The First Legendary Beast Master

The General nodded in satisfaction as the basic details were settled.

"How long will you need to pack up for a week-long trip? We can leave later in the evening if you prefer. It is safe enough with your group in the bus." He offered.

"I think we should be able to get ready for a trip within the next hour. We all have a fully functional System interface, so we keep the majority of our stuff in our inventory. Other than the clothing and personal items we wouldn't want to take into combat with us, of course."

The General chuckled. "We can provide clothing for the meeting with the King. Nobody owns the traditional cultural outfits anymore, and they're still the dress code for the Throne Room."

Karl laughed. "You mean canvas pants and a miner's apron? I come from the Lithium Mines, our traditional wear is a bit unsuitable for court."

The General smiled. "I would imagine. No, the traditional Royal outfits are actually quite militaristic, from the founding days of the nation, when the entire territory was overrun with monsters and magical beasts."

Lotus and Ophelia came out of the bath in their armour, and went to grab a few items from the bedroom. Karl never left anything lying around, so he just activated [Bestial Raiment] to give himself a proper travelling outfit instead of his casual silk house clothes.

He stood to encourage everyone to get moving, and the General did a double take.

"That tabard. Where did you get it?" He asked.

Karl looked down. The spell had given him black drake scale mail armour under silver chest and leg plates, completed with the gold trimmed and tasselled Darklight Host War Champion tabard.

"Oh, it's actually a spell, not a physical tabard. It's supposed to pick what is best for the situation, and apparently the system thinks I need to impress someone. I got it during a little trip to the past when I fought a duel as Champion for the Darklight Host." Karl explained.

The man began to choke until Tessa thumped him on the back.

"Thank you, High Priestess. I was somewhat unprepared for that answer. You see, we might have a small issue. The King himself wears a silver trimmed Darklight Host War Champion Tabard. I don't know what the policy is for wearing a golden one, it's never come up in the past."

Karl shrugged. "If it helps, I earned it. For a brief time, I was the Bunga City Champion, until I passed the title to the Bronze Dragon Orthos so I could continue on my mission."

Tessa thumped Karl on the head. "You can't just casually say things like that. Look, now you've broken him."

She wasn't lying. The man was simply staring straight ahead as he tried and failed to process the news.

After a few seconds, he slowly blinked, sighed, grumbled to himself, then shook his head and straightened his back.

"Well, we can sort it all out once we get to the Palace. The bus is waiting outside the building. Please follow me, if you are all ready."

Rae and Thor both returned to their spaces to rest because riding on a bus was boring and bouncy, which left only the humans to suffer.

The General didn't even seem to notice that they had vanished, and simply got everyone seated in the plush seats of the transport, which was set up like a tour bus, or possibly a high-end RV.

Karl had seen videos where some of the Elite Idols lived and toured in vehicles like that while their shows were on tour, and that was what this interior reminded him of.

The bus began to trundle down the street and the General finally relaxed a little. His primary objective was nearly complete, and the requested Elite was on his way to the Palace. The rest was someone else's problem after they arrived.

A noise to his left caused Karl to turn, and in front of him was every young man and housewife's fantasy. A maid. An actual living, working maid in the Royal Palace uniform.

Oh, the number of times that he wished they lived a life luxurious enough to afford one so that he didn't have to do dishes or stand on the chair to dust the upper corners of the room.

Once they reached the edge of town, Hawk pushed the restrictions of his space to the limit to appear five hundred metres in the air. He could finally stretch his wings, and he was determined not to agree to remain inside and not scare the humans in the next city.

They could get used to him.

"Sir, I believe we might have an issue. There is a blue phoenix overhead, and the bird is definitely tracking us." The driver of the bus quietly informed the General.

"That's not an issue. And he's actually a Ghostfire Thunderbird. One of my bonded partners." Karl explained, shocking both soldiers.

"You can hear that?" The General asked.

"I can also hear the change in your heartbeat." Karl agreed, choosing the way that Sybil had described her overly sensitive hearing.

He could, if he paid attention, but Karl was much better at tuning out background noise than the formerly deaf Rogue.

While the General worked to come up with a response, the maid was scrutinizing their outfits.

"Sir, you are suitably dressed, as are the Murim Battlemage and the High Priestesses. But might I ask the Titanic Berserker to accompany me to the back to change to formal armour?"

Karl nodded and gestured to Ophelia, right before Rae dropped a pile of silk in her arms, pure smugness radiating through her thoughts.

[They're going to make her wear a dress under her armour. This will be hilarious.] The Bloodbath Spider chuckled.

[And that's exactly what you gave her, isn't it?]

[Yep. It's pretty, and it will go well with whatever shiny bits of armour she has.]

Ophelia sighed, resigned to her fate as she looked at the lace sleeves visible on the black dress Rae had offered up for this fiasco.