The Innkeeper

Lex, as the Innkeeper, maintained a warm smile as he gestured to Miranda to take a seat. Her associates also greeted Lex, but made it clear with their body language that they would leave all the talking to her.

"So, Miranda, how can I help you?" the Innkeeper said, taking a seat on a chair he summoned out of thin air.

"Let me introduce myself first," she said as she fixed her posture, trying to appear as proper as possible despite her apparent exhaustion. "My name is Miranda, as you already know, and I am a leading member of the Council of New Order, as well as their foreign relations director. Due to the gross negligence, stagnation of progress and greed of the previous rulers of Earth, we have taken it upon ourselves to lead our planet towards a brighter future."

"Yes, I am aware," Lex said softly, "of the changes happening on Earth. I'm hosting quite a few refugees at my Inn at the moment, all escaping from your planet."

"I heard about that," she said, letting out a defeated and exasperated sigh. "I want to thank you for looking out for our citizens. After decades of planning and build up, we've made the transition of power as peaceful as we possibly could. We have to thank your Inn for that as well. Had the family heads not left Earth long enough for us to make preparations, the battle to lure them into a trap would have been extremely bloody. But still, as much as we want things to happen peacefully, not everything goes according to plan. Some disturbances are unavoidable. Still, things should calm down within the week."

"I, naturally, have no opinion on how you do things on your planet. I am simply running an Inn." Lex smiled at her, his warm and calm demeanor relaxing her tense nerves. Then he continued to say, "of course, some of my staff members are from Earth. I'm sure they may have some concerns."

"Who are they? I'll make sure to take special care of them," Miranda replied suddenly, then realized her question might not be completely appropriate. But she, as well as the other guests, could not differentiate between the A.I.s and actual employees. Other than Leo, who obviously ran a gaming den with games from Earth, other employees' origins were a mystery to most.

"Their identity is their privacy, but I will let them know to contact you if they have concerns."

Miranda nodded, as if to assure the Innkeeper that she would take the utmost care if any of his employees approached her.

"While we are still finishing dealing with… unstable factors, it is still true that we have assumed control of most of Earth. As such, I was hoping to cooperate with the Inn on certain matters."

"Please elaborate. I will do what I can."

"The first matter I would like to discuss is if it is possible to ban certain people from entering the Inn. There are many criminals and terrorists who have taken advantage of the momentary chaos to wreak havoc, and may escape to the Inn. It would be extremely detrimental to everyone if they stay at large."

"Miss Miranda, that is impossible," Lex replied immediately and firmly. "The Midnight Inn is open to all so long as they can pay our nominal charges and adhere to the rules of the Inn itself. The Inn does not interfere in the civil or political matters of other planets, and will also not adjust its rules according to the wishes of other planets."

Just as he finished his small yet clear rejection, a loud crashing noise attracted the duo's attention. They turned to see some guests on the side, ardently watching the second match. The beasts had demolished one of the walls of the castle and were charging in. Blood, fire and chaos filled the screen as various races combated the zombies.

"Of course, that does not mean the Inn will stay unresponsive if antagonized," Lex quickly added. What was an all out war if not interfering in civil and political matters? He mentally wiped some sweat off his forehead.

Miranda was disappointed but not surprised. It took her quite a while to accept the facts when she learnt about the Inn and other civilizations, but she had adjusted her mentality now and knew that in front of those other giants, Earth was nothing.

"I understand. Then I would like to move onto my next request. I would like to host an expo at your Inn. The culture part of your event already gave a lot of people a preview of Earth, and these games are a good opportunity to show off our military. But I would like to host a more detailed event focusing on everything Earth has to offer in search of anyone who might want to invest in the development of Earth. I was hoping that you would help with spreading invitations to the expo as well."

Her request truly took Lex by surprise. He could not believe he had heard correctly, despite the awesome power of the Host Attire. She was looking for… sponsors… for Earth?

"Can you elaborate on what you are trying to achieve? So that I can understand the scope of the event."

"I've spent some time getting to know some of the guests and the powers behind them at the Inn. Giants such as the Empire naturally would not be interested, but I'm sure there are merchants or businesses who would be interested in sponsoring Earth. Of course, we would not be selling equity, but perhaps they may want resources or the labor force or have some manufacturing done on our planet. I'm sure we have something that someone wants. The premise would remain that all cooperation be done via the Inn. We would never invite danger to our planet for some profit. I've prepared a rough list of the kinds of things we would be willing to accept as sponsorships."

With that she handed Lex a document listing, in great detail and with much specificity, the kinds of things Miranda wanted. In the end, the document also stated that they would be open to receiving other offers. If nothing else, at least this woman was well organized.

"There would be no issue in holding such an event, but it would have to wait till the Midnight Games are over. I can start advertising for your event as soon as you submit a down payment. My suggestion, however, is that you wait till you have a complete grasp on your planet before you do any such thing. It would be embarrassing if interested parties arrive to attend, but you are not in a condition to host."

"Of course, of course, we would also need to take of many things on our end to host such an event if we want to display our best attributes. Now that I know such an option is available, I will begin work on it as soon as I return."

"Was that everything, or did you have more things you wanted to discuss?"

"Just a few more things, if you have the time. I wanted…"

The meeting with Miranda truly went on much longer than Lex expected. But as much as he disliked her for helping to start the war, he truly did benefit from meeting with her. She bought 50,000 bottles of Botlam Dew, 10,000 Bath towels (removes negative statuses such as poison, paralysis paste, petrification, tracking powder, bad makeup etc.) and 1000 Travel face wash kits. For a moment, Lex was afraid he might run out. Fortunately, he did not, as there seemed to be no limit on purchases for these items.

The profit from one bottle of Dew was 120 MP and 100 MP each for the other items. This one transaction netted Lex 7,100,000 MP! But the joy from the sale was mired by the knowledge that these items were going to the council.

After the meeting ended, Lex checked to see how the game was going. It was almost the end as a wolf, Alexander and Cara together besieged Pramod. Without the advantage of endless spiritual energy fighting the demon was a lot more difficult. It did not help that the technique given by the Empire did not do as much damage as they had promised.

'They'll manage,' Lex told himself as he returned to his room to continue his expansion plan for the Inn, completely missing the moment Pramod finally activated his invincibility. The demon allowed himself to be attacked by the wolf freely before grabbing its neck and breaking it in one swift motion. Wasting no time, the demon grabbed a lance that had fallen on the ground nearby and stabbed towards Alexander. The demon's movements were too swift and his total lack of care for defending against any attacks put the two humans at a disadvantage. Alexander tried to dodge but was unable, and the lance pierced through his stomach and pinned him to the ground.

The teenager yelled in pain, but did not stop for even a second and pushed his body forward to escape the lance going through his body from the other end. Pramod attacked again with endless savagery in his eyes, but suddenly Cara appeared before him and parried his attack. Since the demon was immune to attacks, she did not attack and only defended.

Fortunately she was able to buy Alexander the time he needed to free himself, but now he was wounded and bleeding, and Pramod was invincible. Things did not look good.