26 Chapter 24. Preparation For Training

The next day everyone woke up early in the morning with a headache and an embarrassed look for getting drunk in the palace.

In just 10 minutes, the servants began to work in the palace after taking a quick shower. The chefs went back to the kitchen while the butlers and maids began to clean the palace.

The girls also woke up one by one in the room while stretching their arms. After that, they all sat on the ground and began to look at each other.

"Vivi and Alex aren't with us…." Tashigi was the first one to speak. "I'm sure that Vivi was saving some food for him yesterday night," Tashigi spoke with a thoughtful expression.

Hearing those words, Robin's cheeks turned reddish in embarrassment. "I was the one who was supposed to preserve food for him but you all…." Robin looked at them with narrowed eyes, remembering the last night's moments.

"Hehe…." Nami stuck out her tongue with an embarrassed look. "I thought you weren't drinking with us because you still felt awkward with us so..." She chuckled in shame at making her newest colleague drink so much.

While they continued to talk among themselves, Nojiko and Kaya were sitting silently there with an unpleasant premonition in their heart.

After talking for at least half an hour, the girls finally stood up and began to take a shower. Nami took out everyone's clothes from the bag and gave them to the girls.

~~~~~~~

"Captain Hina, we are inside the capital city of Arabasta Kingdom." One of the marine officers spoke out loud while walking with the other officers.

"Hina can see that too." A tall woman with pink hair replied with a stoic expression. "Why do I need to come here personally even though the only thing that I need to do is just deliver a Den-Den Mushi."

Yesterday night, she was chasing after a pirate crew however, suddenly she was contacted by the Fleet Admiral. He instructed her to come back to Marine Headquarters before the morning.

So like a good Marine, she immediately stopped chasing those pirates and instead she told her subordinates to change the direction of the ship toward the Marine Headquarters.

When she reached the Headquarters, she instantly went to the Fleet Admiral's office. There, she was given a mission that was to deliver the Den-Den Mushi to the newest Warlord. She was also instructed to keep an eye on the various activities that were happening throughout the Kingdom.

Sadly, she didn't find anything wrong in any part of the Kingdom so she was now heading toward the Palace to meet Alex who seems to be staying there.

It was quite a weird occurrence but then again, he saved the Kingdom as for the reason behind it, no one knows.

The moment she reached the entrance gate of the palace, she noticed a young man, standing there with a small smile. She has seen the bounty poster of the new Warlord so she instantly recognised him.

She motioned one of her subordinates to take the Den-Den Mushi toward the young man. "The Fleet Admiral will contact you in case the Marine needs your assistance." Hina calmly explained and began to walk back, followed by her subordinates.

"Hina isn't even going to introduce herself?" Alex chuckled and spoke in an amused tone, making her stop in her tracks.

"Hina doesn't like when someone makes fun of her." She replied with a stoic expression, angrily glaring at him. She had heard what he did to her classmate, Smoker in the East Blue and that was something she was very much mad about.

"Alex understands Hina's words. Alex won't make jokes about Hina anymore." He replied with a serious tone however anyone could see the playful smile on his face.

"Hina thinks that you are too overconfident after having a small victory." Saying that she began to walk once again, not paying any attention to him anymore. It wasn't a good idea to engage in battle with him here especially when he is considered the hero of this Kingdom.

The Fleet Admiral had warned her not to fight with him as well. She wasn't like Smoker who can ignore his superior orders so there was no reason to battle with him.

With the Den-Den Mushi in his hands, he stared at her with an amused smile before putting it inside the system storage. It wasn't going to be useful, at least not before that guy got captured.

He headed inside the palace and walked straight to the dining hall where the girls along with the King were waiting for him. Vivi wasn't there since she was still sleeping inside her room right now.

After greeting everyone, he sat beside Robin and patiently waited for the servants to bring the breakfast to the table.

Unlike the usual days, the dining table was quite peaceful today, a little too peaceful for the King who felt that something was wrong. After looking around for some time, he finally noticed what was wrong. Not a single person except him was looking at Alex. For some reason, they were all looking at the ground while whispering among themselves.

"By the way, I needed some people who specialize in different areas." Alex turned to look at the King and spoke in a calm tone. "I also need materials, a lot of materials to start developing the houses for people."

"You can take some of my people and as for the materials, Igaram can help you to meet with some merchants who come to the Nanohana port regularly." After thinking about it for some time, the King finally replied. "Do you have people to help you with the work? After all, you will need a lot of people to start developing so many houses."

"I got a lot of people to work for me yesterday night. You don't have to worry about it." Alex calmly replied and began to eat the breakfast that was now served on his plate.

After breakfast was over, he along with Igaram went to the port of Nanohana town where Igaram introduced him to multiple dealers who were very trustworthy.

After making a lot of deals with different merchants, they came back to the capital city where Igaram took him to meet those people who were very skilled in their respective working areas. 

After hiring some of them, he took them to the flying island to show them the place. It was quite a bizarre feeling to fly for the first time however they instantly turned excited when they noticed that almost all of the island was empty which meant that they could use their imagination fully here.

He left them there to check the entire island while he headed back to the capital city along with Igaram and told him to send a notice throughout the Kingdom. He was planning to hire a lot of people to work in developing his first city in the name of the King so the World Government wouldn't pay attention to him, at least for the time being.

With this done, he told Igaram to send those two royal guards along with the girls, it was time to take them back to the training island.

