Smack!
Crocodile felt a chill run down his spine and suddenly shivered, quickly closing the book in his hands.
He covered his mouth, pretending to smoke, but actually hiding his twitching lips.
Heh, hehe...
There must be something fishy!
Maybe some trick I don't know about?
That's right, it must be!
Crocodile took a deep breath and opened the notebook again, turning to the last page he had been looking at.
On it, in black and white, it was clearly written:
"It's very impolite to flip through a young lady's personal notebook, little Crocodile."
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
Crocodile's eyes widened, and he immediately turned to the next page.
The next page also had very few words—
"It's possible."
"..."
Crocodile was silent, his expression completely calm, his face indifferent.
He laid the notebook flat on his lap, leaned back against the sofa, put a cigar in his mouth, and looked up at the ceiling.
"Huff..."
He gradually understood everything.
Rowan wasn't an educator. He couldn't possibly train a young princess, new to the world, into an excellent diplomat in just two days.
But he could use about two days to predict "all the possibilities" of this negotiation!
Rowan had sorted out all the possible things that could happen and had Vivi write them down in her notebook.
This way, the little princess only needed to follow the instructions in the notebook, step by step, to carry out this negotiation.
Simple?
Too simple!
For Vivi, this negotiation was just like an exam with fixed questions, and with the little princess's own excellent performance, getting a "perfect score" wasn't difficult.
Difficult?
Very difficult!
For Rowan, he had to calculate all the possibilities and then provide corresponding solutions.
Even if Wapol was a visible idiot, he was still a living person!
Communication between people is fundamentally different from a game of chess.
Because of the existence of the board and the rules, the placement of the pieces is always fixed. Even if a game of chess has thousands of variations, these variations will eventually come to an end.
But a "person" is someone whose actions cannot be accurately predicted...
...or can they?
The reality happening right now made Crocodile put a question mark in his mind about that statement.
Indeed, Wapol was a visible idiot. If Crocodile wanted to, he could even set a trap and have this stupid king unintentionally lose his entire country.
But that was ultimately just a type of "scheme."
Crocodile could scheme against "human nature" itself, but he couldn't predict all the possibilities like predicting the moves in a chess game, and then turn them into concrete words!
That would be, too unbelievable...
Crocodile took another deep breath, feeling like he needed to be quiet for a moment.
So, he got up from the sofa and went to a corner of the open-air balcony outside the meeting room.
You couldn't see this place from inside, but you could hear the sounds from inside.
If Vivi called for help, Crocodile would rush inside immediately and chop Wapol into a dried corpse to vent the inexplicable annoyance in his heart.
Now, he planned to lean on the railing, let the cold wind blow, and reorganize his thoughts.
But before long, another person came to the balcony and stood next to Crocodile.
It was Dalton.
This loyal captain of the Drum Kingdom's guard was extremely disappointed in his king's performance.
The current situation of this negotiation could already be described as one-sided.
Vivi stated Alabasta's proposal, and Wapol could only nod in agreement, unable to say even half a sentence of rebuttal.
In fact, according to Wapol's original personality, he would have flipped the table long ago and refused to talk.
But now he couldn't find the "opportunity" to flip the table at all.
Every proposal Vivi made fell just before Wapol's bottom line, giving him a sense of "reasonableness."
This was the so-called "war at the negotiating table."
Once you are completely caught in the other person's rhythm, you even lose the right to end the negotiation and can only listen passively!
Wapol was now trapped in this "mud," losing terribly.
Dalton couldn't help but sigh.
If the old king were still alive, he would definitely be completely disappointed in this incompetent son!
Dalton looked up at Crocodile and couldn't help but exclaim, "Worthy of being a princess of a superpower."
Crocodile: "..."
Normally, he wouldn't bother wasting words on such irrelevant fools.
But now, because of that notebook, Crocodile's mood was very complicated, so he spoke more.
"Dalton?"
"Yes." Dalton nodded and reintroduced himself, "Captain of the Drum Kingdom Guard, Dalton."
Crocodile took a puff of his cigar and said slowly, "Actually, many things aren't that complicated, but many things are very complicated."
These strange words left Dalton very confused.
He was straightforward and found it difficult to understand the meaning behind the words.
Crocodile frowned and pointed at the room, "For example, that negotiation is not that complicated. It's very simple."
Dalton was even more confused. He scratched his head and earnestly asked for guidance, "Then, what is very complicated?"
"Complicated things..."
Crocodile was starting to get annoyed. He was just about to find a reason to end the conversation when he suddenly thought of something.
"Didn't those stupid ministers say that people from World Government borrowed a piece of land to do some kind of military exercise?"
Dalton was stunned, but still nodded. "That's right, Jess said that a group of World Government people borrowed a piece of seldom-visited snowfield from us."
"Yes, yes, that's it."
Crocodile took a puff of his cigar and said with a gloomy smile, "That is a very complicated thing."
Dalton frowned slightly, not really understanding Crocodile's words.
He explained, "Winter Island has a special climate. Marine has also temporarily borrowed a piece of land from us to train new recruits. It's sudden that the World Government is doing this, but there have been precedents. It's reasonable."
Hearing this, Crocodile smiled grimly, "Dalton—yes, that's the name. You may be a loyal guard, but as a minister, you don't qualify."
Dalton knew his shortcomings well and was about to earnestly ask for guidance when his ears suddenly twitched.
He heard a strange noise.
Animal-type Devil Fruit users often have stronger senses than ordinary people.
After Dalton, Crocodile also noticed the noise in the distance.
He and Dalton looked in the direction of the sound and focused their attention on the snowfield in the distance.
There, a strange blizzard had appeared, completely engulfing the originally peaceful snowfield foothills.
The chaotic air currents were like a storm, blowing the snow on the ground high into the air, turning it into one "snow tornado" after another!
Even when looking down from the castle, it was still impossible to see what was happening inside.
Dalton was stunned by the sight. He had lived in the Drum Kingdom his whole life, but he had never seen such a strange phenomenon.
He couldn't help but ask, "What's happening?"
Hearing this, Crocodile raised his eyebrows, very satisfied with Dalton's reaction.
The strange feeling brought about by that notebook hadn't completely worn off on Crocodile yet.
But now his mood was clearly much better.
Sure enough, spending time with Ryan Rowan felt like being with the abyss, being stared at by that bottomless darkness every moment, tiring him to death!
It was still more enjoyable to be around good people like Dalton, who had simple minds!
Simple, direct, and even reminded Crocodile that he was actually an ambitious person too.
Thinking of this, Crocodile raised his chin at Dalton and smiled:
"Hehehehe, can't you tell?"
"The World Government is doing 'military exercises'!"
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