After the Hunter Exam ended, Abaki did not leave Ronin's team.
Maybe she had developed an interest in exploration. Or maybe she had lost interest in performing. Either way, for the time being, she joined Ronin's group.
When Ronin contacted Hisoka, he had once mentioned Abaki. Hisoka's response had been silence.
Ronin didn't know whether Hisoka wanted to see Abaki again, but Abaki herself had begun looking forward to it.
Ronin felt that Abaki might have certain feelings toward Hisoka, but he also felt that, in all likelihood, those feelings would go nowhere.
If Hisoka really were going to feel something for someone, the first person who came to Ronin's mind was Machi of the Phantom Troupe.
But the way those two got along was more like friends. There was no sign of it developing in a romantic direction, though their vibes did feel strangely compatible.
And if one wanted to think in a more slashy direction, then there was Illumi and Chrollo.
Ronin tossed those messy thoughts out of his head. After returning to the ruins, he received a piece of good news.
Though in truth, he had already expected it.
Someone had unearthed a stone tablet in the ruins that recorded the history of the Kurta Clan. According to the inscription on the tablet, the Kurta Clan had come from the Dark Continent.
This wasn't actually unique to the Kurta Clan. All human races currently living within the range of Lake Mobius were like this.
What was truly surprising was that, according to the tablet, the Kurta Clan had split at the time.
One faction followed the direction their ancestors had taken and came to the region within Lake Mobius, choosing to settle there.
The other faction went in the opposite direction, deeper into the Dark Continent. They wanted to find a new homeland there.
The ruins Ronin and the others were currently exploring had been left behind by the ancestors of the Kurta Clan who came into Lake Mobius.
However, during that migration, the Kurta Clan's group had encountered several crises. From the voyage to their arrival on the continent, many clan members either vanished into the vast sea or chose to break away from the group and go elsewhere.
Only one large branch finally reached the Mahawi Ruins and built a new settlement there.
At the end of the stone tablet, some events that took place on the land of the Kingdom of Aite were also recorded.
At that time, the kingdom had not yet been founded, and the land was overrun by many dangerous species.
The Kurta Clan had been forced to relocate underground. Among those dangerous species were the Chimera Ants.
The Kurta Clan sealed the Chimera Ants inside the underground cave. On one hand, it was to balance the four forces of the giant tree, the giant serpent, the Chimera Ants, and the spiders. On the other hand, it was also to find the Chimera Ants' weakness and eventually wipe out the colonies occupying the surface.
Every year, the warriors chosen through the ritual would confirm the situation inside the cave, then release large numbers of fire-fearing monsters and charge out of the underground with them.
But even until the Kurta Clan's extinction, the Chimera Ant colonies on the surface had not been destroyed.
Kurapika found historical documents from the Kingdom of Aite and studied them, only to discover that the Kingdom of Aite had been founded three hundred years ago.
Before that, there were very few records about this land.
However, in some materials obtained from Kakin, they discovered that five hundred years ago, this land had still been considered a forbidden zone. Not only did Chimera Ants live there, but there was also another kind of creature capable of keeping the Chimera Ants in check.
Then, for some unknown reason, the two dangerous species living there both disappeared. Humans gradually became able to set foot on this land and eventually founded a new country there.
There were very few records about the disappearance of those dangerous creatures.
But Ronin, who understood the habits of Chimera Ants, developed a question.
The location of the Kingdom of Aite was so close to Kakin, and Kakin had already been founded over a thousand years ago. It had long since been an extremely powerful country.
So why hadn't the Chimera Ants expanded their territory and invaded Kakin?
Several questions all pointed toward Kakin.
This ancient and mysterious country—who knew how many secrets it had hidden over the past thousand years?
And with every new discovery, Ronin became increasingly cautious toward that ancient nation.
Then there was Beyond, who had spent decades laying plans in Kakin. What exactly was his goal? Was it really as simple as going to the Dark Continent?
In March, Kurapika took the initiative to find Ronin and said, "The investigation into Kakin has stalled."
Since last year, Kurapika had been conducting a strict investigation into Kakin.
After all, Kakin's Fourth Prince was the person who possessed the largest number of Scarlet Eyes.
This investigation had changed slightly this year. It had expanded from Kakin itself to the countries near Kakin, and gradually, Kurapika discovered something thought-provoking.
Among the small countries near Kakin, aside from those founded relatively late, such as the Kingdom of Aite, the rest had all experienced national collapse at some point over the past thousand years.
And many of those countries' territories had once been famous dangerous zones hundreds of years ago.
But no matter how dangerous the outside world became, none of that danger ever affected Kakin in the slightest. Kakin merely guarded its own land and never expanded outward even a little.
That country's map had been fixed in place for a thousand years.
And once the investigation reached this point, when Kurapika tried to dig deeper, he discovered that his investigation would always circle back to the starting point.
"It's like there's some unseen force," Kurapika said. "It lets me investigate and discover some strange information, but that discovery itself feels like a trigger condition. Once I find the problem, everything I investigate afterward can no longer go any deeper.
"Whether it's the people doing the investigation or me organizing the intelligence, all we can do is push the information back to the conclusion that something is wrong. But as for what exactly is wrong, we can't infer anything."
Kurapika laid out all of his feelings and thoughts.
And the only thought that came to Ronin's mind was: Nen ability.
There was a Nen ability preventing people from investigating Kakin.
"It's Nen."
"Yes. It's Nen." Kurapika smiled bitterly. "If we can't find a way to block this Nen, then we may never be able to uncover Kakin's core problem or its secrets."
"Then what if we enter Kakin and investigate from inside?" Ronin suggested.
"I sent people into Kakin," Kurapika said seriously. "Some of them disappeared. And the ones who came back weren't able to provide me with any useful clues."
The meaning behind those words was already clear.
"Looks like if we want to figure out what's really going on with Kakin, we'll have to enter Kakin ourselves and investigate," Ronin concluded. "But that exploration will probably carry a certain amount of danger."
"Yes." Kurapika nodded. "Also, I think the Phantom Troupe may enter Kakin as well."
"When do we leave?" Ronin moved his wrist a little.
He was already getting impatient.