Missionary

Chapter 7: The Missionary

"Snake Princess, what do you think of that man?" As Leo left, Gloriosa walked in from outside and asked.

"Where did the word 'Lord' go?" The Empress covered her face with one hand, leaning back, and asked coldly.

"That's enough." Gloriosa's Golden Snake Staff struck the ground with a clang. "That brat's gone, and there's no one else in this bedchamber. Do we still need to be so formal between us?"

The Empress lowered her hand. At some point, tears had already filled her eyes, and she had to strain with all her might to keep them from spilling through her fingers.

"Dare to be rude to me? Careful, or I'll throw you out!" She couldn't even maintain her self-references like "this grieving one" or "this concubine," instead snapping like a kitten baring its claws to protect itself.

"Enough!" Gloriosa wasn't about to indulge her flaws. As the one who had brought the three sisters back to Amazon Lily Island, she knew best their weakness. The three of them were just pitiful children who had escaped from the Celestial Dragons, so fragile that they had to wrap themselves in a tough shell, or else they couldn't survive in this cruel world.

Now that someone had struck her most vulnerable spot, how could she not raise the white flag?

"Call Sandersonia and Marigold back. We have important matters to discuss." She was done for. Gloriosa made a precise judgment—this woman had completely lost her usual calm and pride. She couldn't even think anymore, only maintaining her composure through sheer stubbornness. If her two sisters weren't called back, her current state might drag on indefinitely.

"And, what's that brat doing now?" Gloriosa, as the former former former Amazon Lily Emperor, was indeed a seasoned veteran. Not only had she sent someone to lead Leo away so he wouldn't see the Empress's current state, thus smoothly pushing her to go with him, but she also had him watched, with reports coming to her at any time.

Though Gloriosa kept her distance from the crowd, due to her age and her past as the Amazon Lily Empress, many in the village obeyed her without question.

Someone immediately came forward to report: "That guy... seems to be giving a speech."

"What?" Gloriosa was startled. That brat was no simpleton—his skill at stirring people up was top-notch. Whether it was the Celestial Dragons or the Empress, he toyed with them effortlessly. The entire Amazon Lily was full of naive girls who had been too well-protected, who had never even seen an ordinary man. That smooth-talker might just bewitch the whole Nine Snake Island.

"Not good..." She hesitated but didn't leave directly, because the Empress couldn't be left alone right now. If she had some impulsive thought and led the Kuja Pirates to follow him out to sea, the entire Nine Snake Island would be affected.

No matter how much the Amazon warrior women were stirred up, the Empress couldn't be allowed to act rashly.

On the whole of Nine Snake Island, the Emperor was the true core.

But Gloriosa never imagined that some people's ability to incite was stronger than she thought...

"Granny probably just wanted us to step out. Can I take a look around?" As soon as he left the Empress's bedchamber, Leo immediately showed his true colors, striking up a conversation with the round-faced Amazon warrior woman.

"This..." She hesitated. She wasn't stupid. The fact that this man hadn't turned to stone or been fed to Kouba after entering the Empress's bedchamber proved he had gained her initial trust. That made it hard to refuse his request.

But the Amazon Lily Kingdom was closed off, isolated, keeping ordinary people from knowing the outside world so they could live in peace at home. Only the warriors who sailed with the Empress could see the outside world—they were the ones who knew how vast the world was, and also the group Leo could win over.

Accepting his ideas didn't contradict their loyalty to the Empress.

He had long since moved past binary thinking: if you don't come with me, you're my enemy; if you accept my ideas but don't come with me, you're a traitor; if you come with me but still think of the Empress, you're a traitor... and so on.

People weren't simply black and white; their thoughts were diverse. With his insight into human nature, he understood that in this era, in this world, finding a pure, spotless fighter for a certain ideology was impossible.

Even he had countless distracting thoughts and selfish motives in his heart, let alone pirates who had never received a red education and only cared about their own desires.

She hesitated for a moment but finally agreed to Leo's suggestion. The two of them took their time, strolling slowly along the roads of Nine Snake Island like tourists. He observed the island while chatting with her: "Hello, I'm Leo. What's your name?"

"I'm Ran, a combatant of the Kuja Pirates. You..." She hesitated before asking, "How do you know Her Majesty the Empress? We've never seen you before."

Leo understood in his heart. On a ship, besides the captain and the first mate, there were also the navigator, doctor, helmsman, cook, and so on. Most important were the combat forces. On smaller pirate crews, most members were combatants, while larger ones, like the Whitebeard Pirates, had divisions like the First Division and Second Division.

The Kuja Pirates were a national pirate crew, each warrior a one-in-a-thousand elite. So the combatants of the Kuja Pirates were likely elites skilled in Armament Haki or Observation Haki.

"I can't say. Sorry. But where is your Amazon Lily Kingdom located in the Calm Belt? Which of the four seas—East, West, South, North—does the Grand Line lead to?" He was curious about this, but he forgot that this wasn't the era when the Navy could freely traverse the Calm Belt. Amazon Lily's position in the Calm Belt was a top-secret secret.

Ran's expression changed, and she shut her mouth, saying nothing more.

Seeing her expression, Leo tapped his head in frustration. Clearly, he had misspoken.

There was no helping it. Just like the protagonist of Re: Zero, sometimes the arrogance of modern people was impossible to hide. Their carelessness was a major taboo in other worlds. He carried countless secrets of the One Piece World, so naturally, he looked down on others' secrets.

But no matter how much he looked down on them, these were the foundations of their survival, secrets that, if discovered, required the discoverer to be eliminated. No wonder Luffy's arrival on Nine Snake Island had caused such a stir—it was the first time the island had been discovered, an absolute secret that had to be guarded!