The Innkeeper

"This is not part of our deal," said Joseph warily, as he eyed the crown prince of Hum. It had been a few days since they last met and Joseph was busy taking care of things, still trying to understand exactly how or why the formation lost control.

Yet while the duration was small, the change in his demeanor was massive. No longer did he look like a sickly child, moving lazily to do a tedious chore. He was a man with a straight back and a fire in his eyes. Everything from the way he looked to his expression, his voice and even his actions seemed to have changed. While previously he was indifferent to the world, now his every action was filled with purpose.

"To be clear, this is not a part of your deal with Hum. This is a deal you're making with me, Aegis. Name your price, you will find that my reach will surpass your expectations. But at the same time, do not think this is something that can be avoided. At times, it is simply best to make use of the opportunity before you."

Joseph actually felt a great threat from Aegis as he said this. He was literally being blackmailed into selling secrets to Aegis, and being threatened of the consequences if he continued to state a price. Basically, Aegis did not care how high or low the price was, so long as one existed.

As much as he hated being bullied like this, he had to face the truth that in both status and strength he was below Aegis, and so there was really nothing left to negotiate with. He had to concede.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

"In fact, there is something you can help me with. A son of mine broke off his engagement with his former finance, who is from a family of... great means. If you can get rid of the pressure from that family and ensure they won't attack us in the future, the prize will be yours."

"Simple enough," Aegis commented blandly. "Tell me the name and location of this family. I will deal with the situation myself."

"Excellent."

*****

It had been over ten days since Lex last spoke to Aegis, and the man had disappeared since. That did not worry Lex, as the man had taken his oath and was definitely interested in what Lex had to offer.

Well, if he didn't, Lex would find some other way to hire Zagan.

Though that was not his concern right now. Currently, he was watching the finale of the Lady Cosmos show. The winner, after a lot of drama, was the Fox from Nibiru called Jill. Not only was she officially crowned the first, intergalactic Lady Cosmos, but she was awarded a cash prize equivalent to 30 million MP, raised from the profits the show generated. Of course, they were only a small portion of the profits.

Jill, now an extremely wealthy woman, decided not to return to Nibiru. She had not taken up Lex's offer to work as an employee at the Inn yet, but with 30 million MP, and a normal room costing 50 MP a night, she had 600,000 days to decide on an alternative solution.

Once the show concluded, the number of guests at the Inn began to drop drastically, so much so that for the first time in a while, Lex had fewer than a million guests.

Though he did not mind whatsoever. Just from his own profits, Lex had generated a massive 22 billion MP more in the last few days, and 770 million MP was given to him by the Lady Cosmos show as his share of the profits.

This put his total MP to 31.9 billion MP. Suffice to say Lex was not worried about his finances at the moment.

In fact, it was to the degree that he had been dropping MP like crazy to accumulate energy. At the moment, he had already filled his progress bar to 91%. If he still had his elevated authority he would have been tempted to stay a little longer and use this accumulated energy to enhance the Inn. Now all he wanted to do was return home - to the Midnight Inn.

Especially because, in another 10 days, Harry Styles would officially be marrying Hailey, the contestant from the Lady Cosmos show.

He did not want to miss the wedding. After all, it was the first time one of his employees would be getting married.

During this time work on the reconstruction of the town Babylon had already begun, and because of the intensive requirement in labor, everyone had been conscripted. As such, Lex had almost no guests these days, and any who came would usually only stay for a meal.

It was almost, because he did have one guest staying - Roland.

The young entrepreneur had become an orphan, like many other of his friends. He did not have a massive outburst like many of the other children when he heard the news, but he had barely spoken since. While the other children had been taken into the care of the town, Roland somehow convinced the mayor to let him be on his own. He had since been living at the tavern.

Lex had tried striking up a conversation a few times, but the boy was not ready to speak just yet.

While Lex was lost in his own thoughts, Rick knocked on his door and told him that Aegis had come to see him.

Curious as to what the crown prince wanted, he got up and walked into the main hall where, surprisingly, Aegis was sitting on a table with Roland. The two had been whispering something, but the moment Lex entered they hushed up.

"I heard you were looking for me," Lex inquired politely, more interested in what he had been talking to the child about.

"Yes. I know you did not ask for it, but I cannot accept favors from others lightly. Though it pales greatly in comparison with what you're offering, I got something as a token of my appreciation."