Galicia had not changed much from what he remembered.

Perhaps because of the war with Brinwell, there were no people speaking Brinwell, but the streets were still lively and bustling with people.

Starlet walked among them with his robe pulled down a bit deeper. There was a pleasant smell of seawater in the air.

Dori disliked him mixing so defenseless among people, but Starlet always walked the streets like this again when he set foot on Galician soil. It was because the tingling sensation in his spine and the excitement had a strange addictiveness.

The situation was a bit different from usual now.

Someone was following him.

The feeling that had been there since he first entered downtown had now turned into certainty.

Walking quickly through the crowds, Starlet wondered who it might be this time. This happened to him occasionally, as he had many enemies and lovers.

He knew this was the fate of a popular person, but it was a bit inconvenient today.

Today was the day he would see the face of the Queen of Aglante after several months. Starlet had even prepared a special gift for the woman who still seemed uninterested in him. It was a necklace made of blue sea jewels, which was a bit difficult to obtain even for a pirate who ruled the seas.

Jewels tend to melt the hearts of recipients regardless of age or gender, but this necklace was a bit more special. It was a deep, dark blue color like the Queen’s eyes.

When you receive something like this, you can’t help but think of the person who gave it.

Thinking about the person who might finally recognize the true value of his face this time, Starlet hid himself in a secluded alley. There, a carriage sent by the royal family to transport him was waiting.

As the carriage he boarded was leaving the alley, Starlet saw a group of people rushing into the alley he had entered. The flap of one of their robes fluttered, revealing the sword worn underneath.

Starlet frowned as the pattern engraved on the sword looked familiar. It was clearly a crest he had seen somewhere, but he couldn’t remember where.

He leaned back and closed his eyes, briefly recalling his memories. He had a head that didn’t easily forget things he had seen once. Figuring it would come to him eventually, he thought he should think a bit more about the person he was about to meet.

Despite his earlier confidence, an hour later, Starlet was looking at the Queen with an expression of disbelief.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but could you please say that one more time?”

“I said I don’t need it, so you should have it.”

The Queen raised her teacup, saying this without blinking an eye. Starlet blankly looked up at the Queen, who was sitting expressionlessly as she had done before. In his hand, he held a necklace of sapphire blue jewels woven with platinum.

The necklace, which he had been confident would capture the Queen’s heart from the moment he first acquired it, had just been completely rejected.

“This is the gift I mentioned in the letter.”

When he said this and presented the necklace on a purple velvet cushion, the Queen glanced at it briefly and said,

“It’s pretty.”

It was quite a monotonous voice for someone expressing such an opinion, but Starlet took it as a positive sign. People with personalities like the Queen’s rarely reacted emotionally in an extreme manner.

But the words that followed were completely beyond his expectations.

“But I don’t need it.”

And as if to prove her words, the Queen turned her head away.

Starlet was greatly shocked by this clear expression of rejection. He had never had a gift rejected by a woman in his life. His shining face had always added persuasiveness to whatever action he took.

Faced with something he had never experienced before, Starlet made the mistake of asking again, uncharacteristically.

Asking a royal again was a serious offense, but instead of informing him of this, the Queen reiterated her opinion. The opinion that she didn’t need it and he should have it.

This time, he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t heard. Starlet, gripping the necklace again with trembling hands, forced a smile.

“I, I see. That’s a shame. Someone as lowly as me wouldn’t suit such a thing…”

“Why, it would suit you well. You seem quite confident about your face.”

At those words that sounded almost like mockery, Starlet tried to recall if he had done something else wrong to the Queen. But for someone who enjoyed winning women’s favor, even without pirate superstitions, there was no way he could have such a memory.

It was then that the Queen called his name.

“Starlet.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

His voice answering was smooth as if he had never been rejected, but Starlet’s green eyes were still trembling.

Ophelia looked down at the handsome man, no different from her previous life.

“I have no intention of becoming your lover.”

The man flinched at the blunt words, but quickly raised the corners of his mouth smoothly. Playfulness and composure quickly filled his face, which had momentarily cracked.

