th

Let alone the Earthlings and the Beasts, even Anthony stood in awe. The moment the expansion started, he was startled and sent someone to summon Ragnar. This was thoroughly beyond his scope of understanding, despite his own background.

Loretta watched silently from the window of her room, the mysterious man saying nothing as he saw the changes. Unlike the rest, he was not concerned about the rising mountain and expanding land. His mind was still on that one lapse in behavior the Innkeeper had displayed. Right now, he was only waiting. He had sent some devils to go and investigate the farthest reaches of the known universe. Something had to have startled the Innkeeper, and he needed to know what it was.

In the greenhouse, the Galactic Sovereign turtle turned its head towards the mountain, and then once again shook its head. These were not the kind of trees perfect for such an environment. He'd better go take a look. Little Blue happily followed the turtle, treating it like its father. The gardener, who was still plowing the land, was completely oblivious to changes since his sight was focused on the ground.

Crowds started to gather as they stared up into the skies. Children stopped playing. The gamblers who were wincing at their losses or laughing at their winnings paused to admire the magnificent beauty. But because the mountain was so large and evident, they missed the other changes taking place around the Inn.

Once Lex was satisfied with the mountain, for now, he turned his attention to the next big change he was planning. He turned to the small lake in front of the Recovery room and plucked it from the ground, like a piece of lego. He brought it to the edge of the Inn behind the recovery room, and placed it against the wall. Then, as if he were zooming into a picture, he stretched the projection of the lake. But the projection did not zoom in, instead, the lake became bigger. He pushed the lake in to make it much, much deeper, and then dipped the boundary wall into the lake..

Now it seemed like the boundary wall was running through a much larger lake, splitting off a portion of it for the Inn to enjoy. In its deepest part, the lake could easily accommodate beasts even several times the size of a blue whale. At first he considered covering the lake side with sand – like a beach – but decided against it. Lex didn't like sand. It was coarse and rough and irritating — and it got everywhere.

Instead, he left the grass. In a corner of a lake, he built a small pier with a dozen or so rowing boats, and nearby created a refreshment stand. He bought a couple more A.I.s to take care of the boats and refreshment, then turned his attention back to the lake.

The lake was made of freshwater, and looked so clear that one could barely tell there was water even there. In a certain corner of the lake he added some corals, then dropped in various small fish. He knew nothing about fish other than how to eat them, so he took the ones that were the smallest sizes and dropped a bunch of them in. They would develop their own ecosystem – probably. He didn't want to add plants underwater, because when he imagined himself swimming in a lake, he hated the plants that would get stuck on his feet.

Then he turned to the forest surrounding the greenhouse. He moved that all the way back to the edge once again, but built a buffer forest in front of it that guests would have to cross to reach the array. He built a few regular rooms near the front of the woods, but changed their appearance to small wooden cabins that looked like they were made of wood from the nearby trees. Of course, then he added a few courtyards and converted them into larger, more sophisticated wooden cabins.

It then occurred to him he could do the same on the mountain. He shaved out one small corner of the mountain and flattened the land, just enough to fit in two small cabins and one big once. Between the three houses, he built a bonfire pit, a dry wood shed, and another shed with supplies for homemade hot chocolate.

Then he did something similar by the lakeside. He did not add too many rooms because he did not like crowding, but just a few were not an issue.

These few changes just covered the edges of the Inn, there was a lot of land in the middle to fill as well. But he did not feel like randomly dropping houses or decorations. He needed to think about what he would do to use the area, without making a mess of it. There was, however, one thing he did have an idea for.

He increased the distance between Midnight Manor and Main street, then built a modest 40 story high rise on the street. With five rooms on each floor, other than the first floor and top floor, that made 190 rooms. He turned the entire top floor into a penthouse and the ground floor there was a marquee, a few restaurants and the lobby.

Such a large building obviously warranted a lot more staff, so he hired 50 more A.I. and after consulting with her, made Velma incharge of all staff.

Lex breathed out an exhausted sigh. He'd suddenly made so many changes in one day, and while he had more ideas, he decided to slow down first. He would see how guests responded to these changes, take care of and fix any issues that may rise up, and then continue his expansion.

