Alabasta, the Sandora River.
As the mother river of the world's largest kingdom by area, the Sandora River ran through almost all of Alabasta.
But there was one unfortunate fact...
Mountains blocked the end of the river, making it all but impossible to open a passage through.
As for the desert people who had lived here for generation after generation...
They had long since grown used to having to sail all the way around the island whenever they put out to sea, and that included the royal family and ships traveling to and from every corner of the world.
But now...
Something they had never even imagined had happened, as though in a dream.
After the Great Cataclysm ended, the Navy intervened, and a survey team arrived to draw up plans.
The harbor was placed under temporary control. Of the original three river entrances, two were closed, leaving only one, where a towering military fortress was built.
Before that towering fortress, no one believed pirates could possibly break through.
And that was only the beginning...
They would never forget what they saw that day...
Several days earlier.
Alabasta, at the end of the Sandora River.
Aboard a floating warship.
The heat made everyone drowsy, while the Sandora River below lay calm and still.
The sounds of discussion and argument drifted out of the cabin from time to time.
Vivi, Alabasta's sole heir, who had already ascended the throne as queen...
Stood beside the warship's railing.
Holding several sets of prepared blueprints, she gazed down at the Sandora River in a daze.
Thousands of years...
This idea had flickered through the minds of who knew how many kings of Alabasta.
And now the Navy had placed it before her as a real possibility.
The plans to open a passage through