The meeting ended, and everyone left to prepare.
Cobra was responsible for staying in Alabasta. Crocodile and Vivi decided to go with Rowan to the "Medical Kingdom," Drum Kingdom, located on Drum Island.
As the current king, Cobra represents the kingdom of Alabasta itself. Every move he makes has many implications, so naturally, he would not easily go to another country.
Cobra wanted to send Bell or Chaka as envoys, but Rowan refused.
According to Rowan, the first stop of the Four Seas Alliance was very important, and he wanted to go there himself.
But when Rowan said this, Crocodile felt that this reason was not like "Rowan" at all.
It was too formal.
Later, Crocodile thought about it and probably had the answer: Rowan himself couldn't sit still and wanted to go out for a stroll.
In fact—
That was indeed the case.
Rowan had always been someone who couldn't sit still, even eight hundred years ago.
Rather than sitting on the throne in the royal palace, listening to cold numbers or the bickering of politicians, it was better to go around the world himself.
Most of the partners who accompanied him and fought for the world came from this.
As for the trivial details of the empire on weekdays, Rowan was not worried.
Who told him to have Nefertari behind him to take care of everything?
This genius could always handle all the tedious government affairs in an orderly manner, allowing Rowan to move forward without any worries.
...
In the study.
Rowan stayed behind alone.
He looked through the recent information about the Drum Kingdom while writing and drawing in the books next to him.
This was a habit that Nefertari had forced Rowan to keep.
He didn't have to write a diary, but he had to take notes.
Because the diary wrote "I think," which was not important, while the notes told "what happened," which was fact.
"We must not forget what has already happened."
——Nefertari once said.
"Okay, okay, I know..."
Rowan scratched his head helplessly. "Really, give me a break, I still want to go sunbathe."
Even so, Rowan still focused on the information.
Drum Kingdom—
It has a typical winter island climate, with snow all year round, and it is named after the mountain peaks on the island that resemble drums.
The kings of the Drum Kingdom have devoted themselves to the country's development in the field of medicine, and have made great achievements. Therefore, the Drum Kingdom is also known as the "Medical Kingdom."
But just a few years ago, a major event happened in the Drum Kingdom.
The old king died, and his son Wapol succeeded to the throne.
This new king was known for being uneducated when he was still the heir, and he often did things that shamed the Drum Kingdom.
Now that he has ascended the throne, Wapol's behavior has become even worse.
Not only has he reduced funding for medical research for his own enjoyment, but he has also cut off the Drum Kingdom's medical exchanges with the outside world.
Now, after a few years, the Drum Kingdom, which was once very active in the world of medicine, has no voice at all.
This is indeed a troublesome country.
The king is obviously difficult to communicate with and is a completely foolish ruler.
But what Rowan cares about is not some stupid king, but the Drum Kingdom's potential in the field of medicine.
There are indeed many highly skilled doctors in Alabasta, but in terms of pioneering, forward-looking, and development potential in this field, they are far inferior to the Drum Kingdom.
Medicine is one of the "cornerstones" that the Four Seas Alliance urgently needs.
...
The prototype of the Four Seas Alliance aims to establish connections between countries based on breaking away from the World Government platform.
In the current seas, communication between the East, West, North, and South Seas is already very difficult.
And in the Grand Line, the connections between the islands are even weaker.
The limitations of record pointers, dangerous sea conditions, ferocious pirates, and even countless unknown dangers...
For ordinary countries, they have no way to establish a relatively safe route!
In this situation, in addition to making the cultural differences between countries very large and the islands relatively closed, it also makes it extremely difficult to exchange resources between regions.
Even the superpower Alabasta can only rely on Bell, Chaka, and Crocodile, the three devil fruit users, to barely maintain the safety of the nearby waters.
The establishment of the few fixed routes currently recorded at sea all depend on the World Government.
According to Nefertari's vision, the ultimate form of the Four Seas Alliance is to help the countries at sea establish a sufficiently strong "connection."
In Vivi's words, the world will become "smaller" as a result.
Exchange between countries will become more frequent, and countless strong routes will be established, connecting the world as a whole.
At that time, anyone who dares to attack this "connection" will face the wrath of the entire Four Seas Alliance!
Rowan finished organizing these thoughts and sighed softly.
A very naive idea.
So naive that it's a bit unrealistic!
But... so what?
Rowan shook his head helplessly and couldn't help but smile.
He and Nefertari are both the kind of people who know something can't be done, but still do it!
When Nefertari was formulating those seemingly outrageous plans, he also knew one thing—
No matter how naive or idealistic his ideas are, the dazzling golden dawn will always illuminate the darkness on his path forward!
Rowan closed the book and left the study.
"Well then, let's go!"
...
Red Line, Holy Land Mary Geoise.
Because of the Mary Geoise incident created by the fish-man hero Fisher Tiger, most of the originally luxurious palaces here were burned down.
Many slave workers were driven here to repair the palaces for the Celestial Dragons.
The Celestial Dragons could only reluctantly stay in the nearby villas, waiting for the completion of the repair project.
Inside one of the rooms.
Crash!
Saint Gudjoa sat on the sofa, waving his hand and sweeping the delicacies on the table to the ground.
The exquisite porcelain shattered on the ground, and a slave girl hurriedly stepped forward to clean it up.
Saint Gudjoa became even more upset and kicked her to the ground.
"The Marines are a bunch of trash!"
"I was attacked, this is rebellion, rebellion!"
Just as Saint Gudjoa was raging furiously, there was a knock on the door outside.
Knock knock knock...
"Enter!"
A strange person in a white suit and a mask pushed the door open and entered.
If Rowan saw this kind of wear, he would definitely recognize it at a glance. The person must belong to CP0, the highest intelligence agency of the World Government.
That is the highest-level organization above CP1 to CP9, known as the "strongest shield of the Celestial Dragons"!
Now, one of the CP0 members came to Saint Gudjoa's room and nodded slightly in salute.
Saint Gudjoa looked at the other party's empty hands and became even more angry.
"Why haven't you brought his head over yet!"
"The matter is too sudden, we need time, please be patient."
The CP0 member gave a safe and general reason.
Saint Gudjoa glared and shouted, "Then go do it quickly, what are you doing here!"
"We need your approval."
CP0 bowed slightly, "You just need to nod."
Saint Gudjoa frowned, "What do you mean?"
"The person who attacked you, Ryan Rowan, has been assessed by the Marines to be too powerful, and cannot be captured through normal means..."
"I don't want to hear this!"
Saint Gudjoa waved his hand sharply, "I just want to know, what are 'you' going to do?"
A chuckle came from behind the CP0 mask, "This matter will be done as you wish, but as I said before, you need to nod first."
"I agree!"
Saint Gudjoa grinned and said, "Whatever you want to do, I agree, so hurry up and get it done!"
"Understood."
CP0 saluted again and then left the room.
Outside the room, his two companions, who also belonged to CP0, had been waiting for a long time.
"Let's go."
The CP0 member in the lead waved his hand, and the other two immediately followed.
"Send the order, we can take out the new things that Vegapunk researched and test them, be prepared at any time."
"After all, this is 'what the Celestial Dragons asked for'..."
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