“Reden should be fine. I hear their prince has been using sea routes lately.”

Starlet looked up at the queen giving him instructions with a nonchalant face.

As far as he knew, Reden was clearly the queen’s home country. The prince there was her elder brother.

Perhaps the Mevasa royal family isn’t such a clean place either.

And it’s common for royal families to not get along well. Starlet gently bowed his head.

“To even care about a thief’s livelihood, how shall I repay this grace?”

“No need to think so deeply about it. No one who’s gotten used to thieving would quit, but I can’t let such acts happen in front of my home.”

However, what the queen newly designated as his workplace was the waters in front of her home country.

Starlet said to the queen, who had a cold side unlike her beautiful face.

“You’re not just chasing me away.”

“If you want to be chased away, that’s not difficult either.”

The answering voice was calm. Not wanting to be chased by the royal family’s private soldiers for saying the wrong thing, Starlet changed the subject.

“I like Galisa. But moving the nets is no easy task… Would you be willing to show some favor?”

Hearing those words, the queen tilted her head. Unlike her gentle features, a cold expression caught his eye. When those azure eyes stared at him as if boring into him, Starlet felt a slight shiver.

He liked the process of people with such faces becoming kind to him.

“I’ve been chased around here and there all this time. Now that I’m getting older, I feel the need for a place to return to.”

Rather than being chased, he had gone wherever his feet took him, and he still thought himself young to say he was getting older, but Starlet didn’t reveal his true thoughts. People who weren’t drawn to adventure stories often had their hearts melt when shown a pitiful side.

And melting people’s hearts was nothing to him. Starlet continued.

“Would you give me a small house as a place to return to anytime?”

Of course, the King of Aglante was tacitly allowing Galisa’s 7th District, but that was just tacit approval. He could send soldiers to suppress it anytime if he didn’t like it.

Starlet thought the king wouldn’t do that for trivial matters, but he also remembered how passionately he had cleaned up Galisa’s streets. The young king had a more persistent side than his predecessors.

So it wouldn’t be bad to secure safety in this opportunity.

Since the 7th District itself wasn’t such a clean place anyway, it shouldn’t be an unreasonable request, but the queen didn’t readily agree. She spoke with a still impassive expression.

“How would I know if the whole neighborhood would be muddied by one house.”

“It’s just one small house. It would seem nonexistent to others’ eyes, so please don’t worry too much.”

“I’m worrisome by nature. It won’t be easy.”

And Ophelia looked down at the pirate who still didn’t lose his smile.

In her past life, she hadn’t driven Starlet out of Galisa. Or more precisely, there hadn’t been a reason to do so.

Starlet was quick-witted and smart, only committing crimes to the extent that she wouldn’t suppress. Knowing when to bow down without causing trouble was a bonus.

But turning a blind eye to their existence and giving them a place to stay were separate issues. Even if Idren hadn’t been by her side, she couldn’t have easily agreed.

Starlet, looking up at her with deep green eyes, asked.

“Then how about this?”

And the man slightly raised an eyebrow. His free and handsome expression was just right to fit into a romantic novel protagonist.

But her romance had long since dried up, so Ophelia just stared at the man trying to gain her favor even with her husband beside her.

Finally giving up on the expression that made him look more handsome, Starlet continued.

“If you guarantee our safety within your lands, Your Majesty, I’ll ensure that the flag of Black Foam never flies in Aglante waters.”

That was the same as in her previous life, but such a direct proposal had never come back before. Ophelia asked.

“How many others have you made such promises with?”

“This is the first time. Other noble people seem to find me quite adorable.”

Which meant he had gotten what he wanted elsewhere with less disadvantageous conditions than this.

Ophelia stared blankly at the man who seemed to be running quite a large-scale romance business. Starlet, far from avoiding her gaze, added with a sly expression.

“Doesn’t beauty make people’s hearts generous?”

As if his face would make her heart generous.

Ophelia brought the man who lived trusting his own face, unchanged from her previous life to now, back to reality.