~~~~~~~

On the training island, Mikita was standing in front of a lot of people with a serious expression on her face. Among everyone present here, she was the one who was training on the island for the longest time thus becoming an unofficial leader of these people.

The people who stood in front of her were her subordinates who used to be members of her previous organization. Though because of Alex's orders, Mikita didn't include Mr1 in her organization.

The two giants were also present there with excited expressions along with some new faces that Alex had brought yesterday night.

Those people were the crew members of Gecko Moria in the past but now, thanks to his Hypnosis skill, he made all of them loyal to himself. Among those people, only two people were standing in front of them, Perona and Lola.

Mikita had gathered everyone here because of the orders as Alex wanted to take their training to another level so they could become useful for him very fast.

After some seconds, many figures landed on the training ground. It was Alex and his crew along with those two royal guards.

He quickly walked forward to Mikita and nodded at her before turning to gaze at everyone. "From today, you all are going to train for an entire week and that too without having any sleep time. I want every one of you to grow stronger in the least amount of time. If you think you can't do that, you can leave and join that group that is gonna work to develop a city on another island of mine." He spoke with a serious expression however no one backed down, for them, this was a very good opportunity.

"The main crew will be training in the top area of the island from today. Robin, Daz, Mikita and Perona are going to join them along with Broggy and Dorry…." His words were enough to make them look at him with a horrified expression. Those who had seen that place knew the danger level and yet he was sending some weak people there even though not even the main crew was sure of their survival in that place. "I'm sure that a lot of you are shocked by this, however, these people that I mentioned are very important to my plans so they need to get stronger even if they need to face death almost every minute."

After explaining the reason, he motioned those people to stand together in a different area. "The members of the information gathering group will start their training in the middle part of the island while the rest of you will be training in the lowest part."

With this, the people began to walk toward the respective area that they were assigned. Now only the main crew and the people who were going to the other island were left.

Alex used his powers and quickly sent the group to the other island, leaving only the main crew on the outskirts of the island.

After he came back, he stood in front of them with a calm expression. "Anyone who wishes to ask something?" He said, glancing at everyone.

"Were you the one who killed Warlord Moria?" Robin asked with a hint of curiosity in her tone. She had seen the newspaper in the morning and suspected him since he did leave in the evening.

"Mmm." He nodded and turned to look at Perona. "She was one of his crew members but now, she has joined us." He spoke calmly, not mentioning that he altered some stuff in her mind.

"Anyway, let's go now." Saying that he flew in the air along with everyone else. "Make sure to keep yourself and your crew members alive. I don't wish any of you to die." Hearing his words, the girls wanted to say something however in the end, they decided not to.

After dropping them on the top area, he began to explain Haki and Rokushiki to the members who were not aware of it. When he was sure that they understood the basic principles, he left them there without saying any words.

He then flew toward the middle area of the island and met with the members who were soon going to start the information-gathering organization. He explained to them about Haki and Rokushiki before heading to the lowest area and did the same with the people who were there.

He then flew to the other island to see the designs of the city that those people had prepared. He was going to stay here and help them build the houses using his devil fruit which enables him to do a lot of things.