In addition to the swimming pool and the auditorium, there was also a Queen in the performance hall.

Concubine candidates continued their conversations with newly met women, trying to figure out whether this person was real or that person was real.

However, those with a bit more alertness were not looking at the women but at someone else.

The commander of the Astaloth Knights, with raven-black hair and golden eyes, the overall responsible person for guarding the ship for the next week.

The closest aide to the Queen.

It was none other than Merem Quan.

“Annoying and pathetic.”

Merem sighed briefly at the footsteps of the men following him.
Even the sound of footsteps was deliberately silenced, or maybe he deliberately silenced it. It had been annoying him for a while. It seemed that he genuinely regarded the person approaching closely as real, but the sight of him not making any effort to determine who was real or not, twisting his neck as if he wanted to break it, was so irritating.

“Your Majesty. Is the food to your liking?”

“Oh, yes. It’s good.”

Merem, suppressing his irritation, approached the most conspicuous actor in the banquet hall and struck up a conversation. As he did, the footsteps of the writers who were following him were heard muttering.

“Tsk.”

With a brief tongue click, Merem, with cold eyes, looked around the banquet hall.

As expected. Although he thought so, Leonarda was not here.

‘He told me to go and check the situation of the ship’s escort first. Isn’t that a good excuse?’

Merem, who came out to the corridor again, felt the persistent gaze trying to follow him and strengthened his legs.

“Huh?”

“Where did he go? He was just here!”

Swiftly moving and disappearing upstairs, Merem called Eldime.

“Please, make sure no one feels my presence.”

Gladly. My contractor.

In an instant, a storm with a refreshing scent erupted.

After that, Merem’s presence completely disappeared, and people passing by couldn’t even perceive him even though he was right in front of them.

His footsteps were as silent as, or even more so than, highly trained professional assassins.

Because the surrounding mist absorbed all sounds.

‘I looked around all twelve, but she was nowhere to be found.’

Did she not board the ship at all?

Growing anxious, he clenched and unclenched his fist.

In fact, Merem had received almost no information about this concubine selection event. Of course, he knew the ship’s structure, information about actors, and the faces of all 365 concubine candidates since he was in charge of security.

However, what Merem wanted to know was not such things.

Where she would be, with whom, and what she would do.

He was only chasing after that one thing.

I can find her through water droplets.

“Thank you, but I don’t need your help in finding Leo.”

Stubborn.

Everyone on this ship wants to find the real queen. How fair is it? Even Leonarda did not give him information about where she would be. She did not listen even when told it was dangerous.

She said that nobody would find her anyway, so there was no need to worry.

So there was no choice but for trouble to arise.

Merem wanted to find her before anyone else.

Just like other candidates, moving only as his intuition guided him.

Then, he thought she would have to admit it.

The person she needed the most. The one who should be close to her side, none other than him.

‘A faint scent of cinnamon.’

At that moment, carried by the wind, a familiar fragrance wafted from somewhere.
The salty taste spat out by the sea breeze, the cheap perfume smell that concubine candidates flipped upside down, the mixture of various food and the scent of the solo performer permeated this dreadful hell. Amidst all this, the only fragrance that could save him was there.

‘Amidst other foul smells, it’s only faintly perceptible, but it’s definitely Leo’s scent.’

Merem, who had been looking down from a high place, moved as if enchanted. He descended the stairs, passed through the bustling swimming pool, circled around to avoid the noisy surroundings, and finally reached the deck after crossing the beautifully decorated flower garden.

The deck, where officially certified merchants were selling goods, resembled a festival street with hundreds of lanterns hung to push away the darkness of the night, making it look like a constellation floating on the sea.

And there, Merem spotted a servant girl.

She was an ordinary servant girl to the extent that one could never think she was the queen.