"This place sure is big," Lone commented as he stared at the huge gate and wall before him. Were he to estimate its size, he would say the wall was about a mile in diameter. It was a perfect circle as far as Lone could see and it looked very primitive.

Lone approached the gate, and the group of Lemurian guards stationed at it immediately noticed him and obviously recognised who he was. A multicoloured nine-tailed Foxkin was hardly a person easy to forget, after all.

The biggest one of the Guards walked towards Lone cautiously with a steel spear tightly grasped in his hands. Lone appraised him and thought, 'Hmm, roughly B-Ranker? The Captain, maybe? I guess it makes sense for him to be cautious of me, right? I did force one of their own to lose her status as one of their tribesmen... well, not me, Darkness, but still... '

It didn't take the guard long to reach Lone obviously since they were only about twenty meters away from each other. "What have you come to our tribe for, Fox-ss?" the presumed Guard Captain asked in a slightly hostile manner.

He had also spoken in fluent Milindonian which Lone had discovered was the native language of Hope. Any other languages spoken were purely treated as second languages. This made Lone ever more angry at the Lemurian who had tricked Sophie since it hadn't spoken in Milindonian on purpose.

"I'm here to see your Chieftain. I want to apologise," Lone replied in an honest manner.

The Lemurian eyed Lone very sceptically. Naturally, he was very unsure about how truthful Lone was being since Lone had almost no reason to apologise as far as the Lemurians were concerned. Although, if he had to make a guess, the Guard would assume Lone was being honest based off of his tone and body language. 'The Chieftain did ask us to be more accepting of others-ss. What should I do-ss?' the Guard thought.

After standing still for a few minutes, Lone's patience was very close to running out. However, just as he was about to ask what was taking so long, the presumed Guard Captain finally opened his scaly mouth.

"Please follow me-ss. I will take you to the Chieftain-ss," he said before he turned around and walked towards the gate. Lone happily followed after him. 'Took him long enough to come to a decision. Glad he accepted my request though. I wonder why he did?' Lone thought.

Lone listened to the Guard as he ordered the other Guards to do something in a language Lone was struggling very hard to understand. 'Is that their tribal tongue? Interesting... in theory, I should be able to learn it. I wonder what he ordered them. Probably to open the gates, huh? And I guess he is the Captain. Is strength the determining factor for rank in their tribe?' Lone's passion for knowledge had quite clearly been ignited by all of the new things he was currently experiencing.

With a loud creak, the large and primitive gate was swung open by some sort of pulley system that also fascinated Lone. 'So interesting! Mmm, I need to take some time to study how that works if things go well with the Chieftain. That reminds me, I need to see if there are any Dwarfs in this City who would be willing to teach me about their technology,' Lone thought in joy while he fiddled with his mechanical glasses.

After the gate had fully opened, the Guard Captain continued onwards. Lone followed after and was shocked by what he saw.

Even if the technology and hierarchy were somewhat primitive in Lone's view, the people looked very happy. There were Lemurians standing around talking to each other with smiles on their faces, small children running after each other in a playful way. It all seemed very... civilised.

"Shocked, Fox-ss?" The Guard Captain asked with a proud grin adorning his scaly lips.

Lone looked around for a few more seconds before he replied, "Yes, I am. I honestly thought your society would be far less... happy. It seems I underestimated your cultural advancements based on your technological ones. My apologies for that."

"No need to apologise, Fox-ss. We were as you said, very unhappy-ss. That only changed recently-ss," the Guard Captain said with a look of regret on his face. Clearly, he was regretting the past ways of the Lemurians.

"What changed?" Lone absentmindedly asked. He cared, but he was very engrossed in studying the people and any devices they held. A few of the Lemurians he had seen so far were holding weapons or tools that were clearly built in an efficient way, yet hadn't been forged at all. It was as if they had stepped right out of the late eras of the stone ages and it intrigued Lone to no end.

"The Chieftain had a big fight with the one known as ' The Enchantress'-ss. She lost and many of our kin were killed in the aftermath-ss. It was then that our Chieftain realised the way we had lived for so many generations, was wrong-ss. We have changed since then-ss. No longer are we a blind and violent race-ss!" the Guard Captain exclaimed. It would seem that his explanation had excited him.

Lone continued to scan the people while he replied, "I see. Changing the nature of your species is certainly a difficult thing to do. My image of your Chieftain is getting better. Mind you, it was already high since she spared my life."

At those words, the Guard's attitude noticeable relaxed towards Lone. It wasn't hard to tell how honest Lone was, especially for such an instinctual race like the Lemurians, and hearing praise about his ruler would naturally make the Guard Captain feel proud and pleased.

"We are nearing the Chieftain's hut, Fox-ss. I must ask again, what is your true purpose for visiting us-ss?" the Lemurian asked in a stern, no nonsense tone.

Lone finally pried his attention away from the Lemurians in the distance who were clearly avoiding him, but otherwise going about their regular day-to-day life. "As I said. I need to apologise for my previous actions to the former member of your tribe. She didn't deserve what happened to her just because she tried to scam my lover. I went overboard. It's as simple as that."

"Very well," the Guard replied before he turned the final corner that led to the Chieftain's hut. It was large and made from a mixture of stone and what looked like thatch. Lone wasn't impressed by the visuals of it, but he was clearly a little bit nervous about how his meeting would go, as made apparent by his swishing tails. Fortunately for him, Lemurians had no experience with Foxkin, so the fact that they wore their emotions on their tails was an unknown fact.

Lone watched as the Guard Captain approached the hut, knocked on its door and spoke in his native tongue before he returned to Lone.

"You may go and talk to the Chieftain, she has permitted your visit-ss," he said to which Lone sighed with relief. He thanked the Guard Captain and moved to the Chieftain's hut. 'I am glad I made the right choice-ss,' the Guard thought. He then returned to his duty of guarding the gate.