The Innkeeper

An uneventful day and night passed for Lex, who spent the day cultivating. He was only waiting for time to pass so that either the Inn would connect to this planet, or that he would have to leave to attend the upcoming banquet.

In the room beside him, the two siblings spent their time feeling extremely worried. The beautiful elder sister who brought them here hadn't shown up in a long time, and was already late by a couple of days. Such an occurrence was not normal at all whatsoever, since this was not the kind of planet where one could travel around safely.

For over a decade, the planet had been the stage for a bloody civil war, much to the dismay of the common people, such as them. The star system they were in had 5 inhabited planets, all of which used to be governed by one family under the authority of the empire. But different branches of the same family had a falling out, and eventually led to a bloody conflict.

The empire had tried to broker peace, but legally speaking the star system was leased out to that family for several more centuries, so without the ability to completely replace those in power, there was little that could be done. In the end, Polebitvy, which was the inhabited planet closest to the star, was designated the battlefield to finalize the war and establish the victor. The point of this was so that the other planets would at least be spared from war. The proposal was accepted and implemented.

But the war just kept dragging on, and many secret third parties began to get involved. Silent partners and secret supporters in the background kept bringing their forces onto the ground and kept extending the war. A resolution did not appear to be in sight.

Of course none of that mattered to the kids. What they cared about was that the beautiful elder sister had not returned. It was not even a matter of self survival, as they could more or less exist in the wilderness. They just couldn't imagine a life where the elder sister was no longer around.

"What shall we do?" asked the girl, finally unable to hold it in any longer.

"The elder sister said she was a soldier. Maybe we should ask the other soldiers from the empire."

"They won't listen to us. No one will."

The brother started to pace around, much as he had been before they began talking. In the end, he made a seemingly difficult decision and reached into his pocket.

Back in his room, Lex was enjoying the feeling of cultivating without having to use the lavatory, when there was a knock on his door.

A part of him had been waiting for this. Of course it had to happen? How could he possibly link a planet to the Inn without facing incredulous peril. But strangely, his instincts gave him no warning.

Mentally prepared to face the worst, he opened the door to find someone dressed like a housekeeper, standing right in front with a trolley full of cleaning supplies.

"Would you like your room cleaned?" the man asked in a very droll voice.

"Uhh, no thanks," Lex answered. The man only nodded, and continued forward. A little disappointed by the anticlimactic result, he looked around once more in the corridor but saw no impending threat. He only saw a couple of kids walking away, probably to play.

He returned to his room and closed the door. Six hours later, with no other issue arising, the planet was successfully linked to the Inn! Had circumstances been a little different Lex might have felt like the process was incomplete, but for now he was just happy to return to the Inn.

The moment he teleported back, he got to work. At the Inn the various festivities were still ongoing. The theme for this week was 'Spaceship Spa' and so all the festivities were being held inside the ship.

That was quite convenient for Lex, as he announced that the village would temporarily be vacated of all guests for 24 hours starting tomorrow. Moreover, he also spent a ton of MP in the event panel to hire temporary staff to ensure everything continued to operate smoothly.

Since it was meant to be an employee banquet tomorrow, he obviously could not have the employees working.

He planned out the day, which was pretty easy for him at this point due to all his experience gained from planning festivals, and checked up on any impending tasks. The tailor, believe it or not, was ahead of schedule and had almost completed his order. With thousands of helpers, it only made sense. He had completely optimized the process, and all he had to do was the actual stitching. But considering that he was still just a mortal, stitching 1000 suits within just three days… was still believable because the system helped him out in many areas. The system was, ultimately, a major cheat after all.

The day passed relatively quickly for Lex, bringing forth a pretty unusual sight for the guests at the Inn the following morning. Many of the Inn's guests had been there before, or had spent some time there at least, and so had become somewhat familiar with just a few faces at least. Yet this morning, while the Inn was not bereft of workers, all of them were new faces.

Some of the popular shops, such as the barber shop and Battle Ax were closed. Members of various fan clubs, such as the Gerard fan club, noticed that the dashing gentleman could not be seen doing his usual golf cart rounds, and no one could reach out to him using their personal holographic assistants.

While the Inn continued to operate as usual, there was something just a little different about it today. It lacked a certain flavor which the usual workers, with their enthusiastic and vibrant personalities brought to the Inn.

But soon, they discovered the answer on the front page of the Midnight newsletter that was being passed out that day. The Innkeeper was holding a banquet only for his workers over at the Party village.

Excitement spread among some of the guests as they arrived outside the village, unable to proceed any further. Using their best vision techniques they tried to spy in on what was happening inside, but to no avail. But the more the matter was kept from them, the more excited they became.

Especially because it was a banquet being held by the Innkeeper himself. A majority of the guests had never actually seen the Innkeeper up close and personal, so he was veiled in an air of mystery and charm. They wanted to see him as well. But unfortunately, there seemed no way to get into the banquet. No way yet, at least.

*****

Karen the succubus was casually reading a comic in the lounge. The comic was, of course, based on the Innkeeper. This specific spread was delving into the backstory for the real reason the Inn was targeted by the evil Deity Ra. She had yet to read all of it, but all signs were hinting towards the fact that Ra's daughter was secretly enamored with the Innkeeper, and ran away from her home in hopes of being able to pursue her love.

The Innkeeper, being a gentleman, was of course not taking advantage of the feelings of love of a young girl, but at the same time he could not bring himself to send her back. Their adventures spanned amidst scenic valleys, beautiful rivers, enchanting star fields and more. The author of this comic, the supposed Rachel, had an extremely vivid imagination.

Just as Karen was getting to the good part, a shadow fell over her face. She looked up to see Rocketfellow standing there.

"What is it?" she asked, feeling sour. Just because he was incredibly good looking, and rich, and came from a good background, this fellow felt like he could do anything he wanted.

"There's an unusual event ongoing at the Inn right now. Shouldn't you be there, trying to seduce some answers out of someone?"

"No matter what kind of event there is, I won't be able to get any answers," she said blandly as she turned a page in her comic. "Don't you know by now? The Inn is foolproof. You can't get anything by going at it directly."

There was a pause where Rocketfellow actually didn't immediately respond, which was unlike him.

"For once, you've actually said something smart. I can't get anything from it directly, so I've used indirect methods. After some… let's say, charity work, I've been able to pull a few strings. 1000 foundation realm members of the Inn are going to be sent out to the Fuegan war."

Karen was genuinely startled, and almost dropped her comic!

Pleased by her reaction, he continued, "although I've been able to do that much, the actual location of their deployment remains a mystery to me. Gather everyone and find out. This is our chance."