“Then it seems your beauty is insufficient for me.”

She felt no particular emotion towards Starlet’s face. While green eyes were uncommon and worth noting, his eyes were too deep in color to overlap with anything else.

Reading her indifference, Starlet drooped his thick, straight eyebrows.

“Oh my, how unfortunate. I even said things I’ve never mentioned anywhere else to Your Majesty.”

“That’s how hearts are. It’s hard to get back as much as you give.”

At that moment, Idren flinched slightly. Ophelia realized her words must have sounded somewhat meaningful to his ears.

Since it wasn’t intended for him, Ophelia didn’t look to her side. After all, it wasn’t as if she had said anything wrong.

While it was true she didn’t want to hurt him, she also didn’t want to be so cautious as to take back words that weren’t even aimed at him.

But she didn’t want to talk more with Starlet either, so Ophelia opened her mouth to send him away quickly.

“Let’s do this. I’ll give you a house as you said. I promise in the governor’s name that no royal soldiers will invade that place.”

And Ophelia found herself wondering what expression Idren might be making. He must be furrowing his brow.

She erased from her mind his displeased expression that came to her automatically from having seen it so many times. Anyway, that wasn’t what was important.

Ophelia continued.

“However, if any disturbance caused by you or your underlings, or those who could be mistaken as such, reaches my or my husband’s ears… You’ll be responsible and stand under the gallows. How about that?”

At those words, Starlet immediately put on a hurt expression. He reached out and stroked his neck as he spoke.

“You have such a heartless side despite not seeming so. To say you’d cut this neck…”

There was something very shiny hanging on his neck.

It was a statement that made one doubt if she had normal eyesight, saying she’d cut such a thing, but the queen said without blinking her gentle eyes once.

“It’s a neck that gives me no particular feeling. Do you dislike it?”

“No. I’ll do as Your Majesty says. I’ll manage myself and my underlings strictly.”

And before the one who had given him what he wanted could chase him out of the reception room, Starlet continued.

“May I say one more thing?”

After sending Starlet away, silence fell in the reception room where only the two remained. Looking straight ahead in the subtle awkwardness, Ophelia realized that the man beside her hadn’t said a word until now.

Just as she was about to ask if there was something he didn’t like, Idren spoke first.

“Do you really intend to exchange letters?”

He was referring to what Starlet had requested before leaving the room.

“I’ll send a well-behaved fellow, so would you occasionally let him hear Your Majesty’s words?”

Ophelia had nodded to the man who made the request to keep a contact in the castle quite flirtatiously. She had been concerned about meeting people as she pleased like in her previous life because of Idren.

Ophelia gently pulled her hand away from his grasp.

“Isn’t that better than seeing his face directly?”

And she slightly clenched and unclenched her hand that was tingling with heat. The other’s unique warmth had seeped into her hand.

Ophelia asked the man who was now holding his own empty hands.

“Are you displeased about letting a pirate into the castle?”

If it was someone Starlet was sending, they would likely be a pirate or someone similar, which could be annoying from Idren’s perspective as the castle’s owner.

However, Idren shook his head.

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

The man pouted for a moment, then said in an almost inaudible voice.

“…You’ve only written me a letter once.”

At the unexpected words, Ophelia furrowed her brow.

“I wrote you a letter…?”

“That, in Reden… Never mind. Pretend you didn’t hear it.”

And he turned his head to an angle where his face couldn’t be seen.

Since she still didn’t understand what he meant, Ophelia didn’t press further. Anyway, it seemed Idren wanted to receive letters.

If so, couldn’t she just write him one?

She said in a casual tone.

“I’ll write you a letter someday when I have the chance.”

While she wasn’t particularly talented at composition, writing one letter wasn’t a difficult task.

Moreover, how often would she need to write him letters? Letters were usually sent between people who couldn’t see each other’s faces, but Idren was the person she saw faces with the most.

But Idren immediately brightened up.