Karl ran up the stairs with the Innkeeper right behind him. Getting caught breaking into a travelling Demon's hotel room was the sort of thing that got you disappeared, and there was a chance that this was one of his patrons.
Karl stopped at the top of the stairs and resisted the urge to laugh at the sight that greeted him. One very drunk sailor was using both hands to carefully insert the key for room number nine into the door for room number six. Then he cussed, kicking the door, and repeated the process when it didn't work.
That was what had triggered Karl's spell. He must have put his shoulder into it at so point, before he realized that it just wasn't working.
The Innkeeper rushed past Karl.
"Sir, is there an issue with the door? Here, let check. Oh, see, that's the problem. You're holding it upside down. It's for room nine and this is room six. Follow just over here, and there we go."
The Innkeeper escorted the drunk to bed, and the man was snoring before the Innkeeper had even closed the door.
"So sorry about that, Sir. It happens now and then."
Karl waved his hand, dismissing the man's concern. "It's fine. I thought it might be sothing serious, as we've had a few incidents in the past. You know how it can be, travelling with a whole group of lovely ladies."
The Innkeeper nodded in agreent. "Yeah, that Werebear has so gloss to her fur. I'd imagine that you'll have issues now and then with amorous suitors."
Strangely, he was right. It always seed to be soone going after Ophelia that gave them relationship related issues.
But with the problem solved, Karl quickly recreated the talisman, and slapped it on the inside of the door to return to the tavern.
"False alarm." He inford the others as he returned to the main room, only to be grabbed by a desperate looking man in expensive clothes.
In the most literal sense. There was actual gold woven into the cloth.
"So sorry, Sir. Midwife Musa, you're needed back at the Palace. Oh, hello, Beth. Sorry that I can't stay. My wife has gone into labour." The man announced, then dragged the older Demoness out of the tavern.
"I like this place, it's lively." Ophelia laughed.
"Will you really make an item for my mom? I know it's rude to ask soone to work the day they arrive in the city, but we could really use it. The King just had triplet sons, and every single Clan Chief, Demon Noble and Monster Lord is trying to create an eligible bride for them. It's tradition that the Prince will pick a bride not more than two years younger than himself on his fourteenth birthday, and they will be married when she reaches eighteen. So, we currently have pandemonium in the maternity ward." Beth explained.
Lotus raised her glass in a cheer for the Demoness.
"Fluffy baby Demons!" The rather drunk Nature Cleric toasted, accompanied by Old Jared at the table beside them.
Karl sighed and relented. "I will make your mother an item to help with her work. It will be ready in the morning, and I will explain how to use it."
The Innkeeper rolled his eyes as the barmaid did a little happy dance. Fortunately, Karl's team and one drunk sailor were the only ones in the tavern.
It was starting to get dark, and the night crowd would be there soon to start drinking. But Karl had no intentions of still being downstairs when that happened.
It didn't take much to get the half drunk group up to the room, where the talisman inford him that he was the first to enter the room.
Rae was awake now, and planning to keep vigil from within her space unless sothing interesting happened to be nearby. There were powerful things in this city, and she didn't want to steal their food before she knew what they liked best. It was common sense for a Bloodbath Spider to let the strongest take the things they wanted first.
Unlike Karl, who could vaguely sense the power of the residents, she could clearly tell that there was at least one sothing stronger than a Totem in this city. There were Totems as well, and those were dangerous, but whatever that last thing was, it was bad news.
She suspected that it was a Demon, but her genetic mory didn't have a lot of information about them, and it didn't feel like any of the others they had t today.
The city of Drodh appeared to be a well regulated place, though. Once the sun went down, and the last of the drinking crowds went ho around midnight, the city streets were silent, with magical lamps on each corner, giving pedestrians a sense of safety.
Many of the demons were nocturnal by nature, Rae noticed. Though they were primarily active during the day, and the city slept at night, there were many glowing eyes that marked so many nocturnal predators. The other species in the city weren't all so lucky. Rae saw that many of the Dragonkin struggled in the dark, as well as various lizardfolk and Ogre species. It looked sowhat similar to what she had seen in Newbon, but the power level was much higher.
She wasn't sure how to feel about that. She had just been getting comfortable in the Golden Dragon Nation, and now she was sowhere that the prey would be able to fight back again, and they even had dozens or hundreds of Overlords just wandering around a city with boring jobs.
On one hand, there were so many flavours of Overlord Blood. On the other, she liked stabbing prey, not being stabbed by prey.
She had even seen one who was carrying a stack of flyers for his carriage making business.
What sort of Overlord sold primitive wagons?
By morning, she understood. There was no fuel here, they didn't make it. So, there were no buses or cars. Because there were no buses, they had to use carriages and wagons for everything. But the majority of Demons had functional wings, and there was nearly as much air traffic as ground traffic. That ant you had to watch for soone about to land on your head, but mostly, people would land in the road with the wagons and then step to the sidewalk.
She should get Karl to find a flying spell for her. It looked fun.
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