"Halt!" An SS-ranked royal guard stopped Lone as soon as he reached the Royal Palace. "What business do you have with the Royal Palace today, Honorary Elder Lone?"

"I need to talk to King Ele'hunda. It's fairly important," Lone calmly said.

"How important?" the guard asked.

"Mmm, well, the fate of the world tree hangs in the balance," Lone seriously stated.

The royal guard looked like he didn't believe Lone, but he couldn't dismiss his words since he was now an honorary elder of the council. "I will relay to the King that you wish to meet him urgently, however, he is very busy today, so I'll have to ask you to leave and await a summons when he is ready to see you."

"I'll just stay out here if that's fine with you, Sal'koh," Lone requested.

"You... You know my name?" The guard was genuinely surprised.

"Of course I do. You were at the trial, right? Thanks for not doing what Shit'len told you to do," Lone said with a warm smile on his face as he sat on the floor and crossed his legs. 'Mind you, I only know your name because I'm using Clicker's power on you right now, but it is true that I remember you.'

Sal'koh looked touched. "I was just doing my job. Only the King can order us royal guards." He scratched his neck and the tips of his long ears turned red.

"Still, thanks. I appreciate it. Doing your job is still worthy of praise," Lone honestly thanked.

"I'm undeserving of your kind words, Sir Immortus." Sal'koh bowed his head slightly before he said, "I'll be back in a minute. I'll go find someone to entertain you in the meantime before His Majesty can allocate some time to see to you."

After saying that, Sal'koh left his post and got another royal guard to take over for him as he informed the King of Lone's request.

A few minutes passed before he returned with Her Highness following behind him.

"Lone, It's good to see you," the young Elven Princess said pleasantly as she curtsied.

"Yo," Lone greeted as he stood up. "It's been a while, huh? Not since the exams, I think."

"Yes, that's right. I've been awfully busy, so I didn't have the time to visit you or the other Wanderers." Her Highness looked apologetic and tired. "You'll have to forgive me for that, Lone."

"Don't worry about it. I can only imagine how tough being royalty is. The King always seems to be doing something as well, so I expected that you'd be swamped with work. Especially after being away from the tree for, how long was it? Two years?" Lone asked as he waved goodbye to the royal guard Sal'koh and entered the palace with Her Highness.

"Yes, just over two years." The two of them walked through the lavishly decorated halls, and any maids or palace servants who crossed paths with them bowed deeply and greeted the Princess.

They maintained their small talk for a bit longer until Her Highness and Lone had reached an open study of some sort.

Sitting down on a sofa and looking around, Lone whistled. "Nice room. I didn't get to see much of the palace when I went to Ele'hunda's office the other day, but I like this room."

"I'm glad. This is my private study," Her Highness explained. "I like to come here when I have some spare time."

"I wouldn't mind having a place like this," Lone commented a bit absentmindedly.

"You can. As an honorary elder, Lone, you are allowed to purchase your own home here on the tree's crown, so a private study is more than possible," Her Highness explained in a somewhat cheerful tone as she accepted the tea from one of the waiting-maids.

Lone shook his head. "That's not possible."

"Why not?" Her Highness asked as she cocked her head in confusion.

"I can't stay here. It conflicts with my goal," Lone said as he sat down and accepted his own cup of tea. Taking a sip, his eyes lit up. "Good tea."

The maid who had brewed it blushed before she smiled and bowed slightly.

"You never did tell me nor Al'ka what The Wanderers' goal was, Lone. I'm curious. Might I be privy to that information?" Her Highness was a curious sort, so while she had been too distracted on the trip from the Beastman territories to the world tree to ask about it, now that she had gained some time to settle back into her much-despised life as a Princess, she did think that it was slightly odd that such a peculiar group was travelling together.

It wasn't necessarily uncommon for members of different races to team up and create an adventurer group, but Lone's group, The Wanderers, was a bit too strange.

"Ahahaha, did I never tell you? I'm pretty sure I told Al'ka," Lone laughed. "All we want is fame and to meet strong people. That's it."

"Really? Why, dare I ask?" Her Highness didn't expect such an ordinary answer to come out of such an extraordinary man.

Lone smirked. "I want to know why I exist."

"... What?" Her Highness was more than a little bit perplexed by Lone's statement.

'Well, to be more accurate, I want to know why both Soph and I exist on Altros, not why we exist as a whole,' Lone thought to himself.

"Have you ever seen or heard of a nine-tailed Golden Foxkin before? I certainly haven't," Lone pointed out.

"But surely your parents-"

"I've never met my parents," Lone interrupted. 'On this world, at least. I doubt that my normal parents back on Earth have anything to do with me being brought to a fantasy world as a different species, right?'

"I see." Her Highness had a thoughtful expression on her face. "To answer your question, no. In fact, as far as I know, no one has seen an actual Golden Foxkin in several millennia. The last sighting, before you, of course, was of a male who had awakened several times and was on the cusp of death."

'The man Lossa mentioned? Interesting. I wasn't expecting to get any relevant info on Golden Foxkin here, but this is a welcome surprise. Still, he was the last one that was sighted? What about Kyuubi's parents?' Lone was a bit confused, but he was happy to have gained some outsider insight on this topic.

