Oboro said goodbye to Gon and the others before he left.
He boarded the spaceship to the Kakin Empire. His mission this time was simple: to help the Fells family's honeypot, King Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's lover, secure a path to the throne.
The Kakin royal family had a total of eight Queens: Unma, Duazul, Tubeppa, Seiko, Tang Zhao Li, Seiko, Oito, and Swinko-Swinko. Among them, Unma was the mother of the First Prince and the Fourth Prince. Duazul had given birth to the Second, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Princes. Tubeppa was the mother of the Third Prince, while Seiko had given birth to the Sixth Prince.
Tang Zhao Li was the mother of the Eighth Prince, while Seiko had given birth to the Tenth and Eleventh Princes. Swinko-Swinko was the mother of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Princes.
The final Fourteenth Prince, the one Kurapika would later protect aboard the Black Whale, was yet to be born. His mother would be Oito, the youngest queen of the Kakin royal family. Currently, it would be more than a year before the Kakin Empire would announce its expedition to the Dark Continent.
Oboro mentally reviewed what he knew about the thirteen existing princes.
First Prince Benjamin had a domineering personality, privately described as "arrogant" by his siblings. As an assistant advisor in the Royal Legion, he controlled considerable military power, which explained his later use of private soldiers to "protect" the other princes aboard the Black Whale.
Benjamin was the first prince to discover Nen and recognize the coming struggle for succession. He had already begun to build his own army of Nen users.
Oboro's assessment of him was simple: brave, but not wise. While Benjamin had excellent physical skills and some understanding of Nen, his thinking was one-dimensional and clouded by arrogance. Despite sharing a mother with the Fourth Prince Tserriednich, Benjamin despised his younger brother and eagerly awaited the chance to eliminate him; the feeling was mutual.
Second Prince Camilla was extraordinarily self-centered, described by other princes as greedy. Unlike Benjamin, who dreamed of using Kakin's military might to force the world into submission, Camilla's ambition was to control the entire world herself. The difference was subtle, but significant.
Both Benjamin and Camilla shared expansionist ambitions for the Kakin Empire, which dovetailed perfectly with the purpose of the War of Succession ceremony.
Third Prince Zhang Lei presented himself as mature and diplomatic. He excelled at building relationships and alliances, approaching people and situations with an apparent peacefulness. However, the Fifth Prince had called him "extremely flamboyant," suggesting that his true nature was different from his carefully crafted appearance.
Interestingly, Zhang Lei had some connection to Onior, the leader of the Cha-R family mafia in Kakin. In the original timeline, Zhang Lei had addressed Onior as "Father" when they first met. Onior himself was a complex character with a distinctive facial scar, and happened to be King Nasubi's half-brother.
The prince who made the strongest impression on Oboro was Fourth Prince Tserriednich. A twisted pervert who collected human body parts while maintaining a facade of literary sophistication, Tserriednich might be considered the most disturbing character in the entire Hunter × Hunter universe, worse even than the Phantom Troupe.
But what really got Oboro's attention was Tserriednich's terrifying talent for Nen. In the future timeline aboard the Black Whale, he would awaken his Nen abilities with only a brief explanation, demonstrating extraordinarily precise control. Most remarkably, he would grasp the concept of "Zetsu" in less than half a day, possibly within an hour.
What kind of monstrous talent was this? Even Oboro and Hisoka were nowhere near that level. Tserriednich was a true monster.
As for the other lords, Oboro didn't have a particularly strong impression of them, they seemed unremarkable in comparison. The only exception was the yet unborn Fourteenth Prince, from whom Kurapika would later sense an ominously dark aura.
Oboro sat by the window of the ship's cabin, mentally cycling through information about the royal family, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the table. "Which one should I choose?" he murmured.
Queen Oito had only recently married into the royal family, so Nasubi wouldn't be taking another wife anytime soon. The most practical approach would be to eliminate one of the existing queens, thus creating a vacancy.
As for Kakin's planned expedition to the Dark Continent and his ploy to pressure the V5, Oboro felt little interest. He already had his own means of reaching the Dark Continent without relying on Kakin's resources. His interest in Kakin stemmed purely from its national strength and the possibility of infiltrating the Fells family's influence into the royal bloodline.
As for assassinating Nasubi himself, that would be unrealistic.
Two people had probably anticipated his arrival in Kakin: Beyond Netero and Pariston Hill.
Although the earlier international press conference had been cut short, it had attracted enough public attention that many people must have witnessed it. The media had reported extensively on both the Kuroshio incident and the emerging tensions between various nations and the V5. Given Oboro's underworld connections, the truth wouldn't be hard to piece together.
"Beyond," Oboro whispered the name.
Though no longer young by normal standards, Beyond was entering his twilight years, but he remained formidable. As the son of Isaac Netero, he maintained an exceptional physical condition despite his age. After all, his father had lived well over a hundred years in peak fighting form.
Several days later, Oboro arrived at the capital of the Kakin Empire. Stepping out of the spaceship, he was immediately struck by the extraordinary wealth and power of the nation.
