"Oh? A princess of King Riku's lineage?"
Once Crocodile arrived, Drake was no longer the group's highest-ranking commander. Naturally, it was Crocodile, not Drake, who now spoke with Viola.
But...
"Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai! Weren't you gone?!"
As Doflamingo's subordinate, Viola had endured humiliation while learning everything she could about the Shichibukai who stood alongside him. But Crocodile had vanished after the Alabasta incident over a year ago, and the World Government had issued a statement confirming his disappearance.
That had been when Ice Dragon Loa's fame was at its height. The whole world was talking about the legendary Vice Admiral who had won a stunning victory for the Navy, a terrifying dragon that truly existed. Even news as significant as a Shichibukai's disappearance had attracted little attention.
Crocodile had not appeared in public once during the following year. The World Government had no choice but to revoke his Shichibukai title and select a newcomer from among the great pirates, "Freak" Jones, to take his place.
In other words, "missing" had come to mean "dead."
Yet just as the whole world had accepted Crocodile's death, Viola saw him with her own eyes. She sprang to her feet in shock.
Worse, she found she could not read the man's thoughts at all. She had never encountered that, not even with Doflamingo.
"You don't need to know the details, young princess. All you need to tell me now is where Doflamingo is."
Crocodile suddenly recalled the intelligence he had gathered and added, "And what happened after Iron Fist Garp came here a year ago?"
Crocodile had no love for the Navy, but he would not dismiss the actions of veterans like Garp. Zephyr had been gravely wounded by Dyna Stone, and Loa was far from the only one furious about it.