The meal was more conversation than it was actually eating, but that worked for everyone present. Karl was learning all about the beasts and the political situation in the region. The Elves were intimately familiar with both, as most of them had been watching them for hundreds of years already, all while living in this village.
The remote location made a lot of sense for the species. A city like the Golden Dragon Capital changed far too much for them to adapt to, and only one or two buildings in the entire city would outlive them.
In a place like that, there was no sense of permanence, everything would feel like it was in a constant state of flux.
Karl knew the feeling from living in a camp during the war, and a life like that was no life at all in the long term. You needed somewhere to go home and relax, a familiar place to centre yourself.