Chapter 31: Dinner?

With the party split up because of their new dinner plans the main bulk wait at the house for Ilev to arrive with the escort that the Lord would no doubt send for them, after they dropped off all of their weapons and the many backpacks full of camping equipment and food. Soon after the main bulk of the party were able to change out of their set of adventuring clothes and into a se that they had spare, the guide arrived along with Ilev, who quickly changed into something more suited for their dinner invite. Everyone was soon ready though and so they set off from their guild house following after the house staff member as they headed back up the hill towards the manor of Lord Connor Leon Seolfor the Fourth. Entering the manor for the second time the party were quickly ushered into the dining hall where the staff on hand were to begin the dinner shortly.

“Ah, I am so glad you received my invitation. I am terribly sorry it was on such short notice but when I heard that you were returning today, I could not simply sit by and wait until tomorrow to hear of your recent journey.”
“Well, it was an uneventful journey for the most part. I’m afraid the details might bore you.”
“The tales of adventurers can never be boring to the common man, or in my case the nobleman as we are unable to partake in those journeys ourselves.”
“Well instead of just telling you about our journey so far why don’t we also tell you about our journey so far? As last time we didn’t get the chance to after we were interrupted.”
“Oh that sounds wonderful. Why not start with your most recent adventure? As that is what I am most excited to hear about after all.”
“Where to start?”
“Ilev the beginning is too obvious so start a little beforehand.”
“Arano you mean when we met the coachman?”
“Yeah. So, we had this guy come up to us and ask us if we were the grand quest party, obviously we said yes. And he said that if we agreed to help get his daughter back from the lake void, he’d transport us there and back for free. After thinking about it for a night we agreed to help him, as we’d have to go to that void at some point anyway. And so, we got there without an awful lot actually happening. Want to continue Suieol?”
“Sure. Once we made it to the lake void, we spent the first full day fighting off the common monsters which were corrupted crocodiles and seagulls in that specific void, as for the void boss as we’re calling them for this void it was a strange, fused mixture of a void crocodile and seagull. After a short fight we were able to kill it and retrieve its core before having to settle down and make camp inside the void. Lekly?”
“Ok then, the best storyteller will continue. So yeah, the next morning Ilev asks me and Suieol to turn some of the dirt into the materials needed to make a raft so we could make it over to the island in the middle of the lake. So, we did that, and the guys rowed us across to the other side and we explored that island looking for the home that weird creature had made and any sign of the man’s daughter. After we covered the whole island and finding nothing but an abandoned structure that was where the creature lived before we killed it, we went back to the raft and found it halfway back into the lake even though we made sure to bed it into the island so it wouldn’t drift away until we got back. So, then Lexa… why don’t you continue actually.”
“Fine. I flew out to the raft and found a small girl on it, and when I found her, she was already exhausted and was unable to paddle any more. But she was still super nervous of me and tried to bat me away with one of the paddles. But I was able to convince her to go back to get the rest of the party and we all made our exit from the void, and we reunited the coachman with his daughter. Then asked him to drop us off at the void near the city in the middle of the plains. He agreed and would pick us up once he had returned his daughter home. And the plains void was a bunch of crabs and bees, everyone apart from me and Aromi killed the crab while me and Aromi went and healed the queen bee which got us a favour from them last night which was nice.”

The lord was watching each speaker with great enthusiasm as they spoke engrossed in the story of the party’s recent adventure.

“I say that was plenty interesting, once you have finished your quests you must write a book for people to read of your great tale. But I must ask, if you are otherworlders who told you about this city?”
“Oh that would have been a void hunter named Isla. Why do you ask?”
“Well you seemed to have a goal in mind when you arrived is all so, I figured someone must have told you about the city because otherwise I doubt you otherworlders would have stumbled across the city. But the void hunter Isla? She has not been seen around these parts in a long while, I had thought she was dead. It is nice to know she is still alive, even if there is more to that girl than you might think.”
“Why do you say that? She seemed perfectly normal to us, well as normal as one can be without their memories.”
“Well Ilev when she came to do her appraisal, she was capable of utilizing void magic even though she had never come into contact with a void until then. However, I probably should not have told you all of that, she does not like me blabbing on about her past, so please forget what I just said and let us enjoy the rest of dinner with more of your stories.”

The rest of the night passes with the party telling the rest of their adventures so far to the Lord before finishing dinner and departing back to their guild house for the night, with the information that there’s more to Isla weighing on them. With that knowledge the party decide to utilize the broker network once again at dawn to try and find out more information on their mysterious temporary party member.