Kureha stared at him for a moment, then smiled.
"That's right! Roger had the same expression back then."
"It was his first time entering the Grand Line. He only had a small ship, with just Rayleigh, Gaban, and a few others as crew."
Ron: "..."
After a pause, Kureha's face grew nostalgic. "And he... Rocks, truly was that kind of absurd man."
"But Rocks didn't know whether his ideas were right or wrong. Or perhaps he knew the government would erase his existence and simply wanted to leave something behind to prove that he had existed... So he asked me to tell the reason he went to sea to the next person I met who was like him."
"So you chose Roger?" Ron asked quietly.
"Yes, and no... That brat only had Rocks's fearless, reckless air about him back then. In terms of foundation, they were completely incomparable."
"I chose him because I wanted to see how far a member of the Clan of D, the people Rocks hated most, could go... It was entirely a bout of bad taste."
Clang!
Suddenly, the sound of a table and chairs colliding rang out. Crocus's face held both disbelief and sudden realization as he repeatedly clapped his hands.
"So that's how it was! So that's how it was!"
"No wonder Roger often gazed out at the sea in one direction. Rayleigh said he was communicating with a dead soul, and I thought he was joking."
"Now that I think about it... that direction should have been where Rocks was finally defeated and died!"
Crocus had only accepted Roger's invitation and boarded his ship three years before Roger returned to the Grand Line and became the Pirate King, all in order to search for the companions of the giant whale Laboon, the Rumbar