After wandering around Rapeseed Port a few times, Sherwin had gained a rough understanding of the current situation in the Kingdom of Alabasta.
Since they had arrived here a few years earlier, things hadn't yet reached the terrible state shown in the manga.
Although it hadn't rained outside the capital for a whole year, this was originally a desert kingdom. The people of Alabasta were very experienced in dealing with drought.
Moreover, thanks to the wide and long Sandora River, with some effort in transportation, there was still enough fresh water to supply the entire country. After all, Alabasta didn't have many cities to begin with, and they weren't very large.
The truly fatal issue, however, was that Crocodile had already used Dance Powder to frame the royal family for causing the drought.
Even though King Cobra had personally come forward to clarify the matter, a portion of Alabasta citizens had already lost trust in the kingdom.
And as long as the drought remained unresolved, the number of people disappointed in or even hating the royal family would only continue to grow.
As a consequence, crime rates across Alabasta had risen sharply in this period. In the places hit hardest by drought, banditry was rampant.
On top of that, Baroque Works occasionally stirred up trouble by luring pirates—or even disguising themselves as pirates.
The Alabasta army was doing its best to maintain order, but the island was simply too vast.
Since cities could only be built around oases in the desert, the distances between them were great, and traveling across the desert was inconvenient.
Many times, the army couldn't arrive at troubled areas in time.
What made matters worse was that the real culprit was using this chance to gain prestige in front of the people, competing with the army for credit. This only deepened the people distrust of the royal family.
It had to be said, although Crocodile personal strength wasn't anything extraordinary, the design of this conspiracy was excellent—each step tightly linked to the next.
If it hadn't been for Luffy and his crew showing up, setting aside the matter of Pluton for now, taking control of Alabasta would not have been much of a problem…
Of course, whether or not he would later be targeted by the Celestial Dragons or even Im was another matter entirely.
After all, the Alabasta royal family background was anything but ordinary, and couldn't be compared to other ordinary allied nations.
After walking around this whole circle, one thing that left Sherwin very puzzled was this—clearly, on the island of Alabasta, there was the enormous freshwater Sandora River,
so why were most cities, including the capital, built on oases far from the river? The only city built near the river was Erumalu, and even that was located at the very downstream section, near where the river met the sea.
Even though, due to the drought, seawater had gradually begun to seep into the river mouth, Erumalu was still one of the few cities far from the capital that could maintain a stable supply of fresh water up to this point.
So, if the Kingdom of Alabasta had originally built most of its cities near the Sandora River, how could Crocodile possibly have succeeded in almost seizing the kingdom in just three or four short years?
As for whether doing so would have been like drinking poison to quench thirst, or whether it would have polluted the water source—that was something to worry about only after ensuring people wouldn't die of thirst first.
…
"Based on the information we've gathered, the distribution of Alabasta cities is roughly like this, meow."
After returning to the ship, Huamei Meow quickly redrew a much more accurate map of the Kingdom of Alabasta, relying on the intelligence she had gathered and the maps she had bought in Rapeseed Port.
As expected, even on the Grand Line, maps and charts were still as unreliable as ever—the purchased map and the one Huamei Meow redrew were quite different.
And also…
"The proportions of the map I drew may not be completely accurate, but it should still be far better than this one, meow."
Huamei Meow tossed aside the purchased map with clear disdain.
Sherwin took out his Hunter Handbook and checked it… Hmm, no pre-rendered phantom appeared.
Obviously, even Huamei Meow redrawn map still wasn't precise enough to be recognized by the handbook.
In other words, the difference between the bought map and reality was even greater than Sherwin had expected. Aside from the general directions, probably not a single part of it was correct.
Pulling his attention away from the flawless map within the handbook, Sherwin turned his gaze back to the map Huamei Meow had drawn.
When he read the names of the places marked on the map, it suddenly struck him…
At this time, Crocodile and his subordinates—those with code names like Mr. 1, 2, 3, and the days of the week or holidays—hadn't gathered together at all. Their bases of operation weren't even in the same place.
Those Baroque Works officers with various Devil Fruit powers were using the "Spider Café" in the desert as their headquarters.
To ordinary travelers, it was just a roadside stopover. Crocodile, on the other hand, stayed holed up almost a thousand miles away in the city of Rainbase, running a casino called Rain Dinners.
That being the case, it would be difficult to wipe out all those ability-users in one go…
Sherwin rubbed his chin and clicked his tongue regretfully.
But the choice itself was simple—no matter how many Paramecia there were, none could compare to a single Logia.
If they acted rashly and scared off Crocodile, that would defeat the entire purpose. What more, Robin situation right now might not be all that safe.
"…So, we head straight for Rainbase."
As Sherwin explained his thoughts to Huamei Meow, he reached out and tapped the city marked in the upper left corner of the map.
"Besides, we can just sail directly along the Sandora River upstream. Once we get near Rainbase, we disembark and continue on foot. That'll save us a lot of time."
The little plush who had been idly sweeping its tail across Sherwin face stopped as soon as it heard that Robin might be in danger.
It didn't move again until Sherwin finished speaking, then tugged on his ear with a worried look and said, "Klee can help speed up the Dodo Advance, meow! Let hurry and go save Sister Robin!"
"Klee, don't be anxious yet. Rushing straight to Rainbase isn't the best choice, meow."
However, after pondering for a moment, Huamei Meow shook her head and rejected Sherwin proposal.
"For now, Miss Robin should still be safe, so we don't need to worry too much, meow. Besides, Admiral, didn't you say that Crocodile is very cunning? His informants are everywhere in this country.
If we charge directly to where he is, it'll only make him more alert and more likely to suspect Miss Robin. If we keep moving as if we're just 'traveling' along the way, it won't look suspicious, meow."
She paused for a beat before continuing: "We can even stop by that spider café on the way, just pretending to be ordinary passersby. That should lull Crocodile further.
Even if Miss Robin accidentally exposes herself later, he won't be too guarded against us. That way, our chances of rescuing her will actually be higher, meow."
Sherwin thought it over and felt that Lord Scarlet Tiger reasoning made sense.
According to what Princess Vivi said in the manga, the Sandora River was fifty kilometers wide, and its length stretched across almost three-quarters of the island.
With such a massive flowing river, it would be difficult for Crocodile to secretly poison the water source. And even if he did, he wouldn't be able to pin the blame on the royal family.
Even if the actual width of the Sandora River wasn't as exaggerated as Princess Vivi described, normally cities should first be built along the river to secure fresh water supplies before they could develop properly…