The Pirate Princess Becomes Queen

Before setting off, the old minister Icarus pulled Vivi aside and repeatedly reminded her to be careful.

"Your Highness... Mom—Mom! I mean, on Wednesday, please be very careful when sailing at sea. Do not go up the mast, as it is very easy to attract the attacks of strange birds at high places!"

"Mom—Mom! Be careful not to stand on the open deck. That's within sniper range. Just thinking about that makes me so worried!!"

Although she felt the old minister's concerns were unnecessary, Weiwei listened patiently, occasionally humming in agreement. She figured he meant well, so she should just listen quietly.

But when the old retainer Icarus warned her to be careful of the meteorite, she couldn't help but exclaim, "What a joke! I'm going to the East Blue, not to fight Fujitora. What kind of meteorite is this?!"

Chapter Eleven: Going to the East China Sea

After repeatedly reminding him to be careful ninety-seven times, the old minister Ikaram finally remembered the important matter: "...Mom—Mom! Cough cough...Yesterday I spoke with the King back home. His Majesty the King fell seriously ill because of the dancing powder incident. What about the World Conference in four months? If Alabasta doesn't attend the conference, it will affect our reputation among the nations."

"Did the dancing fan incident escalate so quickly?" Vivi asked.

The old minister said with great sorrow, "The people all believe that the king's excessive purchase of dancing powder caused the rain clouds in the surrounding cities to concentrate in the capital, and they believe that the drought in the surrounding cities is the king's responsibility. Alas... The Nefertari family has protected Alabasta for a thousand years, and now... I really hate myself, there is nothing I can do!"

He clenched his fists, his face full of anger.

Vivi sighed a couple of times, but didn't really take it to heart. In her view, the matter was superficially about the Baroque Studio's manipulation of the dancing fans incident, which put the Nefertari family at odds with the people and caused the royal family's reputation to plummet. However, this matter couldn't be resolved with simple denials and frank dialogue. If it could be resolved, it would have been resolved long ago, and it wouldn't have dragged on for three years.

There's a reason for this: "It takes only a mouth to spread rumors, but it takes a lot of legwork to refute them." But the core issue is still interests. Human nature is greedy. "Riding a mule, one dreams of a fine horse; holding the position of prime minister, one aspires to be a king." No matter how diligent and benevolent the Nefertari family is, over a thousand years, the accumulated contradictions are enough to give Vivi's cheap father a hard time. Without bloodshed and a series of changes, many things are simply unsolvable in the short term.

The domestic conflicts are unsolvable for the time being; at least, she can't think of a bloodless solution. Even if she reveals Baroque Works' conspiracy at the World Conference, it won't help. Alabasta is too weak, yet it is a major power with a very crucial geographical location, which will always attract the covetous eyes of ambitious people. If you kill Zhang San today, you will attract Li Si tomorrow, and the end result will be endless.

Vivi gave the old minister a strange look: "We can't help with domestic affairs... So you're saying that we should go to the Holy Land Mary Geoise to attend the World Conference? While we're infiltrating Baroque Works, we can use the breaks between missions to attend a world conference with world leaders?"

She looked completely bewildered, utterly unable to follow the old minister's train of thought. "Are you kidding me?"

Icarum whispered, "Headquarters has given us five months, and I've done the math; we have plenty of time!"

He sounded quite excited, as if he thought he was very clever.

Weiwei was speechless for a moment. Was the key to this problem time?

She flatly refused: "No, if we show our faces, we'll definitely be in the newspapers, and our identities will be exposed. You don't think Mr. 0 and the others don't read newspapers, do you? One hundred and forty countries, it would be good if fifty countries participated in each meeting. One more or one less doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if Alabasta goes or not... I promise you!"

Her expression was particularly serious: "Let's skip this one, but we'll definitely attend the World Conference four years from now. We'll go to the Holy Land of Mary Geoise together then and settle everything!"

Her words contained a lot of self-praise. In any case, Vivi secretly resolved that she would absolutely not go to the Holy Land Mary Geoise unless she reached the level of one of the Four Emperors, Shanks! She would rather die than go!

After confirming the contact method, discussing all the details, and making some rambling assurances about her own safety, Vivi finally managed to coax the old minister onto the ship. She and Mr. 9 then set off for the East China Sea.

