Chapter 2016: The Perfect Hotel

While Karl finished the dungeon run, the situation in town became a bit more calm.

There were still new arrivals coming constantly, drawn by either the phenomenon of the Legendary Skill, or the news of a new dungeon. That left everyone in the Guild welcoming guests, or working in the shops late into the evening so that the guests would have everything that the Darklight Host could offer them.

Keeping the whole city running twenty-four hours a day was an odd schedule for most of the shops, which specialized in something that people didn’t usually need in the middle of the night.

But when you had so many new guests, there was always someone who needed it.

Even if what you sold were breakfast burritos made with Divine Cooking.

That’s where Button was right now, assisting some of their Kitchen Bunnies and the obsession demon ladies who were doing the sales.

They had an option of where they wanted to be, and they could have stayed in the Tiny World to play or nap. But Button wanted to see the outside world for a while, and Oak had assured her that they had more than enough security that some of the children could come outside and help.

So, she had volunteered to work at a breakfast restaurant taking orders.

The bigger people would deliver the food and coffee, but she would take all the orders and run them to the kitchen.

The Immortals thought that it was adorable, someone letting their Forest Dragon child run orders in the café. They assumed that her mother likely owned the shop, or was the head chef in charge of this marvellous food, but they didn’t question Button, just encouraged her to do her best.

More than once, the little dragon tried to obtain the coffee pot so that she could help refill cups, but every time that she tried, the servers just reminded her that she needed both hands to operate it, and she couldn’t hold it over table height, so she physically couldn’t fill the cups.

Button frowned. That was an excellent point, but she had read much about children her age helping in the restaurants that their parents owned. Surely, she could do more than take orders?

But she had forgotten that the stories were about humans. And an eight-year-old human was significantly taller than an eight-year-old Button. Forest Dragons took a while to grow up, just like Elves. So, while she was technically eight, she was still roughly the size of a human four or five-year-old.

Not tall enough for the tasks she wanted.

But the effect was extra adorable to the humans who had come to the café for a late night breakfast, and the place was packed.

They weren’t the only ones, though.

Everywhere in town that served food was packed, the Guild Store had a line out the door, as the Priestesses were enforcing a capacity limit, allowing everyone to shop and not get caught in the crush of bodies.

There were simply too many people in town right now.

However, that was a great opportunity for Andrea, the Succubus Void Stalker. She specialized in information gathering, and this place was incredibly well suited for it. People talked about all sorts of things when they felt anonymous in a crowd, and she was working with the badger to set up a business of her own.

The one thing that the town did not have was a proper inn and tavern combination.

They weren’t set up for this many guests, so the hotel facilities were limited. But Cara could use Karl’s Runecrafting, and most of his other skills, so she had agreed to work on upgrading one of the buildings into a suitable facility for the Succubus to collect people and spread her wealth of knowledge for those who knew to ask.

However, building a base for a spymaster was not an easily completed task.

Andrea was a pill master, an Alchemist, not a Runecrafter. So, she didn’t have the magic or the skills to set the listening wards, the recording arrays, the silence spells, and everything else that a properly secure facility would need.

She could do her work in a normal building, but since when did the Darklight Host do normal?

Cara recruited members of the pack, Opal, and even some of the Doll Master bunnies to her cause, and laid out the plan for their new hotel.

"Here’s what I’m thinking. Sister Andrea is planning to make a hotel here for everyone who visits, right near the Dungeon and the travel portal to the New Home Merchant Clan. It needs all sorts of functions, as she has her specialties, but it also needs a unique appeal.

That’s where the Doll Masters come in.

All over town, we’ve got various sorts of golems, gargoyles, and illusionary constructs helping in shops and working security. But what if we had dolls do it here? Not realistic puppets designed to fool people, which I know the bunnies can do now.

But actual dolls.

Ones with porcelain faces, ball joints and slightly jerky movements that remind everyone that they’re not real. They don’t need intelligence, only the ability to follow orders.

It will be the selling point of the whole place, and nobody will think twice about having them in the room because they don’t move if you don’t tell them to. That will help set everyone’s minds at ease, and the ladies will have a helper in the room at all times, in case they need assistance with hair and makeup."

The bunnies giggled as Opal winked at them, and the Succubus gave the Fae a sly smile.

"I think that will be perfect. We can call it the Dollhouse, a name that everyone will remember when they come to visit, and we will make it extremely luxurious in the hotel and upper level restaurant, but place the entrance to a basement tavern and gambling den entrance around the side, where the lights don’t shine.

We will put a not so secret entrance to it from inside the hotel itself, but give it that air of mystery, even though the Darklight Host doesn’t ban gambling establishments.

Then, attached to the dollhouse through the underground, we will set up a workers’ tavern, and a hostel style inn. Both operated as part of the same spell so that we can keep track of everything that happens, but for two different clientele."

The bunnies giggles turned to huge smiles.

That was the sort of scheming that they liked. It made everyone happy, and got the Guild all the things that they needed, in terms of intelligence gathering. Plus, it could be run with just one spell, which meant that the only real people who needed to be in attendance were Andrea, and whoever was cooking.

The dolls might be the star of the show on the fancy side, but the rest would all be run by constructs within the spell.

They had all learned that having the Epic Golems around, like the Dark Elven Priestesses, made a Bunny’s life much more comfortable, as they were strong enough to stop anyone from picking on the staff.