Acquaintance X Farewell

The person who emerged from the branches, leaves, and undergrowth was a woman in a tight black dress.

Her skin was somewhat dark, and she had a slim, delicate figure, yet her upper body was lush and alluring, carrying a hint of seductive charm.

Walking through a remote mountain forest dressed like that was abnormal in itself.

But since she was also a Nen user, it was not quite so strange.

Moro looked at the woman who had suddenly appeared. As his body tensed, his aura surged and fluctuated.

However, when he clearly saw her clothing and her face—with its broad exposed forehead and large vertical pupils—Moro relaxed slightly.

He recognized her identity—

Gale, the Snake of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs.

Moro guessed that she had been drawn here by the gunshots.

Standing on the hillside with her arms crossed, Gale calmly appraised Moro.

Their gazes met in midair. One was appraising, while the other held surprise mixed with vigilance.

It seemed...

Under these circumstances, Moro's naked body was instead something normal and not worth paying attention to.

Gale's gaze lightly swept over the aura around Moro's body. Compared to before, his aura was obviously much more relaxed.

But the shift from tension to relaxation had happened too quickly, making it somewhat unusual.

Gale shifted her gaze and looked at the cargo truck with its rear doors open, as well as the two corpses on the ground.

Only then did she look back at Moro and say flatly, "Do you think my threat level is lower than that one's?"

As she spoke, she extended a finger and meaningfully pointed at the dead Zazan on the ground.

"Quite the opposite."

Although Moro remained wary, the sense of crisis in his heart had already faded considerably.

He had initially thought Gale had been drawn over by the gunshots, but now it seemed she had arrived before that.

The noise she made when appearing had probably been deliberate as well.

"If you meant to harm me, you wouldn't have deliberately made a sound to warn me just now."

Moro raised his head and looked calmly at Gale on the hillside.

Even so, he had still prepared himself to attack or defend at any moment.

Although he knew he could not make much of a splash before one of the Twelve Zodiacs, he would not surrender without a fight.

Even if he became a corpse, he would make some waves first.

Hearing Moro's answer, Gale inconspicuously glanced at his right hand, wreathed in aura. Her expression remained calm. Without saying anything else, she lightly leaped down from the hillside and landed on the mountain road.

Without a word, she walked toward the cargo truck.

Naturally, this shortened the distance between her and Moro.

Moro had placed himself at an absolute disadvantage from the beginning, so when he saw Gale approaching, he could not help feeling pressured.

As a transmigrator, his impression of the Hunter Association was not so elevated that he viewed them as righteous figures responsible for solving every sort of problem...

But aside from certain individuals, he did not think the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs were the type to casually disregard human lives.

However—

Not everyone could be as genuine inside and out as Gon.

So it was hardly strange that Moro felt pressured.

Gale seemed to sense the change in Moro's emotions. She slowly stopped walking and no longer encroached upon his mental space.

She had only applied a little pressure because she saw that Moro's words did not match his true feelings.

But treating a rookie who was most likely not a criminal like that did seem a bit excessive upon reflection.

Gale lightly shook her head and turned sideways toward the cargo truck.

From where she stood, she could already clearly see the rows of cages inside the truck, as well as the naked children imprisoned within them.

Naked—this characteristic...

At that thought, Gale involuntarily glanced over Moro's body and basically confirmed his role in this matter.

Moro had no reaction to Gale's scrutiny.

It was not because he had any exhibitionist tendencies. He simply felt that such a trivial matter was not worth letting his emotions fluctuate over.

Yet Gale's earlier glance, coupled with her utterly impassive expression, instead caused Moro to unconsciously recall certain things.

When Molena had bought him and he woke up aboard the airship, she had looked over his body in the same manner.

"Your luck is quite good. You survived that kind of chaos without losing any limbs, so I paid to buy you."

Molena's expression at the time had been exactly like Gale's now.

