There was no free lunch in this world, but Arthur knew that the price the pirate asked for wouldn't be money but something else. He saw her eyes glitter as she looked at the cold and aloof princess, and he knew what she wanted to ask.

"How much is it?" Diana, however, already had her pouches out to make the payment. The pirate raised his hand and backed away.

"I seek no monetary gain, as I am no lowly pirate. But, on the other hand, your company is the rarest of treasures."

"Uh-huh," Dia nodded with furrowed brows and turned to Arthur. "You picked up a crazy pirate as your captain, Seika."

"I sure did," he sighed and glanced at the pirate's crumbling hopes. If there were a trivia question about the densest thing in the universe, it would be the princess regarding social matters, excluding politics.

'How did this girl manipulate those around her to love her before?' Arthur remembered it clearly, her acts to earn his pity. However, there was something more awakening after he used Greatest Harmony on her, which would be Dia's refusal for petty tricks.

"What I'm asking for is a simple date, just the two of us," the pirate took off her hat and placed it on her chest. "That is in itself the greatest gift one could receive: to be in the presence of someone as beautiful as you are."

Arthur glanced at Dia and saw that she realized what was going on. As the realization dawned, her guard lowered around Eleven. There was even the hint of a smile on her face after knowing about the pirate's feelings.

"You have feelings for me?"

The question was blunter than a blind knife, and the princess tore down all pretenses around the pirate. Arthur silently stared as if he was witnessing a documentary about a spider catching its prey.

"Ah," Eleven was surprised, and there was even blush on her face. "Yes, I do."

The change in her demeanor amused Arthur, and he turned around to see what Dia would say. However, the princess chose to look at him instead.

"What do you think?"

Arthur felt tremendous pressure for some reason. The princess's question was out of the blue, and he didn't know why she asked him. Did she want to see how he would react to someone liking her?

A million thoughts raced across his mind, calculating for every possible scenario that might unfold. One of them even included the world ending as he knew it, and others were less extreme that only had his death. He could tell with accuracy that this was the fastest his mind worked.

"Quite a bargain, isn't it?" there was nothing else he could say. However, like a game where you get a notification that you chose the wrong choice, Arthur knew that this wasn't what Dia wanted to hear.

There was no anger or any sort of expression on her face, and that was the worst result he could get from the cold princess, who he managed to soften in the past few weeks.

"I see," the princess's face was apathetic. She turned toward the pirate and nodded, agreeing to the 'trade' that Eleven offered. "Let's go out on a date then."

***

There was a giant mast in the middle of Aquamia that touched the clouds, and no one seemed to have an idea why it was there, to begin with, but a theory was that the first sailors might have placed it as a monument.

Sitting on one of the mast's many planks was Arthur, and he looked down on the city. Then, probably unknown to himself even, he used the detection rune to find the princess and her current companion.

His detection allowed him to take a snapshot of the surrounding, and it appeared like a three-dimensional picture in his mind. The fact that it got transferred directly to his mind allowed him to find the princess quite easily.

"She looks entertained," he muttered as a thin smile hanged on her face as she looked at the pirate's antics. It seems that after realizing the pirate had feelings for her, she began to like her.

Arthur couldn't understand why, but there was nothing he could do but wait for their date to be over. He had the mind to meet with Ma and visit the marchioness for their official business, but he was reluctant to leave the princess with the pirate.

'Why am I being childish?' Arthur shook his head. 'Dia is an adult, not a kid that needs to be supervised. Heck, even the lord of this city couldn't match up to her strength.'

For Demis, genetics was the deciding factor for strength, nothing else. As he understood from their conversations, Dia was called a princess because her mother was the heiress of the Eistar Family.

That was before she died, but Dia never explained how she died, only that she was murdered. As to who or how those details remained sealed within the princess's heart.

That's why Arthur wasn't worried about her safety, but this posed these questions: what was he worried about then? Why did Diana's expression unease him so greatly? What could he have said that made things different, or the right answer?

'Don't go out with the pirate?'

Arthur couldn't even imagine himself saying it. He was never a possessive person, and that might be his flaw. People would think they were indifferent to him just because he wasn't selfish about keeping them.

But he couldn't be selfish, even if he wanted to. There was an end he was walking to, and it didn't include any of the people he met in Alka. There was a picture with many faces in his mind that he missed greatly and planned to meet again, but none of Alka's people were in it.

Because none of this was real, it was the past. He was from a different timeline, and his family was still back on Earth. His friends were also there, just as Dia's family and friends were here.

Arthur pulled back his hair, and a hairband appeared in his hand. As he tied his long hair into a ponytail, he realized how much time has gone since he last cut it. There was no helping it as his power of creation made his hair grow faster than before. His missing arm made the process quite annoying, so he used his spiritual energy.

Arthur stood up from his spot as he decided to meet with Ma. Taking one final look at the princess's location, he disappeared from his spot.

There was a mansion that they agreed to stay at, and Arthur knew of its location. He teleported into the mansion's ground, appearing in front of Ma and Big Bear, who were sitting around worriedly.

"Ah!" Ma jumped back in his chair, that it fell backward, but the chair stopped before it struck the ground. Ma was suspended midair before Arthur pulled him back using his energy.

"Don't be so easily startled, as that's no quality of a manager." Arthur smiled as he pulled a chair to sit in. The two people stood up to greet him, but he simply waved it off. "I'm sorry for being late."

"Did you kidnap anyone, Seika?" Big Bear asked with expectation, and it seems that Ma was hooked by the idea as well. Arthur stared at the bandit silently, wondering what the hell these people thought of him.

"Sadly, no one caught my eye. However, I hired a captain for our ship fleet. They will be back together soon, so make sure to receive them properly. What are the arrangements with the marchioness?"

"The Maritime Marchioness expects our arrival today, but the meeting can take place in a few days. Should I send someone to arrange the date and time?"

"No need," Arthur shook his head as he stood up. "I've delayed things quite a bit. Let's head out immediately. Make sure to leave people to receive Dia and the pirate."

"Ah, a pirate?" Ma was confused, but Arthur was already walking out of the room. The two followed after him as he gave orders to prepare the carriages for them to leave.

"Don't fret over the details when you have an ex-bandit next to you," Arthur smiled as the carriages were prepared in front of him. "Let's see what the marchioness demands for her cooperation."

"Yes!" Ma was ecstatic about Arthur's sudden urge to handle matters, and he gathered many files about the current affairs of Aquamia.

They boarded the carriage as Arthur began reading the files quickly. He took a look at them before, but he wanted to make sure that he gleans an idea of what the marchioness would propose.

Dia told him that the Lords of the cities gathered in a festival the other day, and there was a strong chance that it was because of him. If he guessed right, then the marchioness wouldn't make things easy for him.