After I brought Hancock and the others to Shakky's bar, a few more days passed.
Finally… finally, I managed to reunite these two.
"Stella…!"
"Tesoro… I'm so glad… so glad we can et like this again…!"
Since it would still take ti to escort Hancock and the others to Amazon Lily, I decided to handle this first.
I arranged a eting with Stella—we'd been living separately ever since I beca a wanted woman—and brought Tesoro to her.
He must have been counting the minutes.
Even though we arrived well before the appointed ti, Stella was already there… and the mont she saw Tesoro, a tearful smile blood across her face.
Tesoro, too… he looked like he didn't even know what expression to wear. His whole body trembled, tears spilling down his cheeks. Whatever words he might have had, emotion swallowed them whole.
They rushed forward without a sound and embraced.
No speeches. No explanations. Just the way they held each other—like they'd never let go again—made my throat tighten. It was the kind of scene you wanted to applaud, to toast, to cry over.
But they couldn't stand there forever.
They had too much to say, and it wasn't sothing for strangers' ears, so we moved to a private room at a restaurant I'd reserved beforehand. Sowhere quiet. Sowhere safe.
"Seriously… thank you so much, Sue," Stella said again after they'd finally cald down. "Because of you… Tesoro and I… we're safe. Free. And together again."
"Yeah," Tesoro murmured, voice hoarse. "It's all because of you. I can't thank you enough… truly."
"Don't make it so formal," I said, waving it off. "I just wanted you two to be happy. That's all."
After the tears and the laughter, they settled. Food arrived. And still, they kept thanking .
But I ant it. I really did.
Back in Mary Geoise, even when I stood right next to them, I could never have called them happy—not even if soone had forced the words out of .
Tesoro was worked to the bone. I'd heard that under a Celestial Dragon's twisted orders, he was even forbidden to smile.
Stella's duties as my attendant might have been less brutal… but her life was still a cage. No freedom. No future.
Now they finally had both.
From here on, I wanted them to make up for those stolen years and live as brightly as they deserved.
"So," I asked gently, "what are you two going to do now? Live together?"
"Of course that's what I want," Stella said, glancing to the side.
Her gaze landed on Tesoro.
He had his arms crossed, brows drawn, staring down like he was wrestling sothing inside himself.
Ah. That again.
Back on Sabaody, he'd talked about pride—about how it would feel to be supported by Stella. Was that what this was?
When I pressed him, he hesitated.
"…That's part of it," he admitted. "But… there's sothing else I've been thinking about."
"Sothing else?"
Tesoro paused, searching for the right words.
He'd been asking himself whether it was enough to simply live quietly from now on.
And it wasn't a thought that ca out of nowhere. He'd been carrying it ever since Mary Geoise.
I'd heard pieces of their story before. Tesoro and Stella's bond began the day he saw her being sold at the Human Auctioning House. He was drawn to her, and sohow, against all odds, they beca each other's reason to keep breathing.
Back then, Tesoro had worked himself raw for a single goal: to buy Stella's freedom.
He wanted to do it with money earned cleanly, not through shady deals—so she wouldn't feel indebted, so she wouldn't be hurt or humiliated by it.
And just as he was on the verge of making it…
A Celestial Dragon appeared and bought Stella first.
Tesoro confronted the Celestial Dragon in defiance—and for that, he was branded a criminal and enslaved. To make sure they'd never et again, they were assigned to different places. Torn apart deliberately.
Now, sohow, they were here. Together. Alive.
But if even one thing had gone differently, they might never have seen each other again.
That kind of despair doesn't fade. It sinks into you and stays.
For years, Tesoro had tortured himself with the sa thought:
If only I'd had the money back then, I could've saved her imdiately.
If only I'd forced it—scraped it together by any ans necessary—if only I'd gotten to her sooner…
Of course, he said, if he'd done that, our paths might never have crossed the way they did. He didn't deny the years we'd endured together, or the people those years had made us.
But still…
What if sothing like that happened again?
What if tragedy struck without warning, like it always does in this Great Pirate Era?
Would he cling to his ideals again, refuse to dirty his hands again, and end up powerless again—unable to protect Stella when it mattered most?
That thought terrified him.
So he wanted power.
Not just the power to fight—but the kind that protects through money, status, influence. The kind that keeps hands off what's yours before fists ever have to fly.
"Of course, I'm not going back to that rotten life," Tesoro said, voice low. "I'm not going to make peaceful people miserable and squeeze them for money. But still… maybe it's twisted, but… I want money."
He looked straight at us as he said it, like he was daring us to judge him.
"It's sothing I heard once—money is one of the clearest, most reliable forms of power in this world, right up there with violence and authority. And money itself doesn't have morality. People who have it can do more than people who don't. That's just reality."
"..."
"I never want to feel that again," he continued, quieter now. "That helplessness. Being unable to save soone I love because I didn't have the ans. That's why… I'm going to start earning money. I've still got so skills from back when I was… no good. I'll use them. Stella, I want you to co with … but if you don't want that kind of life, then I…"
"Tesoro," Stella said, cutting him off.
She reached across the table and laid her hand over his.
Only then did I notice it—barely visible, but real.
His hand was shaking.
He was afraid. Not of pirates. Not of Marines.
Afraid of her answer.
Stella's voice was soft, warm, steady—her hand speaking as much as her words.
"Do you rember what I told you back then? When I was being sold… I told you I was the happiest person in the world."
Tesoro's breath caught.
Of course he rembered.
That day—the day everything shattered—Stella's desperate smile, the one she forced into place to hide her fear for him. The tears trembling at her lashes.
"I was happy then," Stella said. "No… I'm still happy. Because there was soone who cared about that deeply. Soone willing to go that far for ."
"..."
"And I know what you're really like. You're kind. We're all human—we make mistakes, we lose our way, we hurt people without aning to. I've seen it so many tis. And honestly… I'm not so perfect person either."
"You?" Tesoro blurted. "No. That's not—"
"I've been through things," Stella said quietly. "Before I t you. Even before I ended up in the hands of slavers."
"I heard… you were sold to cover your father's gambling debts…"
"That man…" Stella's voice tightened for a mont. "He did things I can't even speak about. And as his family, I pretended not to see. We ate and lived off money he earned from those dirty dealings. I turned my eyes away from the people he made cry. I plugged my ears to their screams. So when we finally ended up on the side that was crying… no one ca to save us. And I knew why."
Then she exhaled, and the tension in her shoulders eased.
"That's why… when you treated with kindness, I was so happy. I never thought I'd be treated like a person again. And then you showed up, eyes shining like a child, talking about your dreams… saying you'd save ."
Her smile trembled, but it held.
"I can't tell you what that ant to . So, Tesoro…"
She t his gaze head-on, earnest and unflinching.
"You don't have to feel guilty. And you don't have to be afraid. If anything… I've been the one who's felt terrible all this ti—for not telling you sooner."
She drew a slow breath, as if gathering everything she had.
"So, Tesoro… if, even after hearing all of this… you still want to walk beside from now on…"
She paused.
Then, softly:
"I want to be with you. Even soone like … will you spend the rest of your life with ?"
What did Tesoro say?
Do I even need to tell you?
A man five years older than broke down crying like a child—pure, unguarded relief and joy—and it didn't look pathetic in the slightest.
If anything, it made my eyes sting again.
That was the second ti today.
Good for you both.
May you be happy together for a long, long ti.
To be continued...
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