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Chapter 636 Polebitvy

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"Please follow us while we enter the details," the soldier said to Lex. "According to our information, you are to be deputed as an Auxiliary Combat Aid (ACA). ACA members are all officially recognized by the Jotun army, and have rankings and authority of their own, but fall outside of the command chain. This basically means that they help the army on certain tasks and missions, but they cannot be forced to accept missions or be stationed in places.

"The specifics vary based on the role and rank of an ACA member, but I'm sure you already know the circumstances of your recruitment. The point of me telling you this is that, by becoming an ACA member, you gain a certain level of perks and merits which can be availed across the empire, and you will have a clean and clear identity to use."

Lex felt that there was a lot that remained unsaid during the last part of the statement. He suddenly felt like a lot of wanted criminals became ACA members solely so that they could have clean identities to use. That could be both a good thing or a bad thing for the empire, based on how it was managed. Of course, none of that had anything to do with Lex.

𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇ℯ𝑎𝒹.𝒸𝘰𝓂

He was led to a lab where he underwent a number of tests, reminding him of the time he was tested out in Blue Bird. The tests carried out by the empire were, of course, much more complex than the ones on earth.

First of all, he did not need to be pricked or electrocuted for any test. Then again, they did not do anything as controversial as ask him about his cultivation techniques. A part of him wondered if during their tests, his DNA would match for any of his relatives in the empire, as there surely were. But it was never brought up, so maybe it didn't.

What he did not know was that the inscription placed over his heart not only hid his bloodline, it also hid his identity from being traced. No DNA test he ever gave would be accurate. He could have become the perfect criminal on earth, but that was already behind him now.

Oddly enough, they asked him very few questions during the test, as if they wanted his identity to be as barebones as possible. They did, however, ask him one question that caused him to pause for a moment.

"Name?"

"Lex."

"Just 'Lex'? No Surname or affiliation?"

He hesitated, but in the end he simply said "no".

The soldier, almost as if he was expecting such an answer, only nodded, and continued to create his account. The process did not take long, and in a mere 30 minutes he had become a registered ACA member with an official empire identity!

Coincidentally, the identity token they gave him was shaped like a coin, except that it was black. The coincidence was because this once again reminded him of Blue Bird. But he was easily able to inspect this token and was certain that it had no hidden trackers or monitoring devices.

He stored it in his spatial bangle, and followed the soldier who led him to a completely empty room. It was square, with pure white walls and floor. It looked like where psychiatric patients would be held.

"Teleportation will activate soon. Please prepare yourself, both physically and mentally. Long distance teleportation, such as between planets, can be quite disorienting."

Lex merely nodded. He was not worried. In fact, he was quite looking forward to it. He wanted to find out how normal transportation between planets was carried out.

It didn't take long for him to get his wish, though technically speaking normal travel between planets, regardless of how far, was carried out on ships and not teleportation.

Lex thought that when the man said Lex would be disoriented, it was because of the discomfort he felt during teleportation. Due to his physique Lex didn't worry about that. What he did not anticipate was that the level of this teleportation formation was nowhere near that of the emporiums.

The formation activated instantly, so Lex got no warning. But even if he had, he would not have expected the whiplash his body was subjected to as it underwent what felt like being launched through the air at the speed of a fighter jet. But that was only the beginning.

This teleportation was nowhere near as instantaneous as the ones he had become accustomed to, and the entire time it went on Lex felt like his body was being jostled through the air, like a ragdoll carried by a child running at full speed. The worst part was, there was no sense of up and down, because he felt 'gravity' pulling at him from every single direction.

Then the teleportation ended just as abruptly as it started, and Lex found himself in yet another completely white room.

If Lex were a lesser man, he would have thrown up. But he wasn't, so he only cursed.

What the hell was this? He was meant to enjoy the teleportation and experience the advantages of his physique. Instead, he went on a poorly planned rollercoaster. What a rip off.

Feeling more irritated than disoriented, Lex left the white room only to find a group of surprised soldiers. But they were trained well, and so recovered quickly.

"Are you ACA Lex from Vegus Minima?" the soldier asked, reading something off of a screen.

"Yes, that's me."

"Welcome to Polebitvy, sir," the soldier said while saluting him. Apparently Lex's rank was above his. It made sense, kind of. After all, Lex was in the Golden core while the soldier was in the Foundation realm.

"Accommodation has been arranged for you, sir. The room will be reserved for you for up to one year. After that, you will have to pay for yourself if you wish to continue renting the same room. There's also an introductory packet, to get you acquainted with the planet and its culture. Currently, there are no orders waiting for you, nor any mail."

"Thanks," said Lex, grabbing the folder the soldier handed him. He then asked for directions and exited the building.