He eyed the high rise, and it occurred to him that this would likely be hosting more guests than his manor, and that he would need to name it. Resisting the urge to slap the name Midnight tower onto it, Lex actually spent a little time thinking about it. It was his first high rise, and represented his first changes to the Inn that he did himself without the prompting of the system. It kind of went against what he had been wanting, which was to avoid the vibe of New York, but with literally thousands of people in his grounds, he needed a solution.

It meant a lot to him, and so the name should be special. At the same time, Lex felt that if he named it completely randomly, that would be hilarious. Unable to decide, he looked to Mary and said, "Give the building a name."

"Me?" she asked, surprised. "You want me to name the building?"

"Yeah, why not? You've helped me so much, you should get some credit. Or do you think I should just name it Mary tower?" he asked with a modest smirk.

Unexpectedly, the tiny, floating woman did not react to his joke. She was silent for a few minutes before she finally said, "Name the tower, Avallon. It sounds nice."

"Good name," Lex simply commented, before the name Avallon was spelled out on the front of the tower. The letters that spelled it out were magical, in that anyone who saw them would see them in their native tongue. This was not directed towards making them understand, the Inns translation system would handle that. It was focused on evoking feelings of nostalgia and closeness. Anyone who would see it would be reminded of home.

"It looks nice," she said, her gaze falling softly on the name.

Lex did not notice any peculiarity, his focus was on other things. This little show of power should be enough to build him some more prestige, it was time to meet Miranda again, but as Leo. Yet when he scanned the Inn with his mind to look for her, she wasn't there. He was completely unaware that she had left right after her meeting with him, and missed out on his magnificent performance.

Lex grunted, and instead decided to go meditate and regulate his mood. He also asked Mary to let him know the moment Miranda or any of her two followers returned as Lex wanted to meet with them, but did not notice that the floating woman did not respond.

Soon, he had lost himself trying to meditate, while Mary remained hovering in the air, looking at Avallon.

"It is a good name," she finally uttered, agreeing with Lex, then disappeared.

With both Lex and Mary preoccupied, they missed the scene when Z excitedly dragged Gerard into the Gamers' den and started up an anime called Initial B – an anime filled with mountain racing. Nobody saw the dangerous gleam in Z's eyes, and they missed the burning passion in Gerards as well. Behind Gerard stood his fleet of golf cart drivers, no longer dressed in the formal attire of the Inn. No, these A.I.s were wearing leather jackets and jeans, with hair styles that defied physics. Z was the one who recommended the styles, and Harry was the one who brought the boy's vision to life.

"The trail is not built for vehicles, we'll never be able to do it," one of Gerards followers said to the old man.

"Do not doubt my skills," the old man said, a silver light flashing in his eyes. It had been a long time since Lex checked up on his workers, but if he had paid even a little attention to them, he would have noticed that Gerard was already in the Qi training realm, and had awoken special powers.

Full of determination, Gerard watched a few episodes of Initial B and then walked out. Waiting for him on the street was an old lady with a small child in her hand. She was one of the guests, and had taken a liking to being driven around by Gerard, despite the fact that her Qi training cultivation allowed her to be fit enough to get around on her own.

"Thank you for waiting, mademoiselle," Gerard said to the lady. She had insisted that was how Gerard should address her. Were Gerard familiar with the cultures of Earth, he would have picked up on the fact that such an address was typically for unmarried women, and then may have wondered why the lady made a point to let him know. But since he was unfamiliar, he did not respond. The lady, however, was undeterred – she was not beyond being more forward if she needed to be.

"It was no trouble at all. Are we all set?"

"Indeed, mademoiselle, we are. Please, climb aboard my barouche-landau, and I shall take you to your destination."

Barouche-landau is what she called his golf cart, and eventually Gerard started copying her. He helped the lady climb into the golf cart and, once he settled them in, sat on the driver's seat. A silver light shone in his eyes when he grabbed onto the steering wheel, and a similar silver light coated the tyres. Releasing a handbrake that should not have existed on a golf cart, Gerard accelerated at speeds that rivaled a regular car.

With the wind flowing through his silver hair and the melodic laughter of a femme fatale accompanying him, Gerard was ready to drive fast and drive furiously.

*****

Lex ended his meditation after nearly an hour, but there was no update. He did some exercise, ate some food, took another shower, and did everything else he could think of to fill the time, but neither Miranda nor anyone else that followed her came back to the Inn. At this point, Lex was nearing his limits of self-control..

