Meet with the lord.

It's a quaint building hardly larger than any other home in the village, other than a lovely deck build out the side with carved wooden furniture, such as a swinging chair and a table. There are clay pots set up in the windowsill with little colourful flowers. Otherwise, the walls are made of dark wooden logs. A pathway leads your group straight to the front door, and Hartmut knocks.

"Come in," a quiet voice responds. It's deep and wispy.

After pushing open the door, Hartmut leads you all indoors.

The fireplace flickers with a warm, comfortable glow. In front of it is a rocking chair, and a man sits waiting. His skin is tanned and weathered with time. His facial hair is short, and his head is balding, and both are speckled with grey. He's already facing you as you enter. Beside him are a series of several chairs, each different than the other. If you had to guess, you would say he or somebody else carved each of them by hand.

Peony pushes the bag of items through the doorway but remains on the path. "Uhm. I think I'll wait out here if that's okay, m'lord."

"Of course. That's fine. We'll be right here," you say.

She giggles. "Have fun!

Hartmut slowly pushes the door closed with a creak.

The old man reaches down to lift an iron cane, and he uses it to push him up from his seat. He shifts behind his rocking chair and turns it to face the rest of the room. After that, he walks around and sits right back down as he gestures a hand forwards. "Please."

You nod and take the seat in the center.

Niki sits at your left, and Amara to hers. Eva takes the chair on your right. Meanwhile, Hartmut remains standing by the door along with his son.

"Do you mind if I stay?" asks Hartmut.

"Not at all," Ramon replies. "Now. I've been told you are Demon King Kyle Warren, a man wanted by Tivera. Though I admit that I know very little else. Suddenly, out of nowhere, you make an appearance, and the first thing you do is save the son of one of my people, and then his daughter next. Pray tell then, why is it they call you Demon King? What is your agenda here?"

Despite his raspy voice and old age, he's quite good at speaking.

"To be honest with you, we just didn't know there even was a village here." You gesture a hand backwards. "We live far in those mountains. That's where we hide away from Tivera. It all came from a misunderstanding, but I don't expect you to believe that. We actually are the ones who slew the previous Demon King who lived there, and I don't expect you to believe that either. The reason we came here is because I wanted us to be allies. Otherwise, you would have heard of us eventually, and lived in fear, since you wouldn't have any idea."

"We seek only a place to live," Amara speaks up. "Somewhere we can belong. Castle Phoenix is a refuge for those with nowhere else to go."

Ramon ponders for a moment, scratching his beard. "I will say that you certainly don't all look like the kind to be evil monsters."

"Yeah. And if we wanted to wipe you out or something, wouldn't we have just done that?" Niki chimes in.

"A blunt but true state of fact. We do have a sturdy defense against monsters, but we have little to stop the army of a Demon King."

"What is this defense?" you ask. "It's impressive that you've been able to survive out here all this time, especially with Demon King Sa'dis having resides not that far way. That being said, he wasn't there for a long time."

"I suppose there was never reason to attack. We serve no strategic advantage nor do we have resources he would have needed. We aren't on any of the commonly purchased maps either. That doesn't mean we don't occasionally have monsters too close to our borders, however. That's why we're fortunate to have our captain of the guard."

"Captain Zido," Hartmut continues the other man's thought. "He's a powerful man, and has kept us safe for sometime now."

You look over at Eva shifting in her seat. She tugs down on the hem of her dress as she pushes her thighs tightly together.

"What?" she asks as she notices you looking.

"You just keep moving around," you whisper back. "You know, you could have asked Luna to make you pants instead."

"This outfit is cute and fine!" she shouts.

Amara chuckles. She herself seems to be getting used to her outfit as well. She pulls on the dress, shifting it over her leg as to not accidentally show too much from sitting. "They were a little last minute, I suppose. But they are lovely as well."

The lord once again brings himself up from his seat with the help of his cane. "How about we finish this talk outside? It's getting stuffy in here anyway." With a slow tap of his cane against the floorboards, he walks past Hartmut and opens the door. "Come."