Neal

Neal is a scout member of the Black Hound and as such used to be part of the Arabakia Kingdom's army.

It was him who brought Team Haruhiro to the Expeditionary Force, and since then also seems to have been the one tasked with monitoring then.

Appearance
Neal is a man, about as tall as Haruhiro, over 30 years, sporting a beard, and with his nails cut short. He wears a leather outfit with leather boots, all of it is rather dirty. Overall he looks tough and capable.

Also, it's unclear if he always looks that way or if it's because he was in the middle of a mission at that time, but the first time they meet, Haruhiro described him saying that he didn't give a feeling of cleanliness, his skin dark with grime, really dirty hand, and the white of his eyes yellowed and bloodshot. Overall he looked really unkempt like most soldiers of the Expeditionary Force, but that could be to the situation they were in at that time.

Personality
Neal has an easy-going rather friendly personality, but he seems to easily attract people enmity because of his tendency to act way too friendly and say whatever he wants.

But while he can appear friendly, Neal is still member of a special unit task with hunting deserter and as such as no qualm about killing, threatening, or monitoring people, and seems to be rather unfazed by death. However, he refers to avoid combat and limits himself to observation or threats, but while he know his limit he also seems to like boasting, like seen with Barbara.

It also seems like he is likely to betray people if he thinks that it's in his best interest, as shown when he said that he only obeys Jin Moris' orders because they benefit him, and doesn't trust the general in the least.

Before Level. 15
Neal became part of the Black Hounds, a special unit tasked with hunting desertor. As such he is likely a veteran of the wars against the barbarians living in the south of the Arabakia Kingdom.

When the Jin Mogis was tasked to leads the Expeditionary Force and retake Alterna from the Goblins, he was part of those who followed the General into the Frontier, whether he choose to or was forced is unknown.

Level. 15 A Fleeting New Game Plus
At the start of that volume, Neal, like the rest of the Expeditionary Force, has recently crossed the Tenryu Mountains through the Earth Dragon Aortha and is camping not far away from the mountains.

However, unlike most of the force, Neal and a scout unit of which he is the leader, are sent to scout the area. It's during that mission that Neal made contact with Team Haruhiro. First, he tried to approach them during the night but made some noises, forcing him to retreat. So the next morning, he chose to go with a frontal approach, calling out to them. Obviously, Haruhiro and Merry, the one chosen to negotiate with Neal, don't trust him at all, Haruhiro even assessing whether he would be able or not to get rid of Neal.

However, while killing or restraining Neal wouldn't be that hard, they notice Neal's men hiding nearby and Team Haruhiro is forced to join the Expeditionary Force. After escorting them back to the camp, Neal is select to be part of a small unit (Haruhiro, Merry, Anthony Justeen, and him) which will be tasked to infiltrate the captured Alterna and assess whether or not some volunteer soldiers did hide within the city.

Using a secret tunnel, they manage to easily sneak into the city, arriving in the basement of the Dread Knight guild where they stumble upon one of the zombified Lord of the guild. Merry is able to quickly Dispel it with Haruhiro's help, but Justeen gets in an argument with Neal over his lack of respect for the corpse, Neal responding that Skullhell worshipers deserve only contempt. However, the argument doesn't last as Neal ultimately doesn't care much about how the other treats the body.

Not long after the team is able to make contact with Barbara who was hiding within the thieves' guild. While within the guild Neal makes a number of sexual advances toward Barbar, but it seems like nothing comes of them and that they go back to the Expeditionary Force rather quickly, with Barbara.

Finally, during the assault on Alterna, Neal is part of the team hiding with the city but doesn't fight instead sneaking around the city undetected to gather information during the battle.

He is also the one who tells Haruhiro about Commander Dylan's reputation before the assault.

Abilities
Neal is a scout for the Black Hound, a scout being the equivalent of a thief in the mainland.

As such he is good at sneaking around undetected and monitoring people or things. As a member of a special unit he is likely also a pretty good fighter.

However he is worse than both Haruhiro and Hiyomu (and Kiichi) at sneaking and was quite easily restrain by Haruhiro.

Jin Mogis
As a member of the black hounds, Neal has worked under the general for a long time.

They both seems to respect and "trust" each other. They actually don't really trust each other but the General know that Neal will do as he is told and Neal Know that following the General order is what benefit him the most, so they do have something similar to trust.

Haruhiro
Haruhiro seems to hate Neal, probably because of his attitude but likely also because he was the one who forced him and his team into working for the Expeditionary Force. Moreover, in many ways Neal's attitude ressemble Ranta, which could be subconsciously influencing Haruhiro distaste.

Neal, on the other hand, is rather friendly with Haruhiro and seems to appreciate him to some extent. However, he may be acting that way because the General tasked him with monitoring Team Haruhiro.

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