But Molena had made a move that made Moro very uncomfortable at the time. She casually grabbed his private parts, then said in a tone completely devoid of emotion:

"If you were a girl, I probably would have been more satisfied."

That tone and gesture had made it seem as though she might twist them off at any moment.

That had been Moro's first encounter with Molena.

In Moro's eyes, that woman never hid the scar running across more than half her face. Perhaps because of that, she also seemed never to hide some of her strange thoughts around him and Dog Brother.

But after nearly a year together, Moro still had not managed to understand what kind of person Molena truly was.

Perhaps it was also because...

From the very beginning, he had unilaterally pinned the label "antisocial personality" on Molena.

"You really trust me, don't you?"

Gale's calm voice came from beside his ear. Moro's heart tightened, and as his expression changed slightly, he could not help reflecting on his earlier foolish mistake.

When Gale saw a trace of frustration flash through Moro's eyes, she suddenly became somewhat interested.

From their brief contact, she could tell that Moro was someone with very high standards for himself.

And once someone like that crossed the threshold into Nen ability, his future abilities would certainly not be lacking.

If her desire for the Two-Star Hunter title had not been so low, she might have been willing to invest some time and effort in Moro.

"Gale, Professional Hunter."

Gale fixed her gaze on Moro and introduced herself first.

"Nice to meet you. Just call me Moro."

Moro gave his name as well.

Gale nodded lightly and asked, "Tell me what happened. I might be able to help a little."

"..."

Moro fell silent upon hearing that, but he soon began recounting the entire situation.

However, he did not mention the psychiatric hospital the cargo truck had been headed for.

In this matter, he was merely a piglet that had not yet been sent to the "slaughterhouse." Saying less and doing less was the most rational choice.

After hearing Moro's account, Gale roughly understood the situation and directly classified it as human trafficking.

At the same time, she showed no curiosity or pressed questions about Moro knowing Nen ability, nor did she care about his finishing blow against the middle-aged man.

She had come to this area only to collect venom from a poisonous snake that had recently been added to the species database.

Running into this affair was nothing more than an insignificant accident.

If she could do a good deed in passing, she was certainly willing to do so.

But she had no interest in getting deeply involved.

Gale's indifferent attitude was exactly what Moro wanted to see.

"Sister Galu, I'll leave them... to you."

Seeing that Gale was willing to help settle the piglets in the truck, Moro relaxed considerably.

Now that he had made changes with his own hands, these piglets...

Perhaps they could live properly from now on.

Gale nodded. To her, this was only a phone call and nothing worth mentioning.

Moro smiled faintly. Then, under Gale's watchful gaze, he took the barely suitable clothes from the two corpses.

Afterward, he searched Zazan and the others for their wallets, took out the money inside, and did not forget to take the handgun as well.

Throughout the entire process, Gale neither asked nor said anything, merely watching from the side.

After putting away the handgun, Moro prepared to leave.

"Thank you."

He solemnly thanked Gale.

Without Gale, he would probably have been troubled over how to settle the piglets in the truck.

Gale raised her chin slightly at his words.

Seeing that, Moro turned and left.

Yet as he departed, he could not help glancing in the direction the cargo truck had originally been traveling.

By this time, had Molena and Dog Brother already arrived at the psychiatric hospital?

Moro did not know.

Now, standing at the crossroads of fate with memories of the future, he had no intention of walking the old road again.

Though their paths had not yet crossed, this was farewell...

Molena.

Moro thought to himself, then stepped onto the opposite path without hesitation.

Behind him.

Gale watched Moro leave. Only after he had vanished from sight did she take out her phone and make a call, resolving the placement issue for the piglets in the truck.

She finished the call quickly. Standing beside the cargo truck, Gale suddenly noticed that a surveillance camera had been installed inside the open cab.

Since waiting around was boring anyway, she entered the cab and, after a few operations, played back the footage recorded earlier.

A moment later.

As she watched the footage from inside the truck, Gale's snake-like vertical pupils slowly contracted, revealing an incredulous gleam.