The guards who had been sent to "invite" Karl for dinner were sending a flurry of messages back to their mistress. She was a Supreme-Ranked Family head, but she was a Druid, and not suitable to a challenge battle.
Trying to abduct a duellist who could take out a Peak Immortal in single bat would cause so much damage to their Noble House that they might very well lose their third place position within the city.
Even if he was a Divine Fox, the cost might be too high.
"Perhaps a dinner in a public space?" One of them offered.
Karl nodded. "I have no objections to that, however I will inform her that I will be chaperoned. My wife trusts me, but it is better not to create unnecessary misunderstandings.
I just finished a Dungeon run with this fine gentleman, so he can fill the role."
The mage gave him a look that spoke volumes, and Karl whispered a message to him.
{What's the harm? You get a high-end free dinner out of it. They won't try anything in public, or I'll set the badger loose on them.}
The mage chuckled at the thought of Cara loose within an Elven Royal Restaurant.
The amount of priceless magic inside such a building that would appeal to a badger would cause losses that would cripple a lesser Noble Family.
In his mind, Dana rolled her eyes. [You are just enjoying causing trouble too much. I'm going to have to limit the amount of influence that Cara has on you. Perhaps we can find you an Order element sister to keep the effect under control?]
[Ooh, bring back a pet elf.] Opal cheered.
[For one, NO. For two, that's not an order aligned sister.]
"How did it even e to this? Is this a side effect of the World Dragon's luck? The least likely events are actually the most likely to happen to you? How could you attract the attention of High Nobility just by walking from the dungeon to the bookstore?"
Karl shrugged. "No idea, but it happens all the time. It keeps life interesting."
[Do you want to e to dinner?] Karl asked Dana, before the guards could finalize the details with their Mistress.
[No. You're going to cause an incident, and I am busy trying to teach Serpahina how to use her dragon fire to make a nest just the right temperature.]
Karl laughed at her annoyance, and Rae's enthusiasm for the prospect of a fight.
"Alright, our Mistress has agreed to a location. If the mage can bring you appropriately dressed to the Ancient Oak Restaurant in two hours, we will be waiting."
Karl nodded politely.
"Oh, that is wonderful, just enough time to finish our shopping. Now, I should check out with these cookbooks, and then we can hit a clothing shop, and somewhere with perfume for my wife, and perhaps a jeweller."
In the ice cream shop, Cara winked at her panions. "It looks like they did the dumb thing and tried to snatch Karl, just like you guessed. The next round is on me. We've got two hours before the dinner."
The other Elves laughed as they learned that they had won a bet with a badger.
Only, did they really win? They strongly suspected that Cara only bet against that oute so that she had an excuse to stay here for a second round of coffee and ice cream, as she hadn't gotten to try all the flavours.
They simply didn't understand that Cara never made a bet that she had a chance of losing.
No matter how this one had ended, she got what she wanted, since their bet was on who paid for the next round, and she only wanted more ice cream.
They had so much money stored in Karl's System Interface that she could just pay for anything that she wanted, whenever she found it. A few ice cream bowls for her new friends was not even close to being a financial hardship when they could make currency that the locals would accept.
That had to be one of the best System Features, next to the loot storage space.
While they ordered, Karl took the mage to a clothing shop. They were followed by the whole entourage of guards, who were making certain that they didn't try to make a run for it in the two hours before the dinner.
"Are you seriously going to drag me along to a dinner at the Ancient Oak? That place isn't somewhere the people like me can casually enter. It's a million gold system coins a year for the membership to just step foot in the place, and more if you want a private room for your dinners.
I'm not even Elven Nobility, much less a Royal Lineage.
It's like you suggested bringing a feral woodland Elf in with you."
Karl smiled, and the mage gave him a pleading look. "Please, don't. I know that look, it's the look of a madman who just got a brilliant idea. But seriously, do not bring a feral Elf into the restaurant.
You'll get us all beaten and thrown out."
"What about a Forest Trickster?"
The Mage actually laughed at that. "Oh, that would be even worse in so many glorious ways. By the time that they realized what had happened and managed to catch and stop her, it would be worse than bringing the badger."
"Fine, no surprise guests. But we need to go find proper clothing. Now, let's pick a good clothing place. How about that one? It looks like it sells high-quality items that aren't silk. I have a supplier for silk clothing, and she doesn't like it if I use others' silk."
"Right, the Lady Rae. This place should be fine. That's an Elven Dreamcloth shop. It's made from plant fibres, and imbued with magic. The price isn't cheap, but if you have items to trade, that should be fine."
Karl definitely had items he could trade.
Plus, it was just one outfit, it couldn't be that expensive. Rare Grade should be fine for a short notice visit. The style was the important part, and he would use the accessories to show off instead.
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