Disclaimer: Golden Sun is the property of Nintendo and Camelot. I don't own so much as a single share in either. Alas.
Fleeting
It's not about love.
He is never in danger of forgetting that. Love is weakness and distraction and pain (though he would not admit caring about anyone well enough to known that last part). His plans are too important to be set aside, even briefly, for anything insignificant as emotion.
It is convenient to become closer to the princess. She is, after all, deep in the council of her brother the king and his work will go more smoothly if he has trust of Ayuthay's ruler rather than his suspicion. There is no need to scuttle around in the night when he can stroll into the Alchemy Well's heart at midday so long as he is at her side.
Her presence does not try upon his patience. Not particularly beautiful, but clever, witty, curious, open minded and most certainly not caught up in any romantic fantasies of marriage and children. They slide easily into each other's spaces. Sometimes he thinks it's almost a pity she's so devoted to her duty and her people's future; but he cannot stay forever and she will not consent to leave.
It's not about love.
He's never told her that it is; not as they walk together through the gardens of the palace of Ayuthay or lounge in the shade of its walkways. No trinkets like lover's gifts are purchased in the city's markets. When he tells her of the places he has travelled, the sights he has seen, he does not promise one day he will return to them with her.
As they move together in the darkness he never whispers anything more than her name.
Stolen kisses that land on his skin like butterflies, breathless laughter in empty corners, cream and mocha pressed close against each other. It is many things; intimate, pleasurable, sweaty, as distracting as he will allow anything to be.
It's not about love.
Retrieving the Luna Mask from the depths of the Barai Ruins is not a difficult task for him. He is a powerful adept; the most powerful in Weyard. Activating the Alchemy Well is simplicity itself. The next stage of his plans does not run so smoothly however.
The Insight Lens refuses to accept him – a not an inconsiderable irritation. Without it his search for the Sol Mask proves fruitless. After having studied the Alchemy Well he knows that its twin machine will be useless without it; there is no point in activating the Alchemy Forge when it will only risk drawing attention to himself and his actions.
With his plans in Ei-Jei brought to a holt he has no reason to linger in Ayuthay. There are other leads to follow, other avenues to explore. The king might think to bind him to the city through marriage with his sister, but there is nothing holding him there really.
It's not about love.