The Innkeeper

Lex walked Ayesha to the turtle, entertained by her amazed gaze. The young girl had already forgotten that she was supposed to be sad - or maybe she was hiding it. Lex wondered if he would see her counterpart, the young man. The last time they came, the Inn was comparatively bare. This time the couple would have many more options for their date. Lex especially wanted them to row the small boat on the tiny lake he created. He did not know why, but Lex was looking forward to it.

"Little Black, I'd like to introduce you to a guest. This is Ayesha."

The turtle turned his head towards the little girl, then slowly brought its head down to her level to get a better look at her.

"Hello, little human. How are you today?"

"You can talk?" she gasped in surprise, and then looked at the flying whale with eager eyes. "Can he talk too?"

"Little Blue is shy," said the turtle, looking up at it like a proud parent. "But if you become friends with it, maybe he'll talk to you." The turtle lowered the whale's tie and offered it to her. "Would you like to try?"

Ayesha grabbed onto the tie instantly, and was about to speak when she was whisked off her feet by the whale. The turtle was too heavy for the whale to pull up, but the girl had no choice but to get pulled into the air. At first she let out a surprised scream, but that quickly turned into laughter as the whale pulled her around.

She yelled out to purchase another pair of Icarus' wings and a card appeared in her hand with a picture of the wings on it since her previous ones had been used up. She quickly equipped it and started flying around with the whale, challenging it. She flew in front of it and did a loopty loop, as if showing off. The whale, not to be outdone, started swirling its body as it swam through the air.

The pair flew in between the sky lanterns, using them as obstacles. Lex smiled as he watched them in the air. He immediately took a liking to Ayesha, she was a good kid.

Turning his attention back to the turtle he said, "Little Black, we'll be having a lot of guests coming soon. Make sure no one gets into the greenhouse, it would be a waste if someone ruined all those plants. Also, I'd like it if you could plant vines of Tiffany's treasure all around the Inn. They smell nice."

The turtle looked at him once before turning away, murmuring "silly, silly human" as it went.

Lex didn't mind. He knew the turtle would do as he said. The past few days the turtle and the gardener had done tremendous work, and Lex had gathered a large supply of spirit vegetables, ready to serve his guests. Naturally, anything they ordered that was spirit food would cost more than normal food but he never doubted that they would order it.

Only a short while later, Hera and Will entered the Inn along with her son, Jimmy. The young boy did not look too surprised to be appearing in a random new place, he was hiding behind his mother and holding her hand, focusing on staying close to her.

Lex's eyes lit up when he saw them, more specifically, when he saw Hera. He noticed the last time she came that she had a keen eye and sharp mind. She was helping Will in expanding his Rose Societies operations but Lex felt that her talent was being wasted. This was not a decision he intended to make quickly or lightly, but he kept an eye on her as a potential employee for later on. Eventually when the size of the Inn grew, he would need someone to help him manage certain portions of it. He had to observe how well she managed the Rose Society, and if she performed well it would help his decision.

"Welcome back," he said, approaching them. "I see you brought along a new guest today. I hope you enjoy yourself." Lex smiled, and handed the young boy a piece of chocolate. The chocolate was wrapped in a golden and silver wrapper with the initials MI on it. It was a little something he added to the Inn earlier, so that he could have the system leave chocolate on the guests pillow after the turndown service. The chocolate would automatically taste like whatever chocolate the guest preferred. There was no other benefit to it, but Lex liked the idea.

Jimmy hesitated, but when his mother encouraged him he took the chocolate and nodded at the Innkeeper as thanks.

Lex smiled at the shy boy, before turning his attention back to Hera and Will. "Congratulations are in order, I see you've restarted your cultivation journey," he said to Will. Looking at Will's status Lex could see that he had once again entered the Qi training stage.

"Thank you, I could not have done it without your help and guidance," the old man said sincerely. Only he knew how truly grateful he was to Lex for freeing him from the pain he'd been feeling for the better part of his life.

"It is my duty to help my guests the best I can. Speaking of which, I think you should visit our Guild room. I think you will find it very interesting. You can find it on the Main street."

"I definitely will. I would also like to rent a courtyard for a week. I intend on hosting a few guests here before the event begins."

"Of course, you are most welcome. Velma, please show Will to his courtyard and help him with anything else that he needs."

Velma appeared in the signature Midnight way, which was out of thin air, and led the trio towards the manor. The system naturally charged Will the 1400 MP cost and Lex was not bothered at all by the details of how the transaction took place. He had to say, that was one of his favourite parts about the system. Will and Hera immediately noticed that the environment was different this time around as not only did it look more festive as compared to its usual peaceful appearance, suited guards could be seen walking around in the distance. They were not sure how strong the guards were, but it was easily apparent that they were much stronger than Will's bodyguard Hugo. It seemed the Inn had undergone a lot of changes for the upcoming meeting. They were also more curious about the Guild room now - since a suggestion by the Innkeeper himself could not be simple.

The reason Lex had guided them towards the Guild room was because he knew they wanted to trade and so would find the features of the room helpful. More importantly, Lex would receive 1% of all transactions that occurred in the Guild room so he was completely shameless about promoting it to his guests.

It appeared as though some of his usual guests were arriving a little early and would wait here for the meeting, but Lex did not mind that at all.

A short while later, Alexander and Helen also entered the Inn. Lex was a little surprised to see him without his family, as he was expecting them to come. Perhaps they would join later.

"Welcome back," Lex said warmly, smiling at Helen. It must be said that he had gotten so used to her being at the Inn, the past few days almost felt strange with her gone.

"Thank you, it feels good to be back," she responded. Her response was not perfunctory either. After spending so much time here she had forgotten how dilute the spiritual energy and polluted the air on Earth was. She almost felt suffocated there.

"We'd like to rent a courtyard for the next couple of weeks," Helen said. Although in all technicality Alexander was the one who needed to rent a courtyard for his family, he had achieved Prestige level 3 with his previous transaction at the Gift shop. He felt it would be better if he got others to carry out the following transactions so everyone could raise their prestige level as the perks were very useful.

"Of course," Lex said, summoning one of the newer A.I. staff members to lead the duo. "By the way, you have guests waiting for you in the Guild room - the ones from Vegus Minima."

"They're earlier than we were expecting, I will go see them soon. By the way, my grandfather will be joining us later but he had a question he wanted me to ask. Instead of renting rooms, is it possible to buy a permanent room at the Inn?"

Lex was surprised by the question as he had never considered guests wanting to buy a permanent room, but he supposed the Morrison family's vision was naturally beyond that of ordinary guests. Before he could answer though, he heard the familiar sound of a system notification.

Hidden Quest Activated!