After discussing the situation in Dennisiowa for a while longer, Annan excused himself—under the pretext of asking Ouzel to buy some drinks to help sober them up, he sent Ouzel away.
Ouzel was an old bureaucrat.
Even though Annan's excuse wasn't very good, Ouzel immediately understood that His Majesty intended to send him away.
So he promptly took the hint, knowing that he didn't need to come back anytime soon.
He left the tavern with Shirley and the two "noble guests."
"Please wait here for a moment. There's a nice yogurt shop across the street... I will be back shortly."
Ouzel respectfully bowed to the two of them and tactfully left with Shirley.
The reason he took Shirley with him was that sometimes dogs could understand human speech. This was even more true for Transcendent beings.
He didn't want the others to think that he left Shirley behind to eavesdrop on their conversation—because that could get Shirley killed.
