Northern lied.
The reason why he had said he was going to go and place a request wasn't entirely a lie. It made a lot of sense and was a reasonable thing to do.
What was a lie, however, was the fact that he didn't tell Shin that they'd be moving right under the nose of the people they were looking for.
Because from the moment he saw the past and future chaos of the citadel, he saw something that marveled him: several people with long, pointed ears at war with forces of the government, desperately fighting to protect their lives.
Northern at that moment knew something was definitely not right. Why was there such an enormous number of elves who should be in the underworld in their own world?
And moreover, what was the deal with their war with the government?