He decided to go to sleep, and if they did not appear by morning, then he would go find someone else to help him check up on his family. Reason told him he should not connect anyone to his Leo identity as it would be dangerous for him in the future, but he no longer cared.

In truth, the distraction from worrying about his own family was causing him to miss out on many things. He missed Ragnar coming back to the Inn, and hearing about the changes that had happened before his eyes. He also missed Ragnar telling Anthony that they had new orders and would be leaving the Vegus system right after this war and that someone else would take over.

He missed the increasing number of devils who were coming and going from the Inn. Many of them were reporting to the mysterious devil accompanying Loretta, but many of them came randomly from unknown places. Unaware or uncaring of the things that happened before, many of those devils caused multiple problems. Well, they tried to cause problems. When Lex's guards took care of matters, they would stop and detail the devils because Lex had ordered them not to kill.

In the one instance Lex's bodyguard had to step in, he destroyed the devil's soul and handed the body over to the Sovereign Galactic turtle. Unexpectedly, the bodyguard and the turtle had developed a good friendship.

That did not present a long-term solution to the number of devils entering the Inn, however. One may wonder why so many devils were coming in. The truth was, the devils had access to teleportation portals that could not be replicated by the Jotun Empire. Using those portals, they could travel far and wide, which is how they managed all their various demon farms. As a result of those portals, the golden keys had been spread far and wide across the universe already, though not all demons understood the perceived background of the Inn.

Lex also missed all the joy of his guests. He missed the beasts diving into the lake and relaxing. He missed the students from the academy climbing up Midnight mountain and having a snowball fight. He missed the coalition of mothers who often followed Z around, introducing the boy to their own kids, who had also finally entered the Inn.

He missed the moment when all the new rooms he'd built were promptly occupied. He'd missed the moment when John exited the Mystery trial for the third time, suffering from rapid mood swings, going from depressed to frustrated and back. Most importantly, he missed the moment when Larry finally woke up.

It was safe to say that there were numerous things that Lex was unaware of that he would have thoroughly enjoyed, but until this ordeal passed, he would not be able to focus.

The next morning, the first thing he did when he woke up was scan the Inn for Miranda. Unfortunately, she was not there. Then he made a list of anyone he could potentially ask a favor from.

As much as he would have liked to ask the Morrisons for help, it seemed like they were not on good terms with the council and we wanted to avoid any unnecessary trouble. Eventually, his sight landed on Will Bentham.

The old man had come to the Inn in a wheelchair, but was now well on his way to good health. He had started cultivating again, and despite all the time he spent relaxing at the Inn, he was also a dedicated businessman. In fact, currently, he was having a meeting with some members of the Rose Society. His bodyguard, who had stopped appearing for a while, was also back.

He listened in to their meeting for a moment, and when he discovered they were in a good mood, decided that things had not turned out badly for them during the worldwide revolution. Putting on his glasses that disguised him as Leo, Lex decided to teleport directly outside Will's courtyard and knocked.

Hugo, Will's bodyguard, opened the door and was surprised to see Leo. He, like many other people, had memorized the faces of some of the prominent Inn employees. This Leo, who rarely appeared, had been titled one of the more mysterious ones.

"Excuse me for bothering you, my name is Leo and I run the Gamer's den. Is it possible for me to meet with Mr. Will?"

"Yes, come in. I'll let him know you're here."

Hugo guided Lex to an empty room and then hurried away to let Will know about the unexpected guest. He could have directly taken Leo to the old man, but he had a feeling that the young man wanted a private meeting, which was indeed the case.

Barely a minute later, the old man walked in with a warm smile and seemingly genuine delight. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Leo got directly to the point.

"Mr. Will, it's slightly embarrassing for me to find you like this, but I had an urgent situation and wondered if you might be able to help me."

"Please, speak freely," Will said. Though Leo surely tried to hide it, as someone who was great in social situations, Will could immediately identify the various indicators of extreme anxiety. From the constantly fidgeting fingers, shaking leg, to the hurried speech and eyes that kept scanning the room, Leo had them all. He couldn't believe his luck that an Inn employee actually came to him for help. If he was able to do this, even if he got nothing in return, at least his relationship with the Innkeeper should improve, right?

"I am aware that you come from Earth. I have a… let's say friend on Earth who is extremely concerned about his family. If you could somehow help him get in contact with them, or reach them, I would greatly appreciate it. I will remember this favor."