It wasn't that he didn't want to spend some time on Polebitvy, or that he wasn't curious about what his new post or position held. He was just a little impatient these days owing to the ever closer deadline of his workers going away. Not to mention, being jostled around didn't really help his mood.

He took in the city, but there was not much to see because it was night and it was raining.

"Mary, if I teleport away to the Inn from here, can I also return here in the future despite the fact that it's not linked to the Inn?"

"Everyone who comes to the Inn leaves an anchor behind, which is how the Inn traces where to send them back once they return. Everyone can have only one anchor, including you. So yes, technically you can teleport back here if you go to the Inn.

"But your situation is a little complicated, since you can also travel to any planet or area linked to the Inn. So, you can return here any time. But once you choose to go to a different planet connected to the Inn, or maybe even a different realm, your anchor moves as well."

"So basically, I cannot go to the Crystal realm without my anchor from here disappearing?"

"Nope."

Lex released an irritated sigh.

"How long till this planet is connected to the Inn?"

"Well, it will take at least one day. It could take more, but you have the advantage that you can come back whenever you want and then return to this planet whenever you want as long as you don't travel anywhere else. This is one advantage of discovering new places on your own, instead of just using golden tickets to travel to new planets."

"I guess I might as well just get on with it," he said, and started walking in the direction of his room. He reached the building without incident, and somehow even entered the room without being targeted somehow. It felt strange because something unusual would always happen to him whenever he tried to connect a planet to the Inn. He had long suspected that, whenever he used a ticket to choose a planet, he would only be given options for planets where something bad was destined to happen to him. Yes, it totally had to be on purpose.

But, with nothing happening, he decided to simply meditate in his room, until the planet was connected or he had to return to the Inn.

Unbeknownst to him, in his neighboring room were two human kids who had also visited the Inn. They had been brought there by the pro bono room, and they had experienced the star rank change which had evolved their bodies, helping them shed their birth defects!

They had been brought to this room to stay in by the angelic saint woman who had been helping them.

Life had been so good for them, they almost forgot that they had lived extremely miserable lives up until quite recently, on this planet engulfed in a decade long civil war. Almost.

Chapter 637 Machinations

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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.

Chapter 638 Water War

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Attendance at the banquet wasn't really necessary for all the workers. It was more or less just a joint vacation for all of them. Yet Lex did not expect many to miss out on it, and indeed there was 100% attendance even just a few minutes after the day began.

The 'banquet' itself would only begin in the evening, but everyone had 24 hours of free time to enjoy themselves. In fact, there were temporary workers found even within the village, so that the workers could for once experience all the services that they were usually offering.

The experience was extremely novel, as they had never just 'hung out' with their friends in such a manner before.

If Lex were being extremely scrutinizing, he would say that having such an experience would be highly beneficial for them. After all, once they understood what the guests might be feeling as they approach the same services, they could do their duties better. But in truth his only agenda was for his workers to enjoy, and get some time off. Especially now that some of them would be sent away to face untold trials.

The sight itself was quite amusing. Sitting in his office, Lex watched as hundreds of thousands of humans slowly shuffled into the village and began spreading out, murmuring with each other in excitement. Among them, the few non-humans were also clearly visible though they were just as much a part of the crowd as everyone else.

A giant sea creature could be seen, its upper body emerging from the waterways in the village, acting very much like a child about to head to an amusement park. A few peacocks which had evolved to gain sentience and self awareness during the star rank upgrades could also be seen walking majestically down the paved streets.

𝓵𝒊𝒃𝙧𝙚𝒂𝓭.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Young McDonald, Zen, the Sol bird, Fenrir, Little Blue and the turtle walked as part of one procession. Although the turtle was annoyed that it had to spend time away from its garden, it eventually decided to take a look at how everything was going at the village.

A lone Draconian Apostle, Fredrich, could be seen trailing that group, feeling somewhat shy. It presented quite an adorable sight as it had rounded up a lot while cultivating near the Fire temple. As such, it looked more like a round, massive stuffed toy designed to look like a bee than an actual bee.

Of course, now all Inn workers were shy. Captain Cirk, the worker incharge of the massive spaceship, could be seen casually sitting beside Gerard as the old man drove his golf cart. The two seemed to be sharing tales of their own respective vehicles.

Luthor was standing forlornly atop a massive building, looking down at all the workers, as if he had countless troubles worrying him.

Inside a massive auditorium, Z was sitting comfortably with buckets of popcorn around him, watching his current favorite anime, Demon Player. Interestingly enough, none of the popcorn buckets were within his reach. But whenever he reached out with his hand, a few kernels would appear in his hand. The process was not smooth, or quick, but it happened nonetheless. Moreover, the more time he spent doing it, the better he became. One might even think he was training secretly. But no, he was just being a lazy teenager.

