Chapter 7: A Royal Invitation

  After arriving at the guild, Garfield proceeded to the vestibule while everyone else walked to the main entrance.

  “What have you got for me this time?”

  Garfield placed a sack down on the counter, untied the top, and pulled the sides down, revealing the head and crown of a Goblin King.

  “What the! Is that a Goblin King?” asked the very surprised appraiser.

  “He seemed to think so.”

  The appraiser wrote up a detailed explanation of what he received and handed it to Garfield. Garfield relocated to the main hall of the guild. There was quite a fervor as various adventurers, guild staff, and even White Glow peppered Deep End and Yttria with questions. As Garfield walked over to the request counter, he ignored the numerous eyes trained on him and handed over the appraiser’s written account. The clerk reviewed the paper with a puzzled look like she wasn’t sure what to do next. The Guild Master walked over to her.

  “Let me see it. Hm. All right. Invite Bearclaw, Yttria, White Glow, and Deep End to my office. Let me know right away if word arrives from the rest of Deep End.”

  Once in the Guild Master’s office, each group walked through the events from earlier. The Guild Master had suspected White Glow was in danger after hearing about Bearclaw’s activities and dispatched an available Platinum party to assist. Garfield provided a sanitized version, of course.

  Smith offered an additional thought. “There’s something I don’t get, though. Adding together the number of goblins we chased off and the number of goblin corpses that Bearclaw’s summoned creatures made, it’s just too many goblins. Was that cave system even bigger than we realized?”

  “Yes, I was surprised too,” Garfield bluffed. “I’d never seen so many goblins before!”

  “We will need to look into this more once we hear back from the rest of Deep End,” the Guild Master said. “I’ll keep a couple of parties on standby. The rest of you should recover from today. For White Glow, Bearclaw, and Ms. Yttria, please allow me to apologize on behalf of the guild for our mistake and for placing you in danger.”

  The Guild Master lowered his head.

  “Oh, there’s no need to apologize to me,” Yttria offered. “I’m just glad nobody was seriously hurt.” The priestess was not as forgiving.

  “If not for Sir Garfield and Ms. Yttria, my whole party would be facing a fate far worse than death right now. It won’t be easy for us to forgive and forget.” The rest of White Glow nodded in unison.

  “This was a tough one,” Garfield offered. “It was a shot in the dark, and I just happened to guess correctly that the two nearby goblin requests were related.” Garfield decided to throw the guild a bone since it was only his magical minimap that had discovered the problem anyway.

  “That Goblin King was crafty,” he continued. “It wasn’t so easy for the guild to anticipate what would happen. Still, I hope the guild will step up its efforts to evaluate new requests in the context of other requests. I, for one, would be happy to investigate requests, on occasion, when they are in doubt.”

  “If Sir Garfield says so…” the priestess considered. The Guild Master responded directly to Garfield.

  “I swear to do just that. We will rework our request evaluation procedures from the ground up and share these developments with the other guild branches. We need to do better. We must not fail in our responsibility to protect and develop our promising adventuring parties.”

  Garfield nodded in satisfaction.

  “Also,” the Guild Master said, “I’ll be reporting your accomplishments to the royal palace. Subjugating a Goblin King is a national-level accomplishment. The royal family may even hold an event to recognize your efforts.” The Guild Master thought, ‘I believe this opportunity is what the King was hoping for.’

  “Guild Master, just so you know, my party did almost nothing,” Smith admitted. “Please ensure that’s clear in your report.”

  Garfield denied it. “Nonsense! If you hadn’t arrived so quickly, it would have been a real struggle for me. The survivors were also rescued much more quickly because of you.”

  “I still can’t believe you took on so many goblins by yourself,” said Smith. “Anyway, we will wait here at the guild for word from the rest of our party.”

  “Understood. Bearclaw, Ms. Yttria, White Glow, please rest up. We’ll send for you if we have news.”

  When the group returned to the main hall…

  “Um, Sir Garfield?”

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  Garfield turned towards White Glow, who all looked back and forth at one another. The priestess spoke for the group.

  “We already told this to Ms. Yttria earlier but…”

  “Thank you very much!” they stated in unison. All of White Glow bowed towards Garfield. He scratched his cheek and turned to leave the guild.

  “Any time.”

  While Garfield was dealing with the cave goblins…

  “How did it go?”

  “I failed,” said Lilah.

  “Again!? How did you fail?”

  “I fell asleep. But you don’t underst—“

  “Fell asleep!?” the boss interrupted.

  “The guy’s bed was so comfortable, it was like sleeping on a cloud,” Lilah insisted.

  “Did he cast some defensive spell on you to incapacitate you?”

  “No… I honestly don’t think so. He was asleep the whole time. Also, when I woke up in the morning, he was gone. He must have just left me there…”

  “What?” the boss responded, incredulous. The rogue finally spoke up.

  “Boss, I think we should give up on this guy.”

  “Are you insane!?” the boss bellowed. “He produced gold coins with magic! His uncanny ability to hold us off only makes me more interested in bringing him under our wing. Lilah, try again.”

  Lilah squirmed in her seat nervously.

  “What?”

  “I’m… a little scared of him,” Lilah whispered.

  “You? Scared? I never thought I’d see that day. Didn’t the guy just leave you alone? What’s there to be scared of?”

