The Innkeeper

He weighed the pros and cons in his head for a moment. Ultimately, the decision was completely up to him, and since he was feeling good, he allowed it – with some rules.

“For the duration of the event, you may host a stall for recruitment.

However, you must follow some rules. You cannot solicit others, only if they come to you can you try to recruit them. You cannot coerce my guests, and you cannot manipulate them using their lack of understanding. You must explain to them in ‌detail what you may recruit them for. Furthermore, I will assign a staff member to accompany you in your stall for the duration of its existence.”

The lanky man thanked the Innkeeper as he did not mind those rules, but before he could sit back down, a voice he was not expecting to hear again spoke up.

“In that case, you won’t mind if the Devils want to set up such a stall as well, right?” asked Loretta.

The question not only froze the man, it stilled Ragnar’s heart as well as everyone else’s. Lex internally cursed himself. He had just told himself that if he allowed one, others would also follow, but conveniently forgot that another major force was also here._.

“Naturally, so long as you follow all the rules, there should be no problem,” Lex replied to her.

Loretta smiled, and let no satisfaction or reluctance show. She may have been testing the Innkeepers’ so called ‘neutrality’ or may have been trying to create a divide between Lex and the Jotun Empire.

Whatever the case, Lex already knew that if he catered to everyone, he would make some people dissatisfied. Yet even if it were not the rules of the Inn itself, he would have done the same thing.

There was a momentary pause in the questions, but this time the Queen stood up and asked, “How do we bring the participants to the Inn for each portion? And what about guests? How many people can we bring to view the Games? Or can we watch the Games from our planets?”

“Good questions,” Lex said, glad things were getting back on topic, instead of being mired with politics.

“Each of the leaders who were invited to this meeting will be given a certain number of keys that they can take back to their planet to give to the participating guests. Each key will ‌bring in 10 guests maximum. Should you require more keys, you can purchase them directly from your personal holographic assistants. The same is true for the audience as well – each leader will get keys for audience members. If you want to bring more, you can purchase the keys.

“Anyone will be able to watch the Games live from the coliseum or anywhere else in the Inn, but not on your own planets.”

With that question, things came back into flow, and more people started asking questions again. One enthusiastic Beast asked if he could travel to other ‘planets’ from the Inn, which sparked everyone’s curiosity, to which Lex answered not at the moment, perhaps in the future.

More questions came, mostly about what kind of display would qualify as ‘culture’. Lex left it as open to interpretation as possible, setting only a very few restrictions. Most of the restrictions actually originated from the Devil’s questions, who at some point decided to participate as well.

The restrictions were along the lines of no killing, no torture, no corrupting the souls of the damned, no furys – eh no, what he meant to say was, no human or animal amalgamation tests, etc.

Finally, after a while, the questions came to a close, and just as Lex was about to conclude the meeting, a sloth raised its hand.

“Yes?” Les asked

“I do not have a question,” the sloth said lazily, “but I have a humble request for the other planets.”

Intrigued, Lex raised an eyebrow.

“I have noticed that no Beasts were invited from the other two planets. If you have any, I would request that you invite them as well, and give them an opportunity to broaden their horizons. I would also like to meet them.”

Lex was not expecting such a request, but saw no reason to interfere, so he only looked on in silence at the other groups.

While the Earthlings were hesitating, one of the Devil’s spoke. “Beasts, we have a few back in Garvitz. We could bring some, if you feel lonely.”

“That would be splendid,” the sloth replied, as if ignorant of the sinister tone of the Devil.

“Be careful dealing with the Devils, sloth,” Ragnar finally spoke. “They are treacherous.”

“Thank you for your warning, young human. But Nibiru is not a planet with an allegiance. We can handle some trials.”

The sloth’s reply raised quite a few eyebrows, as so far the Beasts had only displayed a complete lack of knowledge of the universe, let alone their own planet’s name. It seemed things were not so simple.

“We will extend the invitation,” the Queen answered the sloth. “Though whether or not they attend is out of our control.”

Seeing that matter settled, Ragnar stood up as well and said and looked towards the Innkeeper, as if seeking permission to speak. Seeing Lex nod, he said, “I too have a request. Before you all return, I would like to have an individual meeting with the leaders of your planet.”

Without missing a beat, Loretta asked, “You want a meeting? Even with us?”

“Especially with you,” Ragnar said, not hiding his aggression at all. It was only out to respect or perhaps fear of the Innkeeper that he had kept himself restrained so far.

“It seems to me that everyone is done with questions. If that is the case, let’s conclude the meeting,” said Lex. Yet before he could say anything else, Marlo stood up abruptly, as if to emphasize that he had one last question.

“Yes?” Lex asked in a tired voice, sure that this would not be a productive question.

“I remember hearing something about a combat arena? Can I challenge other guests to fights?”

“Not during the Midnight Games,” Lex stated flatly. “I think that should do it for now. You all can ask your personal holograms if you have anything else. Feel free to stay as long as you want, though my suggestion is that you return to start preparations.”

With those words said, Lex disappeared from view, heading straight to his apartment. As soon as he returned, his previous state of ‘flow’ that he was in broke. From being absolutely okay, he quickly went panting heavily. His rosy skin went pale and Lex started sweating. He felt the energy drain out of him like water leaking from a tank, and his previously clear head started fogging up. Unable to understand what was happening, Lex tried to stay awake, but collapsed the very next moment.

He had been absolutely fine just up until a few minutes ago, but suddenly started feeling like he needed to wrap things up. At first he ignored the feeling, but the feeling only grew till it became apparent something was incredibly wrong. His initial plan was to stay around much longer and keep an eye on how his guests reacted to the information he provided. He especially wanted to spy on the meetings Ragnar was planning, yet in the end, he had to return to his apartment.

What he did not know was that his ability to enter a ‘flow’ and perform absolutely perfectly according to the situation was not a normal state. It fed heavily on his spirit, or mental energy. In fact, had his spirit not stabilized just in time for the meeting he would not have been able to maintain that state for nearly as long.

This was not to say that he could not have held the meeting without being in such a state, but he definitely would not have handled things as well – especially with the pressure of the Devils and the Jotun Empire.

Since his cultivation was low, he could not accurately gauge his mental energy. Normally when he was running out, he would feel a physical signal from his body, such as mental exhaustion or fatigue, but his state of ‘flow’ allowed him to ignore it. Well, he could ignore it right up until the last moment. Had he not ended the meeting quickly, he would have collapsed in front of everyone.