Chapter 485 – The Blank Invitation

The Gold Globe Flower Inn’s restaurant operated on a single-server system.

From the moment you walked in, whoever greeted you would handle everything—taking orders, serving food, and settling the bill.

When Mo Lan and the others finished eating and were ready to pay, Greta came over again. “That’ll be nine gold coins total.”

Mo Lan’s expression soured. She glanced at her apprentice who was best with numbers.

Lilith caught the look and immediately whispered to Greta, “Isn’t there a discount?”

Greta whispered back, “Sorry, there aren’t any discounts at the moment!”

“Fine!” Lilith muttered as she counted out the coins. “This is way too expensive…”

Sylph and Vasida silently hung their heads, their faces burning with embarrassment.

This was terrible—Mo Lan and Lilith were putting on an act again. Greta wouldn’t form a bad impression of them, would she?

Greta was quite used to this sort of thing.

Her weekly salary was only one gold coin! She couldn’t even afford a single bowl of moss bisque.

She had tasted every dish at the Gold Globe Flower Inn, but that was an employee perk.

Ask her to spend a week’s salary on a single dish? She absolutely couldn’t bear to.

“If you enjoy our cuisine but gold coins are a bit tight, you could check out the hiring notice by the door. Our staff get to help taste-test dishes every week—all food completely free!”

Greta introduced enthusiastically.

If she could get a few more colleagues, she might be able to make a few more friends and earn a few more Gem Coins as a bonus.

“Really?” Lilith’s eyes lit up, but after glancing at the Instructor beside her, the light in her eyes dimmed again. “Thank you for telling us about that.”

Greta understood. The magical fluctuations emanating from that purple-haired mage were even stronger than any Intermediate mage she had ever encountered. It was perfectly normal for her not to allow her apprentices to take part-time work here.

In a sense, having mage servers was one of the Gold Globe Flower Inn’s selling points. The pay here was decent, but it required serving other mages—not something every mage could accept.

“Let’s go!” Mo Lan seemed somewhat impatient as she strode toward the exit.

Lilith nodded to Greta, then hurried out after Mo Lan together with Sylph and Vasida.

It wasn’t until they were back in their room at the Oak Inn that Sylph spoke up. “Greta is so kind! We complained about the expensive food, and she wasn’t upset at all—she even told us about the job!”

“I know! She truly deserves to be the first target contractee we picked out,” Vasida said. “Seeing how well she’s adapted to Lance City puts my mind at ease.”

Lilith replayed the earlier scene in her mind and turned to Mo Lan for confirmation.

“Did I just manage to establish a little connection with her beyond just customer and server? So if we ‘run into each other’ again later, I can naturally chat with her a bit more, right?”

Mo Lan nodded. “Keep deepening your relationship with her. Get her to hand you a Dawn Society Invitation as soon as possible.”

“Got it!” Lilith pulled out a booklet and flashed a proud smile at Sylph and Vasida. “I’ve landed the most important role in Act Two!”

The booklet was Mo Lan’s manuscript forerta Mo Lan’s manuscript for 《The Wild Mage’s Path to Rise》—or rather, their role-playing script.

“Act One: Entering the Duchy of Lance” was already complete. Next up was “Act Two: The Dawn Society’s Invitation.”

In this act, one of the wild mage Mo Lan’s apprentices would befriend Greta, then join the Dawn Society, and ultimately all four—master and apprentices—would become members of the Dawn Society.

No one would ever guess that the founder of the Dawn Society had taken a roundabout path and gotten herself invited as an ordinary member of her own organization.

This way, Mo Lan and her group’s footprints would overlap with the Dawn Society’s development, and no one would suspect they were the ones behind it all. At most, people would take them for minor underlings.

In this act, the apprentice who first established a connection with Greta naturally had the most complex and important role.

Now that role belonged to Lilith.

Sylph and Vasida were feeling some regret. They had been too thin-skinned before, unable to convincingly play the part of being poor, and had ceded the opportunity to act opposite Mo Lan in portraying the stingy-and-impoverished persona to Lilith.

While the Sorceresses were studying their upcoming performance roles, the neighboring Gold Globe Flower Inn had also seen off its last dining guest.

The inn and restaurant had dedicated cleaning staff for sanitation; Greta and the other servers were only responsible for attending to mage guests.

With the guests gone, they could change out of their uniforms and head to the break room to rest.

The inn’s attic was divided into small individual rooms. Greta’s room was the one facing the street—from the little window by her bed, she could see the Magical lamps lining the street and the old oak tree across the way.

Usually after coming back, she would lie there and gaze at the quiet street for a while.

Today, the moment she returned, she drew the sheer curtain and took out her Dawn Society Trial Card. From the final trial mission, she retrieved the mission item—a Dawn Society Invitation.

Dawn Society Invitation (Blank)

【Function: A blank invitation to the Dawn Society. The content can be filled in freely. Once the recipient accepts the invitation, it will transform into a Dawn Society Trial Card.】

On the face of the card was an invitation containing a blank sheet of stationery.

Greta had already spoken with the Elf gentleman today. She had a clear idea of how to write this invitation.

“Mr. Aramir…”

After finishing the letter, Greta checked it over several times. Only after confirming there were no issues did she materialize the invitation from within the card.

Just as the Guiding Mentor who had given her the invitation had never shown their face, Greta didn’t plan to deliver the invitation to the Elf gentleman in person either.

She had never heard the name “Dawn Society” mentioned anywhere in Lance City, nor had she ever seen magical items in the form of cards.

She figured the Dawn Society’s headquarters probably wasn’t here, or perhaps it operated in the shadows, so she had been careful not to expose anything.

From her very first day here, she had instinctively chosen to materialize her Food Card – White Bread into actual white bread before selling it.

There were too many mages in this city. A mere mage apprentice carrying around novel magical items—she worried it might attract people with ulterior motives.

If she hadn’t known about the Elf gentleman’s magic that let him understand the speech of trees, Greta might have simply hidden the letter under the old oak tree he frequented tonight.

But now that she knew, that method definitely wouldn’t work.

She might as well just hand over the invitation openly! If Yar saw it, he would certainly tell the Elf gentleman.

But Greta had another way.

The next day, before dawn had even broken, she slipped out the door draped in a black cloak.

The oversized hood concealed her entire face.

Near the city gate, she found a child who often worked as a guide. “Deliver this letter to Mr. Aramir at the Oak Inn, and this is yours.”

A flash of silver glinted in her hand.

“Yes, my lady mage! I’ll make sure it’s delivered!” (End of Chapter)