Somewhere near a cafe, Velma was excitedly conducting an interview. Although she was not supposed to be working, who could really stop her? As for the target of her interview? It was naturally Harry and Hailey, the newest couple of the Inn. Although Hailey was not a worker, she was Harry's plus one, so there was no problem with her attending.

In another corner, Geeves, the poor tailor, was found collapsed on the ground. Feeling some pity for him, some of the people who had spent the last few days with him carried him to a spa, where he received an excellent massage.

Yet, as much as he had worked, he was not the most exhausted Inn worker. No, that privilege was awarded equally to the members of the Bunny nation. As the permanent workers of the day care, all the bunnies had first hand experienced the endless energy of young children! Even after the star rank upgrade, when the bunnies evolved and grew one level stronger, they could only barely keep up with the kids.

But while the bunnies had evolved from that event, had the kids not done the same? Stronger, smarter and more ferocious than ever before, the kids played as if the very fate of the universe depended on it, and no cultivator was strong enough to face such an onslaught. The bunnies almost even missed the days where they were actually being slaughtered. At least then their suffering would end.

But no matter. They had gained a reprieve, short as it may be.

After watching for a while, Lex suddenly felt a little dissatisfied. The workers were a little tame, and were hesitating in fully enjoying themselves. They had many hours before the actual banquet, so they should be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

With an exasperated sigh, Lex stood up. It seemed like he would have to do everything himself.

He put on his Clark Kent glasses, and changed into his Leo persona, before teleporting over. For a moment, mixed in with the massive crowd, he truly felt how much the Inn had grown. From a mere two workers who only had a one month lease, to hundreds of thousands of permanent workers.

Then, he summoned his secret weapon in his hand, and locked onto a target. Doe, John's assistant, was walking listlessly. Of course he would feel like that. Unlike the rest, it was not one or two days that the Battle Ax had been shut for. John had been challenged to a battle in the Murder trial, and it was still ongoing even so many days later. With nothing to distract him, and no way of knowing how the battle was going, Doe was feeling drained.

Suddenly, Doe's senses picked up on a threat. As John's assistant, how could it be possible that he had not been taught any techniques to defend himself or improve his survivability? He looked up, only to find a pink round ball closing in on him. He tried to move, yet he was too slow and the projectile too fast!

It hit him right in the face, but instead of the hard-on collision he was expecting, he felt the pop of something plastic before a ball of water drenched his face. Before he, or anyone else could understand what happened, a loud sound could be heard yelling, "water fight!"

Tens, hundreds, thousands and then tens of thousands of water balloons suddenly appeared everywhere.

The workers were a little slow to catch on, which resulted in many of them immediately getting splashed. No one saw who made the first move, because whoever it was was moving too fast. But panic immediately set in, and everyone grabbed a water balloon. Then that panic immediately turned to excitement, as the first worker threw a water balloon, and then the second.

Chaos erupted almost immediately, as thousands of workers immediately entered into a massive water fight! Thousands more began running right and left, avoiding getting wet to little success.

The few aquatic beasts that had evolved within the Inn from simple animals, and had become Inn workers, had a natural advantage which they used readily to start launching water at everyone.

But the humans were not to be left behind either. The lifeguards of the Inn immediately began using their spiritual techniques which could manipulate water, and retaliated in full force.

In mere moments, what Lex had originally just planned out as a simple water fight to loosen everyone up and put them in a playful mood, turned into a highly competitive and extreme water war!

In its excitement, Little Blue also joined in! It had also been cultivating, and had constantly been guided by the turtle, and corrupted by Fenrir - who had been corrupted by Lex. It used its newly gained innate ability to summon some water.

Truly, it was only a small amount of water. It was not worth mentioning, really. It only accumulated into a tsunami that was over forty feet high, and appeared out of thin air.

When the shadow of the wave covered the ground, the water fight temporarily paused as everyone looked up to see what had happened.

All they saw before the wave came crashing down was the little whale, clicking and whistling in excitement.

Then, like divine judgment, the wave came crashing down.

But the workers of the Inn were not intimidated. Various techniques filled the air as they hastened to protect themselves, and prepare for retaliation. In the first ever water war, the weak would not survive. They would win, or they would get drenched trying.

The wave crashed onto the ground with a furious roar, and shook the Inn as it did. But suddenly, there was a flash of light, and the water parted, split right down the middle.

Chapter 639 His People

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Like the Red Sea, the tsunami wave was parted along the center, and a couple completely untouched by a drop of water ws revealed. Qawain and Anita stood side by side, Anita holding her husband's arm lovingly. Behind them, was their baby, being pushed by dozens of her undead abominations.

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.