"Your Majesty, the man found on the island has awakened." Outside the curtain, an Amazon warrior woman lowered her head as she reported to the person within.
"Then he woke up. Why are you bothering me with such a trivial matter now?"
A languid, seductive voice came from behind the curtain, carrying a trace of irritation. Clearly, the Empress was not in a good mood after being deprived of sleep.
"But he said he was once a slave of the Celestial Dragons and had important secrets concerning the World Government and the Amazon Lily Kingdom that he wished to tell you. He said only you were qualified to hear them." The Amazon warrior woman outside the curtain was under enormous pressure and taking a considerable risk. Faced with a male intruder who had trespassed onto Nine Snake Island because of a shipwreck, the powerful and notoriously ill-tempered Empress might very well take her anger out on them.
Yet they were clearly not qualified to hear such secrets either. He insisted on seeing the Empress and refused to speak with them at all, leaving them deeply troubled. With no other choice, they had reported the matter all the way up here for the Empress to decide.
"Hancock, see him!"
An elderly female voice rang out. A short, white-haired old woman dressed in gaudy finery appeared in the bedchamber, barely reaching the thigh of the Amazon warrior woman outside the curtain. Her voice immediately irritated the woman behind the curtain. "You old hag, why are you here again?!"
"Hmph. For affairs of the nation, I would brave mountains of blades and seas of fire without hesitation!" After putting on an official tone, the old woman gave the Empress no chance to continue her theatrics and spoke seriously. "Really, you should see him, Hancock."
Before others, she usually gave the Empress ample respect and addressed her only as Her Majesty the Empress. Only in private, when she was serious, did she call her by her real name, Hancock. As the former former former Empress who had brought Hancock to Nine Snake Island and personally elevated her to the throne, even though she and the Empress often clashed in daily life, the Empress would still consider her opinion on major matters.
Hearing herself addressed so seriously, the woman behind the curtain fell silent for a moment. In the end, she lightly raised her hand and said, "Bring him here."
"And bring Sandersonia and Marigold as well."
Unaware that the Empress behind the curtain was trembling slightly, the Amazon warrior woman assumed that calling for her sisters was simply proof of how deeply the Empress trusted them and wanted them there to listen in.
But how could Gloriosa, the former former former Empress of Amazon Lily who had taken the three sisters from Fisher Tiger and brought them back to Amazon Lily, not know that Hancock was afraid?
Afraid of the hoofprint on her back, afraid of the Celestial Dragons' reputation, afraid of the word "slave." That was why the Empress, who usually chased Gloriosa away, did not mention this matter at all today and even summoned her two younger sisters for protection.
Who could have imagined that the Pirate Empress, proficient in Conqueror's Haki, Armament Haki, and Observation Haki, was such a fragile girl inside?
Before long, her two sisters entered from the city of the Amazon Lily Kingdom. Following close behind them was the survivor who had drifted to the island of the Amazon Lily Kingdom after a shipwreck.
The man whom the Guardian Warriors had kindly rescued.
A slave of the Celestial Dragons...
He was barefoot, wearing only an Amazon woman's bathrobe, with seemingly nothing beneath it. Much of his chest was exposed. He had short hair, sharp brows, and a pair of profound eyes beneath them, like stars glittering in a dark night sky. His eyes seemed to speak, making his other features and physique seem far less important.
"Thank you for saving my life!" Standing outside the curtain, he looked at Sandersonia and Marigold, who stood beside the Empress like guardian deities. He bowed ninety degrees to the two giant women, each over four meters tall, and spoke solemnly.
His manner immediately earned the favor of the three women outside the curtain.
In this world, recklessness was the norm, rudeness was common, and illiterates made up ninety-nine percent of the population.
Someone as courteous as him was instead an oddity in this world, a strange fellow. But who did not like it when others treated them politely?
"Cut the nonsense." The woman behind the curtain did not have the childish voice of those cutesy girls or the coquettish voices from short-video apps, yet combined with her presence, her voice was astonishingly pleasant. It made people want to keep listening to her. "What secret concerning Amazon Lily did you mean?"
The young man stood upright. Only then did Marigold and Sandersonia realize that although he was not particularly tall, he still reached their waists when he straightened himself, roughly 1.85 meters. His waist and back were exceptionally straight, and he stood like a pine tree, drawing the eye.
"Then let me begin from the start." The man removed the upper half of his bathrobe, then turned around and revealed the Celestial Dragons' hoofprint branded onto his back.
"My name is Leo. I was the steward of the Chateau Saint Family, one of the Twenty Families of the Celestial Dragons. I had their complete trust. They even entrusted me with the authority to deal with the World Government."
"So I know most of this world's secrets and information. They are all in my mind." After displaying the Celestial Dragons' hoofprint, he did not look at the suddenly changed expressions of Marigold and Sandersonia. He merely put his bathrobe back on unhurriedly, then turned around and fixed a sword-like gaze on the woman behind the curtain.
"I do not know how long I drifted at sea, nor how long I slept on Nine Snake Island. So I would like to ask you something to confirm the time."
"Has the current Empress accepted the position of Shichibukai?"
In truth, Leo already knew the answer from the expressions of the two guardian figures standing outside the curtain.
But in the quiet air, he still patiently waited for the person behind the curtain to answer his question.
From beginning to end, his target had never been anyone else in this room.
It was the woman who led the Kuja Pirates and controlled the entire Amazon Lily Kingdom: the Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock.
The air remained silent for a while. No one spoke. Only after the woman behind the curtain had calmed herself did she slowly ask, "Shichibukai? What is that?"
A smile appeared on his face. Half of his objective had already been achieved.
Next, it would depend on how he continued to fool her.
"It is a position that pirates all over the world dream of!"
Before you continue