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An hour before, the Emperor addressed the Proxima Centauri exploration fleet.

While the fleet admiral was sending out an emergency call order for the meeting Aron had requested and scheduled for an hour later, Ayaka was seen leaving the mothership and heading back to the planet, having been assigned another mission.

Upon landing at the designated zone, Ayaka wasted no time. She stepped off the ship with a suitcase in hand and walked purposefully toward a lone tree.

When she was about a hundred meters away, the lone tree began to shake and transform. Branches and leaves twisted and rearranged until a humanoid figure emerged, facing Ayaka with an uncanny valley smile.

"Welcome, Ayaka," the humanoid tree said. Her tone and manner of speaking seemed to have evolved, as expected. She and her fellow root senses were spread all over the planet, allowing them to see and hear everything happening on the surface.

As a result, the exploration fleet scientists classified the planet itself as a bona fide body of theirs, with anything on the surface akin to bacteria living on human skin.

With those extensive senses comes information, with information comes data, with data comes experience, and with experience comes change.

These changes were constant since a majority of the fleet had moved to the planet, using it as their operational base allowing for a large amount of data to be gathered by them constantly.

This was one of the many reasons crucial briefings and meetings took place in orbit, far from the planet itself.

“Thank you. How are your days going?” Ayaka responded as she placed the suitcase down. She missed the previous daimyo’s castle built by Birch during their first meeting, which had disappeared after a few months—a change that resulted from their gathering of information.

“Nothing but the usual,” Birch replied, as she made chairs for both of them to sit facing each other. “Your people are quite diverse in their thoughts and provide ample entertainment. You would wonder what we even called the time before all this activity. We didn’t even have a name for that feeling, as it was always the same—boredom. Personally, I don’t want to go back to that.”

“Does that mean there are those who want it to return to the previous silence?” Ayaka asked, her friendly smile maintaining a casual tone. While it seemed like she was simply continuing the conversation based on Birch’s previous comment, she was actually doing two things: strengthening their rapport and subtly gathering more information to build a comprehensive profile on them reflecting the empire’s “Trust but Verify” philosophy, which she embodied in her role.

“Reiterating from our previous meetings, we are distinct individuals with our own consciousness and thoughts,” Birch replied smoothly. “I can’t speak for the others’ inner feelings unless they choose to share them, much like you can’t know mine unless I reveal them. Although it may seem that we are all enjoying the current state, I can’t fully grasp what’s on the minds of others, something we learned from your interactions and from Lee Joon ho.”

“One of our worse traits,” Ayaka said with a smile. “But that liveliness is bound to increase when your children wake up one E-month from now. You personally might even come to dislike it,” she added, smoothly steering the conversation back to the previous topic. She knew that pushing further could risk overstepping boundaries, and she preferred to maintain the rapport they had without testing limits as currently there was no need for that.

“It’s always a pleasure to hear that,” Birch said with a warm tone. “However, I sense you have a specific reason for visiting today. You typically come by when there\'s something important to discuss or when you seek answers. Given the chatter about the emergency meeting, I assume your visit is related to that.”

She said it with such a nonchalant tone that one might think it was a skill humans could also master. Birch was currently listening to every bit of sound from the planet, isolating each one and understanding different contexts and topics simultaneously—a feat that would be impossible for humans, if we were able to hear the sounds of bacteria within our own bodies. For Birch, however, it was a routine process, carried out on a planetary scale.

“I’m here because of this,” she said, tapping the suitcase. “A communication network has been completed between our two star systems, allowing for instant communication. The emperor wanted to see if we could use this new capability to meet your criteria or not.” She finally got to the heart of her visit. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Ooh, congratulations,” Birch said, pausing thoughtfully.

Ayaka recognized that Birch’s pause indicated she was consulting with the other treefolks. As their representative, Birch\'s official statements required consensus from the entire group. To Ayaka, this was just part of the usual process.

After a brief pause, Birch resumed, “While our criteria do include having a conversation with him, which your new communication network can facilitate, meeting him in person is also a requirement. As for the rest of the criteria, those details are still confidential since we have yet to reach a consensus on all of them. However, achieving those criteria will necessitate a face-to-face meeting.”

Birch\'s response provided not only an answer to Ayaka’s question but also an insight into the tree folk\'s internal dynamics. It became clear that they were not as unified as might have been assumed, revealing a level of internal complexity that could either simplify or complicate their children\'s integration into the empire.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t start communicating now, as our criteria are based on humanity as a whole, and this meeting might help us refine them,” Birch added.

Ayaka paused, considering the implications of Birch\'s statement. The outcome of this preliminary meeting could either make the official meeting easier for the emperor or set more challenging criteria. She didn’t deliberate for long before responding, “In that case, let me arrange the meeting. Will your fellow tree folk be joining us now, or will you be the sole representative for this discussion?”

“For now, I will represent them, but for the official visit, all of us will be present,” Birch replied.