Chapter 53

Kurt's problem is very difficult for me.

I'm not the type to be easily moved, but even so, I was still touched when Kurt showed such a side to me.

How should I answer him?

This is the problem I can't handle the most.

Of all the people I know, none of them are really serious about these guys; everyone's just joking around and getting by.

I can't think of an answer.

So I could only remain silent.

...

During lunch that day, I suddenly remembered it again—so I asked that question again.

"No one has contacted you yet..." I said, "No matter how you explain it, it's just too much."

I know I'm not that important, but surely no one cares about me at all?

That's really frustrating.

Kurt's eyes flickered.

“Actually,” he said haltingly, “it’s not entirely without… my older brother…”

"Stop—" Hearing that address gave me a headache, so I quickly interrupted him.

"With such beautiful weather, let's not talk about Illumi!" I declared confidently.

Kurt: "...Hmm."

He must have listened to what he said.

Anyway, we never talked about that annoying guy again after that.

And because of what happened this morning, my attitude towards him has improved a lot.

The restaurant was broadcasting a news channel live.

Footage of a horrific building was broadcast, showing half of it reduced to rubble and the other half bearing charred black marks.

"Was there an explosion?" I wondered, staring at the channel screen.

Kurt glanced at it and quickly made a judgment.

“No,” he said, “it was the brigade that did it.”

“Hmm,” I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows, “So… they found their enemy even when we weren’t around.”

“Perhaps,” Kurt said. “As you’ve seen, they’re wary of my identity and haven’t told me the details of the plan.”

“Anyway,” I realized, “we’re still in the same city, right?”

Kote nodded.

“Then,” I asked, “why haven’t I run into them yet? This city isn’t very big, is it?”

“I avoided the Phantom Troupe’s area of ​​operation,” Kurt said frankly, without hiding anything.

He took out his phone, tapped on the screen, and then handed it to me.

I glanced down and saw a map.

“Their area of ​​activity should be around here,” Kurt continued, “while we’re in another circle.”

Before I could even offer my opinion, Kurt subtly and deliberately gestured to indicate another area:

"Killua and the others are over here."

...What is this, a test?

"Oh," I replied indifferently.

Too lazy to think about his response or whether he was satisfied, I avoided all topics related to Killua and said:

"So we actually have a route for shopping... You're quite impressive in that respect."

It wasn't a particularly clever compliment, but Kurt still showed a hint of pleasure.

“As a Zoldyck,” he said, trying hard to hide his joy, “it’s only right.”

I gave a perfunctory smile and offered no comment.

"Can I have your phone?"

Then I asked.

He readily let go.

“You’re really not worried,” I couldn’t help but say to him.

“If Sister Lei insists on leaving, I can’t stop her no matter who she asks for help,” he said.

That's true.

I thought about it for a moment, then decided to stop talking and start fiddling with my phone.

As the head of a massive intelligence trading organization, the mother organized a unique method of intelligence trading.

She gathered all available intelligence reports that weren't too serious, hired different technicians in batches to incorporate them into a program library, and set up an intelligence trading button on the website. If someone wanted to inquire about this relatively insignificant intelligence, they could directly query it through the website system after paying a special amount.

More crucial intelligence was encrypted layer by layer and stored in a system database accessible only to my mother. Even more important intelligence existed only on paper, locked in my mother's safe. Then there was the most critical and unique intelligence, residing in her mind.

Milluki, at my urging, jokingly tried to hack into our family website, but the result was not ideal. This is not an ordinary website; my mother organized many Nen users to protect it.

but……

I am, after all, her daughter.

Even if she didn't give me my account password and permission to log in to the website, I could still guess the password she usually preferred.

Based on this impression, I easily opened the Adrian family website on Kurt's phone and browsed it openly.

I am looking at the map information of this city.

My mother's intelligence website would mark a lot of interesting things, such as what kind of special trading place a certain place was, or whose territory a certain place was, and so on.

...But none of that matters.

Right now, I just want to find some places to eat, drink, and have fun.

"Ah...look at this!" After flipping through the pages for a while, I quickly found what I was looking for. "An underground aquarium! Not only can you see special aquatic monsters, but you can also go fishing! Their fishing spot is located in the city's underground river...How about that! Sounds interesting, right?"

Kurt looked puzzled:

"...Don't make that face." I had to explain in detail, "We've already spent the whole day on the floor and the whole day lying on the grass in the park. We can't keep doing that tomorrow, can we? Or are you planning to find a different place tomorrow and let us lie down in the square?"

Kurt felt wronged: "No, I didn't intend to do that."

“If not, just come with me!” I said decisively. “We’ll go after this meal! Not every place has the chance to see rare aquatic monsters.”

Kurt was dragged away by me without really understanding what was going on.