Actually, Vivi's most desired destination right now is Little Garden Island, not far from Whiskey Hill. She remembers two giants there have been fighting for a hundred years, over 70,000 times, with neither gaining the upper hand. On average, they fight twice a day—it's practically a paradise for acquiring power-ups! Unfortunately, it's difficult for Vivi to avoid being discovered by these two battle maniacs. Vivi doesn't believe she has Luffy's charm enough to keep the giants calmly watching the show.

Offering tons of fine wine and delicacies, watching giants fight once or twice is fine, but watching them for a long time really requires strength. But if you have the strength, would you still need to watch them fight?

The giant goldfish outside Little Garden Island is also a huge threat; you might get swallowed up by one before you even get to the island.

She needs more strength!

......

The seas of the One Piece world are divided into four parts by the Grand Line running east-west and the Red Earth Continent running north-south. The Grand Line's north and south sides are like rings, inhabited by a large number of Sea Kings. These sea monsters are all enormous and extremely ferocious. Many Sea Kings are over 5000 meters long. For sailing ships on the sea, once they encounter a Sea King, the crew can simply lie down, strike a rather cool pose, and wait to die. People call the area where Sea Kings live the Calm Belt.

Vivi and Mr. 9 traveled from the Grand Line to the East Blue. If they crossed the Calm Belt, the straight-line distance would be quite short. However, their route wasn't that risky, and they weren't wanted pirates, so they didn't need to take any risks. They traveled by land, went up Mount Reverse, found a ship on the northern slope of the mountain, and then entered the East Blue.

Two days later, Vivi walked off the deck with her pet duck Karu, accompanied by Mr. 9, who was wearing a crown, dressed extremely flamboyantly, and carrying two iron bars.

They boarded Baroque Works' sailboat and arrived at Loguetown, the entrance to the Grand Line from the East Blue, the town where the Pirate King Gol D. Roger was born and executed.

The town is large, with well-organized streets and numerous three-story stone buildings. The pedestrians have rosy complexions, and many wear genuine smiles, indicating that they live in good conditions.

"Wow, there are a lot of people." Since transmigrating, Vivi has only seen two or three hundred people. One hundred of them were bounty hunters, and the rest were all pirates. She has hardly seen any normal people!

The bustling town and vibrant streets evoked feelings in her that were difficult to describe in just a few words. It was as if she had been living in the jungle for many years and had suddenly returned to the city.

"welcome."

"Don't come in."

"Don't listen to that damn stone. Welcome, outsider."

The "voices" within the town were varied, but mostly positive. Plants, flags, and soil welcomed her, while some angular stones refused to let her into the town.

With her swordsmanship reaching level 4, her resistance to external noise increased. Although her mental state was still somewhat poor, she was no longer as listless and lethargic as before, sleeping for 16 hours at a time.

Chapter Twelve: The Famous Sword "Hana-shu"

Mr. 9 was somewhat better than Vivi, who had never left her home since the beginning of her transmigration. He had been to Loguetown before, and now he was introducing her to the power structure of the town in a smug tone.

He was very long-winded. Logically speaking, he could have simply introduced the leaders of each faction and mentioned their numbers, but Mr. 9 insisted on starting with the old woman from the countryside who was the leader of the underground dark forces. How long would that take?

If it were just a typical male showing off to a beautiful woman, Vivi could understand. She knew her looks were among the best in the world, and even the surname Nefertari meant "the most beautiful person." She didn't reject praise and flattery. But Mr. 9's endless chatter about being the head of some underground dark force's country old woman was a bit of an exaggeration.

Vivi listened with a blank expression, nodding as she spoke: "Yeah, it seems to be no different from other towns. There are underground dark forces responsible for selling stolen goods, pirates who stop here for a short time, and bounty hunters who are neither entirely legitimate nor illegitimate. At most, there are also Marine Headquarters soldiers stationed in Loguetown."

The soldiers at the Navy Headquarters are completely different from those at the Navy's branch offices in the four seas. The former are the elite, trained by the headquarters, while the latter are just regular soldiers, some of whom are recruited locally and have not received much training.

The fact that the Navy Headquarters is stationed in Loguetown fully demonstrates the importance they attach to this entrance to the Grand Line from the East China Sea.

“The Navy has nothing to do with us, and we’re not here to kill people.” Vivi was still a little sleepy. She yawned. She had absolutely no interest in working for Baroque Works: “It’s too slow for just the two of us to recruit people. They’re all adults, they should be able to recruit themselves… No, I mean we can recruit a few important people first, and then let them recruit their subordinates. In the end, it’ll snowball and grow bigger and bigger! Yes, that’s what we should do!”

