The trouble with invitations that specify a class of attire comes from that they don’t tend to include a manual detailing what exactly that means. Does “common attire” mean we’re good to go in the armor sets that are our only currently owned outfits? Or does that mean commoner party clothes? Or … what?

The four of us kicked the question around and came up with a collective shrug. So we asked our waiter. He suggested that for most events that would specify “common attire”, it would mean your ordinary clothes rather than armor, preferably relatively recently cleaned. Then he asked …

Waiter: “What’s the venue?”

Maeve: “Meeting the king.”

His eyes went wide. Maybe because our party of four consisted mostly of folks wearing armor that bore plenty of dirt and the stains of battle.

Waiter: “Then I would recommend going with brand new clothes for the occasion, though ones appropriate to your means.”

Maeve: “Thanks so much for explaining!”

So, new clothes, but don’t hock the proverbial family farm for it? Got it.

Since I’d decided to ask Simon to go along and he accepted, it was the two of us who really needed to go shopping. But Darcy and Kuro volunteered themselves to hit the shops with us and keep us company. Probably for the best because I’m not sure Simon would have felt comfortable in a women’s attire fitting room at this point. And I didn’t really want to shop alone. So I found myself going from shop to shop with an old gaming buddy the day after we first met in person. Nice!

Darcy: “Taking Simon. Is it a date then?”

Maeve: “A d- … I don’t … uh … not officially. I think.”

Darcy: “Hehehe. He seems like a good one. And I’m not just talking about his butt.”

Way to make me blush in our first few minutes of shopping. Skills.

Maeve: “Wow! … I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. … OK, maybe I would. Anyway. Yeah. On both accounts.”

Darcy: “I met Kuro first. Poor boy. He got lost in Dunmar. Can you believe that?”

Maeve: “But it’s not even all that big.”

Darcy: “Eh. It’s about the typical size. Hehehehe! Ahhh. I know, you meant Dunmar. Yeah, direction sense is not Kuro’s strong suit. And he didn’t play the game as long as us. So he doesn’t know even the core cities that well. Even if he had started earlier, apparently he spent most of his time there analyzing the magic system. That and submitting requests for ninja themed stuff. Ha! Like Lars would put ninjas into Three Moons when he’s from here where there are no ninjas. That time on the magic system wasn’t wasted though. Kuro learns spells a good bit faster than I do. He’s a bit squishy, but he’s got loads of potential as a back line caster once he expands his repertoire a bit more. And he listens. He was all talking fire spells at first. All I had to do was point out I was a front liner running without a healer and he picked Cure Wounds when we got to the mages guild.”

Maeve: “Good choice.”

Darcy: “Yeah, I remember the raid planning top goal you taught the guild: aim to have half or more of your party at least capable of healing. We may have had the occasional stalemate from not maxing DPS, but we had a better raid survival rate than I’d seen in other guilds or games.”

Maeve: “Because you …”

Darcy: “... don’t want to be without healers if the wrong quarter of the party drops to AOE.”

Maeve, smiling broadly: “Exactly. Can’t drop ‘em without bringing the DPS, but also can’t drop ‘em if the DPS drops before the monsters.”

Darcy: “It all comes back to being able to keep it up.”

Maeve: “Ahhh! You’re incorrigible.”

Darcy, winking: “I’m a grandma. The only question is whether we’re saying it or just thinking it.”

Maeve: “Haha. Ohhh. Yeah, can’t imagine it from my grandma.”

Darcy shrugged and said, “Eh. My granddaughter might not imagine it from me either.”

Maeve: “How about this one?”

Darcy: “Not too bad. Keep it aside and try a few more. So Kuro is shy. Get him talking and he might not shut up for a while. But mostly he’s shy. And an artist. Pretty sure he was a geeky college boy back home. American anime otaku, you know. My late husband was like that except made in Japan. Maybe I have a type.”

Maeve: “Sounds like it.”

