strength of six hundred thousand people!
Over the following years, they launched expeditions against other regions everywhere, and their ranks continued to expand. By now, they had become an army powerful enough to oppose the World Government.
At first, the Cartel's development had relied on the Revolutionary Army's name, but its numbers had now surpassed those of the Revolutionary Army. Its weapons and equipment were also superior, and even its will to fight was stronger!
Bell described in detail what Alabasta had become after Roger's battle with Aatrox. The more he spoke, the angrier he became—angry at Roger, angry at Aatrox, angry at the World Government, and angry at the Cartel!
"So this was where the Pirate King Roger and the Demon Lord Aatrox fought their final battle..." Zoro said in shock. "The official publicity never mentioned it."
According to the World Government's propaganda, the Marines had taken the greatest credit for the battle against Aatrox, with the Black Order contributing a smaller share. The Roger Pirates and Whitebeard had been almost completely ignored.
They had also only said that the battle took place in the first half of the Grand Line, without specifying that it was Alabasta.
That was why Zoro was so shocked. No wonder they had often seen run-down places on the way here.
According to legend, both the Pirate King Roger and the Demon Lord Aatrox were masters of the sword. Just how powerful had they been?
"How could the World Government publicize something like that?" Bell's voice was filled with resentment. He had never imagined that Alabasta would become what it was now.
"That's enough, Bell." Cobra waved his hand. "What happened in the past has already happened. Talking about it cannot change anything. What matters is the present."
He looked sincerely at Luffy and the others. "I'm very grateful that you were able to come to Alubarna's aid at this time, but this is an extremely dangerous mission. The Cartel is unlike any enemy you have faced before."
"What makes them powerful is not the size of their army, their excellent weapons and equipment, or a formidable leader. Their true strength lies in the injustice of this world, in poverty, and in inequality. As long as those things exist, the Cartel will never disappear."
Cobra's understanding of the world had grown clearer over the years, and he therefore understood the Cartel's terrifying nature more and more. The World Government had no idea what it was doing. It had released a monster, one more terrifying than any pirate or demon!
Only one final step remained. Once they obtained what lay inside the Shinigami Mausoleum, they would be capable of seizing... no, reclaiming the entire world!
Many people did not believe that the Revolutionary Army was supporting the Cartel. After all, the Cartel had grown so powerful, yet the Revolutionary Army had never cooperated with it in launching an attack.
But Cobra knew that it was true.
Not many people in the world knew the secret of the Shinigami Mausoleum, and the leader of the Revolutionary Army happened to be one of them.
Back then, Monkey D. Dragon, the Revolutionary Army's supreme commander and leader, had personally led the Revolutionary Army into the Shinigami Mausoleum. There, he had seen something that could liberate all humanity and bring happiness to humankind.
However, he had been dealing with Aatrox at the time and had left hurriedly without being able to look for long.
About ten years ago, Dragon had come to Alabasta to meet Cobra. He wanted Cobra to take him into the Shinigami Mausoleum again so they could obtain the mural that represented human civilization.
Cobra refused. Dragon had been a criminal wanted by the World Government at the time, and Cobra did not want to become too involved with him. He had not yet given up hope of negotiating with the World Government.
If he became entangled with Dragon, the World Government would be even less likely to offer him assistance.
Besides, he was afraid of Dragon's ideas. Dragon wanted to eliminate class divisions, inequality, and disparity, but a world like that was impossible. The mural they had seen in the Shinigami Mausoleum had not depicted such a world either!
But Dragon firmly believed that the blank mural represented precisely such a world. The fact that it had not appeared did not mean it did not exist; it only meant that some reason prevented it from being seen.
Cobra had not been willing to gamble Alabasta's future, so he sternly refused Dragon.
Dragon disappeared, and the Cartel rose soon afterward. Their large-scale assault on Alubarna must also have been because of the Shinigami Mausoleum.
Otherwise, if the Cartel truly cared about nothing else, it could have destroyed all of Alubarna. But it feared that its own people would also die in the bombardment, so it had sent only part of its forces to encircle the city.
Cobra would never bring Cartel members into the Shinigami Mausoleum. He could still barely trust Dragon, but the many things the Cartel had done over the years were unacceptable to him. If the Cartel obtained the secret of the Shinigami Mausoleum, it would be disastrous for the world.
"Then just make sure everyone has enough to eat," Luffy said simply. "And compared with what happens afterward, the Cartel I want to punch away is the one in front of us now!"
After arriving in Alabasta and being attacked twice by the Cartel, Luffy's impression of it was terrible.
Seeing Luffy's absent-minded expression, Cobra found it hard to believe that this person possessed the legendary Conqueror's Haki. Still, his firm opposition to the Cartel was a good thing.
Cobra said, "To be honest, Alubarna's food is almost gone. Since you all want to fight the Cartel, I won't stand on ceremony."
He rose and said, "I hope you can help defend the eastern gate next. That is where the Cartel's attacks are fiercest."
"No." Luffy answered directly. "I'm going to punch away that Koza guy!"
Cobra froze. "That's too dangerous. More than three hundred thousand Cartel members are surrounding Alubarna. Even with Conqueror's Haki, you cannot face that many people!"
More importantly, they had all kinds of long-range weapons. Once they knew Luffy possessed Conqueror's Haki, would they really fail to prepare for it?
"Luffy, listen to the king for now," Usopp hurriedly said. "We just arrived, so we need to observe the Cartel's situation first. Once we find a suitable opportunity, we can go punch that guy away."
"What? If it's just defense, Usopp can handle one gate by himself, right?" Luffy cheerfully patted Usopp on the back, making him bristle. Then Luffy said, "Usopp goes to the eastern gate. We're going down to fight!"
----
You can read 30 chapters ahead on patre on
patr eon.com/JYouyi