"What do you mean by 'I love you'? I have heard Miss-ss ss-Sophie and Mr Immortus-ss ss-speak these words many times-ss before, but I ss-still do not know the meaning behind them," Swind asked with a particular longing in his tone.

"... Eh?" Rachel didn't know what Swind meant, but one thing that she was aware of, was that he had definitely heard her accidentally mumbling to herself!

Swind looked away from Rachel and a distant gaze entered his snake-like eyes. "My people... we do not experience this 'love' that you and the others-ss ss-speak of."

Rachel wracked her brain and came up with a reason for Swind's words. "Um... eh... I-Is that because Lemurians don't live for long?"

Swind looked back at her and smiled weakly. "The two are connected, yes-ss."

He closed his eyes and reminisced over the past as he explained, "Unlike most ss-sapient species-ss, we Lemurians-ss copulate for ss-survival and do not get attached to each other because we have to breed as-ss much as-ss is possible to increase the chances-ss of our people making it to the next generation... or at least we used too."

Rachel was more than aware of the tragedy that had occurred in Clicker's dungeon. Lone had recounted the tale to her in vivid detail. It was a miracle that Swind managed to survive that ordeal, and now Rachel had stupidly reminded him of his terrible past, which upset her.

"I-I'm sorry, Swind, I didn't-"

Swind interrupted her. "It is-ss in the past. What I am asking you now is-ss, what do you mean by 'I love you'? I wish to learn."

"You... you want to learn?" Rachel asked with some shock and a little bit of hope in her voice.

"Yes-ss. Please, tell me. I envy the pure and joyous-ss relationship both Miss-ss ss-Sophie and Mr Immortus-ss appear to ss-share," Swind replied while he recalled all of the warm displays of affection that the two strangest and strongest members of their adventurer group would often show for each other.

"We-Well... It means that I... I want to hold your hand... and stay by side... and talk about lovey-dovey stuff... and... I don't know what else... It just means I love you?" Rachel said with a perplexed look on her face before a violent blush filled her cheeks. 'I said it again!'

Suddenly, Rachel could feel Swind's very cold and scaley palm covering her tiny hand. "Holding hands-ss, yes-ss? Please, Rachel, teach me more about love. I think I'd really like to experience it with you."

'He didn't call me 'miss'... That's the first time he's ever done that... Is... is it okay to be this happy right now?!' Rachel wanted to shed tears of pure joy.

"I'm not an expert, but I'll try, Swind," Rachel said with a smile sweet enough to send unfamiliar feelings racing through the Lemurian's body.

This was the beginning of a very clumsy and very heartfelt romance that no one was sure of where it would lead. However, one thing was certain, both Swind and Rachel would change and become different people regardless of the outcome. Their love was of a very different kind than the one Lone and Sophie shared, of that, no one could ever contest.

At roughly eight in the evening, the loud voice of the manor's manager, Letty, rang through the entire building. "Everyone! Gather in the courtyard! Nehehehe!"

Lone, who was training his swordspear arts with Sophie, stopped his attack and stored his weapon. "I guess the new keeper tests are over."

Sophie put her two alterion shortswords back into her dimensional pouch and she used a towel to wipe the sweat from her forehead. "I wonder what kind of people they'll be... You know, the new outsider keepers."

"I don't really care so long as they aren't the annoying type like the Demon Princess," Lone replied with a shrug.

Sophie nodded and mumbled under her breathe, "Please no more little girls, please no more little girls..."

Sophie and Lone left the garden and walked through the manor and left through the other side to reach the building's front courtyard. Lone arched an eyebrow when he saw Rachel squirming about as she held onto Swind's hand. 'Things went well? That's a surprise. I was sure that blockhead wouldn't understand or would just straight-out reject her...'

Fep and Eolande were also showing an interest in this development, but they, like Lone, kept any questions for later. Right now, the biggest elephant in the room, so to speak, was Letty and the new keeper.

"Only one?" Lone asked while he eyed the short woman with a busty chest and vertically slitted eyes.

He couldn't tell what kind of Demihuman she was since there were far too many species that he was unaware of, but she seemed to descend from some sort of reptilian monster. 'A more humanoid Lemurian?'

Sophie held her hands to her chest and heaved a sigh of relief. "She's small, but her boobs are massive, so Lone won't be interested..."

Lone's eyebrows twitched. 'I'm not interested in anyone except for you, you idiot. This girl is really possessive sometimes... She acts like I'm attracted to anything cute, sheesh...'

Letty flew around happily and said, "Talented outsiders that aren't affiliated with a superpower already are hard to come by. This one though, she might even give you a run for your money, Nine-tails."

"That so?" Lone replied with an interested tone in his voice.

"Yeah. Nehehehe. She beat all of your records in the tests except the age one," Letty claimed as she wagged her chubby finger around in a teasing manner.

"That's good. I'm sure the tree will benefit greatly from having her. We're also pretty new here, so it's nice to meet you," Lone said as he casually waved at the strange girl.

She smiled and waved back. "Hi, I'm Scratchy! I'm an Unhcegila... er... an Unhcegila descendant! Yup! That's right." Scratchy then looked at everyone nervously, however, no one seemed to pay any mind to her slip up. 'Few, no one figured it out. That was a close one. As always, Itchy, your subterfuge skills are matched by no one!'