Darcy: “When we met Simon. Well, the longer we stuck around, the more Kuro seemed threatened. As if I were looking for a big warrior man in my new life. Ha! Just because a tiger is handsome doesn’t mean I want one in my house. Hmm. Maybe that’s not the right way to say it to you?”

Maeve: “Haha. Not anymore, I guess.”

Darcy: “Oh, not that gown. That is not flattering.”

Maeve: “OK.”

Darcy: “Gah. When we hand that one back they should burn it to avoid cursing some other woman with it. Anyway, we decided to come here to the city to learn spells, train, see if we could find an adventurers guild, that sort of thing. I think Simon wanted to come along. But he stayed back. Said he didn’t feel right leaving yet, wanted to clear out a few more monsters around Dunmar. Perhaps Simon could see that Kuro had trouble believing I wasn’t longing for the big guy. And he stayed out there alone to avoid causing trouble for us. That’s a good guy.”

Maeve: “Do you wish he hadn’t come now?”

Darcy: “Oh, gods no. You’re here. That makes everything different.”

Maeve: “What?”

Darcy: “Wow, you’re a treasure. This time the big guy is coming to town with a pretty girl of his own. So you make him not a threat to Kuro.”

Maeve: “But we’re not …”

Darcy: “Maybe not. But that doesn’t change it. You came together. It changes the flow.”

Maeve: “Huh. Do you think we’d make a good couple?”

Darcy: “Hehe. Maybe. I don’t know. I didn’t plan on a relationship here, you know. It’s a dangerous world, especially out of the city. Doesn’t seem like a good place to bring up children. Except maybe for nobles. Not that I’m entirely messing with Kuro; if we save the world once or twice, we’ll probably end up having children after.”

Maeve: “Solid points.”

Darcy: “Right? But like the kids say, ‘you do you.’ Follow your own nature. I came here to really swing a sword at evil things while stopping a Big Bad Evil Guy in a world where I can hopefully do that for real without getting arrested. But falling for somebody like Kuro seems to be what I do. What about you?”

Maeve: “Yeah, I don’t know. I came here to help make people’s lives better. Though when I say it out loud, it sounds kind of vain to think people would need me for that.”

Darcy: “Does it? Even back on Earth, sometimes ordinary people helped people, right? And the way things work in all this seems to be that we come here to help and get rewarded with powers to help partly for our willingness to do things like coming here to help. And you’ve been helping people longer than I’ve known you. Doesn’t that make you perfect for the job?”

Maeve: “I don’t know. But I really like this dress.”

It was a nice bright green gown. Modest but fit me fairly well, which was really lucky since the shops didn’t have more than one size for each dress. And the color went nicely with my deep purple hair, which was a natural hair color here if not particularly common.

Darcy: “Yeah, that’s a keeper. And good timing. We should probably meet up with the guys and get you to the castle.”

We found Simon and Kuro easily with the help of Felix’s aerial view. Didn’t even have to resort to the Search spell. They’d been looking for us for a little while but apparently guessed the wrong direction.

Simon picked out a decently fitting if quite plain blue tunic and new tan hosen. We knew Simon picked it out since Kuro spent a little while complaining that Simon wouldn’t go with any of his suggestions.

Once we got to the castle, I gave Darcy a shoulder guard and a bag of squirrel chow then asked George to hang out with her. Meanwhile, I had Felix head out to hunt for himself with a reminder to avoid any prey in a pen. I suspect this audience with the king wouldn’t really be a proper place for either of them.

The front wall loomed maybe 4 stories above us, with seamless stone that made the employment of magical construction obvious. From outside near the gate, we could readily see the two nearest round towers rising much higher than the walls. And the tip of a third tower could be seen further back. Then behind the foreground towers we could see the upper two floors of a rectangular out building. Further behind that, the tallest building in the kingdom, the castle’s keep, stood as tall as a highrise on Earth.

As we headed in, Kuro called out in English, “Have fun storming the castle!” in a not half bad imitation. At least it wasn’t in Selkiri. Still, neither Simon nor I could help but facepalm.