One Piece: Starting by Rejecting Red-Hair's Invitation

Cosmos fell silent for a moment, then returned to her earlier demeanor and smiled. "All right, I understand. You go on back. I'll take care of the rest."

"Mm... There's really nothing to take care of. Honestly, once he paid, it wasn't stealing anymore. I'll get going, then. Bye-bye, Lady Cosmos." Xiao Lan happily waved to Cosmos, then jogged toward the tavern.

After Xiao Lan left, the smile vanished from Cosmos's face. Without another word, she hurried toward the Royal Palace.

But when Xiao Lan reached the tavern, she didn't go inside. Instead, she went straight past it, took an oil lamp from a night market stall, and ran out of town.

She didn't believe she had imagined things.

So she firmly believed the figure she had seen was someone from another island.

If she hadn't seen him, that would have been one thing. But now that she had, she simply had to see what this outsider really looked like!

Lin Mo returned to the Flying Ship alone.

His surroundings were unusually quiet.

Once inside the cabin, Lin Mo took out a bottle of liquor he had just "bought," opened it, and began drinking.

He finished the bottle without feeling a thing. It always felt as though something was missing.

He drank several more bottles in succession. Suddenly, faint footsteps sounded outside, amplified by the utter silence around him.

A small figure appeared in front of the Flying Ship.

Xiao Lan gazed excitedly at the lit cabin and called softly, "Is anyone in there?"

Lin Mo ignored her.

He had promised Hancock not to show himself before any of the island's residents, but that meant he wouldn't deliberately appear before them. Now that someone had come looking for him, he naturally saw no need to go out of his way