The ancient girl was certainly right, however, only in the fact that no one was at the same level as her when it came to being horrible at deception. The only thing she had gotten right so far, was changing her body forcefully with the help of another of Ythmagobla's subordinates. It would be a challenge to be as terrible at lying as this pure-hearted servant of the Darkness Dragon was.

Not only did she barely change her name, she had even insisted that her colleague left her eyes unchanged since she couldn't return to her usual Unhcegila body by herself and she wished to keep at least one part of herself the same.

In regards to the tests, she was able to avoid being found out in the age exam thanks to the fact that her current body was one that had been forcefully created by her fellow servant a few hundred years ago and modified a few months ago for her personal use. Also, she was able to avoid the topic of her main body's XXX-ranker power being revealed with this new vessel since it was limited to the X-rank.

Letty hovered around her gleefully. "She was a rare catch! So everyone, treat her nicely, okay? Oh, your senior outsider keepers will be returning from their mission in a month, so look forward to that. Hmm, I think that was everything, bye! Nehehehe~"

With that, the overweight fairy hovered into the manor lazily.

'Master, this girl, she reeks of Darkness,' the element closest to Lone said with caution in his voice.

"Is that so?" Lone mumbled in response.

He had grown to trust Darkness ever so slightly over the past four months. The primal essence hadn't tried to forcefully take over his body, nor had he used it for anything against his will. Lone still kept Void's warning in his mind, but at this point, Darkness had done more than enough to prove himself and earn Lone's faith.

With that in mind, Lone decided to use Clicker's power to inspect this Unhcegila Descendant's status. He was aware that she was an X-ranker, and from the tests he's performed on his group members these last few months, only X-rankers and above could detect him using this ability. How much they could detect it depended on the person themselves, but Lone was confident that he could talk himself out a disadvantageous situation if he needed to.

Status Name: Scratchy [?????] Sex: Female Age: 316 Level: 5,000 Species: Homunculus Rank: X Race: N/A HP: ?????/????? SP: ?????/????? MP: 0 Basic Stats Strength: ???? Vigour: ???? Dexterity: ???? Agility: ???? Vitality: ???? Luck: 0 Secret Stats Darkness: 1,768,436

'Fuck me... a Homunculus? Sure, I'd read about them, which is probably why I can see her luck, species, mana points and level, but where did she come from and why does she have so much Darkness?' Lone asked himself.

In fact, Lone himself could have had that stat, Darkness, much like how he had Control and Rage, but according to the element in question himself, Sky forced him to not brand Lone with his power when he was bound to Lone's soul.

The stat, Darkness, allowed one to wield the skills associated with the element far more easily than without, and Darkness had told Lone that were he to own the stat and have at least a thousand points in it, then he would be able to use Darkness' powers for twice as long with half the costs.

'Wait... Maybe she's related to Ythmagobla? If so, then why the hell is she here? Is she scouting the place out before that Dragon can attack again or is she completely unrelated and it's just a coincidence?' Lone felt troubled.

'Well, for now, I guess it's time to create that thing I've been conceptualising for the past month, isn't it? Better to be safe rather than sorry, after all, even if it's a bit soon and it'll cost me way more mana orbs than I'm comfortable with, it'll be worth it if it can protect my friends,' he concluded in thought.

"Make yourself comfortable, Scratchy," Lone said as he took Sophie's hand and started to walk back towards the manor. "There's plenty of unused rooms, so pick one and get some rest. It must have been a long day."

"Yeah, I will. Thanks, Lone." Scratchy replied happily.

Eolande, Breena and Fep all reacted to her use of the word 'Lone'. He hadn't told her his name yet, and Letty was far too lazy to do something like that. They all knew that the Foxkin in question would have noticed this as well, but he still had an amiable smile on his lips and didn't respond at all, which made the three curious.

Eko stood next to Fep as he watched the small and busty girl trail after Lone and Sophie. He nudged the blue-skinned Changeling and grinned. "I noticed this with Lone's little girl brigade, but most Demihuman woman seem to be pretty... good looking, huh?"

"Oh? The virgin monk is interested in such stuff? I had you pegged as a better man than that, Eko," Fep teased.

The monk's face flushed red and he rubbed his bald head in embarrassment. "I am a guy, after all. Besides, when was the last time you saw a pair that large? This place is full of nothing but flat plains."

Fep threw a side glance at Eko and sighed. "When you go on your first mission outside of the world tree, promise me you'll find a brothel and cast off the yolk of your virginity, okay? Sex doesn't matter nearly as much as you might think it does."

"Yeah, well, try saying that to someone who hasn't heard those two rabbits going at it almost every night for four months straight, would you? Maybe they'd believe you, 'cause I definitely won't," Eko angrily declared as he pointed at Lone and Sophie who were now going inside the manor.

Fep held his jaw and nodded his head. "You're right. I could always change into an attractive barmaid for you? I don't particularly mind if it's just the once," Fep offered with a coy smile on his lips.

"What? Of course not! D-Don't be an idiot!" Eko was more than simply flustered over this idea.

Fep laughed and patted the monk on the back. "I'm only teasing you. Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted from today's mission. We had to collect five-thousand fennels. I can hardly move my hands. Swind is surprisingly strict when it comes to herb gathering."

Eko sighed in relief and agreed. It had been a long day, so he too, as well as Fep and the Demon Princess, went to bed.

Meanwhile, Lone grabbed all of his group members and brought them to a side room to discuss how to handle the peculiar Homunculus whose motives were still unclear.