The Innkeeper

The small plane landed on a rooftop landing pad in the highrise building where Cwenhild lived and Lex was escorted in. After being brought to a sitting room, he had to wait for a short while before Cwenhild burst into the room, a wide grin on her face. Lex immediately noticed that she looked exhausted compared to the last time he saw her, but she was also clearly more energetic.

"Lex, I\'m so glad you came. I would have liked to invite you over just to get to know each other better before getting down to business, but I\'m on a time crunch these days. I have to finalize my team for the Minor realm so that we can start training together, which is why I\'ll get straight to the point. What can I do to convince you to join my team? Your survival skills and consultation could make a huge difference in trying to take over a Minor realm."

She was a lot more upfront than Lex expected, but the end result was the same. Lex had already given some thought to this, and was leaning towards joining her anyway, but since she was so open with her offer…

"Since you\'ve been so direct, then there\'s no point in me beating around the bush. There are a couple of things I have in mind, and if you can help me out, then I\'ll be more than happy to join you."

"Go ahead. What do you need?"

"Truth be told, I myself am searching for something that I expect can be found in the Minor realms. I was planning on going to a few myself to search, but I have never been to a Minor realm and don\'t know what to expect. I was, of course, going to start researching Minor realms on my own but I expect, since you are planning on capturing a Minor realm you\'ve already done quite a bit of research. If you can provide me with all the information of the kinds of Minor realms, the academy has opened up before, as well as what to expect, I wouldn\'t mind helping you out first. As for the second thing, well, considering I have to take care of my own expenses, let\'s keep it simple and settle on some money."

It did occur to Lex to set some ridiculous conditions in exchange for his help, but doing so would put a strain on their relationship. Lex was not necessarily a materialistic person, but one would still have to be an idiot to ruin a good working relationship with an influential person for short-term gain. As it happened, his two requests perfectly fulfilled his needs, so it was good enough.

Cwenhild, who was expecting something much more lavish, was surprised by the simplicity of Lex\'s request. Her demure demeanor in front of Lex did not mean she was a simple or inexperienced person, and was well versed in the ways of the world. Considering the complexity of her request, Lex asking for such simple remuneration could be nothing other than a gesture of friendship.

"If you don\'t mind me asking, what are you looking for in the Minor realms? Maybe I can help you out with that."

Lex did not reply, but only gave her a sly smile. There was no way to explain that he was searching for large reserves of natural energy, and he did not consider it a big deal that he should want to keep a few secrets. Seeing that Lex did not want to elaborate, she understood that it was likely a private matter. Regardless, she was not being greedy, and had only wanted to help. Since she could not help directly, then she would think of another way to respond to his gesture.

"Well, no matter. Your requests are simple enough so we can begin immediately. I\'ll introduce you to my team. There will be a total of 12 of us, including you. The academy will open the Minor realms in six weeks, so during this time we need to work on our coordination and cooperation."

Cwenhild immediately started debriefing Lex over her plans, many of which surprised Lex. 12 was a very small number, how were they supposed to take over a Minor realm with that? Or maybe his understanding of what it meant to take over a Minor realm was flawed. Moreover, as he listened to her breakdown her plan for the next few weeks, and then the upcoming event itself, he let out a small, internal sigh.

A very large part of him already knew this, but a small part of him had been hoping for some kind of miracle. He was hoping to stumble into a big enough pool of energy and somehow make it back in only a few short months, but more realistically, he was stuck here. The thought did not depress him, he had become more resilient than that, but it snuffed out the small hope he had been carrying.

As it so happened that with the death of that small hope, Lex\'s mind opened up to a new series of possibilities. As he listened to Cwenhild\'s plan, and saw how she took advantage of every possible opportunity, he became inspired.

His new frame of thought was simple. As long as he was stuck here, he could continue to take advantage of his increased authority. In that case, instead of filling 100% of his energy reserves, he should continue to expand and improve the Inn with his increased authority. This way, when he returned to the Inn, it would be extremely well equipped to help him progress, not only as the Innkeeper, but in his cultivation as well.

After all, he did not want to spend 100s of years on a single breakthrough, like his professor predicted. Though, he had a sneaking suspicion that if he could continue to have the Lotus improve his body, his cultivation would be much quicker. Still, it made no sense not to use the advantages that he had.

With this renewed mindset, Lex threw himself into his studies, practice, and preparation. Over the next few weeks, Lex thoroughly prepared himself by becoming familiar with his new techniques, upgrading his equipment with the truly insane amount of money Cwenhild had paid him - as an advance, only - and began to familiarize himself with Cwenhild\'s team.

Despite Lex\'s focus and determination, however, things did not always go over smoothly. First of all, his progress with the offensive technique Evisceration was very slow. Lex had to be extremely careful while practicing it, for if something went wrong, he would end up injuring himself a lot. Furthermore, as predicted, Regal Embrace seemed to resist his efforts at using his technique. The only fortunate news he had in that regard was that his progress with arrays was good, and Regal Embrace did not seem to trouble him when the attack came from an array rather than a technique.

Secondly, there were a couple members of Cwenhild\'s team who clearly had a strong bias against Lex. They never showed it when the lady herself was around, but whenever she was absent, not only would they stop cooperating with him, they would actively try to antagonize him. Lex tried to mend the relationship, but after they rebuffed his attempts, he stopped caring. After all, he wasn\'t responsible if Cwenhild\'s endeavor failed due to them. Furthermore, he was not at all afraid of them, for everyone in the group was in the Foundation realm, and Lex\'s instincts told him they could not harm a single hair on his body. Not to mention, if they ever tried to act against him, his survival instincts would warn him well in advance.

Lastly, there were a couple of matters at the Inn that kept distracting him. Not only was the date for Earth\'s Expo coming closer, requiring him to start preparing for that somehow, but there was a group of troublesome people at the Inn.

Tiffany, after her victory at the Midnight Madness, had attracted a lot of attention, which was the true origin of the problem. Things got so out of hand that Mary finally informed Lex, who eventually recognized the once sweet and immature little girl. The problem now, though, was that despite her actual young age, she had the body of an adult. Since that was the case, no one suspected otherwise and… a Tiffany fan club had been established by a group of bachelors and bachelorettes from various planets.

Every day, they would duel each other in public to attract her attention, recite the sappiest poems about her strength and reenact plays about her supremacy. Such a group, naturally, incited others and quickly various fan clubs started meeting at the Inn. Things were now already out of hand.

The true problem occurred when… Audrey Morrison, Alexander\'s grandmother, learnt that she had a fan club who was competing with… a fan club for Velma who, in turn, was competing with a fan club for Gerard!

Lex rubbed his forehead, trying to alleviate his headache, as he never knew dealing with a bunch of simps was so difficult. After all, Audrey was not content with leaving things as they were, and insisted on the targets of the various fan clubs directly competing with one another. As for the method of competing? Naturally it was…