To shift gears a little, Lone grinned knowingly and sipped his tea once again. "So, I heard that you've rejected every single attempt to court you, even from the princes of the other trees, Falin included?"

"Falin is not a prince. He is merely a keeper with an incredible amount of potential." Her Highness was blushing from ear to ear and it was obvious to everyone in the room, the maids included, why she was getting so embarrassed.

"Isn't Al'ka quite the catch? Not only is he a general of the Royal Guards, but he's also the youngest son of the southern world tree's king. Quite the catch indeed." Lone was enjoying himself as he watched Her Highness squirm about.

"Y-You are very well informed on Al'ka's status, are you not, Lone?" Her Highness asked.

Who Al'ka was and where he came from wasn't a secret and he was the pride of the eastern world tree since he was the guard and protector for Her Highness, however, he also wasn't a frequent topic for conversations.

Lone shrugged lightly. "I'm a fan of history since I used to teach it, so learning about such an important figure who is bound to go down in history is only par for the course."

"I-I see..." Her Highness desperately wanted her father to finish his current affairs so he could speak to Lone. She wanted to escape this situation. She could see the maids smiling at her warmly in the corner of her eyes and that only served to heat up her already boiling face.

"Have you told him how you feel?" Lone asked suddenly.

"Wha- I-I don't know what you're talking about..." Naturally, despite how fruitless of an endeavour it was, Her Highness chose to play the fool.

Lone laughed. "I suppose the way you looked at him when we were resting was just a coincidence. Oh, and how you immediately healed him even when he barely received a scratch whenever we encountered monsters. Ah, there's also the fact that you sometimes watched him as he slept. I'm sure that was purely to make sure that he wasn't having trouble breathing, right?"

At this point, Lone was surprised that Her Highness hadn't collapsed from all of the blood rushing to her head. A few moments passed before the young High Elven princess opened her mouth.

"But someone like him... and someone like me... I don't want to burden him any further than I already do. I want him to see me as a woman more than anything in the world, but I know that's impossible considering all of the pressure he's under. Besides, he still treats me like a child," Her Highness claimed with a pout.

"'Impossible', huh?" Lone repeated as he began pondering over the matter.

Seemingly decided on laying all of her frustrations out on the table, Her Highness continued to speak. "Putting aside our strength since we're both from royal lines, even if Al'ka shared my feelings, it would still be impossible. The trees do share friendly relationships, but if we were to marry, then the eastern and southern tree's bond would become unparalleled and the balance of power would shift."

Her eyebrows scrunched up along with her beautiful face as Her Highness continued her rant, "Al'ka's father is very supportive of anything he does, so if Al'ka declared that he intended to marry me, then without a doubt, that stupid old man would go out of his way to combine our forces and double down on our cooperative efforts, which would obviously annoy the kings of the northern and western trees."

A long sigh escaped Her Highness' lips. "Did you know, Lone? I planned to run away forever with Al'ka. I was hoping that our love could bloom as we were away from the tree, but his sense of responsibility was far greater than mine. I hate that about him... I hate it.... but I also love it..."

"Fuck it," were the two words that came out of Lone's mouth in response.

A few of the maids gasped at Lone's crude language, but Her Highness had become used to Lone's blunt personality during their travels, so she simply raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"I said 'fuck it'," Lone repeated himself before he smiled. "Who cares about the politics of the other world trees?"

"I don't follow," Her Highness responded.

Lone shook his head. "I'm not exaggerating this when I say that I would probably raze an entire country to the ground for Sophie. You shouldn't ignore your love for a stupid reason like some potential changes in the political climate."

Lone had bitter memories of his time in Milindo's capital, The Holy City of Ranton. He remembered the people that tried to get in between Sophie and himself and his pure unfiltered desire to destroy them and everything they stood for if it meant that he could be with Sophie and live peacefully.

'We still ended up needing to flee the city in the end, but still, it was more than worth it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat,' Lone thought to himself.

"Elves have extremely long lives. What was the average lifespan for High Elves again? Please, remind me," Lone urged.

"... Five-hundred years without ranking up," Her Highness answered.

"And for an S-ranker like yourself, that would be, what, seven-thousand years or so?" Her Highness nodded to Lone's words.

"Do you really want to spend such a long time with a person who you don't love?" Lone asked seriously, however, he never waited for an answer before he resumed talking. "I genuinely believe that nothing matters more than love. Whether that be a romantic love, a family love, or any other kind of love, it's all the same."

Lone leaned forward and stared into the young High Elf's trembling eyes. "Do you really want to abandon and bury your love just for the possibility of some friction being born between the world trees?"

"I... I... Thank you, Lone. I was so stupid." With those words, Her Highness practically ran out of the room.

Congratulations! The host's skill [Persuasion] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 8.

A few of the maids followed her while the rest looked at Lone with positive and very pleased expressions on their faces.

'Well, there's also the fact that if I fail in two days then you'll both be dead probably, so it's better to tell him now in case that ends up happening.' Lone's thoughts were far more morbid than his supportive words had been a few seconds ago.