Goa Kingdom

East Blue border.

The luxury cruise ship continued sailing safely for two days, and at last, the outline of the island of Goa Kingdom could be seen from the deck.

Overjoyed to be back on land, the nobles and wealthy merchants swore from the bottom of their hearts that they would live peacefully from now on and never attend another party at sea, not even one organized by the Marines.

The sky was clear and blue, the sea vast and boundless. The rolling waves were like invisible hands, pushing the cruise ship toward Gray Port.

Finally, half an hour later, the cruise ship approached the harbor.

The nobles and wealthy merchants, who had packed their luggage long ago, disembarked one after another.

Daniel stood on the deck with a troubled expression, gazing somewhat blankly at the bustling crowd on shore.

His business had fallen through, and his credit was gone. That was probably what it felt like.

Little by little, aside from a few sailors, most of the people on the ship had already left.

"Whew."

Daniel collected himself and, as if prepared for this, took out a bag and handed it to Duen, who was standing beside him. "Mr. Duen, thank you for killing the pirates and saving our lives. There's one million Beli here... just a small token of my appreciation."

This was the reward he was giving Duen. It was not exactly lavish, but honestly, it was still quite generous.

Duen did not refuse. He accepted the bag of Beli. He had told Daniel in advance that he would be leaving at Goa Kingdom, and Daniel had not tried to stop him.

"Captain Daniel, then I'll be leaving first."

Duen turned and walked toward Nami, who was holding a black bag some distance away.

He had noticed that after spending these past few days together, the Negative Emotion Points Nami contributed had begun to decrease somewhat.

It was only through a notification in the [Income Log] that Duen learned this was called "diminishing marginal returns."

At first, she would provide a large amount of Negative Emotion Points. But the longer they spent together, the more she would gradually come to tolerate Duen's personality. Once she adapted, the fluctuations in her negative emotions would lessen. Eventually, she would grow used to it and stop finding it strange.

Of course, this was merely a trend for now. At present, Nami could still provide quite a few Negative Emotion Points.

Nami looked at the extra bag in Duen's hand, as though she had suddenly come alive, and asked brightly, "Is that the reward...?"

Duen smiled. "One million Beli."

Nami asked vaguely, "Where... are you going?"

"I'm going to look around this country. If you're willing to keep following me, I can consider handing this one million Beli over to you."

Duen paused, then added, "You know I'm someone who doesn't care about money."

"No problem!"

Nami agreed without even thinking. After spending these past few days together, she had always found Duen detestable, but compared to those vicious pirates, being by his side was still safer.

Most importantly, he really had given her five million Beli in installments, with no intention of taking it back. Well, this guy was either an idiot with something wrong in his head or a filthy rich upstart!

After leaving the luxury cruise ship, Duen and Nami walked through Gray Port.

Duen remained as calm as ever, but Nami clutched the black bag and warily watched the pedestrians passing by. She was carrying a fortune. If not for wanting to get the money on Duen, the first thing she would have done was return to Cocoyasi Village and hide all this money away.

Duen looked at the terraced buildings before him, each layer taller and grander the farther inward they went, then said to Nami, "Let's go to Central Street first."

Although Goa Kingdom lay on the edge of East Blue, it was known as the most beautiful country in East Blue because everything deemed unnecessary was thoroughly discarded. This country was practically a textbook example of an [Isolated Society].

Four years ago, when the Celestial Dragons visited, under the king's secret orders, pirates set an endless blaze outside Border Town at Gray Terminal, burning everything to ashes. After the Celestial Dragons left, the mountain of garbage returned to what it had been before, and people resumed their old lives.

Central Street was bustling with traffic and people.

All of a sudden, the crowd grew noisy, then parted to either side like waves forced apart across the sea.

Duen grabbed Nami and followed the flow of people back to the sides.

"Hey, what happened?"

"It's the provisional royal family. Outlook and his family are here."

"How come I've never heard of any provisional royal family?"

"Your information is really behind. You probably don't know that young master Stelly of the Outlook family is engaged to the princess, right? If nothing unexpected happens, he'll inherit the king's throne in the future. Doesn't that make them a provisional royal family?"

Hearing the hushed discussions around him, Duen raised his head and looked toward the middle of the road. He seemed to have heard the surname "Outlook" somewhere before, but the impression was vague, and he could not remember it for the moment.