"Transporting your friend will not be an issue at all. Where is he, and where does he need to go?"

"From New York to London," he answered.

"Extremely simple, consider the matter done." He took a piece of paper and wrote down a phone number.

"Have your friend call this number and let the driver pick him up. I will arrange everything else."

"Thank you, Mr. Will. I will give this to him straight away."

"Please, just call me Will. Such a small matter is not even worth calling a favor. It is my pleasure to be able to help you out."

"Thank you," Leo said, this time a little more heartfelt. "I won't forget this."

Without extending his stay, Leo left the courtyard, and then teleported back to his room. He was so excited, he completely did not pick up on Will's excitement.

Lex wasted no time and returned to Earth, and dialed the number he was given.

"I was given this number by Will, he told me to have you pick me up," he said, finally relaxing a little now that things were finally in motion. Though, he still had his armor underneath his clothes and the Heavy Harley hidden.

Half an hour later, he was sitting in a black car with tinted windows on his way to the airport. He did not notice that along the way, his phone ran out of battery, but even if he did he would not have been surprised. He spent very little time on Earth lately and hadn't charged his phone in a long time.

Fifteen minutes after he had left, several Bluebird agents appeared near the area where he had called from.

"Target has disappeared and his phone can no longer be traced," one of the agents reported on a call.

"Can you trace the person he called?"

"It was a private number, we can't trace it."

"Keep searching. The target is reusing his regular phone number so that likely means he still does not know he is being tracked. As soon as he shows back up on the grid I want him detained!"

"Understood."

"I just got word, the plane has taken off and is on its way to London," one of Wills assistants said. "We followed all the instructions you gave, there weren't any issues. Bluebird agents here, and the Royal Guard agents in the UK will all look the other way to any people getting on or off."

"Good, that will be all," Will said, as he finally let himself lean back into his chair. It had not even been an hour since Leo came to him looking for the favor, but he had handled it well. Most importantly, no one other than him knew anything about the details of their conversation, and he had kept strict control on information about the passenger as well. Even he himself did not know anything about Leo's 'friend' that was traveling in his private plane.

The driver that drove that passenger to the airport had been administered with a spirit disruption pill. It was not something that was harmful, but would cause the driver to forget everything that had happened during the past few days. It had no long term harmful effects, unless it was used frequently, and the driver was well compensated for it. The pilot for the private jet and anyone else who had been in contact with the 'friend' would undergo the same procedure. Will was documenting all of this and would submit a report about it to Leo before even he himself would take one of those pills.

One would think that by causing him to forget the details of what happened, Will would be losing out on the value of the favor. The truth was to the contrary. As a man of the world, Will knew exactly how to ingratiate himself to people in power, and by doing all of this he would show the Innkeeper, or at least Leo, that he was someone reliable, so that in the future if they ever needed help, they would come to him.

He did not fear them coming to him for help repeatedly, what he feared was them having no use for him at all. As long as he was reliable, he had great value. As long as he was valuable, he would be taken care of..

This was the fundamental difference between Will and all his partners in the Rose Society. Since the Council had taken over Earth, they had contacted Will and many of his partners to acquire resources from them. So while the whole world destabilized, not only did Will and his partners excel, the council was heavily investing in their operations to help them grow.

Of course, the Rose Society itself was still a hidden organization and no one knew that all of these influential people from across the world were actually partners. That was the primary reason they were able to attract so much business. The council's agenda was to break up the monopoly held by certain groups that had previously been supported by the family heads. What they did not know was that they were, inadvertently, setting up another monopoly.

All of that was a matter for the future. What mattered now was that while his partners were indulging in their own success and celebrating, Will did not let success blind him. He was already making plans for what to do if he fell out of grace with the council by developing relations with the Midnight Inn. Slowly, Will was returning to his former glorious self, before he was struck with a nearly crippled body – and as his cultivation progressed and he regained his vigor, he would one day surpass his old self.

*****

Lex felt his thoughts wander as he sat in the private jet. This was the first time he sat on a private plane, but even with all the privilege it afforded, he did not think his experience was the norm. He didn't even have any documents on him, no one asked for ID or a passport – he was directly escorted to the plane that was waiting for him on the empty runway.

Like most other people, he hated the extreme privilege of the rich and powerful. But he also had to admit, the sofas on this private jet felt incredible!

