Lone looked right at the King and smiled. "Is it possible for Elder Whoreu's skill to give out false information?"

The King had an incredulous look on his face. "Elder what?"

"Foru. Why, did It sound like I said something else?" Lone replied playfully.

"... Nevermind. To answer your question, Nine-tails, to my knowledge, no, his skill cannot possibly be incorrect. His skill is directly connected to the primal essence, Land, which feeds him information about the target for a fee of magical power." The King held his chin. He had a feeling that he knew what Lone was trying to get at.

"Well then, now that that's out of the way, we've already proven that Scratchy was a Homunculus, or at least, I think she was one," Lone said, implying that it was possible for his mind to have been altered by someone. "So, I think it would only be right for Elder Whoreu, who definitely knows the truth, to be tested by Elder Talion as he tells us exactly what Scratchy was."

Great Elder Lipsilk chuckled at Lone's new nickname for the once widely respected elder. "I agree with the Nine-tails. There's no harm to it," he said, supporting Lone's idea.

With the Great Elder speaking, every other Elder agreed to him. After all, as he had said, there really was no reason to not entertain Lone's suggestion.

The worst case scenario was that Lone had indeed been brainwashed somehow into believing that the promising new keeper was a Homunculus sent by Ythmagobla. However, in the best case scenario, they could expose a traitor and cleanse their council.

"W-what is the meaning of this?!" Elder Foru screamed. "This goes against my rights as an Elder!"

King Ele'hunda looked at Elder Foru with pity in his eyes. "Such rights are forfeited in this room. As have been the laws since the founding of our people. Surely you didn't forget such a thing?"

Elder Foru's words were stuck in his throat, but Lone, his eyes shone. 'That explains everything... Sneaky son of a bitch...'

"I... I can't accept this! You would all trust an outsider over one of your own?!" Elder Foru tried to appeal to his fellow elders. unfortunately for him, his actions only furthered their suspicions.

"Don't be so unreasonable, Foru."

"That's right, unless, of course, you do have something to hide?"

"Are there really traitor's amongst us? What a sad day for the eastern world tree..."

Congratulations! The host's skill [Persuasion] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 7.

Lone grinned while Elder Foru's face contorted much like how Elder Shan'len's had a few minutes ago. "You people... Turning on me so easily... If you had allocated enough spirit essence to me, none of this would have happened!"

After his manic statement, Elder Foru pulled a small crystal orb out from his robes. He smiled like a lunatic and began to chant exceedingly quickly.

Great Elder Lipsilk's face paled. "That's a teleportation orb! Someone, destroy it!" He knew that it was too late for him to activate the skill he was using to bind Elder Shan'len's mouth again, and Elder Foru would be able to escape within less than a second, but some part of him held a hope that Lone would be able to do something.

Unexpectedly, Lone didn't move, however, neither did Elder Foru. A full five seconds had passed, but the teleportation never activated.

Great Elder Lipsilk looked astounded. "The orb disappeared?"

Sophie, from behind Lone's back, walked forward and handed the small crystal to him. "Interesting. it's certainly different from my communication and mana orbs, that's for sure... Gilbert said these are destroyed upon use? I wonder why..." Lone casually said as he inspected the item.

Elder Foru's eyes went bloodshot and he lunged towards Lone and the tool that would save him. Lone didn't move and as soon as Elder Foru was about to snatch the teleportation orb from Lone's hands, the wily Foxkin impaled him with four of his tails, rendering the crazed SS-ranked Elder unable to move.

"Are you an idiot? You weren't even on guard at all... Ah, you thought a weak little B-ranker like me couldn't match your speed at all? Sucks for you. Agility is one of my specialities," Lone smirked before he stored the teleportation orb in his Dimensional Storage and threw Elder Foru off of his tails.

Elder Foru lay there on the ground as he bled profusely. "Guards, have him healed to stability and lock him up. Tell Warden Let'ronna to watch him closely. He'll be interrogated once he's back to normal health."

King Ele'hunda didn't want Lone to heal him even if he knew that the young man could. He wanted Elder Foru to feel pain and despair before he personally broke him and got him to spill whatever secrets were in his head.

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Lone passed a towel to Sophie who began diligently and carefully cleaning his tails while he watched Elder Foru get dragged away. He turned to look at Elder Shan'len. "Well, that's one traitor exposed. What to do with the other one, I wonder?"

A few of the elders didn't agree with Lone.

"Elder Shan'len is an extremist and isn't very easy to get along with, but there is no proof that he is a traitor."

"I can see the Nine-tails' point of view, but I have to agree with Elder Ziku'do."

"Until proper evidence is revealed or he incriminates himself like Elder Foru did, then we must ask you to stay your hand, Nine-tails."

Both King Elu'hunda and Great Elder Lipsilk remained silent and didn't disagree with the Elders, so Lone backed down. He was still convinced that Elder Shan'len was a traitor, but regardless, he would find out the truth... one way or another.

Great Elder Lipsilk waved his hand, and suddenly, Elder Shan'len gasped for air. It would seem that Lipsilk had removed whatever restrictions he had placed on the easily angered man.

"Elder Shan'len, you mentioned before we called these two here that you had conclusive proof of the Nine-tails furthering the world tree's corruption. I ask of you now, bring forth this evidence," King Ele'hunda ordered with an authoritative voice.

Elder Shan'len looked upset at his mistreatment, but he bowed and replied, "Of course, Your Majesty."

