Alabasta Kingdom Royal Palace—Arubana.
As a renowned major nation on the Grand Line with a population of tens of millions, even though Alabasta's national strength had declined considerably in recent years due to civil unrest and climate issues, the Alabasta Royal Palace still looked exceptionally magnificent.
After Alabasta's civil war ended, Xia Che and his group became honored guests of the Alabasta Kingdom. Led by Princess Vivi, they arrived at the Alabasta Royal Palace.
To put it simply: the job was done, and it was time to collect their reward.
However, due to the special nature of this incident, in order to conceal Crocodile's true objective, the official story was that Crocodile had used Dance Powder to deceive everyone in an attempt to usurp the Alabasta Kingdom. Nothing was said about Robin or the intelligence concerning the Ancient Weapon Pluton. At the same time, it was announced that a pirate crew had indeed saved the Alabasta Kingdom.
Thus, this meeting was very simple. It was merely a banquet specially held by Nefertari Cobra, the King of Alabasta, who also knew the truth, to express his gratitude.
There were not many attendees. Only King Cobra's trusted confidants were qualified to take part.
Before the banquet began, King Cobra brought the equally formally dressed Princess Vivi before Xia Che and, without hesitation, dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
The sight left the surrounding confidants flustered.
Yet Cobra stopped those who tried to help him up. He kept his head lowered and said in a grateful, remorseful tone, "Vivi has already told me everything. Thank you so much for saving Alabasta!"
To him, perhaps he had caused all of this.
If he had not continued trusting Crocodile and allowed Crocodile into Alabasta, perhaps none of this would have happened.
As the