The woman stood quietly under the pale glow of the shop lights, her beauty almost out of place in such a grim setting. She wore a light blue off-shoulder dress, the color soft and gentle, like the calm surface of the sea. Her golden hair fell over her shoulders in shimmering waves, and despite the heavy iron collar at her throat, she smiled faintly as if she had long accepted her fate.
"Bring her out. I want a closer look."
Hilbert Black's calm voice broke the silence.
The auction owner, who had been kneeling anxiously at the door, scrambled to obey. He darted inside, moments later dragging the woman out by the arm. Together, they knelt before Hilbert, heads bowed so low their foreheads nearly touched the marble floor.
"What's your name?" Hilbert asked quietly.
The woman kept her head down, her voice soft, almost trembling.
"My name is Stella, my lord."
"Stella," Hilbert repeated slowly, as if tasting the name. Then realization flickered in his eyes.
He remembered her.
Stella wasn't a famous figure in the world's history only a fleeting memory from one of the One Piece theatrical stories, a tragedy shown through flashbacks. Yet, for some reason, she had left a lasting mark in his mind.
In that story, a young man named Gild Tesoro had fallen in love with Stella through music. Desperate to free her from the hands of a slave trader, Tesoro worked himself to exhaustion, saving every last coin. But just as he was about to buy her freedom, a Celestial Dragon appeared arrogant, untouchable and purchased her instead.
The rest of the story was written in cruelty.
The Celestial Dragon treated Stella as property, subjecting her to torment and humiliation until she died within three short years. On her deathbed, she had smiled and whispered to Tesoro, "I was happy because you existed."
That one line had shattered Tesoro's world. It was the moment that turned him into the man known later as the Golden Emperor, a ruler of wealth whose fortune covered one-fifth of the world's economy.
But for Hilbert, the memory of Stella wasn't tied to pity or sorrow. It was the image that had stayed with him the haunting beauty immortalized in a painting.
In that masterpiece, Stella stood by the shore wearing a flowing blue dress that rippled like waves. Her skin was pale, almost translucent. Her golden hair caught the wind, streaked with the warm glow of sunset, as though brushed with amber light.
A chain collar encircled her neck, the leash held by a Celestial Dragon's unseen hand. The collar pressed lightly into her throat, yet her lips curved into a fragile, serene smile. Her eyes were half-closed, as if murmuring a prayer or perhaps just feeling the whisper of the wind.
There was no hatred in her expression, only a strange, sacred calm, as though pain and humiliation had lost all meaning.
The memory had shaken Hilbert deeply. Even now, the emotion it stirred the contradiction of grace in despair remained etched in his mind.
The real Stella before him looked just as the painting had captured her: calm, distant, beautiful.
"This slave will do," Hilbert said finally. "I'll take her."
He gestured lightly, and one of his maids stepped forward to handle the transaction. The shop owner's eyes glowed with greed as he hurried to discuss the price, nearly tripping over himself in excitement. To be associated with a Celestial Dragon in any capacity was an opportunity beyond imagination.
"Remove her collar," Hilbert ordered.
One of the CP agents drew a blade of pure energy and sliced cleanly through the metal. The collar clattered to the ground.
Despite how Cipher Pol agents were often portrayed as background figures, Hilbert knew better. Each one was a carefully chosen prodigy trained killers whose strength could rival pirates with bounties over a hundred million. The only reason they seemed insignificant was because they often stood beside monsters.
To walk away from Sabaody with Stella was an unexpected gain. Hilbert decided that once night fell, he would return to Mariejois.
He had no illusions about how the world viewed the Celestial Dragons. Until his strength reached the level of an elite Vice Admiral, he had no intention of wandering freely across the seas. Only once he reached that level would he feel secure.
After all, at that point, only the Emperors of the Sea or the Seven Warlords could pose a real threat and those people were far too pragmatic to risk everything for vengeance.
As The Sanctum sailed away from the Sabaody Archipelago, the events unfolding behind him went unnoticed.
In Area 16, a young man named Tesoro stood before the slave shop's glass window, frozen in disbelief. The spot where Stella once stood was now occupied by another slave.
"Congratulations, Ralph," someone sneered beside him. "Didn't think your shop's merchandise was so impressive that a Celestial Dragon would show up in person!"
The shop owner, Ralph, chuckled smugly. "Oh, you flatter me. Just a stroke of luck, I suppose."
Tesoro's heart sank like a stone. He rushed forward, grabbing Ralph by the collar, his voice breaking.
"Where is she? Where's Stella?"
Ralph recoiled, startled, then his face twisted with fury. How dare a lowly commoner touch him humiliate him in front of others!
"Guards! Seize him!" he bellowed.
A group of burly enforcers surged forward, slamming Tesoro to the ground. Ralph planted his boot on the boy's head.
"You want to know where that girl went? Fine. She was bought by a Celestial Dragon a god among men! Someone like you can't even imagine their greatness. But don't worry," he sneered, "you'll get to feel what it's like to be a slave soon enough. Take him away!"
Even without meeting a Celestial Dragon directly, Tesoro's fate had already been sealed.
Fate, it seemed, was cruelly poetic.
Hilbert, by then, had already returned to Mariejois, blissfully unaware of the tragedy unfolding below and even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.
His past life had stripped him of sentimental illusions. "Mind your own business, and let others face their own storms" that was his creed.
He knew his empathy was weaker than most people's, but that was precisely what allowed him to adapt so quickly to his life as a Celestial Dragon.
He had never planned to change the world. In his mind, it didn't need changing only reordering.
"This world doesn't need a savior," he murmured to himself that night. "It just needs a new king."
Back at his mansion, the maids branded Stella with the mark of the Celestial Dragons the hoof-shaped symbol of their dominion while Hilbert dined and watched dancers perform to soft music.
He found Stella intriguing.
In this world, most people around him were faceless extras, nameless NPCs in a story he already knew. To meet a character with history and name someone like Stella was a rarity worth observing.
Still, he would give her time. Beneath her calm expression, he knew she must be terrified. Best to let her adjust before he approached her personally.
Hilbert was not like the other Celestial Dragons at least, not yet. Torturing others for sport held no appeal to him.
After dinner, he walked in the courtyard for a while, stretching his limbs under the warm evening air. He instructed his guards to let the newly purchased mermaid stay in the pool for now and to summon craftsmen to build a grand aquarium later.
He suspected that mermaids would not be a rarity in his estate for long.
When all preparations were complete, Hilbert finally retired to his chambers. He lay back on the bed, staring at the gilded ceiling.
A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"System," he whispered. "Activate."