The High Elf then raised his head and looked towards the entrance where a servant of his was waiting. "Bring her in."

The servant bowed and left the room before returning shortly afterwards with a particular High Elven woman behind him in chains.

"Tal'hat'mata?" Lone asked, unsure if this dishevelled and ragged-looking woman was his team's external leader. He used the power granted by Clicker and soon confirmed that this was, indeed, Tal'hat'mata.

"Soph." No more words were needed between the two for Lone to convey his intentions to her.

Without hesitating, Sophie teleported to Tal'hat'mata and grabbed her before teleporting back to Lone so quickly that no one was able to clearly see what had happened except for King Ele'hunda and Great Elder Lipsilk.

Tal'hat'mata was confused, but before she could ask any questions, Lone ripped her chains off with his tails and carefully healed the bruising around her skin where the metal had been chaffing her.

Lone turned to Elder Shan'len and glared at him. "Is this your 'evidence'? My teammate? I'll have you explain why you did something like this to her, you scumbag."

Congratulations! The host's skill [Intimidation] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 3.

Elder Shan'len cowered back a bit at the intensity of Lone's glare. He was, for his own benefit, saved by King Ele'hunda from embarrassing himself. "Elder Shan'len, explain everything for us. How is this child your proof of the Nine-tails' guilt?"

Elder Shan'len coughed awkwardly to regain his composure. "She can confess for herself, after all, Elder Talion is here to see if she's lying or not, no?"

Elder Shan'len was very happy after he recalled that Lone wouldn't be able to win against himself like he had over Elder Foru. 'Fall into despair at my trump card, you filthy outsider!'

King Ele'hunda held his chin and tapped his finger against his cheek. He stopped and looked at Tal'hat'mata who seemed to be in a daze. "Child, do you have any connection to the new corruption that is spreading in the world tree?"

A short silence followed the King's question before Tal'hat'mata opened her mouth. "I was ordered by Lone to spread a certain black substance across the dungeon as we battled the Darkness monsters within. It was only last night that I learnt it was a solid form of corruption gifted to Lone by the Darkness Dragon, Ythmagobla."

Murmers of distrust ran through the gathered council elders as they looked at Lone and Sophie. Lone didn't respond and simply frowned as his mind moved to find to correct answer that would reveal the truth in this situation.

Elder Talion looked back at King Ele'hunda and said, "She is telling the truth."

With a big shit-eating grin on his face, Elder Shan'len spoke next. "I think that's all that we need to know. Your Majesty, I suggest we kill this traitor now before he worms his way out with his silver tongue."

Lone's frown deepened. "Hey, King-"

"Don't open your mouth, Lowly Trash!" Elder Shan'len rudely interrupted Lone, forcing him to wear a displeased expression.

Fed up with Elder Shan'len's behaviour, Lone unleashed his Aura of Dominance and focused it solely on the overly proud-looking High Elf to stop him from speaking. "King Ele'hunda, I have an idea. Give me five minutes and I can reveal what's really going on. I can say this right now, I didn't order Tal'hat'mata to do anything like corrupt the tree."

Ele'hunda looked at Elder Talion for confirmation. She nodded her head in response. "He isn't lying..."

At this point, Elder Shan'len started to panic. He started to panic a lot. He wanted to move and execute Lone as fast as he could, but he was frozen with fear. As he looked at the Nine-tails, all he could see was a massive multicoloured Fox head growling at him, threatening to consume him in his entirely were he to move.

"Very well, Nine-tails. I will allow it," King Ele'hunda said.

As it so happened, he nor the council had any skills that could help determine the truth when it came to two people seemingly having two entirely separate accounts of events. Usually, this meant that one of the involved parties had been brainwashed or controlled with an illusion, both of which were things that nature magic had no sway over.

"Soph, go get Eolande, please," Lone asked.

Sophie nodded her head and vanished. Before anyone could raise a fuss about her escaping the trial, she had returned while holding onto the Fairy Princess, Eolande.

"Oh? Husband, you were having a party without inviting me? How rude," Eolande teased with a coquettish tone to her voice.

Sophie ground her teeth together at the Tylwyth Teg's attempts to flirt with her fiancé. 'One of these days, I should teleport her into the ocean...'

Lone groaned and dismissively waved off Eolande's charming atmosphere. "Check if she's under an illusion or if she's been brainwashed and undo it, would you, please?"

"Sure," Eolande happily replied, "But only if you reward me!"

"What do you want? I'm willing to give you almost anything... within reason," Lone replied cautiously.

"Don't act like that. I only want a weapon. Make me a Myth-rated weapon that can help me with my magic and I'll do it for you! I'm too weak despite being the highest ranked member of The Wanderers..." Eolande said playfully.

Lone smirked. "That's fine, I think I can do that."

In fact, Lone, had already planned to make Myth-rated weapons for his entire party, and Eolande knew this, so he assumed that she was merely trying to frustrate Sophie by acting coyly with him.

Sophie frowned and bit into Lone's sleeve as she watched Eolande wink at her and float towards Tal'hat'mata. 'Damn it! She beat me again... M-Maybe I need to lick Lone some more in front of her to show her that he's mine?'

Unfortunately, Sophie's naivety was only helping to play into Eolande's hand even further. Lone thought that she was cute, so he didn't stop the Tylwyth Teg's teasing of his fiancée.