As he waited in the plane, and his thoughts wandered, it occurred to him that he could still be transported to the Inn from the plane. If he teleported to the Inn right now, when he teleported back, would he still be in the plane, or would he reappear in the space the plane was in when he left?

He asked Mary who responded immediately.

"Isn't it obvious? You'll reappear in the plane! If the Inn used absolute positioning for teleportation, then if you stayed in the Inn for a few days and reappeared, you'd be in space because your planet would have already moved away from that space that it occupied when you left."

"Right, right, of course," he said, thinking it made sense. Yet he still had a few more hours to burn and he didn't feel tired enough to nap so he continued to have the randomest of thoughts.

"Hey, what if I get a guest that's microscopic? How will I see it? What if someone has a baby at the Inn? Does the baby get special privileges? What do I do if someone I know comes as a guest? What if it's someone I hate, do I still need to be nice to them? Where do the items I buy from the system come from? Is there someone called Botlam whose dew we are stealing? Where do the A.I.s come from? Does the system just make them out of nothing? Or does the basement have a creepy basement somewhere full of bodies to fit A.I. into?"

Lex kept asking questions, but never really gave Mary any time to answer. Eventually, after the longest seven hours of Mary's short life, they landed in Heathrow airport. Before they landed, Lex looked out the window to see how the city looked. It was difficult to tell from so high up but he didn't see any explosions so that was nice. After landing in the unusually empty airport, Lex was once again escorted to a private car. When asked where he wanted to get dropped, Lex pulled out his phone where he had saved his family's address, to finally realize it was dead.

Fortunately, after a couple minutes of trying to remember, Lex was able to recall the general area where they lived and told the driver. He'd be able to walk to his parents house once he was close enough.

As they drove by, they passed through various security checks conducted by heavily armed guards. After a very long, long time, Lex once again pulled out an item that would help him identify anything he missed. He put on the Fancy Monocle.

Immediately he was informed that all of these guards were equipped with spirit weapons, not just regular guns, and many of them had various spirit tech on them. Lex's war was being checked for weapons and explosives using some devices the monocle was able to identify, which gave Lex a small heart attack. He had the Heavy Harley on him. But it seemed like they did not care much for a single sidearm and let the car pass.

The city, while unable to match the regular energy New York had somehow managed to retain, was still quite busy. People could be seen walking around in small groups, keeping mostly to themselves. At least the city wasn't deserted. This gave him no small amount of relief since this most likely meant his family was also alright.

Eventually, after getting dropped off, he walked the familiar path home. When he was growing up, his family never had a fixed home as they traveled a lot globally. His parents were fans of such a lifestyle, and the kids learnt to love it as well. It was only after Lex left for higher education, while throwing a tantrum that his parents weren't letting them live normal lives, that his parents got this home in London. They still traveled a lot, but at least his sisters could stay in one place for high school and university.

He had three sisters. His elder sister, Belle, was the complete opposite of her name. She was cold and aggressive, and liked to do things her own way. When they were kids growing up, she used to wrestle with Lex a lot. He was not embarrassed about the fact that he never won. Anyone who knew her knew that maniac could not be completed with. But despite all that, in her own way, Belle took good care of her younger siblings.

After Belle, Lex was born, and after him came his younger sister Liz followed by the baby of the family, Moon. Moon was not actually a baby anymore, she was 16, or 15, or something along those lines, but as the youngest, she was spoiled by everyone. Not just the parents, even all the siblings spoiled little Moon. Her nickname 'Moon' originated from Lex's father promising to gifting the moon to her. To this his mother replied that the man had given her the same promise. Before the embarrassed man could defend himself, little Moon fell in love with the promise and kept ranting about it to everyone.

Liz, who along with Lex formed the duo of middle children, was by far the most normal of all the siblings. She loved and hated her family, depending on the mood, loved making friends, loved traveling the world, and at one point declared she wanted to go to France and fall in love. Any time she mentioned wanting to fall in love Belle would beat her up, Lex found it hilarious, but of course as the victim of many beatings himself, never intervened.

Lost in his thoughts, Lex found himself in front of a small house far out in the suburbs. There was enough room for one car in the driveway and the house itself, despite its ground and first floor, looked extremely cramped. Yet this was home. And the front door of his home was broken – kicked in, by the look of it.

Lex's face darkened as he pulled out the Heavy Harley.