"Snake Queen, what is your verdict on that man?"
As the heavy doors closed behind Leo, Gloriosa stepped further into the chamber, her voice echoing against the stone walls.
"Where did your respect for my title go?" Hancock snapped. She covered her face with one hand, her body arching back against Salome. Her voice was ice-cold, but it lacked its usual sharp edge.
"That is enough," Gloriosa said, her golden serpent staff striking the floor with a rhythmic thud-thud. "The boy is gone. There is no one else in this palace. Must we continue with these pretenses?"
Hancock finally lowered her hand. Her eyes were rimmed with red, brimming with tears she was fighting desperately to suppress.
"Watch your tongue, old hag, or I'll have you thrown out!" she hissed. She looked less like a Pirate Empress and more like a cornered kitten, baring its claws to hide how much it was trembling. She couldn't even maintain her regal self-references anymore.
"Enough!" Gloriosa snapped. She wouldn't coddle her. She had been the one to find the three sisters in the wake of the sun-god's chaos; she knew the hollow, broken shells they had been. Their arrogance was a suit of armor—a shell grown so thick and jagged that they could finally breathe in a world that had once suffocated them.
Now, a stranger had reached through the cracks and touched their softest, most hidden wounds.
"Call Sandersonia and Marigold back. We have grave matters to discuss," Gloriosa commanded. She saw the state Hancock was in—the Empress had lost her composure entirely. She wasn't thinking; she was merely surviving the emotional onslaught. Without her sisters to anchor her, she would remain paralyzed in this vulnerability.
"And another thing," Gloriosa added, "what is that boy doing now?"
The former Empress was a veteran of the seas. She had seen to it that Leo was led away so he wouldn't witness Hancock's breakdown, but she had no intention of letting him wander unobserved.
A shadow moved in the corner—a scout stepping forward to report. "The man... he appears to be giving a speech."
"What?" Gloriosa's eyes widened.
That boy was dangerous. He had a tongue that could manipulate Celestial Dragons and shake a Pirate Empress. The girls of Amazon Lily were fierce warriors, but they were sheltered. Most had never even seen a man, let alone one who could weave such intricate webs of logic. If he started talking, he wouldn't just be an intruder; he would be a contagion.
"This is bad..." Gloriosa hesitated. She couldn't leave Hancock's side while she was this unstable, but she couldn't leave a revolutionary to wander her streets either.
In Amazon Lily, the Empress was the core. If the core shifted, the whole island would tilt toward the abyss.
"Elder Nyon only told us to leave the palace, right? Is it alright if I just look around?"
Outside the royal district, Leo's "steward" persona vanished. He turned to the round-faced warrior escorting him, flashing a friendly, disarming smile.
"I... suppose so," she stammered. She wasn't a fool; the fact that this man had entered the Empress's private quarters and come out without being turned to stone or fed to the panthers meant he had some level of protection.
Amazon Lily was a fortress of isolation. Most of the citizens lived and died without knowing the true shape of the world. Only those who sailed with the Kuja Pirates saw the reality beyond the horizon. They were the ones Leo needed.
He didn't need them to betray their Queen. He wasn't looking for a "with me or against me" scenario. He knew that human loyalty was a complex, layered thing. He didn't expect a group of hardened pirates to become perfect revolutionaries overnight—even he was filled with selfish thoughts and distractions.
"I'm Leo," he said as they walked down the bustling main street. "What's your name?"
"I am Ran. A combatant of the Kuja Pirates," she replied, her eyes curious. "How do you know the Snake Queen? We've never seen a man like you before."
Leo nodded. A ship needed more than just a captain; it needed navigators, doctors, and cooks. But the Kuja were unique—nearly every member of the crew was a high-level combatant, many of them proficient in Haki. They were elite seeds.
"I can't talk about that yet, I'm afraid," Leo said smoothly. "But tell me, where exactly are we in the Calm Belt? Which of the four seas is the closest?"
He was genuinely curious about their coordinates, but he had forgotten one crucial thing: this wasn't an era where the Navy could cross the Calm Belt at will. In this time, their location was the most guarded secret in the kingdom.
Ran's expression shifted instantly. Her friendly curiosity vanished, replaced by a wall of silent suspicion. She closed her mouth tight, her hand hovering near the hilt of her weapon.
Leo winced, mentally kicking himself. Dammit.
He had let his modern arrogance slip. Carrying the secrets of the entire One Piece world made him forget that to these people, a single map coordinate was the difference between life and death. For a kingdom that survived on being invisible, his question sounded like a spy digging for a target.
If he wanted to win their hearts, he had to stop acting like a god who knew the future and start acting like a man who understood their fears.