@Cennekie Well he was distracted by the various emotions going through his head while dealing with Julia, and he did end up noticing just a bit late, which, given how the pirates can slip past an entire major port's detection systems, might even be a feat in itself.
@Xix I mean, it's not like love at first sight isn't an impossible thing, especially since it's a bit of a cliche used by many stories. As for the confession, by that point the pirates had supposedly gotten away so it was still up to Ike to decide if he wanted to take the deal of taking down the pirates and marrying Julia to establish a trade route or not (actually wondering how that pirate managed to get out to see with Sita so quickly, maybe they have access to some kind of teleportation magic? 🤔 )