The tree woman stood up from the table and extended her hand to Karl. “I am Leafa, you may call me Overlord, or Princess Leafa. I believe that it is better that you return to your friends for now. They should be finished with the counsellors by now, and we haven’t heard about any issues from that interview.
You can wait in your suite for now, and I will come talk to you later.”
Karl smiled and kissed her knuckles, which were cold as ice. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Princess. But if I can request a maid who isn’t as terrified by the colour glitch of my outfit, I would appreciate it.”
The Overlords all laughed at his comment. “What makes you think it’s a glitch? Our base nature and our civilized thoughts are often in conflict with each other, but there is no doubt that your aura tells the truth.”
Karl shrugged. “Well, I suppose I can’t argue with that. I just hate seeing the staff so terrified.”
The Troll Overlord rumbled with laughter. “Don’t forget that we already know how many people you’ve killed. They have good cause to be terrified. Just be kind to them, and they will calm down before you are ready to leave.
Once the rest of the council is here, we will come to a decision, and then you should be able to return to your merchant route.”
That sounded problematic to Karl. If the rest of the council was coming, it meant that Overlord Rank Minotaur was coming, and possibly with the turtle that he beat up at the dungeon.
One of them was likely to insist that he had found a way to lie to them.
The guards came in to escort Karl back to the suite, and while they did give him a generous amount of personal space, they looked more relaxed than when they had led him to the meeting.
As before, they closed and locked the door once Karl was back in. Then the ladies began laughing uncontrollably.
“You should have seen how concerned they were that you were keeping us prisoner.” Dana giggled.
“It looks like you made it back here intact, at the very least. Did you get any more hints about what the plan is?” Tessa asked.
“They’re calling the rest of the council here, or the council was coming back anyhow. They’re not going to make a final decision until they’re all here.
There is only one issue with that. Morrisa, the Overlord Minotaur that was hitting on Overlord Ahmad, is part of the council. She’s the one who drew the picture the guards were going on.
If she decides that I’m the one that they were looking for, it could be a real pain.”
“Alright, we will have to come up with a plan if they’re going to make it difficult for us.” Tessa sighed.
The first thought through Karl’s mind was that they couldn’t just hack their way out of here with a whole group of Overlords present.
Then the realization that the clothing colours might not be wrong made him frown in annoyance.
The maid came back with food to find them all laughing and lounging on the sofas.
She kept her distance from Karl, and kept her head down as she placed out cups of tea and bite sized snacks.
“Thank you.” Karl offered as she finished.
She bobbed a nervous curtsy, then rushed out of the room again.
There wasn’t much more detail that they could discuss here, as there was definitely someone spying on them and listening to everything that happened in the room. So, they just relaxed for a few minutes, then Karl got up to see what sort of books were on the shelves.
“If we’re going to spend the day here, we might as well enjoy ourselves with some light reading.” He suggested.
It was all boring stuff. Poetry, travel journals, romance novels.
No, that last one was fairly promising. Karl flipped open the cover and chuckled as he read the intro.
“The dramatic love story of a rejected Succubus and her six Alpha Dragon mates.” He read out loud.
“What are you even looking at, and why is it even on the shelf?” Lotus demanded as she ran over to see if Karl was messing with her.
He handed over the book, and Lotus flipped a few pages, then her cheeks blushed bright red. “The body doesn’t work like that!” She was about to drop the book in horror, but Ophelia was there to rescue it, and then begin laughing as the read the page. Then she passed it to Dana, who turned bright red as she read the passage, and passed it to Tessa so that everyone could suffer the same horror.
Tessa read the page with an intrigued look.
“I think part of the problem here is that they don’t understand dragon biology. Or maybe we don’t understand succubi biology.” She mused.
Karl knocked at the door and a guard opened it a crack to see what he needed.
“Is there a succubus on the guard team? We were reading a novel, and we have questions.” He explained.
The guard smirked and shook his head. “I know the book you mean. We use that suite as a break room when there are no guests. No, that’s not physically possible, even if they weren’t all ancient dragons, who should be fifty metres long.”
“Thanks. I’m sure you just saved the maid a very horrifying question and answer session.”
The guard chuckled. “She’s a satyr, not a demon. Her legs are just hidden under the dress.”
“Noted.”
Karl went looking for another book to read, one that wasn’t as disturbing, and ended up with a book on Demonic Blacksmithing.
He might have no skills with metalworking, but it was still more interesting than doing nothing, and he could lightly meditate to build the energy in his spaces as he waited.
Remi had been hoping for something alchemy based, but there weren’t really any technical manuals of any sort in the library. Even the one that Karl was reading was about the styles, not the details of how they were made.
At the very least, it was interesting, and it kept his mind occupied for the next few hours until a knock at the door informed that they had visitors.
“Ladies and Sir, you have been invited to dinner with the Council of Overlords. We have prepared suitable clothing for you. This set is not aura coded, it is just a regular outfit suitable for dinner. Most guests do not arrive with such clothing, but if you have it, you are free to wear your own.” She quietly greeted them.
Karl stood back and let the others do the talking this time. Ophelia took the pile of clothes with a smile. “Thank you. We appreciate the concern, and we will happily wear what you have preferred. How long do we have? Is there time to properly bathe and groom?”
The maid bobbed a curtsy. “Yes, Miss. There are ninety minutes. If you wish, I can have a team assembled to assist you all in bathing and preparing for dinner.”
Karl smirked and nodded his head. “I think that the ladies would greatly enjoy that. I can take care of my own grooming, but they will appreciate a full team to get them ready for dinner.”
Maybe not all of them, but Lotus for certain. And probably Ophelia, who had a lot of fur to shampoo and brush out.