“I wouldn’t dare hope for such an impertinent thing. Someone as lowly as me…”

“You don’t really want a lover either, do you?”

Seeing the man freeze at those words, Ophelia recalled something she had once heard from him.

“Love? What use is love to a pirate?”

At the lakeside villa, when Starlet was quite drunk, he had once told her his story.

She didn’t remember most of it as she hadn’t paid much attention, but there were a few words that remained in her mind.

“I just want those noble ladies to play with me.”

She didn’t remember the expression on the man’s face as he said those words, but he must have been grinning. Starlet always wore such an expression.

Regardless of his mood.

“Isn’t that much more interesting and less dangerous?”

She seemed to remember hearing something like, as a pirate, one should get entangled in a few romantic affairs.

But those words were closer to finding reasons to act vulgar and dangerous. Even if she wasn’t interested in the man, after observing someone for a long time, she could read that much, so Ophelia knew this fact.

She didn’t know why the man before her eyes packaged throwing himself into confusion as fun, but Ophelia now intended to make him stop such behavior.

Unlike in her previous life, in this life she had joined hands with Starlet, and she needed him to take Leden, if nothing else.

Even if it had become a thing of the past now, she had received help from him a few times before.

Ophelia declared to the young man who was just blinking as if he didn’t know how to compose his expression.

“You don’t enjoy danger.”

“Your Majesty, you may not know, but pirates all…”

“You fear death too much to enjoy such things.”

Starlet smiled again with a cracked expression. It was an action that clearly revealed its forced nature.

“Your Majesty seems to be a much more insightful person than I expected. To define me so easily.”

Seeing him abandon the slick personality he had maintained throughout and become sarcastic, it seemed she had hit the nail on the head.

Ophelia replied to the man who was overestimating her.

“I haven’t seen through you, I just know what it means to not fear death.”

Eyes that truly don’t want to live don’t shine like that.

Starlet’s face shone not only because of his innate outstanding beauty, but the biggest reason was the vitality that circulated in him.

Having looked in the mirror even the day before ending her life, Ophelia knew the face of someone who wanted to die.

In her previous life, she had never shone like that no matter what she applied or what jewels and fabrics she wrapped herself in.

Ophelia said to the man looking down at her with confused eyes.

“I don’t know what you truly want, but you haven’t obtained it despite having so many lovers. It seems it’s time to try a different method.”

“…What kind of method do you mean?”

“I’m not good at living either so I’m not sure, but how about trying to have a new purpose?”

And Ophelia thought about Idren. The day when the man who had always felt like a distant stranger first felt like a place to lean on. About the thoughts she had when embraced by him.

Looking back, that day was the first time she had properly buttoned up a relationship with another person after Haslen’s death.

Recalling that day, which would have surely been impossible for her alone, she said without realizing,

“Instead of trying to be linked as lovers, how about becoming friends first?”

The Queen didn’t say much more to him.

She returned to her cold face, and Starlet sincerely answered the questions she asked. They exchanged information about the property damage inflicted on the prince of Leden in that sea area, and the circumstances of the south heard while traveling the sea routes.

Before dismissing him, the Queen asked in a calm voice,

“Did you like the house in Galicia?”

Starlet expressed his gratitude by bowing his head deeply to her.

“It was more than someone as lowly as me deserves.”

His face showed no trace of the earlier confusion.

The Queen stared at him for a moment and then waved her hand. You may go now.

“Be careful not to cause any disturbance.”

The added words carried their surface meaning. Starlet expressed his agreement by bowing his head deeply once more.

It was then that a small impulse arose.

“Your Majesty, may I make one request before I leave?”

“Speak.”

“I would like to give you a new kiss, different from the previous one.”

The Queen raised an eyebrow. Starlet explained to the woman who seemed to be asking him to elaborate.

“This time, I will do it with respect, to lay the foundation for friendship.”

The Queen, who had been staring at him with eyes like the sea, silently extended her hand.