Izunavi quickly stepped in to introduce her. "This is Queen Oito, the Eighth Queen of the Kakin Royal Family. She'll be staying with us for now."
Then, he began introducing everyone else to Queen Oito. But when he got to Shizuku, just like Tokarine earlier, he stumbled a little.
Who is this woman? And why is she even here?
Tokarine chuckled cheerfully. "She's Shizuku. One of the freelance Hunters helping out Germain's group. Bisky told me she's trustworthy, so that's good enough for me."
Bisky nodded enthusiastically, then high-fived Tokarine like two energetic teenage girls.
Shizuku nodded along too, her expression saying, "Yup, she's right. You can trust her."
Queen Oito politely nodded to everyone in turn.
If it were any of the other Queens, they might have fussed over proper formality or status.
But she came from a poor background, so she wasn't too caught up in things like that.
More importantly, her safety now depended entirely on this group of professional and part-time Hunters. She wasn't stupid enough to offend them.
At that moment, Germain finally stood up from beside the corpse of the bloodthirsty beast and walked over.
This time, it was Kurapika—who had recovered a bit—who reintroduced Izunavi and Queen Oito.
"No need for introductions," Izunavi said seriously, stepping forward in his black martial arts uniform. He gave Germain a small bow.
"We've met before. Thank you for saving our lives earlier."
Germain immediately recognized him—one of the examiners from his Hunter Exam back then. "Don't mention it. We ran into each other, so of course I had to help."
Izunavi still expressed his gratitude, speaking earnestly that he would remember this favor and surely repay it one day.
Kurapika and Queen Oito also offered their thanks to Germain.
As he felt the life that had been preserved in his body, and watched his shriveled skin slowly regain color and vitality from the rice ball Germain handed him...
He couldn't help but recall everything—Germain had taught him Nen, helped him on his path to avenge the Phantom Troupe...
So many acts of kindness piled together—how could he possibly repay them all?
Kurapika didn't dwell too much on it. In the end, he simply smiled with quiet relief.
Repaying it little by little is enough, he thought to himself.
Germain asked Kurapika, Izunavi, and Queen Oito how much they knew about the chaos that had erupted, and whether they knew the whereabouts of the others.
Kurapika and Izunavi explained that due to BW1's five-layered semi-sealed structure, the members of the Hunter Association's exploration team weren't all together.
The two of them had stayed temporarily on the first layer due to official duties.
When the chaos broke out, they were unable to contact the rest of the team on the second layer, so they took it upon themselves to defend the passageways between the first and second layers from the invading monsters.
Eventually, the creatures forced open several pathways from the first layer to the second, and even stormed their way into the third.
Unlike the panicked passengers who fled in every direction, Kurapika and Izunavi had gone against the tide.
They had tried to reach the source of the disturbance deep within the first layer—to see what had really happened, and perhaps save a few people along the way.
But the monsters were too many—too fierce.
Sensing the danger, Kurapika and Izunavi chose instead to save Queen Oito and began their harrowing journey of escape.
After the wreckage of BW1 washed ashore, they followed the surge of people into the night of the imagined continent, only to be scattered in all directions.
Soon after, the three of them were attacked by two monsters, which brought them to their current situation.
Queen Oito didn't have much information to offer either.
At the time, everyone on the first layer had been celebrating the birth of the Kakin Empire's royal heir, yet the celebration only made her feel sick to her stomach.
She couldn't understand this ruthless battle for the throne, which was based on killing one's own family.
Nor could she understand why everyone seemed so happy about it.
So many princes had already died. Some didn't even want to join the fight for the throne — they just wanted to survive. Yet they too died unnatural deaths.
For two months, Queen Oito had watched coldly from the sidelines, feeling a secret chill of fear.
Luckily, she wasn't yet pregnant. If her child — like the thirteenth prince's child, a young boy — was caught in the battle and killed, she knew she would suffer deeply.
In short, while everyone else celebrated, she made an excuse of feeling unwell and left the party early.
She hid alone in her room, sighing quietly.
Suddenly, she heard a loud explosion.
Terrified, she turned pale and jumped out of bed. She hurried to the front door and asked the guards what had happened.
But the guards were just as confused.
Soon after, chaos erupted. Monsters attacked. The guards rushed to save her.
After that, all the guards sacrificed themselves. She was rescued by Kurapika and Izunavi.
As for the other members of the Hunter Association's exploration team, Kurapika and the others didn't know their whereabouts.
The only important detail was that before the chaos broke out, Kurapika, Izunavi, Tokarine, Queen Oito, and Steiner all heard a massive explosion. It came from the first level.
Queen Oito was on the first level. She heard it most clearly and confirmed the explosion definitely happened on the yacht called "Ship in the Lake."
Germain, who was close enough, could hear Queen Oito's thoughts and confirmed she was telling the truth.
So, the explosion and the center of the chaos must be where the thirteen coffins were — also the place where Germain and the others teleported to.
It seemed their information was still insufficient.
Just as Germain was about to ask more questions, he suddenly sensed something and turned around.
"What is it?" Ging asked, noticing Germain's alertness. He also turned to look.
"Something is flying towards us," Germain said. Everyone immediately went on guard, preparing to fight.
"But there's no sign of life... It should be some kind of mechanical creature..."
Everyone waited in confusion for a while, and finally, the "mechanical creature" that Germain mentioned appeared.
To Germain, it looked like a large golden flying insect, but its shell blended into the darkness of the night with black, and its eyes were mechanical red.
It fluttered its tiny wings rapidly, like a hummingbird, and flew right in front of everyone, its mechanical red eye flashing.
Soon, the mechanical flying ball began a new movement.
It spun and danced up, down, left, and right, tracing a path that looked exactly like a horizontal figure "8."
Germain and Kin exchanged a glance and quickly realized three things.
First, the mechanical flying ball was imitating the "figure-eight dance" of bees, pointing out the direction and distance to a certain location.
Second, the path of the "figure-eight dance" could also be interpreted as a "Möbius strip."
The "Möbius strip" is the current route marker for the ancient labyrinth outpost.
This was a hint — it meant the sender was very close to them.
Third, after careful observation, Germain and Ging basically recognized that this mechanical creature came from Greed Island.
They now clearly understood who the sender was.
*******
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