"I was a man of comfort. Do you understand what that means?"
Leo sat on the floor, his voice calm, almost detached. "It means I lived a life where hunger was a myth. My existence was more comfortable than ninety-nine percent of the people on this blue sea. I did a bit of light work, read the news, and spent my days cursing the government or lamenting minor inconveniences. I didn't exploit anyone, nor was I exploited. I simply possessed an abundance of resources and time—wasting the very things others would sell their souls to obtain."
Hancock watched him from behind the curtain. His words felt alien, yet they reminded her of the opulent, sickening decadence she had witnessed at the Sabaody Archipelago. Perhaps the officials of the World Government and the families of the Marines in Mariejois lived such hollow, cushioned lives.
"And then," Leo continued, "I caught the eye of a Celestial Dragon."
He reached out, casually dragging a plush cushion from the nearby bed and sliding it under himself. He settled onto it, refusing to sit on the cold stone floor. This display of casualness made Hancock's brow twitch with irritation.
She leaned back, and in a blur of motion, a massive pink-patterned serpent slithered from behind the curtain. It coiled its thick body into a makeshift throne, allowing the Empress to sit in regal comfort.
Leo's pulse quickened. He recognized the serpent from the legends of the Kuja, but seeing it was different. It was massive—twice his length—and its speed was terrifying. He hadn't even seen it move; it had simply appeared.
The elite power of this world was far more overwhelming than he had anticipated.
He let out a soft, dry chuckle. "As a former slave, you should know the truth, shouldn't you? There are always those among the captives who find a way to please the masters. Someone like me... and someone like you."
The temperature in the room plummeted. For Hancock, her time in captivity was a jagged scar, a taboo never to be touched. But this man spoke as if he had already made peace with death, stripping away the pretenses she used to shield herself.
Perhaps it was their shared history, or perhaps it was because they were shielded from the world by these curtains, but she didn't strike him down. She remained silent, listening with a cold, hollow expression. Somewhere deep inside, a chord of resonance was struck—the grim recognition between two survivors of the same hell.
She would never admit it, but his words gave voice to a feeling she had buried under layers of stone.
"Because of that, our treatment was... slightly different," Leo said. "We were 'slightly' more free. And that 'slight' freedom gave me my chance."
He looked at his hands. "I never dared to eat a Devil Fruit. They are too easy to counter. Sea-Prism Stone would leave me paralyzed, and I knew that if the time ever came, I needed to be able to dive into the sea to escape."
"I played the role of the favorite courtier perfectly. At times, I even fooled myself into thinking it wasn't so bad. Compared to the commoners in the four blues, I didn't have to fear pirates or the extortion of corrupt Marines. I didn't have to train or fight. I lived better than most of the world. I thought I could just... keep going like that."
Hancock let out a cold, mocking sneer from behind the veil. She had been the most beautiful among the slaves, but she had seen the fate of those who were not. If not for her protection and her constant pleading, her sisters would have been discarded or separated long ago.
The "affection" of a Celestial Dragon was a fleeting, hollow thing. They were like children whose attention spans were shorter than their cruelty. They had favored her for her beauty, grown bored, and then forced the sisters to eat Devil Fruits just to see what kind of "entertainment" would result.
And then, they had grown bored again.
Leo's previous mindset was pathetically naive—a desperate form of self-deception born in the depths of hell.
"But," Leo's face suddenly contorted, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his knees, "I lost their trust. And then..."
He didn't finish the sentence, but the veins bulging on his hands spoke of a memory that was anything but pleasant.
Hancock didn't feel joy at his suffering. Instead, she felt a phantom pain of her own. She remembered the transition from being a 'treasure' to being discarded like used trash.
The moment of pain passed, leaving Leo's gaze sharpened and filled with a cold, hard resolve. His foolish illusions were gone, replaced by a will to fight.
"I escaped. I drifted until I reached this island, and I found you." He looked up, his eyes burning with an intensity that differed from the lustful gazes of the men she usually turned to stone. There was a spark of something else in his eyes—a shared fire.
"The Warlords," Hancock said after a long silence. "Tell me what they are."
"The Seven Warlords of the Sea," Leo smiled, "is a system I heard the Celestial Dragons discussing with the World Government."
"Since the death of the Pirate King, Gold Roger, the seas have become too chaotic for the Marines to control. They've devised a plan to recruit the most powerful pirates to act as their 'hunting dogs.' Pirates to hunt other pirates. It is their grand strategy."
Hancock scoffed. "Who would ever agree to be a dog for the World Government? They've lost their minds."
"But what if the price of being a 'dog' is the total withdrawal of your bounty?" Leo leaned forward, holding up one finger at a time. "What if you were granted the right to pillage legally? What if your territory was recognized as a sovereign nation, immune to Marine intervention?"
Hancock's expression shifted. The arrogance remained, but her eyes narrowed in calculation.
"So what?" she countered, crossing her arms. "My kingdom lies within the Calm Belt. Do you think I fear a Marine invasion? Their conditions hold no allure for me!"
"That would be true," Leo said, raising a fourth finger, his smile widening as he felt the thrill of his first move on the board. "But what if the World Government has already developed warships capable of navigating the Calm Belt without the need for wind?"
The Empress froze.
Silence reclaimed the room as she processed the weight of that intelligence. The Calm Belt was the shield that allowed Amazon Lily to survive in isolation. If the Navy could cross it at will, the Kuja would no longer be safe. They would be forced to choose: submission, or total annihilation.
There was no third way.