The Innkeeper

The Minor realms within the Inn presented Lex with a tricky predicament. They had completely fused with the Inn, as was apparent from the fact that they traveled from the Origin realm to the new Midnight realm.

He could also place their entrances freely as he wished. Even actually inside the realms, he felt like he'd gain complete control sooner or later. For the empty realms, he saw no issue in doing as he pleased. But for the Minor realms that had civilizations, such as the one that had so boldly attempted to invade the Inn, Lex felt like he was in an awkward situation.

Even if he wanted to ignore it, and treat it as if it wasn't his responsibility, the knowledge that the entire world for countless living beings was under his control made him feel… strangely uncomfortable, and burdened.

This was something he needed to come to terms with quickly. When he started the Inn, Lex knew for a fact that he would come across countless people who might need his help. He did not mind doing charity, honestly speaking, but he mentally prepared himself to keep the mindset that he could not help everyone he came across.

Maybe someone more philanthropic would make a greater effort than he had, but he firmly set this boundary for himself. Having said that, he did not stop himself from helping others when he wanted to. He just didn't take the entire burden of their existence upon himself.

Now, however, whether he wanted it or not, the control over their entire existence had been placed in his hands. He knew that, eventually, he'd have to face this situation as the Inn's influence across the Midnight realm grew. But suddenly knowing some kind of control over a realm with an entire empire was in his hands made him face the situation much sooner.

He was more than happy to just leave them be as long as they stay within their realm and don't break the rules of his Inn outside his realm.

But, hypothetically, if this empire was committing countless atrocities within their realm, should Lex intervene? If he did, how much should he intervene? Say, for example, he deposed the emperor, would the responsibility of setting up a new form of government fall on to his shoulders?

What if he removed a tyrant, but the fall out from that led to much worse consequences within that realm?

These were… heavy questions. A part of him wanted to avoid them. After all, he'd lose access to the Host Attire in 10 days anyway. At that point, even if he wanted to, he couldn't do anything.

But running away from his problems was something he had been trying to avoid. After some consideration, Lex did not rush to an answer. He gave himself five days to think it over before he did anything.

In the meantime, he looked over for any impending invasions within the Minor realms at Bastion. Moral or not, he would not be tolerating any threats to the Inn.

He began by checking in on the refugees from Earth.

They were… not exactly flourishing. They had taken to forming a few different settlements, and made progress in housing, farming and animal husbandry. Small towns were forming. But it was also apparent at a glance that many were suffering from severe depression.

Well, it's not like he could blame them. They went from living lives on earth with all its luxuries, however difficult it was, to now basically being refugees. One could imagine someone who used to make a lot of money as a software developer watering crops and daydreaming about what his life used to be like.

But that was none of his concern for the moment. Maybe he'd do something for them when he himself wasn't so burdened. Next he checked up on the realm that the Jotun empire was overseeing.

Despite the fact that they had been cut off from the empire for so long, they had developed the realm incredibly well, and established their own manufacturing and production chain with the local resources. They had developed an entire city around the entrance of the realm, and a massive fort around the inheritance tower.

Lex suddenly felt bad for the guys stuck here. It would be a while before they returned to the empire. But, for the jotun empire itself, it would not feel as long.

Then he moved on. Although he really didn't need to, he checked in on the realm where the Inn staff were building their own community. It did not surprise him at all that they mimicked the Inn heavily in their construction style. But in general they were doing fine, and there seemed to be no threat of some unexpected invasion from beasts or something.

One by one he checked the countless realms. Many of them had undergone drastic changes, with not just the flora and fauna affected by the influx of energy, but the land as well. But fortunately, there were no signs of any threats.

Still, he'd have to assign a worker to check up on the realms regularly. As for the rest of the realms… even if he wanted to, he could not manually check over 100,000 Minor realms, so he just moved them slightly farther away from his settlements.

He gave one last look to the invading army, who had attracted the ire of a nearby beast. Even though the beast was just in the Foundation realm, its body was extremely tough, which meant that they were having a hard time eliminating it.

Yeah, Luthor would have no trouble 'negotiating' with them. Honestly, even Fredrich could probably handle it, but he knew that Luthor would enjoy it more.

Lex scanned the Inn one more time, and things seemed to be calm, so then he turned his attention to the most urgent matter: getting his hands on some goods.

He teleported away, and reappeared at the base of the largest Spirit crystal mountain within his territory. Deep underneath the mountain, Lex could sense something which was probably very valuable.