At last, surrounded by royal guards, a middle-aged man dressed in dark blue noble attire rode slowly forward on a tall horse. Beside him rode a brown-haired youth, keeping pace with him. The youth cast a condescending glance at the pedestrians on either side as though looking at garbage, then slowly withdrew his gaze and let out an almost inaudible sneer.

"Oh..."

Duen vaguely remembered now. Weren't these two Sabo's father and adoptive younger brother?

A few years later, after the old king died of illness, Stelly would successfully ascend the throne and become the king of Goa Kingdom. From a politician's perspective, Sabo's father was truly far-sighted...

While he was thinking, the two had already gone farther and farther away, vanishing into the surging sea of people. The pedestrians returned to normal as though nothing had happened, continuing on their way or returning to their work.

Duen withdrew his gaze and glanced sideways at Nami, who had remained by his side. "Let's go."

"Okay." Nami followed after him.

As he walked and observed the surrounding architecture and scenery, Duen suddenly stopped.

Caught off guard, Nami bumped her head into Duen's back and staggered back two steps. One hand went to her aching forehead. Just as she was about to follow Duen's gaze to see what had happened, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a clothing store.

"Welcome!"

The owner, who wore a gold-rimmed lens over only his right eye with the glasses chain looped around his right ear, rubbed his hands together and hurried over.

Duen looked around at the clothes on the racks and pointed at Nami. "Bring me a few outfits in her size."

"Of course, of course!" The owner beamed, circled Nami once, and quickly sent someone to select some clothes.

Nami pinched the hem of Duen's clothes between her thumb and forefinger and asked softly, "What are you doing?"

"Buying you some decent clothes."

"...Pointless."

Nami was neither happy nor angry. Before she had gathered one hundred million Beli, she had no interest whatsoever in dressing herself up. To her, Duen's actions were simply unnecessary.

Before long, the owner brought over four or five outfits. At Duen's signal, he led Nami to the fitting room.

Nami hugged the bulging black bag tightly and still walked into the fitting room.

After waiting a little while, the fitting room door opened from within.

Nami had changed into an orange-yellow dress. Her arms, white as lotus roots, rested in front of her. The hem of the star-studded dress fell at just the right length, covering her knees while revealing a pair of slender, fair legs.

Compared to before, she looked more youthful and adorable. Combined with her still-unmatured face, she truly looked like a cute girl next door.

"This one's not bad." Duen looked her over and nodded in satisfaction. "Try another one."

At Duen's instruction, Nami closed the fitting room door.

When she came out again, Nami was wearing a white princess dress. The neckline was cut just right, while the lace and mesh created a layered, three-dimensional beauty. The snow-white skirt covered her entire lower body, giving her the noble, graceful air of a real princess.

Duen smiled. "This one's good too. Try another."

The clothing store owner beside Duen could not help clicking his tongue in admiration. "Miss, you're truly lovely. You look so elegant in anything you wear!"

"Jealous?" Duen snorted proudly.

"Huh?"

The clothing store owner had no idea why Duen had suddenly said that. He did not know how to respond and could only give an awkward laugh. "Yes, jealous..."

"Being jealous won't help."

"Negative Emotion Points from Monroe +88..."

The owner's face immediately darkened a little.

One outfit after another, Duen had Nami try on five or six well-fitting and beautiful sets of clothes before finally stopping. He looked at her and asked, "I think that's about enough. What do you think?"

Nami looked at the clothes with some hesitation in her eyes. What adolescent boy or girl did not care about their appearance? Besides, she herself was the sort of natural clothes hanger who could pull off anything. How could she not like these clothes, which were practically a luxury to her?

Seeing that Nami did not answer, Duen generously asked the owner, "How much are all these clothes? I'll take them all."

"The total is..." The clothing store owner took out a notebook and did some calculations. "Fifty-three thousand Beli." Then he smiled broadly. "I'll give you a discount, sir. I'll waive the extra three thousand Beli."

Duen nodded and smoothly pulled out a stack of fifty thousand Beli. Just as he was about to hand it over, Nami suddenly snatched it away. She then leaned close to Duen's ear and whispered, "Hey, hey, are you an idiot?! That profiteer asks for fifty thousand Beli and you just pay him fifty thousand? Leave the bargaining to me. Go wait outside first."

Duen glanced sideways at her. After a brief pause, he agreed. "Then I'll wait outside."