Arin adjusted his coat, stepped down the inn's wooden steps, and walked through the chill morning air.
He had paid three hundred Jenny for the simple breakfast of eggs, grain bread, and a small slab of salted meat.
Now was the time to act.
As the woman had instructed.
A modest wooden storefront with a painted sign that read Mel Shop stood tucked between two taller buildings.
Arin approached the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside.
A small bell rang overhead.
The shop smelled of paper, dust, and polished metal.
But Arin's attention went straight to the man behind the long wooden counter.
Middle-aged, clean-cut, and sharply observant.
The man wore narrow rectangular glasses and leaned lazily against the counter, a half-smirk playing across his face as soon as he saw Arin.
"New face," the man said simply.
Arin nodded but didn't return the expression.
"I need a map," he said. "And a ticket out of here."
The smirk widened just slightly.
"Straight to business. I like that."
The shopkeeper turned around and pulled out a large, tightly rolled scroll from behind the counter.
Arin stepped closer.
The map was broadly hand-inked and richly detailed.
Names, symbols, mountains, borders.
It was a real regional map, not a cheap traveler's sketch.
The man tapped the bottom right corner.
"Five hundred Jenny for the map. As for the tickets, I've got four left."
He reached under the counter again and retrieved a small wooden case, opening it to reveal four paper tickets sealed with wax and stamped in official-looking ink.
"Two of these are five thousand each," he said.
"Shorter routes. Backwater towns."
He then gestured to the other two.
"These'll cost you ten thousand each. But they'll take you to major cities. One of them to Fallenerdes."
Arin's gaze drifted back to the map, his eyes scanning for familiar names.
Nothing popped out at first until he finally spotted a marker in the north:
Begerosse Union.
He leaned in slightly.
"So this is where I am, and this map is only the map of the continent of the Begerosse Union," he muttered.
The name Begerosse was on the world map of Hunter x Hunter, but it was not that explained or discovered.
The Union itself seemed large, occupying a sizable landmass.
A patchwork of settlements, mountains to the north, dense woods to the west, and a coastline far to the east.
And there it was.
Fallenerdes.
It was marked with a larger sigil than the surrounding towns.
A star with wings, indicating an airship port.
Arin stared at it for a long moment.
He hadn't heard of Fallenerdes before.
Not from Hunter x Hunter canon.
It didn't exist in any of the arcs; he remembered Greed Island, Yorknew, the Hunter Exam, the Chimera Ants, and the Dark Continent.
Which meant either it was unmentioned background lore… or something outside the canon entirely.
"I do not care about the city that much..."
Fallenerdes meant access to an airship and, likely, a major hub of commerce, information, and more advanced civilization.
Exactly what he needed.
"I'll take the map," Arin said first, sliding five hundred Jenny across the counter.
The man accepted it without a word.
"And I'll take the ticket to Fallenerdes."
The smirk returned. "Smart choice."
Arin dug into his pouch and counted out ten thousand Jenny. It stung, wiping out most of his stolen funds, but the trade-off was worth it.
He was buying more than transport. He was buying mobility. Options. Control.
The man handed over the ticket, a thick parchment sheet with sharp lettering and a wax seal pressed with a winged emblem.
Arin examined it briefly and then tucked it inside his coat.
"Departure?" he asked.
"Three hours from now," the man replied.
"The group comes through at dawn and stops outside the east gate. Be there or be left behind."
"They will fill you in with the details; as the distance from here and the Fallenerdes is long, it will take at least one day of travel with a bus."
Arin gave a small nod.
"Understood."
He rolled up the map, secured it with twine, and stepped back toward the door.
The man behind the counter called out before Arin could leave.
"You look like the type who keeps moving. Word of advice?"
Arin paused. "Go on."
"Do not get in contact or try to be familiar with the people that try to get close to you in the Fallenerdes."
"I understand," said Arin.
And then he left.
The morning had bloomed fully now.
He didn't know what waited for him in Fallenerdes, but if it was a city outside the known canon, that made it more valuable to him.
"I need to start my training of nen. If my luck is bad and I encounter a powerful nen user that has evil intentions or not even a nen user, a group of armed people, I would be killed," he thought.