The Innkeeper

The baby was sleeping silently, as the sounds of fighting and chaos had finally lulled it into a peaceful sleep. One could not really blame it for not being able to distinguish between the sounds of a water fight that constituted hundreds or thousands of people, and a nice sunday genocidal massacre.

"Please continue, we are just passing by," said Qawain as he continued to walk. One could not really blame him for not participating, as any casual throw of a water balloon by him could decimate all the Inn\'s workers.

The fight resumed as soon as the couple passed, with Little Blue becoming one of the main targets.

While a lot of the workers participated in the war, more still moved away from it, unwilling to get wet. Yet Lex\'s purpose was completed nonetheless, as even those who were not participating relaxed visibly.

They spread out across the village, and began to truly enjoy all that the Inn had to offer. Lines were formed in front of photo booths, many took boat rides in the canals alongside the roads, others still enjoyed the various transports.

They ate and they played, and though most of them really weren\'t tense, the ones that were visibly relaxed. Well, all except Luthor.

"Aren\'t you going to join in the fun?" Leo asked, as he walked up to Luthor who was standing on the roof of one of the buildings.

"It\'s hard to enjoy myself when I know what\'s about to happen," said Luthor, his face extremely grim. "Although there isn\'t too much detail, I\'ve read the files Velma has on the Fuegan. It will not be an easy fight. Realistically speaking, I should not even expect those who go to come back."

"The Fuegan are strong, but the Inn workers aren\'t weak either. They just have to stick together and take care of one another, and they\'ll be fine."

Luthor didn\'t speak, and instead turned to look at Leo. He had spent a lot of time at the Inn getting to know the other workers. He had a busy schedule between taking care of the Innkeeper\'s orders, cultivating and thinking of ways to improve the Inn, but he still managed to take out the time to do so.

The one thing he noticed was the unusual patterns with which Leo appeared and disappeared at the Inn. No one else spent as much time away from the Inn as he did, at least among the workers.

Luthor suspected that Leo\'s role as a shop owner at the Inn was just a front, and instead he performed secret tasks for the Innkeeper. Well, Leo had all but already told Luthor as such when he gave Luthor some secret tasks by the Innkeeper, but he suspected that Leo played an even greater role for the Innkeeper than anyone realized.

He did not envy Leo for the attention he got. Instead, he understood the necessity. While Luthor was in the light, as the Innkeepers assistant, Leo was in the dark, doing things without attracting attention.

As a result… he should also be privy to more information than the rest.

"Do you know something?" Luthor asked, looking Leo in the eyes.

"Nothing too out of the ordinary," said Leo shrugging. "The Innkeeper doesn\'t want to pick a needless fight, so he\'s going along with things for now. But he\'s preparing an exit strategy nonetheless. I believe soon, the Inn will have its own realm."

A light flashed in Luthor\'s eyes, but he said nothing. After spending a few more moments atop the building, he decided to leave for now. After all, his name was on the list of volunteers too.

Technically speaking, Luthor had only been alive for a few months so it should not have been possible for him to reach Foundation realm so quickly. But contrary to expectation, he was already near the peak of the Foundation realm. He had abused his bloodline to continuously cultivate way beyond what his body should have been able to tolerate.

On the days where not much happened, he allowed himself to feel the repercussions of his accumulated fatigue and injuries, so that the burden would slowly lessen. On other days, where the utmost was needed of him, he used his bloodline even more.

For now, he decided to go sleep in a Recovery pod. He would allow the burden he had accumulated to vent as much as possible, so that during the war he had no trouble using his bloodline as much as possible.

Lex said nothing as he watched Luthor go. How could he not possibly know that Luthor had put his name on the list of volunteers first? Yet he had no intentions of stopping him. For better or for worse, Luthor\'s extreme personality was exactly what was needed to survive the upcoming war.

While Lex was paying attention to all his employees, he especially focused on the 1000 volunteers. Yet none of them seemed to be acting tense or anxious. It was as if all was normal. But how could it be?

He knew for a fact that other than Z, nearly 600 other workers had also undergone their physique treatment, including Luthor. It had cost Lex nearly 40 million MP to get all the necessary supplies to support the procedure, but none of the supplies were so rare that he had to go back to the emporium.

Sure, none of them had an experience nearly as bad as Z\'s, but none of them were easy either. Even now, there would have been a few still undergoing the process if Lex hadn\'t run out of the elixir.

Yet not a single one of them had complained.

Lex disappeared from the rooftop as he continued to overview the day\'s festivities, and make personal adjustments where he thought necessary.

Something interesting, or at least something Velma would have found interesting, was that in this new environment where they were encouraged to relax and mingle, many began showing initial signs of kindling relationships.

For now, they were too young and inexperienced in life to take that step, but Lex could already see signs. The fact that most of the ones showing such signs were about to head off to war made Lex feel just a little melancholic.

Slowl, but peacefully, the day passed and evening came.The crowds which had dispersed across the entire village began to gather once again in an open air theater. Perhaps an auditorium would have been better for this, but it was not so easy to fit a few hundred thousand beings inside one building, and still leave them room to move about.

Though it was no crystal ballroom, the floating sky lanterns illuminated the night in a soft yet warm, yellow glow which brought about a relaxed environment. Well, it was hard to go for different lighting with a baby Sol bird around.

Though it had been a full day for most, they were not tired. Instead, everyone was feeling refreshed and excited, for they were looking forward to what would come next: the Innkeeper was about to make an appearance.

Once everyone had arrived, Luthor included, the lighting dimmed, despite the baby Sol bird, and a small podium appeared. A hush fell over the crowd as they all waited for the Innkeeper.

As of late, he had been making fewer and fewer public appearances, and when he did, he usually only met the same few workers. It was something even Lex himself had not noticed, nor was he alerted by his instincts for it had no consequential repercussions. It revealed a blindspot in his instincts, and always relying on them.

Before the Innkeeper appeared, the sound of footsteps could be heard echoing through the night. The footsteps continued to echo, when suddenly everyone saw someone climbing to the podium. Instantly they realized that the Innkeeper would not suddenly appear on the podium. The Innkeeper had been among them the entire time, but he had kept himself hidden so that he would not attract attention. Excitement suddenly filled the hearts of all the workers as they thought about the fact that they could have been rubbing shoulders with the Innkeeper!

"Welcome, everyone," the Innkeeper\'s smooth voice washed over the crowd. "I\'m glad to see that everyone has been enjoying themselves. Usually, we work around the clock to serve the Inn\'s guests, but it\'s also important to remember that we too deserve some rest and relaxation."

The Innkeeper paused, a warm and content smile on his face as he looked out over the crowd. He could hear them shuffling, he could hear their elevated heartbeats, he could hear their sped up breathing.

These were his people. He would lead them well.