"Goooooooooooooood morning, sleepyhead!" Said DYN2, for some reason sitting behind a desk with a microphone on it, wearing a suit and tie as if they were a talk show host or something. 

"I'm not wearing any pants right now, by the way. Hilarious, right?" They added. Somehow, I already assumed that was the case.

"Sure." I said.

"Sure' indeed. At any rate," They said as they straightened a set of papers which I'm pretty sure were blank, "We're gonna be keeping this one brief, alright? After all, you've got company today! I do hope you'll be a gracious host, wont you?" 

'Company', huh... Super. "That's unfortunate."

"Nah, I'm making it sound worse than it is. It's more fun that way, isn't it? Anyways, just keep an open mind. And take a moment to think about who you really want to piss off. Not that I mind, of course." They said with their usual spiteful smile I've grown to hate.

Still, at least their advice is direct and presumably useful this time. For all their faults, I've gotta admit they make it a little hard for me to dislike them as much as I'd like to. 

"Kay. I'll keep that in mind."

"Glad to hear it. Off you go, then!" 

And off I went. 

Moments later, I was awake in our run down little cabin. Y'know, as shabby is this place is, it's really growing on me. It's charming. Though, I suppose I could do without the holes in the floor.

As per usual, I was the last to wake up, as S was excitedly inspecting his wounds from yesterdays beast encounter, and Sis was doing the same thing with her fishing rod.

Oh yeah, we ran into one of those mad wolf things yesterday. Between the three of us, it never really stood a chance. The only reason S got hurt at all was because of his insistence that he punch the thing the in face. Aside from that, the encounter was pretty inconsequential, though S did note that it was odd that it attacked us alone. Since they're pack creatures, one of them being alone means that something is terribly wrong. Especially considering mad beasts almost never run away, meaning whatever left it alone did so intentionally.

We never did find out what exactly caused it, but we also didn't stick around for very long. I've decided to believe that it was just some hunter looking to make a quick buck got bored and didn't finish the job. Or something. 

"Right, mornin', sleepyhead!" S said, noticing that my eyes were open.

"Y-yeah, morning." I said, wincing at his choice of words.

"You sure do sleep a lot." Sis noted. "I guess that's probably healthy. Keep it up."

As much as I appreciate her monotonously delivered words of encouragement, I got the feeling I could probably stand to not follow her advice to the letter.

"Right, now that everyone's up, whaddaya think about grabbing some breakfast?" S asked.

"Sounds good." I said. Y'know, most of the crap that happens to us either starts or ends with us going out to eat. Weird.

"Whatever." Sis said with a shrug.

"Right. Let's get going, then." S declared.

Thus, we went to go get breakfast.

Thus, we stepped outside.

Thus, we didn't go get breakfast.

'Cus there were a bunch of dudes outside. All of them wearing old time-y hard hats and old time-y high visibility vests. There were also a bunch of horses and carts and the like full of building materials and more dudes. Though, one of the carts was different. I guess it was more like a carriage, what for carrying people places and stuff. It looked nice. Wonder who gets to ride in that?

Guess this is what DYN2 was talking about, huh.

"Right, what the heck's all this?" S asked as one of the hard hat wearing men approached us with an old time-y clipboard.

"I s'posse you guys're the young property owners, issat correct?" The man said. He talked as if he was trying to keep a toothpick in his mouth, even though there wasn't anything there. Weird guy.

"Yep." I said. 

"Figured as much. Younger than I expected, ta be honest. What're you guys, like 12?"

"Probably somewhere around there." Sis said, for some reason. 

"Right-o. And what're you, that guy's sister? Boss man didn't mention a chick... Eh, who cares." 

"Something like that." She said with a shrug.

"Right, who's your boss? Why are you guys here?" S asked.

"Ah, yeah, we're the construction guys. Duke says we finally gotta finish this place. Sorry we took so long, took a minute to get all the people and materials together."

"Right, I forgot he said he'd do that for us. Sick."

"H-how long is this gonna take?" I asked. This is incredibly poor timing, since we're effectively barred from the place we usually stay in. I guess we could stay at the inn here in town, and that'd be alright, but the rooms here are a little... Small and terrible. 

"Eh, probably a couple days, maybe a week." He said.

"Really? Just that?" S said. Yeah, that sounds crazy optimistic.

"Yep. Normally we'd take our time, but, ahh, this is a job for the duke, so we actually gotta get it done. Don't wanna piss that guy off, lemme tell ya!" He said, semi-comedically. "Yeah... A lot of us would be in real deep sh*t." 

Ah. The long arm of the authoritarian monarchy is benefiting us. I have conflicted feelings about this. 

"Ah. That's... Hm. Yeah." S said, evidently sharing my sentiment.

"Sweet." Sis said. "Mind the floors. They tend to break."

"Thanks, blondie, we'll keep that in mind."

"Guess that means we gotta clear outa here for a while, huh." S said. "Well, now's a good a time as any to stretch our legs, get some honest to goodness adventuring in, right?"

"Yeah, I guess that wor-"

"Hold your horses there, folks, I got another message I gots ta share with yous boys." The man said. "You lot are cordially invited to the duke's annual party thingamawhozit. Congratulations."

"Hm. 'Sthat so." S said with forced unenthusiasm. And then he started drooling, probably remembering the food from last time we went to the duke's place. 

"Duke's annual thingamawhatnow?" I asked. 

"Party. Duke. Annual. Every year.  Duke said you're going. You're going." The construction man continued to explain.

"Right, what's the criteria for getting an invitation to this thing?" S asked. "And what if we refuse?"

"There will be no consequence. You don't refuse." 

"Right."

"Anyways, 'bout that other thing, criteria's just bein' rich. Or just be one of the random people the duke happens to be thinkin' about when he decides who gets invited. Usually adventurers and any other particularly memorable nutjobs. Which is where you come in, I figure."  

"Yeah, that's accurate." I said. "But what about Si- er, my sister?" I asked. She wasn't there when we met the duke. If she can't come, then I'm not, either. I don't care what this guy or DYN2 says.

"I don't really care" Sis said. "Though, a party could be pretty dangerous..."

"I doubt the duke'd care if she tagged along. I think you might actually be allowed to bring a plus one, anyways. I dunno. Probably don't matter." 

"Nice." I said. 

"Uhuh. Anyways, its in a few days, your cart's over there, along with the suits you'll be wearing. There's plenty of sizes, so just pick whichever one fits the best."

Suits? I get to see S in a suit?

"Wait, that's for us?" S asked. "You've already prepared a cart and crap? What were you gonna do with that if we said we weren't going?"

I get to see S in a suit!

"Hah. You're funny, kid." Said the man.

"Right..."

"Now I'm thinkin' about it, don't think there's any girl clothes in there. Nothin' that'd fit you, anyway." The man said, gesturing to Sis. "I don't suppose yous got a dress or somethin' hiding away in there?"

OH?!

"Nah, I only wear thi-" Sis began.

"Yeah I think we got something hold on." I quickly said, just as quickly grabbing Sis and closing the door behind us.

"Eh? What're you-" 

I slammed my hands together, and dropped the two of us into one of my favorite places in the world thus far.

"HEREMAYS." I shouted. "I NEED A QUICK FAVOR."