Hera quickly defended herself: "No, how could I think that? Listen to my sophis—no, listen to my explanation..."
"Baccarat was clearly just joking, you all heard it, right? I have no intention of bringing her onto our Argo; I'm very selective about every Crew member."
Hancock immediately turned into a fangirl upon hearing this, her eyes sparkling with hearts: "Oh, the Captain says her targets for recruitment are very selective. Doesn't that mean, in a roundabout way, she's confessing to this mistress?"
Hearing Hera's words, the others also turned their gazes toward her, their eyes filled with tenderness and the shy flush of embarrassment.
Seeing the looks around her becoming increasingly strange—with the bolder ones like Reiju and Hancock looking at her with eyes that seemed to pull silk threads of affection, and even the Nine-Tails appearing behind Hancock—
She quickly waved her hands, breaking the subtle atmosphere that shrouded the room.
Although Hera had already experienced fighting two enemies at once, and had even fought the three Hancock sisters in a daze, fighting seven at once was simply too many, no matter how you looked at it.
Hera didn't want to face the Doku Doku no Mi, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and two spirits all at once; that would truly be the death of a spirit.
The others, snapping out of it, immediately blushed. They weren't quite sure why they suddenly felt such desire, and could only blame it on Hera's ubiquitous charm.
Perona, coming to her senses, her face instantly turning red, continued: "Hmph, to ensure no one sneaks into your room here,"
"someone must sleep with you every night. I'll start by supervising you first."
Hera was about to say her willpower wasn't that fragile, but seeing Perona's intense gaze, she swallowed her words and nodded.
Perona finally became happy, already starting to look forward to tonight's events.
Additionally, thinking of the look in Hera's eyes when she watched the dancing girls, Perona seemed to make a decision. She picked up the intercom on the table and said something to Baccarat.
After a while, Baccarat knocked on the door and entered the room. She first looked at Hera, who was surrounded in the middle, and then handed a mysterious package to Perona.
Perona quickly tucked the package away, as if afraid of being seen by others.
Everyone else tactfully pretended not to know what was inside. Only Theseus looked at Perona with a face full of confusion; the simple ship spirit didn't quite understand what there was to hide about clothes.
However, Theseus's question was stuffed back into her mouth by a cake handed over by Ain. The sweet delicacy immediately occupied Theseus's mouth, making her throw her previous doubt to the back of her mind.
Everyone present was a master of Observation Haki; they had all discovered that bold piece of clothing. However, no one spoke up. Instead, they were all conceptualizing in their minds what they should wear when it was their turn.
A new song caused the distracted group to shift their attention back to the performing banquet. As the familiar melody rang out, Hera looked toward the center of the stage:
"This song... how do you know this song? Is Uta here too?"
What was playing now was none other than Uta's famous song, "New Era." Hera hadn't expected to hear this song here.
Hearing Hera's strong reaction, Baccarat realized that Hera's relationship with Uta might be unusual and quickly explained:
"It was once when I went to deliver goods; half of a batch of visual den den mushi was lost. Then, this song came from one of those transponder snail."
"Please rest assured, we have contacted the author of this song, Miss Uta, and she has agreed to our use and promotion. We also credit Miss Uta when using it."
"Coming to this sea area this time was to find Miss Uta, ideally to persuade her to join us, or to discuss deeper cooperation."
Hearing this, Hera finally nodded and smiled. The oppressive atmosphere in the room was instantly relieved by Hera's smile.
"That's good. I'm also here to find Uta. Cooperation is fine, but forget about joining you. Uta has a path more suitable for her to walk."
Baccarat immediately nodded and breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that her boss had handled this matter well. Otherwise, her intuition would have been screaming warnings just now.
Only now did Baccarat recognize another side of Hera. The momentary pressure just now made her realize that the little girl before her was also a powerhouse famous for her brutality on the seas.
The atmosphere in the room returned to its original relaxation as Hera's aura dissipated, but Ain still caught the key point of Hera's words.
"Oh? Someone just said they were very selective about the people they invited onto the ship, and now you've already slated the next person to come aboard? What 'more suitable path'? I think you just want to kidnap her onto the ship."
Nami toyed with the nail clippers in her hand, examining her manicured nails before saying, "It seems one person a night can no longer satisfy the Captain."
Hera felt goosebumps rising all over her body and quickly explained, "Uta is different. I've known her since we were kids, and an acquaintance asked me to take care of her."
Kuina heard this and said resentfully, "Oh, so according to you, we're the latecomers?"
Hera quickly said, "No, no, where did you all learn such talk?"
Then she saw the copy of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' in Theseus's hand and instantly found the culprit. She snatched the book directly from Theseus's hand.
After glancing at the content and seeing it matched her memory, she asked with a look of astonishment:
"Where did you find this book? Can this thing even appear in the Pirate World?"
Theseus said, "I discovered it in your memories. Back when I was still a ship, I would occasionally see these things in the City of Devouring Time, so I wrote them down."
Then, she pulled out several other books. Hera looked through them one by one: 'Journey to the West', 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms', 'Empresses in the Palace'... the author's signature below all of them read 'Theseus' in large characters.
"Then I put all the books I wrote in the Argo's Library. The sisters all quite enjoy reading them."
Baccarat, standing nearby, became curious about the book in Theseus's hand. After a few glances, she was deeply attracted by the content, feeling a sense of 'I don't quite get it but it seems amazing.'
"Although I don't quite understand it, I feel like this book is really impressive."
Hera looked at the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' in Baccarat's hand, her lip twitching slightly. In this world of simple folk, was change finally coming?"}],
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