We arrived at the special aquarium, known as the "Dark Underground Underwater World." Just like the description on my family's information website, it indeed housed many strange and rare magical beasts. If those magical beast hunters saw it, they would definitely be kicking themselves.

"You don't seem to be afraid of fish," I casually remarked to Killua after seeing the ugly fish that looked like a lizard in the tank. "Killua is terrified of fish... Although he always pretends to be tough and refuses to admit it, his expression always turns strange whenever he sees a fish."

“But Illumi isn’t afraid of fish…” I added maliciously, “After all, his eyes often look just like these fish! I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes look so much like fish eyes!”

"Um..." Kurt stammered in response, his expression suggesting he was racking his brains for a line to say in response, but ultimately failed.

He asked, "And what about me?"

I didn't immediately understand what he meant: "Ah..."

you

What?

"What does Sister Lei think is the connection between me and fish...?" he added, asking the question.

My mind went blank for a moment.

That's a great question, I have absolutely no idea how to answer it.

He clearly has nothing to do with fish—but saying that seems to confirm the sad fact that he is ignored.

"Hmm..." So I pretended to ponder for a while, then put on a smile and said, "Kurt... Kurt is the first person to come with me to see the special magical fish!"

Kurt: "..."

This answer seemed to have surprised him; his expression changed, and he became thoughtful.

I'm not sure if it was a good expression or a bad expression.

The most urgent task is to interrupt his thoughts immediately.

“You really are the first one,” I said to him, trying to create a special atmosphere. “That’s great, Kurt. Thank you. You’re awesome.”

This trick was surprisingly effective. Kurt quickly stopped looking thoughtful and raised his fan to cover half of his face.

“Is that so…” he said, “I see…”

“Yes!” I praised him enthusiastically without reservation, and then said, “So I have another plan to go to the amusement park at night. Why don’t you come with me?”

"Aren't you going fishing anymore?" he asked. "Didn't you just say..."

“No need,” I waved my hand, “I’ve already caught a big one.”

Kurt: ""

Me: "It's you—"

he:"……!"

...

After making a ruckus for a while, we left the dark aquarium and headed towards the amusement park.

“This amusement park is quite dangerous.” On the way, I told him this. “The website says that since it was built, several tourists have died… Although the owner later settled these matters with money, there are still some rumors that there may be terrible ghosts lingering in certain places of the amusement park, and unlucky tourists who encounter these ghosts will be cursed.”

Kurt has started to catch up with my jumping around in my thoughts.

"So we're going to go find ghosts?" he asked.

But his guess was still a bit off.

“No,” I said, “we’re going to find the curse—”

Ghosts may not exist, but curses certainly do exist in the world of Nen!

And so, we changed our destination and headed towards the amusement park.

Having just looked at the map, I knew the route perfectly. I led the way, and this time, Kurt obediently followed behind me like a good boy.

It's rare for us to feel like "siblings"; normally we're like bitter enemies, constantly on guard against each other.

"Have you written down the route?" Kurt asked.

I responded, "No, I memorized half of it, and the other half relied on techniques."

He was curious about "what technique".

"It's too complicated to explain—but if I had to put it simply, it's similar to the intuition or experience you accumulate from doing a lot of tasks," I said dismissively.

Kurt: "Oh."

After chatting intermittently for a while, making small talk, we finally arrived at our destination.

Today seems to be a workday... After all, I have the support of the Adrian family, so I don't need to work, and therefore I always lose track of what day of the week it is.

In short, the amusement park doesn't seem to have many people, and it's hard to explain this phenomenon outside of weekdays.

Fortunately, we finished queuing quickly and entered the amusement park.

"This is my first time here..." Looking at the wide variety of attractions, I couldn't help but sigh, "Because this identity is so easily manipulated, I've never been allowed to go to open places where crowds gather since I was a child."

Most of my vacation time is spent at Zoldyck House.

"Has Kurt been here?" I asked.

He nodded.

I opened my eyes wide in surprise.

He immediately added, "I came here because I was on a mission."

Me: "...Okay. Let's just kill time and have some fun today."

Anyway, Kalluto earns a decent amount of money from missions each quarter. While it can't compare to Illumi's workaholic lifestyle, it's more than enough to cover his expenses.

It's just two people playing a game together; it's not like they're going to book the entire amusement park.

Even so, I still splurged and bought tickets for every attraction except the Ferris wheel and the carousel.

The reason the carousel was excluded is:

"It's so slow, it's boring to watch."

The Ferris wheel is:

"When Milluki was too busy and dumped me on Illumi for training, I was already flying high enough, I didn't need to go any higher."

Kurt, on the other hand, went with the flow, acting completely indifferent, as if he was just there to keep me company.

Pirate ship, drop tower, roller coaster... After riding a bunch of random "thrilling rides," I didn't feel much of a change in my heart rate. On the contrary, my eardrums almost got knocked out by the people around me.