You can't confront the studio head-on now, but you can stir things up and muddy the waters.

The more factions and cliques there are within the studio, the more difficult it is for headquarters to control. They might incite insubordination every few days, and the studio might collapse on its own without Luffy's help.

Mr. 9 counted on his fingers, seemingly pondering whether her method of recruiting three people for every one recruited, and nine people for every three recruited, would be effective.

Vivi looked at the list, then pointed to the tavern not far away: "Ms. All Sunday said there's a guy here named Lem, let's start with this guy and ask him for information."

Lem was a fairly well-known bounty hunter in the area. If Vivi hadn't interfered, he would have eventually joined Baroque Works and acquired the codename Mr. 11.

Within Baroque Works, the closer a codename is to 0, the stronger it is. Vivi, MS. Wednesday, is on par with Mr. 9 next to her. In Vivi's eyes now, Mr. 9 is only slightly stronger than a grunt, someone she could easily take down with one hand. As for Mr. 11, who is even weaker than Mr. 9, his strength is self-evident.

"Lem? You've come at the right time. See him? That's Lem sitting by the window, wearing a black top hat." After Vivi took out a thousand Berries, the bar owner was very accommodating and directly pointed out the target to the two of them.

Mr. 9 showed no intention of assessing the strength of either side. He picked up his favorite iron rod, swung his arm, and walked towards the other party with a bullying attitude.

Vivi looked at the long sword that Lem had placed on the table. Indeed, the long sword conveyed a feeling of joy to her after she looked at it. This famous sword, "Hanashu," which was ranked among the 50 best swords, liked her very much, and she also liked this sword with flame-like patterns.

This knife and I are destined to meet!

Over the past month, her thinking has gradually been assimilated by the world; buying a knife is not as good as stealing one!

In fact, Vivi's swordsmanship wasn't that great, but everything is relative. Compared to this swordsman who will become Mr. 11 in the future, she is definitely a master. Famous swords choose their masters, especially since she can hear the sword's thoughts. It's no surprise that "Huazhou" chose her.

Lem sat alone in the corner, wearing a top hat with the brim covering most of his face. The famous sword "Hanashu" was placed on the table within easy reach. Judging from his imposing and dignified posture, he seemed like a master. Unfortunately, he was just a charlatan. Even with the famous sword, his strength was not as good as Mr. 9. Without the sword, his level would be even worse.

Normally, there shouldn't be any problems with this recruitment. Baroque Works is a well-known name in the bounty hunter circle, with the aura of a Fortune 500 company. Recruiting an unknown swordsman would be no problem at all. But Vivi has ulterior motives, so the outcome is hard to predict.

At a distance of more than thirty meters, Vivi flicked her wrist, and the silver chain shot out like an arrow. Her pinky finger controlled the pull ring, and with a gentle upward hook, the chain wrapped around the famous sword "Huazhou" that the other party had placed on the table. Before Lem, the swordsman who looked like a master but was actually a novice, could react, the famous sword "Huazhou" was rolled back into Vivi's hand by the chain.

"What a fine blade!" Weiwei drew her sword from its sheath, and saw a pattern resembling flames wrapped around the blade. With a flick of her wrist, she quickly swung the sword twice, and the sharpness of the blade cutting through the air filled her with joy. It seemed that with this sword in her hand, she could cut through any obstacle.

Unlike traditional samurai swords, the "Hanashu" has a relatively small arc, allowing for thrusting and other techniques in addition to slashing.

"That's my knife! You bastard! Give it back!" Lem roared in fury, and without hesitation, he charged toward Vivi.

With no weapon in hand, the threat level was further reduced. Although Weiwei still kept her principle of hiding to the end in mind, she couldn't help but feel itchy to test her skills on the other party.

Her long sword slashed straight down, the snow-white blade flashing before his eyes. Lem hadn't expected her to be so strong and fast, and could only stop and retreat in horror. Vivi's sword strike didn't stop; she used a "Kesa-zan" to slash diagonally from right to left, splitting the table and the side wall in two. Seeing that her opponent was powerless to fight back, her blade went straight for Lem's center, and with her unwavering gaze, the blade aimed straight for his throat. This was a skill often used by pirates, a simple "thrust."

Lem slammed against the wall, with nowhere left to retreat. He gasped for breath, his eyes fixed on the knife tip at his throat, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"Tsk tsk, you're so weak." Weiwei was a little disappointed. This guy's level was too low. She had created a few sword moves by combining swordsmanship level 4 with dance level 4. She originally wanted to try them out, but before she could use them, the other party fell down.