The terminal alone was built on a grand, majestic scale, towering structures stretching over an absurdly vast area. Toward the horizon, the city's skyline bristled with sleek, imposing buildings. This was truly a global metropolis, the most modern and prosperous place Oboro had encountered in his travels across several continents.
He hadn't visited the capitals of the V5 superpowers yet, so he couldn't compare them to Kakin's splendor.
As he left the terminal, a Mafia vehicle was waiting for him. The local boss bowed respectfully to Oboro and opened the car door.
Oboro intended to keep a low profile this time, avoiding unnecessary attention. The Fells family didn't completely control Kakin's criminal underworld, but they wielded considerable influence. With the Ten Dons dead, the various factions had been thrown into turmoil, competing fiercely for the Dons' former assets. Publicly, these gangs still recognized the Dons as their leaders, but privately, they were pursuing their own agendas.
"My lord," the driver reported, "the Ninth Prince is already waiting at your hotel."
"Hmm," Oboro replied with a noncommittal grunt.
Previously, when Ninth Prince Halkenburg had assumed one of the Dons' positions in Yorknew City, he hadn't even been willing to record a congratulatory message. Now he was "condescending" to meet with Oboro in person, clear evidence that the Fells family's standing had changed significantly. Halkenburg understood the high-stakes game between the Fells family and the V5, as well as their campaign to unify the underworld.
The fact that the Fells family remained untouched meant that even the V5 now feared them.
As the Fells family's secret patron, Halkenburg naturally approached the meeting with appropriate gravity.
To describe his presence as "condescension" wasn't an exaggeration in Halkenburg's eyes; criminal organizations remained second-rate powers. Moreover, the Ninth Prince was fundamentally righteous and upright, and disliked entanglements with morally ambiguous forces, especially the Mafia.
It was his girlfriend who had persuaded him to come.
In the original timeline, Halkenburg had been disgusted by the War of Succession, finding the brutal competition for the throne unnecessarily cruel. To prevent his siblings from slaughtering each other, he had even prepared to assassinate his own father, though he ultimately failed and received a harsh rebuke from Nasubi.
His dissatisfaction with Kakin's royal policies had won him supporters both at home and abroad. His character was easy to discern from these facts.
Halkenburg was also exceptional in his academic and personal achievements. He had earned degrees from prestigious universities and excelled in numerous world-class competitions. Of all the princes, he stood out as the most principled and humane.
After a short drive, Oboro stepped out of the car and into one of the capital's most exclusive establishments. He took the elevator to the penthouse suite and emerged to find several expressionless, black-clad bodyguards stationed in the corridor, soldiers from the Ninth Prince's personal security detail.
The royal guards had been watching Oboro from the moment he entered the hotel, so they didn't interrogate him. They simply checked him for weapons before opening the door.
In the main room of the suite sat a man and a woman. The man wore a gray-brown suit with a green tie, his appearance unremarkable but dignified. The woman was beautiful and elegantly dressed.
When she saw Oboro, the woman started, then quickly rose and bowed deeply to him.
As an agent of the Fells, one of their "honeypots," she dared not show disrespect.
Her deference made Halkenburg frown. He stood and studied Oboro, who wore sunglasses and looked nothing like a stereotypical gangster. "Are you the boss of the Fells family?" he asked, skepticism in his voice.
"I am," Oboro replied, coming to a stop. He smiled slightly, his eyes glancing leisurely over Halkenburg's figure.
"Can you really represent the entire Fells family?" Halkenburg pressed.
Oboro looked at the woman and smiled. "Your attitude speaks for itself."
"Very well," Halkenburg said. "I'll be direct. I'm not here to discuss cooperation or business with you. Frankly, I have no interest in what you're proposing. I simply want you to release Sana and give her her freedom."
The Ninth Prince's expression was deadly serious.
Sana was the woman's name.
"You are quite in love," Oboro remarked, taking off his sunglasses and twirling them idly in his hand.
Halkenburg already knew that Sana had approached him with ulterior motives, sent by the Fells family. But instead of becoming angry or rejecting her, he tried to free her from the family's control.
This was true love.
"Why?" Oboro asked. "You want to marry her?" He stretched lazily and sat down on the sofa. "Would your father approve? Even if the king doesn't object, your mother, the queen, wouldn't allow such a woman in her presence."
"Those concerns are mine," Halkenburg replied firmly. "Just let her go."
"Why should I?" Oboro countered.
"Because you should," Halkenburg replied simply.
Oboro laughed. "Do you realize how much I've invested in her? The Fells family spent considerable time and resources cultivating her qualities specifically to seduce you. She seems to have done an exceptional job; I'm quite pleased with her performance."
His words were deliberately blunt, without any attempt at euphemism.
"Everything requires equal value in exchange," Oboro continued. "Even the purchase of a bottle of water costs money."
"What do you want?" Halkenburg's expression hardened.
"That," Oboro said with a predatory smile, "depends on how much you're willing to pay for your woman."