"It wasn't fun at all." After getting off the bumper cars, I sat on a bench by the amusement park and concluded listlessly, "Everyone was shouting so loudly and looking so happy, but it felt like they were just joining in the fun."

"That's probably exciting enough for them," Kurt said casually.

I sighed, “What’s the point of crashing these strollers? When I was kidnapped, our driver rammed the kidnapper straight into the bay—and another time it caused a landslide. Although no one was injured except the kidnappers, the Adrian family almost made the national news and got a public reprimand…”

However, the matter was later resolved by the mother.

She always finds a way to overcome any difficulty.

Even though I hate her, I have to admit that she is very capable.

Kurt shook his fan and remained silent.

"Ah, there's a video game console over there," I noticed the sign at the turn ahead, "Let's go play that!"

Kurt's fan was forced to close again.

Arriving at the game console, I was eager to try it out. Looking back, I saw Kurt's expression was very subtle—like a kitten tentatively reaching out to its prey, he slightly extended his hand and fiddled with the buttons.

Me: "You've never played this before, have you...?"

His expression was still subtle, and then he answered me that he didn't.

Me: "But Killua and Milluki both love playing this game, and Illumi sometimes plays with me when he's bored."

Kurt fell silent.

He's always like this; he becomes unusually silent whether he's happy or unhappy.

I realized that I seemed to have said something I shouldn't have.

“Perfect,” I said, forcefully changing the subject, “They’ve all been corrupted by me, now it’s your turn—come on, let’s play a few rounds and you’ll understand!”

This statement should have had some effect, because Kurt's expression improved slightly.

But overall, it still presents a resistant body language that asks, "What is this?", "Who am I?", and "I don't like this thing at all."

This is the first time I've ever seen someone intensely controlling a game character, dominating the battlefield, while simultaneously leaning back with all their might, keeping as far away from the game screen as possible.

And this guy has a bad habit.

Even though they could easily kill me with one blow once they got the hang of it, they would always deliberately pause suddenly, pretending that the machine was not smooth, and revealing a few flaws.

Just when I thought my chance to turn the tables had come and I was struggling to make ends meet, he easily overturned all my advantages in a few moves and knocked my character to the ground.

How awful!

They really are Zoldycks!

It's even more suffocating than the terrifying sense of oppression that Illumi had, where victory seemed impossible!

After losing the third game in a row, I fully realized the difference in skill level between myself and Kurt.

"I'm not playing anymore!" So I decisively gave up, "I can't win if I keep playing."

He withdrew his hands from the buttons.

I'm a little annoyed—

This anger couldn't be easily dispelled, so I brushed the hair that had fallen in front of my chest aside, trying to let myself get some fresh air and cool down.

However, the effect was limited.

So I turned to Kurt and said, "I think I saw ice cream on the way here. Go and buy me a chocolate one."

Kurt obediently stood up immediately, and I thought his next step was to turn around and leave... so I casually took out my phone (Kurt's, which I had requisitioned). Unexpectedly, as soon as I unlocked the screen and before I could even browse the feed, I saw Kurt pause and let his gaze linger on the game console for a moment.

Goodness gracious.

He was staring at the machine with such disdain just now; I thought he really hated playing games.

But when it was time to leave, they showed such reluctance to part.

It's really baffling.

“Go ahead,” I said, coldly lowering my head, “we’ll play later—”

Buy my ice cream first!

Kurt then left.

Without my companions... but there weren't many people in the arcade anyway, so I continued sitting in front of the arcade machine, looking at my phone, when suddenly the phone rang.

It was a call from an unknown number without a name in the contact list.

The call request was sent from the other side of the mainland...

Who is this?

It has nothing to do with me.

I yawned, waiting for the bell to stop ringing.

However, one call after another followed, the caller relentlessly persisting... After countless attempts, I finally lost my patience and answered the phone.

A familiar voice came from the other end of the receiver.

"Are you with Rey?" Illumi's tone was decisive. "You and Killua rarely go out together...is it because of Rey?"

I immediately planned to hang up the phone.

However, at that moment, Illumi seemed to sense something, and his tone changed:

"Lei"

At the same time, I heard a loud bang, like a cannon exploding—

At the same time yesterday, I heard a similar sound, and today the news channel reported on a building that had been bombed and was in ruins. Kurt said it was the Phantom Troupe's doing.

Without thinking twice, or perhaps because I was too eager to escape from Illumi's voice, I hung up the phone, jumped up from my chair, and ran towards the sound, even though it didn't seem very close to me.

I ran with all my might, not knowing how long I ran, before I finally came to my senses, braced myself on my knees, and gasped for breath.

The next moment, a golden light emerged from somewhere and flashed past me in the distance.

I opened my eyes wide.

...I met him.

I just happened to run into them.

