“So, you want me to join Baroque Works as well?”
“Yes, but Sister Robin, this mission is inherently dangerous. If you’re worried, it’s okay not to agree.”
After all, the royal family of a nation is not blind. They aren’t completely oblivious. The current problems in the kingdom are intricately linked to Baroque Works.
However, their capabilities are limited. Everyone in this organization operates under aliases instead of real names, and they all work in male-female pairs. The male agents are codenamed “Mr.” followed by a number, with lower numbers indicating greater strength, while the female agents are codenamed “Miss” followed by a date or holiday.
This was about all the information they had managed to uncover. To figure out who the mastermind behind the scenes truly was, Vivi had made this decision.
“Miss Robin, this matter is indeed sudden, but once resolved, the Kingdom of Alabasta is willing to provide you with reasonable compensation. Please consider it.”
Igaram had reviewed Robin’s resume before. Her extensive work history convinced him that Robin could more easily infiltrate this organization. But Robin’s next words shocked the two people standing before her.
“Actually, before you came, I had already received an invitation from this organization.”
“What?!”
Vivi and Igaram’s faces turned pale. If even Nico Robin was within the scope of that organization’s infiltration, there might be even more people in the palace. Worse still, if the person in front of them had already accepted their invitation…
“Don’t worry. I’m not interested in this matter. Besides, this happened just last night, and I hadn’t had a chance to tell you before you came.”
She deliberately provided a false time, changing the event to appear as if it had happened only yesterday.
If she wanted, she could reveal the identity of the mastermind behind the organization right now. But she chose not to. Crocodile’s identity could be leveraged for greater benefits in the future.
Robin was only curious about the hidden history of this kingdom; she had no desire to overthrow it. Moreover, she had a favorable impression of Vivi and didn’t mind helping her. That was why she mentioned this matter.
Even without this, Robin never intended to let Crocodile succeed. Based on the information she’d gathered so far, Alabasta’s hidden history was undoubtedly connected to the Poneglyphs. That alone was enough for her to request backup.
In any case, she was already prepared to betray Crocodile. Naturally, she wouldn’t mind using him at the right moment to earn goodwill in the eyes of others.
In the end, she agreed to Vivi and Igaram’s request. However, the two of them left looking deeply troubled.
“Princess Vivi, do you think she… might betray us? If she reveals this, you could be in danger.”
“She won’t. I trust her. Besides, if she really intended to betray me, why would she bother telling us about this? Get ready to leave, Igaram. There’s still a lot to prepare.”
As a princess of a nation, directly joining an organization would make her too conspicuous, so Vivi planned to conceal her identity and start as a small-time bounty hunter.
While they were caught up in their worries, Robin was calmly making a phone call.
“Hello, Yamato, what’s up?”
“There’s nothing major; I just wanted to ask you—how would you persuade two people who are in a very serious conflict?”
“Uh… beat them into submission?”
After thinking for a moment, Robin offered what she believed to be the most suitable approach for Yamato.
“Don’t be so violent! I mean, persuade them! You know, persuade them by reasoning!”
“Um, sorry but let me be frank, Yamato, reasoning… doesn’t seem to be your strong suit.”
Words might resolve conflicts, but this method didn’t apply to Yamato. From Robin’s perspective, Yamato was much better suited to physical persuasion.
“Ugh! Do you really have so little faith in me? I’ve changed a lot, you know!”
“If you could persuade them, you wouldn’t be calling me. You’re asking me for advice because you failed, aren’t you?”
“Yeah! I failed, so I’m asking you for suggestions!”
“My suggestion is to try a new approach. Maybe if you get a little stronger, you’ll be able to handle it?”
After some back-and-forth, the conversation ended up back at the starting point. It wasn’t that Robin didn’t want to help, but she felt that it would be a case of getting twice the work for half the result, and there was a high probability of failure. Also, it seemed more effective to encourage Yamato to stick to what she was good at.
“…..”
“See? You couldn’t even persuade me to teach you how to persuade others. How are you going to use words to resolve the conflict between two people with extreme differences? Why don’t you practice first—try to persuade me?”
In the end, Robin didn’t make things difficult for Yamato. Instead, she proposed a more reasonable training plan to help Yamato improve her eloquence and logical thinking.
After receiving an affirmative response, their conversation shifted into casual chatting.
“By the way, how have you been lately? Aunt Olvia has been pretty worried about you.”
“Not bad. Oh, and I found something interesting while I was out. This system is quite similar to ours, you know.”
“Hmm? What system?”
“The Numbers system. Using numbers to rank strength—the smaller the number, the stronger the individual. Although, they are a bit weak. The Mr. 1 here probably couldn’t even beat our No. 60.”
After learning about Baroque Works’ hierarchy, Robin found it strikingly familiar. It was very similar to the Beasts Pirates’ Numbers system, with both being structured in a comparable way. However, the overall strength differed greatly.
In addition, Baroque Works’ system was far more brutal than the current Beasts Pirates. Failure in a mission would lead to being hunted down by higher-ranking agents, and those at the bottom often attacked their comrades to rise in rank. Under Crocodile’s loose management, this criminal organization’s internal structure was incredibly disorganized.
“Seriously? They actually copied Dad’s Numbers? I’ll come over and have some fun when I get the chance.”
“Sure, I’ll contact you when it’s time to act, but you might not find it interesting.”
Yamato’s “fun” could be devastating for some organizations. Right now, Crocodile has no idea that, simply by following the plan, he’d inadvertently attracted the attention of a monster from the New World.
Currently, Crocodile was busy dealing with Baroque Works matters. Unlike in the original timeline, Nico Robin hadn’t remained by Crocodile’s side as his Vice-Captain. Instead, she was in a special evaluation period.
Just as Robin and Yamato wrapped up their long phone call, the Den Den Mushi on her person rang.
“BOSS?”
“Mr. 7 is dead. This is an opportunity. Show me what you’re capable of. You’ve managed to gradually make your way here from the New World, you shouldn’t be a helpless woman, right? Let that guy know the price of refusing our recruitment offer, Miss All Sunday.”
“Also, Mr. 2 will be reaching out to you. Cooperate with him.”
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