Igaram carried the pirate with a bounty of fifteen million Beli over his shoulder, while Vivi walked beside him, still delighted. She had never expected them to reach the organization's middle ranks after only half a month in Baroque Works.
Although the strength of Baroque Works' officer agents far exceeded their initial expectations, as long as they could find evidence of the organization's crimes in Alabasta, they could turn to the Marines for help.
After all, Alabasta was one of the member nations of the Reverie.
With solid evidence in hand, surely the Marines would not stand idly by.
"Do either of you have any special skills?"
Curious about Vivi and Igaram, Miss Valentine looked them over and asked in an outright commanding tone.
She had been observing them for quite a while. In terms of combat ability, the middle-aged man with blond curls looked rather bizarre, but his strength was at least passable.
The blue-haired girl, however, was far from impressive in her eyes.
Yang Cheng had said she had performed exceptionally well, but when everyone tallied their results afterward, it turned out the blue-haired girl had spent ages in a slap fight with some small fry from the pirate crew. That counted as an exceptional performance?
Miss Valentine had shown her might, kicking the pirate with a fifteen-million-Beli bounty so hard that his kidneys failed, and Yang Cheng had not praised her performance!
As she watched the blue-haired girl stammer before her, Miss Valentine first sized up her figure. Finding that the girl's developing apples were nowhere near a match for her own pineapples, she immediately looked smug.
But when she shifted her gaze to the girl's face and saw how pretty it was despite its youthful features, Miss Valentine frowned again.
Honestly, even in terms of looks, Miss Valentine was every bit Vivi's equal, especially since Vivi had yet to fully blossom.
But every woman cared about her age. Although Miss Valentine was not old herself, what if little girls were exactly Yang Cheng's type?
Remembering how Yang Cheng often praised Mr. Goldenweek's paintings whenever the officer agents gathered, and how he had mentioned having a younger sister who also enjoyed writing and drawing, Miss Valentine's gaze toward Vivi immediately filled with hostility and a sense of impending danger.
My partner might actually be a lolicon!
As a mature woman, she certainly could not turn herself into a little girl now. That meant she could only do her best to keep Yang Cheng from venturing any further down the road of perversion.
"Yang Cheng, I've suspected you were a lolicon for a while now. We're supposed to be the perfect partners who spend every day together, but you're always gentler with Mr. Goldenweek than you are with me.
"And now you're giving this girl special treatment. Don't tell me..."
Walking ahead of them, Yang Cheng nearly tripped at Miss Valentine's words.
Vivi and Igaram, who had been following closely behind, had been in fairly good spirits, but their moods instantly plummeted.
Igaram threw the wanted pirate from his shoulder onto the ground, hurried in front of Vivi, and shielded her behind him.
This was no joke. Quite apart from the fact that he had watched Princess Vivi grow up...
She was the princess of Alabasta, its sole heir to the throne. How could he let some pervert from Baroque Works defile her in a place like this?
Igaram glanced at Miss Valentine in front of him, then at Yang Cheng a short distance away. His expression could not have been grimmer.
The situation was even worse than he had imagined!
If their cover had merely been blown, the worst that could happen was death. But if this man was a pervert who liked toying with young girls, then once he killed Igaram, wouldn't Princess Vivi...
Igaram bitterly regretted his decision. He should never have given in to Princess Vivi's headstrong demands and agreed to something as dangerous as infiltrating Baroque Works.
"Didn't you two say you didn't know each other? But now, you seem unusually concerned about her.
"There really is something suspicious about you two!
"Now, little girl, you wouldn't want this curly-haired man who's protecting you to die at our hands, would you? Then you should know what you need to..."
Before Miss Valentine could finish, Yang Cheng rapped her beret-covered head with his knuckles.
"Don't force this into a hentai plot! And with those stock villain lines of yours, if you run into someone with protagonist plot armor, you usually won't survive three episodes. You know that?
"And let me make one thing absolutely clear. I, Yang Cheng, am not a lolicon! And I'm certainly not a pervert!"
Igaram had already resolved to stake his life on giving Princess Vivi a chance to escape.
Vivi had also been preparing to sacrifice herself for Alabasta and Igaram.
Now, watching the exchange between Yang Cheng and Miss Valentine, both of them froze.
"To keep this idiot from getting the wrong idea again, I might as well be completely frank.
"Princess Vivi, if you want to investigate Baroque Works' secrets, with your strength, the best you can hope for is a position among the frontier agents.
"At that rank, you aren't qualified to know who the President of Baroque Works is, let alone find evidence of his crimes."
When Yang Cheng openly addressed her by name, not only Vivi and Igaram but even Miss Valentine beside them was astonished.
As officer agents, the senior members of Baroque Works naturally knew their boss had designs on the Alabasta Kingdom.
Although they did not know what their boss was after, there was no way they had spent all this time entrenched in this desert kingdom merely to use Alabasta as a base.
Still, Miss Valentine had never imagined that Alabasta's princess would risk her own safety to infiltrate their organization.
Seeing the wariness on Vivi's and Igaram's faces, Yang Cheng spread his hands to show he meant no harm.
"You don't need to be so wary of me. If I meant you any harm, I would have acted long ago.
"And the reason I recognized you, Princess Vivi, is that I once saw you in the Alabasta Kingdom."
Yang Cheng's words did not win Vivi's and Igaram's complete trust.
That was hardly surprising. After all, whatever else he might be, Yang Cheng was still a member of Baroque Works.
"Alabasta may be a desert kingdom, but it's a beautiful country.
"Although living conditions are harsh, the people who live here
"are all the more resilient, especially since they have a kindhearted princess.
"You may have forgotten, but you really did help me once. So consider this repayment for that kindness."
(I wanted to include a picture of Miss Valentine, but even after searching the entire internet, I couldn't find a good-looking one. She really was one of the pretty characters in One Piece's early art style.
~~~/)ToT( Sigh, I guess she's just like a background nobody-a minor character's tragedy.)
Before you continue