Somewhat dejected, she sheathed her sword. The table was cut in half diagonally, but the chair remained.

She sat down by herself, while the famous sword "Hanashu" stood casually in the corner.

Chapter Thirteen: Don't Say I Didn't Give You a Chance

Lem narrowly escaped death. He hesitated between grabbing the knife and turning to run away, but in the end, his survival instinct prevailed. He carefully watched Vivi's subtle expressions and prepared to escape.

"Hey, don't run away, buddy, we're here to find you."

As soon as Vivi finished speaking, Mr. 9, who was trying to look cool and stylish, remembered his mission. He swung his iron rod and waved it around like a street performer, making a whooshing sound. He thought he looked quite imposing with the iron rod in his hand, but in Lem's eyes, this guy was just a thug.

Lem's eyes remained fixed on Vivi.

“Brother, don’t worry, we’re not bad guys. You know Baroque Works, right? We’re here to recruit you…” Vivi first paid the tavern owner 30,000 Berries as compensation for the damaged table and wall, then looked at Lem and said in a low voice.

"First you snatched my knife, then you almost stabbed me to death. Is this how you recruit people?" Lem was somewhat dissatisfied, but he wasn't surprised. The pirate world was an extremely chaotic and violent world. Beating someone up first and then negotiating terms was actually quite common. Vivi wasn't the first to do this, nor would she be the last.

"You...you want to recruit me? What are the conditions?" Lem asked.

"Oh ho ho ho ho—" Weiwei laughed brightly. You're already in this terrible state, and you still want to negotiate?

Mr. 9 didn't know what she was laughing at, but for the sake of his own prestige, he also looked up at the sky and laughed along with her in a very imposing manner.

Lem was stunned by their laughter and didn't know what to say.

Vivi was too lazy to tease this fool anymore; it was time to send him on his way...

"You think you can negotiate with Baroque Works? The Works values ​​you, and you actually want to turn around and ask the Works for terms?! I didn't hear you clearly just now, so organize your thoughts and I'll allow you to say it again."

Vivi's tone grew increasingly stern, and Lem finally understood the difference between a Fortune 500 organization like Baroque Works and a regular shady organization. Judging from this, not only would he not benefit, but he might even have to pay something out of his own pocket. This was even worse than getting something for nothing!

He looked at his famous sword "Huazhou" with a look of reluctance.

But Weiwei's next words gave him renewed hope.

"Don't worry, the knife is still yours. I'm just keeping it for you temporarily and testing your strength!"

Vivi mimicked Nico Robin's businesslike tone, saying, "But! Baroque Works also needs to see your abilities; we don't want useless people!"

She spoke with the air of a loyal supporter of the Baroque Studio, saying, "We're giving you a task. Only by completing this task can you prove your abilities to the studio."

Such acts of pledge of allegiance are common in many organizations, and Vivi's request is not excessive.

Lem listened carefully to what she had to say next.

Vivi pointed to herself, then to Lem: "The task I'm giving you is very simple, and it's also a tradition of our Baroque Workshop to grow bigger and stronger... You leave Loguetown and, according to the list here, recruit three bounty hunters and develop them into your subordinates. In the future, each of them can develop three more subordinates. Your subordinates, your subordinates' subordinates, and even your subordinates' subordinates' subordinates' subordinates—the merits they make can all be counted as your achievements. This is an important driving force for your future promotion in Baroque Workshop."

Lem thought for a moment: one develops into three, three develop into nine, nine develop into more, how many would that be? He seemed to have grasped the secret to Baroque Works' power, and his initial dissatisfaction quickly dissipated.

Vivi pointed to the list Nico Robin had given her: "Don't say I didn't take care of you. You'll probably have a hard time recruiting those established bounty hunters. I'll find you three guys who've just gained some fame in the East Blue... Hmm, found them. These three guys aren't too far apart, so you won't have to run around everywhere. These are them: Joseph, Johnny, and this guy named Roronoa Zoro. If you recruit them into Baroque Works, I'll acknowledge your abilities and return the knife to you."

She waved her hand dismissively: "Go ahead, make those three your subordinates, and your induction mission will be complete! From then on, your codename will be Mr. 11!"

Lem didn't realize there was anything wrong with it. His seniors, who were ranked higher than him, were all doing recruitment tasks, so it wasn't shameful for him to do it too. It was just a task to recruit three unknown bounty hunters, and it really wasn't that difficult.