  “I think I understand it,” the rogue offered.

  “What is it?”

  The rogue offered his explanation. “When you are instantly defeated before you can even accomplish anything, you just want to give up.”

  “But all Lilah needs to—“

  “What will happen next time!?” Lilah yelled. “Will I survive? Will something else unbelievable happen?”

  “I just don’t get it. Do you have any idea how many operations I have paused right now in order to—“

  “I don’t care!” Lilah shouted over the boss. She stormed out of the room.

  “What the heck!?”

  “Boss, Lilah is very prideful,” the rogue said.

  “So?”

  “I think the way she was treated as inconsequential is what’s bothering her so much. She’s probably more scared about what she’ll learn about herself than about anything that mysterious guy will do.”

  “I see,” the boss claimed. “I definitely don’t understand at all. Whatever, fine. Don’t approach the guy, but continue to monitor him. You can handle that, I hope?”

  “I’ll try.”

  The King read a report he just received from the Adventurer’s Guild Master. “This is it.”

  “What is it, my King?” the Prime Minister queried.

  “Here, read this.”

  As the Prime Minister finished reading the report, the King directed him to schedule a small banquet thanking the adventurers involved in subjugating the Goblin King.

  “According to what’s written here, the case is still open. Some of the adventurers are tracking down the goblins that escaped.” The King was not deterred by this argument.

  “We’ve received no recent requests for help from Rockville or Northshire. Begin the preparations. Make sure Charlotte will be in attendance.”

  “Yes, my King. What about the invitation to adventurer Yttria?”

  “I’ll allow it. Treat her as a normal adventurer.”

  That evening, the remainder of Deep End returned after visiting Northshire. The missing goblins were nowhere to be found. Garfield was resting in his room at the inn.

  “?Magic Telegram: Lord Kelvar? Report.”

  “Master, we escaped the cave system via the easternmost exit and then proceeded north away from the capital city. We avoided contact with humans and are camping on cliffs overlooking a forest of coniferous trees.”

  Garfield couldn’t remember which types of trees were coniferous. He’d keep that to himself for now. Kelvar continued his report.

  “Would you like me to continue summoning goblins? I could assemble an army of one million by tomorrow if you will it. To develop siege weapons or improve our equipment, we will need to conquer a city with the appropriate facilities.”

  “Good work. No, I don’t need you to grow your force or equip them further. Meet up with Gaia Zygós and defend that area from aggressors. Try to identify anyone observing the area without tipping them off to your objectives, and report back to me regularly.”

  “Understood.”

  Garfield terminated the magic telegram.

  ‘Hm,’ Garfield thought. ‘I need to introduce a new player that is connected to Gaia Zygós and Kelvar’s group, but not connected to me. I’ll need an excuse tomorrow to leave the city. I guess I’ll accept another request.’

  As Garfield climbed into his bed, he suddenly remembered that a woman had snuck into it the night before.

  ‘Oh yeah, what was the deal with that? Do I need to magically reinforce the door to my room? No… That will draw too much attention if someone tries to break in again. Better to let them break in and sleep in my bed, I guess…’

  Meanwhile, in Yttria’s room at the Lucky Lotus Inn…

  ‘I experience the most unusual things whenever I’m with Sir Garfield. Whether it’s due to his strange magic or not, it feels like nothing can go wrong whenever he’s around. His intuition was spot on with regards to those cave goblins… and he so bravely engaged the horde to rescue the survivors.

  ‘Actually, today was the first time he approached me for something. It felt good finally being of use to him. It’s strange, though. If you just look at his accomplishments over such a short time period, he’s an incredible adventurer. When speaking with him though, it doesn’t feel like he’s ambitious or wants to accomplish great things.’

  Yttria climbed into her bed as she continued thinking.

  ‘Should I… tell him about the circumstances of my family? I know it’s wrong to involve him but, I feel like there’s no problem he can’t solve, all while making it look easy. He’ll probably summon something really weird, though.’

  Yttria giggled and went to sleep.

  The following morning, Garfield was greeted by the innkeeper as he came down the stairs. “Sir Garfield, the Adventurer’s Guild delivered a message for you.”

  Garfield received the envelope and opened it right there, expecting it to be a boring status update about the missing goblins nobody could find. Inside the envelope was another envelope bearing a fancy seal. Garfield held it up for the innkeeper to see.

  “Do you know what this seal is?”

  The innkeeper’s eyes opened wide as she stared at the seal. After a few seconds, she recovered and answered Garfield.

  “That’s the seal of the royal family.”

  “Oh.” Silently, Garfield said to himself, ‘Crap, things are moving too quickly.’ He told the innkeeper, “I guess I’ll return to my room to read this one.”

  Garfield went back upstairs and unsealed the envelope. The message read:

  Dear Sir Garfield,

  Congratulations on your successful subjugation of the Goblin King you encountered north of our great city. The Adventurer’s Guild informed me of your heroic exploits and bravery. The Kingdom is safer as a result of your actions.

  In honor of your achievements, as well as the fine work of your fellow adventurers, please accept my invitation for a banquet in your honor. My family and I would love to meet you and thank you for your service to Bretten. Details regarding the event are below.

  With gratitude,

  King John Fenwick