In response to Amos's soul-searching question, Kisho didn't answer. Instead, he shot back unhappily:
"Why did you say 'again' again?"
"Hey!"
Amos's face darkened. "Can you be a little serious? Instead of asking me why I said 'again,' maybe you should ask yourself?"
Kisho pondered seriously for a long time, then nodded with a grave expression.
Amos: "...Got an idea?"
Kisho said profoundly, "Handsome people always face more prejudice and more setbacks."
Amos: "...You should just go die already."
"Hahahahaha~"
Seeing Amos's dark expression, Kisho burst into delighted laughter.
After laughing, he finally grew a bit more serious.
"When I was fighting that Candidate No.140, I heard a strange harp sound."
He continued, "But that No.140 candidate didn't seem like he heard anything. Unless there's something wrong with his ears, or his acting is just incredibly good."
Amos stared at Kisho, fell silent for a moment, then said lightly:
"To fool you, it doesn't actually take very good acting."
Kisho: "...?"
Kisho: "I don't quite get what you mean, but I feel like there's something behind your words. And that you're subtly insulting me."
Amos punched Kisho lightly on the shoulder.
"Not bad. You're not completely hopeless."
Kisho: "..."
"Forget it, let's drop that—look at the patterns on the wall."
Kisho pointed at the gap left in the wall after Candidate No.140 pulled out his curved blade, as well as the strange runes that had been damaged by that missing piece.
Amos glanced at it and murmured, "I feel like I've seen this kind of pattern in more than one place."
Kisho: "Do you remember where you saw them?"
"You'll know once we look."
Amos raised the comic book in his hand. "Back in Trick Tower, I drew everyone except C·L."
"You are awesome!"
Kisho offered his praise without hesitation, then added curiously, "But why didn't you draw C·L?"
Amos: "..."
There was clearly some personal emotion mixed into his answer.
"He's too handsome. I was too embarrassed to draw him. Satisfied?"
What left him even more speechless was that Kisho believed him.
Kisho nodded and patted Amos on the shoulder comfortingly.
"It's okay. I think when you grow up, you'll probably be more handsome than him."
Amos replied politely, "...Thank you. You too."
After saying that, the two of them simultaneously made exaggerated gagging expressions.
"Ahem. Let's get back to business."
Unwilling to continue hurting each other, Kisho decisively ended it.
"Let's start with Candidate No.29, the first one who entered."
Amos nodded.
When he activated his Nen ability, his pupils turned into a deep, dark purple.
Moments later, as if an invisible hand held an invisible pen, panels began appearing one after another inside the comic book in Amos's hands.
"If it's something the 'Protagonist' caught from the corner of their eye, even if they don't consciously remember it, it will still appear in my comic."
Amos said seriously, "But if something appears behind the 'Protagonist,' with my current ability, I still can't manifest it in the comic."
"That's more than enough," Kisho said.
In a corner of the ruins, the two boys sat there doing something completely out of place in the middle of an exam: reading comics.
They went through them one by one.
After removing the overlapping paths the candidates had taken, Amos sketched a map of the first half of the underground secret realm on another sheet of paper.
Like nested squares layered one inside another, his earlier evaluation of the ruins as "like rabbit burrows in the grasslands" turned out to be both fair and fitting.
"This rune looked like this before you destroyed it."
Amos glanced at the gap in the wall, pulled out a sheet of paper, and drew two specific types of runes.
"There are many kinds of runes—practically everywhere."
He tapped the paper in front of him.
"But I suspect the ones that truly affect the flow of time are these two. Let's call them 'cores' for now."
"And the surrounding patterns around these cores likely determine the range of the time alteration. In other words, a 'core' combined with other patterns forms a Nen array that influences time."
"Of course, this is just my guess. I've already marked all the locations on the wall that contain this 'core' rune."
A glint flashed through Amos's eyes as he looked at Kisho.
"—Want to take a look?"
Kisho met his gaze. "You're not worried this could be something extremely dangerous?"
Amos raised an eyebrow. "If I were afraid of danger, why would I take the Hunter Exam?"
"The more dangerous a place is, the more fun it brings. Isn't that right?"
Kisho sighed. "You're dangerous too."
"I am dangerous," Amos said as he stood up. "Let's go. There's still time. After exploring, we can continue the exam."
Kisho: "Let's go, let's go!"
Over the next ten hours, the two boys ran through every location Amos had marked on the map.
Many runes had been damaged beyond repair by the erosion of time. Not every rune with a 'core' altered the flow of time or allowed Kisho to hear the harp.
Still, using the faint harp notes as reference, and crossing off wrong paths one by one, the two boys eventually found the correct route and stepped into the depths of the ruins—an area few had ever set foot in.
During this time, the Tanuki-Tail Fiend perched on Kisho's shoulder repeatedly tugged at his hair and ears, waving its short little arms, trying to guide these two "wayward" fellows back onto the right path.
Unfortunately, the creature's good intentions couldn't compete with two temporary adventurers determined to explore.
This passage was darker and narrower than the outer ruins. The glowing moss on the walls had visibly decreased, making the air colder and more eerie.
Dense vines hung down from the ceiling of the corridor.
They were coated in yellow-brown slime, their tips trembling slightly as if alive.
Sensing approaching life, one vine suddenly shot toward the two of them. Kisho, who had been maintaining Ken to stay alert, yanked Amos by the shoulder just in time to avoid it, though Amos's arm was still grazed.
That alone was enough for the liquid on the vine to corrode a large portion of Amos's sleeve.
"Boom—"
In the next second, that vine along with its "siblings" was completely devoured by Kisho's Fire Whirl.
The flames died down, but Kisho's expression did not improve in the slightest.
There were simply too many vines in the corridor. Even Nen flames couldn't burn them all away.
Amos frowned and looked at Kisho beside him, patting his shoulder to reassure him that he was fine.
He then asked quietly, "On this path… do you still hear the harp?"
Kisho looked at him and nodded.
"Each time I only catch one or two notes, but the sound is getting clearer. And I seem to be hearing it more frequently."
Suddenly, he spoke to Amos with extreme seriousness:
"The deeper we go, the more dangerous it gets. This is definitely not somewhere exam candidates would normally step into during a proper Hunter Exam."
"That's for sure," Amos said. "Just look at these vines. Candidates who can't use Nen wouldn't be able to handle this at all. We—"
Kisho continued, "We've probably run straight into the forbidden zone."
On Kisho's shoulder, the Tanuki-Tail Fiend, still waving its short arms vigorously in an attempt to steer them back to the correct path, stared at them with watery eyes filled with grievance at having its route ignored.
The little creature didn't understand.
The little creature was angry!
"Gululu!"
With a series of complaining cries, the Tanuki-Tail Fiend perched on Kisho's shoulder went "pop" in a burst of indignation and transformed into a gemstone.
Kisho and Amos exchanged a look.
"The little thing's got quite a temper," Kisho said as he put away the crystal, then looked at Amos again. "So? Do we keep going?"
Though it was phrased as a question, Amos knew their answers were the same.
Nothing was going to stop them from continuing their adventure.
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