"I'm hungry." He flopped back into his chair, put on his sunglasses, and drawled lazily.
"I'll prepare something for you right away!" Maro sprang to his feet, not even bothering to wipe the blood from his head as he rushed to get started.
"…" The King's three Royal Guards couldn't help but feel a strange sense of déjà vu as they looked at Maro.
It was… oddly familiar.
They suddenly realized—they acted just like that in front of the King.
So...
This guy… actually treats that damn human like a King?
"Feels like we're not that easy to kill…" Cyr rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
The strength of the King's three Royal Guards—and his own strength—meant that entering the Dark Continent wasn't an issue. After all, they were top-tier combat power even by human world standards.
Unless every creature in the Dark Continent was stronger than a Peak-Posthuman Netero… but was that even possible?
Based on Cyr's guess, the danger of the Dark Continent likely came from the bizarre abilities of those creatures. Their raw power was secondary.
Just like how battles between Nen users often turned on conditions and strategy. Upsets happened all the time.
If you couldn't figure out how an ability was triggered or how to counter it, you'd be caught off guard during a fight—and die without ever understanding what happened.
You might not even know how you died.
But they hadn't even reached the Dark Continent yet—this was just the open sea.
There was likely still a long journey ahead before they arrived.
"From now on, stay sharp. If you run into any of your kind, make sure to greet them properly. Let them know we're on the same side…" Cyr said to the three Ants.
"…We don't know them, nya," Neferpitou replied, tail swaying.
But no one responded to her. Shaiapouf and Youpi had grown more calculating now, each quietly scheming in their own way.
If the King didn't exist, the three of them would never have banded together.
They were Royal Guards born for the King—without the King, they had no reason to exist.
After sailing a bit further, the color of the surrounding water visibly changed.
What had been the deep blue of the sea was now a pale, almost translucent green beneath the ship.
It looked like… lake water.
All rivers ultimately flow into the sea, but at the end of the sea… could there be a lake even larger than the ocean?
Could that even be possible?
"…Say, what if the sea we know… isn't actually a sea?" Cyr stared at the color of the water beneath them, raising a brow as if questioning the others—or perhaps just musing aloud.
The expanse of this "sea" was so vast, even his Six Eyes hadn't picked up anything odd.
After all, the sea was supposed to be vast and mysterious—home to many strange and wondrous things.
But… what if the ocean they believed in was actually just a massive, incomprehensible lake?
"…It's really huge…" Cyr recalled the shape of the world map and couldn't help but mutter in awe.
If all the human continents were actually situated around a lake… then that lake was ridiculously, impossibly large.
"If it's not the sea, then what else could it be?" Shaiapouf asked back, his narrow golden eyes filled with calculation.
Could this human be thinking…?
No, that's impossible. Or… is it?
The fact that the Queen came from a world far broader than the human one—that much was true.
Which meant this human's suspicion might actually be correct…
"Nanika, the Queen, the twins…" Cyr began brainstorming aloud.
"The Zoldyck family's pet…" He remembered the dragon that old man Zeno and Netero had ridden when they assaulted the Ant palace.
That creature clearly came from the Dark Continent too.
And Nanika also came from there. But… why possess Alluka? Why the Zoldycks?
Was it because someone from the Zoldyck family had been to the Dark Continent, and Nanika followed them back? Or—
Was Nanika intentionally brought back by one of them? But if it was on purpose… then why imprison and contain her afterward?
Could it be that the person who brought Nanika back didn't actually want to—but had to?
A gain must be met with a price… perhaps bringing Nanika out was the price someone from the Zoldyck family had to pay for leaving the Dark Continent.
That flying dragon, too—was that also a cost? If so… then maybe the Zoldyck family has ventured into the Dark Continent more than once.
"But how did the Queen end up here…?" Cyr frowned in puzzlement again.
It was said that the Queen appeared heavily wounded, likely being hunted down. She initially hid and developed on a small island out of fear of being discovered…
And those two siblings had only wanted to capture her—not kill her. They even helped her later. The Queen didn't avoid them either.
If the siblings were really the ones hunting her, then once they decided to observe her, she wouldn't have needed to hide any longer. But she still chose NGL as her nest. That meant… she was still afraid of being discovered by someone.
So we can rule out the siblings as her pursuers.
Then what if… the one who tried to kill the Queen was actually the same person who brought her into the human world in the first place?
A sudden idea flashed in Cyr's mind.
Just like how the Zoldycks brought Nanika back but were forced to imprison her once she possessed one of their own children.
If someone else had no choice but to bring the Queen back—only to decide she had to be eliminated once in the human world… that theory made a lot of sense, didn't it?
And what about the sheep siblings? Were they brought here too? Or was it something else entirely?
"If I'd known, I shouldn't have let them escape back then. Could've used them as guides…" Cyr muttered under his breath.
Those two had vanished quickly after the King was captured—never reappearing near Cyr again.
For humans to enter the Dark Continent…
They'd probably need someone familiar with it to lead them, right?
Though it's unclear how many people have been there and returned alive, there must be a few.
Suddenly, the calm, pale green surface of the sea began to bubble, white foam rising in tight clusters.
The bubbles merged and grew until, before everyone's eyes, several massive beings made of water took shape—like skeletal slime creatures.
At a glance, their faces even resembled those of mythical aliens.
Each stood tens of meters tall, with only two hollow holes where their eyes should be—no mouth, no nose, no limbs. Just an oval-shaped form.
"Dululuuu—"
"Dululuuu—"
Though they had no mouths and made no visible movement, their bodies emitted a low, bubbling noise, like boiling water.
It sounded like… some kind of communication frequency.
When they saw that Cyr and the others didn't respond, the creatures began to surround the ship.
°°°
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