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It was currently the night after I met with the former king. Neither Lullus nor I needed to sleep, so we went searching again. Unfortunately, we didn’t discover anything new. I had hoped to find more information about Fraus or something related, but I guessed that kind of intel wouldn’t come in quickly. I quickly ran out of things to do at the Tree of Spirits.

If I had been in any other town, I would have gone hunting and earned money at random, but I wasn’t sure if the kingdom here would allow me to act as a hunter without oversight. All things considered, I didn’t think it was grave enough for the king to summon me either.

Out of boredom, I grabbed a random person and asked if I could walk around the Tree of Spirits. They told me it was fine as long as I had someone accompanying me. I suppose this was a precaution to keep me from running away. Since there was no point in being confined to a room, I accepted the offer and decided to explore the Tree of Spirits with as much dignity as I could muster.

I also requested an audience with the king. The response, I was told, would come at a later date. As expected from the head of a kingdom, meeting with him wasn’t a simple matter.

We eventually reached the lower levels of the Tree of Spirits, where the elves lived, though there weren’t as many as I had seen in other places.

“And why did you end up being my chaperone, Your Highness?”
“I don’t know. Why? Are you planning on doing something?”
“No. Just sightseeing. I’ve been so bored, you know. I couldn’t just sit still and wait for that response.”
“In that case, you can roam as you see fit. We will follow you.”

Here they were—a prince, accompanied by five guards. It was quite the entourage.

It probably helped that they were dressed like ninjas, making it easier for them to blend in. Still, I didn’t want a crowd gathering and causing unnecessary complications.

Regardless, I had been told to walk as I pleased, so that’s exactly what I did. Given that I was being watched, I didn’t use my Stealth skill to try to hide or run to shake them off. Instead, I wandered leisurely, eating as I went without caring much about the prince’s presence.

The stalls sold quite a variety of foods: skewers of bird-like meat, herb-roasted rabbit, vegetable sticks, and more. Most of it seemed to feature animal meat, likely because the elves didn’t farm much.

There were fewer vegetables, which made sense given their limited agriculture. I couldn’t help but recall stories claiming that elves didn’t eat meat. If that were true, the variety of food available in forests would be quite restricted.

Maybe they could make it work if they spent time cultivating fields, but I often wondered what the elves in those stories ate during the winter months. Perhaps the worlds in those stories simply didn’t have winters.

I found myself thinking about such trivial matters as I stopped at my seventh food stall. Most of the vendors offered food you could eat on the go, but I eventually entered a café-like establishment to sit down and relax. It seemed to specialize in juices and liquor, so calling it a café wasn’t entirely wrong.

After ordering, I sat at a small table for two, and, naturally, the prince sat across from me. His guards positioned themselves in a larger group nearby, sitting where they could keep an eye on us. The prince, however, looked particularly sour as he settled into his seat.

I didn’t understand the reason for his bad mood. I had simply done as I was told, walking around and eating as I pleased. It seemed unreasonable to expect so much compliance from someone new to this place.

“Do higher-ranked elves all eat this much?” the prince asked.
“I rather think it’s better not to eat much. But I enjoy eating, so I do it when I can.”

His question didn’t bother me much. First of all, I didn’t need to eat, but not doing so would draw suspicion and make things awkward.

The conversation came to an abrupt stop when the juice I had ordered was brought to the table. I took a sip and found it surprisingly delicious—a pleasant mix of citrus tang and peachy sweetness. I enjoyed sweet things, but there was a distinction for me between craving sugary treats and desiring the natural sweetness of fruit.

“Let me ask you a simple question. If we don’t do something about it, the world is going to fall apart, right?”

The grumpy prince asked, his tone more serious than before. It seemed he had been mulling over our previous talk. I realized that the sixth prince must have been the one who had gone to talk with the former king in the past. I didn’t have anything prepared to say, nor did I see a reason to lie.

So, I simply nodded in agreement, choosing the response that seemed more interesting. While doing so, I made sure no one around us could hear.

“It will. Though I don’t know when.”
“Is that because we didn’t release the spirit?”
“Is it safe for you to talk about the spirit?”
“You probably already know about it, don’t you?” He replied confidently, though I couldn’t figure out why he seemed so certain. But I didn’t hate the pace at which the discussion was going.

“Please keep this conversation between us, Your Highness. Promise me.”
“I will.”
“The spirit is one of the main reasons behind the collapse.”
“So if we release it, the world won’t collapse?”
“Want to give it a try?”
“I don’t know where it is. And I’m not certain what effect the loss of the spirit would have on the Tree of Spirits.”

It was natural that he had his doubts. Naturally, he couldn’t be sure that releasing the spirit wouldn’t accelerate the world’s collapse.

“If that’s the case, it might be wise to prepare for an evacuation—ready the people to leave the moment the first signs of trouble appear.”
“Are you… going to do something?” he asked.
“The spirits’ power is weakening, right? That’s why the conflict with the Beastmen occurred. It may not be long before the spirit loses its power entirely. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised even if it happens tomorrow.”

With that, I stood up. The prince, I thought, could benefit from learning to question people’s words a bit more. Just doubting could help him concentrate on the conversation better.

At any rate, my mission to retrieve the spirit wouldn’t change. If something happened to the Tree of Spirits, the survival of the elves would depend heavily on what the prince could accomplish at that moment. The only one I’d help would be the former king. At the end of the day, I needed that key.

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