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 meet like this again…!"
Since it would still take time to escort Hancock and the others to Amazon Lily, I decided to handle this first.
I arranged a meeting with Stella—we'd been living separately ever since I became a wanted woman—and brought Tesoro to her.
He must have been counting the minutes.
Even though we arrived well before the appointed time, Stella was already there… and the moment she saw Tesoro, a tearful smile bloomed 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 something for strangers' ears, so we moved to a private room at a restaurant I'd reserved beforehand. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere safe.
"Seriously… thank you so much, Sue," Stella said again after they'd finally calmed 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 me.
But I meant 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 someone had forced the words out of me.
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 something 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 something else I've been thinking about."
"Something 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 came 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 somehow, against all odds, they became 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 meet again, they were assigned to different places. Torn apart deliberately.
Now, somehow, 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 same thought:
If only I'd had the money back then, I could've saved her immediately.
If only I'd forced it—scraped it together by any means 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 something 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 something 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 someone I love because I didn't have the means. That's why… I'm going to start earning money. I've still got some skills from back when I was… no good. I'll use them. Stella, I want you to come with me… 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 remember 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 remembered.
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 someone who cared about me that deeply. Someone willing to go that far for me."
"..."
"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 meaning to. I've seen it so many times. And honestly… I'm not some perfect person either."
"You?" Tesoro blurted. "No. That's not—"
"I've been through things," Stella said quietly. "Before I met 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 moment. "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 came to save us. And I knew why."
Then she exhaled, and the tension in her shoulders eased.
"That's why… when you treated me 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 me."
Her smile trembled, but it held.
"I can't tell you what that meant to me. So, Tesoro…"
She met 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 time—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 me from now on…"
She paused.
Then, softly:
"I want to be with you. Even someone like me… will you spend the rest of your life with me?"
What did Tesoro say?
Do I even need to tell you?
A man five years older than me 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 time today.
Good for you both.
May you be happy together for a long, long time.
To be continued...