That figure seemed to be Kurapika, whom the Phantom Troupe was searching for.

Is this fate?

Forgetting Kalmod and Illumi for the time being, I strained my eyes to look into the distance and vaguely saw what appeared to be members of the Phantom Troupe emerging, following closely behind the golden figure.

Now I'm sure of it; my guess was right.

map……!

In an instant, I activated all my memory cells, trying hard to recall where I was right now, where they were, the direction we were heading, and what kind of terrain and buildings we were facing...

Which path should I take to intercept Kurapika while avoiding the Phantom Troupe?

I tried my best to use my brain.

Never before have I felt so proud of my little trick for memorizing information—

Thanks to this, I don't need to open my phone, click on a webpage, or search for information, wasting extra time; instead, I can directly recall the most suitable route.

After slightly adjusting my position and locking onto the direction of my route, I started sprinting. There were many shortcuts, and after going around four or five small paths, I saw that unfamiliar yet familiar face again.

Kurapika, a friend I only spent a few days with, seemed to be seriously injured. He was covered in blood, and his once healthy pale pink lips were now much paler. He dragged his injured body as he ran, his speed undiminished, but his posture was very disheveled and clumsy.

I reached out and grabbed him without any hesitation.

He was surprised for a moment, and tried to resist, but stopped when our eyes met:

"you--"

“This is not the time to talk,” I interrupted him quickly, glancing hastily behind him. “They’ll be here soon… Come with me.”

The blond youth obediently let me pull him into the alley, through a narrow, old shop, into the residential area, and into a dark carport.

I never expected that the records on the "map" would come in handy. I jumped up and down excitedly. This was the first time I had accomplished something on my own.

...Although I utilized my mother's intelligence network, roughly speaking, I could say I relied solely on my own strength.

“Wait here for a bit,” I said in a low voice. “Trust me, the Phantom Troupe isn’t stupid. The path they’re taking to chase you will only lead you into a narrow corner with nowhere to escape. Rather than showing your face and letting them drive you into a trap, it’s better to stay here for a while.”

"How do you know?" He frowned, his expression cold, as if he didn't quite believe me.

I didn't know how to describe it, so I said weakly, "Because... I know Kuroro. Trust me, I won't lie to you."

Of course, if you put yourself in his shoes and think from his perspective, you'll easily realize that believing me isn't a trustworthy option.

But I had a strange feeling that he would relent and choose to believe me.

Sure enough, after counting a few numbers in my head, before I even got to ten, I heard him say "...".

No, wait... He hadn't finished speaking! He had only uttered one syllable!

The slender, elongated body swayed for a moment after uttering a brief, indistinct syllable, then collapsed headfirst—

I reached out and caught him.

The young man, who was a section taller than me, was actually incredibly light, weighing less than the barbell I used for training in elementary school.

I held him up, not knowing what to do with him. The shed was dark and the air was so damp it felt like the oxygen was filled with moss.

He was injured, and the environment here is not suitable for him to recover.

I carefully pushed the door open a crack, leaned him against the wall and put him down, and quickly did some first aid... This is another practical skill I learned in the Zoldyck survival training program.

But that's not enough. The Phantom Troupe is lurking outside, and Illumi seems to have already noticed my whereabouts. Although Kalluto has seemed well-behaved these past few days, he is still the dark child from Kukuroo Mountain at heart. If Illumi beckons, he will abandon me without a second thought.

It's rare for me to get out and have some freedom these past two days, and it's also rare for me to start trying to experience what it's like to be happy like an ordinary person in this free atmosphere, like going shopping, visiting the aquarium, going to the amusement park... I had originally planned to go to the ice skating rink tomorrow.

We must not let Illumi catch us.

I don't want to see Kuroro again.

Although I had only met the blond young man beside me by chance, he seemed to have a different feel from the people around me.

I want to save him in this desperate situation.

We need to think of a way to save them.

The door to the bike shed was closed again. I guarded against every possible opportunity to expose myself and the young man's whereabouts, while racking my brains to figure out what to do next.

...That's strange.

As I was thinking, I suddenly realized that this was indeed the first time I had completely abandoned external forces and relied solely on myself to think and act.

So this is what freedom and independence mean.

Moreover, I also possess the corresponding abilities.

The best proof of my abilities is that this young man, who should have been captured by Kuroro, is lying safely and unharmed in front of me.

...I was the one who saved him, and now I'm even thinking about how to further rescue him.

I actually have this ability.

A crack quietly appeared in my old worldview, and I was stunned.

In the past, no one needed my help, and no one expected me to accomplish anything. For example, the marriage my mother arranged for me was something that both she and I knew in our hearts was more about the title of "Adrian" than about my own existence.

But now, my existence has begun to have a special meaning.

My sense of self no longer depends solely on the name "Adrian" or this physical advantage that is not entirely my own, but rather on myself.

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Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!