The Innkeeper

Ragnar did not let his emotions show on his face, but his mind was extremely turbulent. As a man who had dedicated his entire life to the human race, one of the things he hated most were demons, devils and other races that for some reason targeted the humans.

But the single thing, without a shred of doubt, that he hated most were humans who betrayed the human race. He understood that there was always conflict and interest, and humans could never completely be peaceful with one another. It was all but natural. Yet there was a difference between fighting other humans due to a conflict of interest, and betraying them to gain benefits from another race.

He knew, unfortunately, that as despicable a thing as this was, it was still prevalent in humans. He just never imagined that he would face it on such a high level.

To be clear, he was not considering some members of his regiment participating in an attack on the Inn as high level interference. No, instead it was the fact that there was even a possibility that a Jorlam had been born in the Pendal galaxy that meant there was a high level betrayal.

Moreover, this was not just a betrayal of the human race, but the Henali as well. The battlefield where Ragnar was currently stationed was to fight off invading Fuegan, a duty assigned directly by the Henali. If someone was interfering with that… well, the loss of a single galaxy was far from the worst thing they could end up having happen to them.

Ragnar collected himself, gave one last look at the hearth as well as the countdown on it, listing how long the enemies of the Inn would be tortured, before moving towards the Guild room.

Along the way as he saw the condition of the Inn, it served as a reminder for him that no matter how strong or capable one might be, there would always be those who would challenge them.

*****

Velma woke up in the Recovery room, her hair a mess and her face pale from the shock her body had suffered. Her body was sore, not only from the fighting she had been exposed to, but from the aftermath of an explosion that she had been lucky enough to survive.

She was disoriented at first, but recovered quickly. Then she hopped on her feet and began helping where she could. There were countless injured who needed tending to, and even the ones who recovered needed aid, let alone the number of guests who were unhurt, but still needed tending to. After all, this was an Inn not a hospital, and there was no shortage of regular guests.

She saw a pale looking guest who, according to Nurse Jubilation, was perfectly physically healthy, but kept crying and wailing in fear. But while it was their job, none of the workers or nurses were willing to help him. This was because… the crying man was the person who had challenged the Innkeeper to a fight!

The fact that he hadn’t been killed meant that he was never really involved with the attack, he was just an incredibly arrogant man with unfortunate timing. But whatever the case, his greatest misfortune was that he encountered Lex who was in a state of seeking revenge for every petty grievance at the time. Though he had not killed the man who challenged him, but just let him be exposed to the aura released by the Butter Knife while forcing him to stay awake.

Suffice to say the man was extremely traumatized. Eventually, with time, he would recover, but it seemed like his recovery would not be at the Inn, for on one was willing to aid him, except nurse Jubilation who was burdened with responsibility.

Velma was about to go tend to other patients when one of Anita’s undead helpers appeared and informed Velma that Anita was requesting her prescience.

Anita was in the Midnight Library, recording the past days’ events down by hand – her handwriting the most beautiful calligraphy Velma had ever seen.

“I’m glad to see you are unhurt,” said the Lich. “But I think you have more pressing matters currently than helping guests.”

“What do you mean?” asked Velma. Though she had recovered somewhat, she was not in her peak state so her thoughts were somewhat slow.

“Why, you have to write a newsletter on the Innkeepers actions of course,” she replied, placing a printed picture before her. It showed the silhouette of a man shining alone in the darkness, a single Butter Knife in his hand. “And don’t just write a newsletter this time. There’s a new building that the Innkeeper created that lets you enter the Henali portal. Publish his actions for the whole universe to know.”

Stars shone in Velma’s eyes as she suddenly realized that’s exactly what she needed to do. While she was at it, and the Innkeeper was in the limelight, should she create a dating profile for him? After all, she’d never heard of a Mrs. Innkeeper yet.

*****

Lex’s sleeping body looked even more withered than the first time it had been out into the Recovery room, but that was to be expected. Not only did his body suffer through the same strain as last time, this time the Lotus was contributing to his condition.

Lex had made a simple request, to step by step make his body’s foundation capable of interacting with universal laws physically. Well, he did not phrase it like that, because he did not even know, nor could he comprehend, what the universal laws were. Instead, he asked the Lotus to give him a foundation which could tolerate the immense stress his hallucinations were putting him under, and then allowed the Lotus to examine his body.

The Lotus, however, immediately recognized the influence of laws, and it began to work. The first step was to enhance Lex’s blood, for which it would have to first absorb all of his blood. It was an extremely tedious process, but fortunately Lex would be able to survive a few minutes without any blood in his body. After that, the Lotus would give Lex new blood which was carried a lot more than just nutrients and oxygen. Then it could begin on its other changes. It was a little hard to fulfill such a request without any materials on hand, but it would do what it could.

*****

Luthor stood silently in front of the Recovery pod which contained Harry’s body. He had never met Harry for his time at the Inn was too short. In fact, not only had he not met a majority of the workers, he had missed out most of the battle that had taken place, simply because he was in training and did not know about it.

To make matters worse, when he did learn about the battle, he had been too pathetically weak to do anything. He could only watch helplessly as the Inn was destroyed around him. Then, when everything seemed to be at its worst, the Innkeeper arrived, like heroes from the legends of old.

His fury was the fury of the universe, and his wrath had rained down swiftly on his enemies, yet the Innkeeper had left just as swiftly. Luthor heard a rumor that the reason the Innkeeper had not helped at first, and had disappeared as quickly as he appeared, was because he was taking care of incredibly important matters.

They were so important, in fact, that the Innkeeper could not even stick around to drink the coffee he had requested from Gerard, apparently.

When Luthor heard such a thing, he had never felt more ashamed in his few weeks long life.

The Innkeeper was working tirelessly to deliver the universe the ultimate hoteling experience, and here they were, unable to even deliver coffee on time.

But no amount of frustration would help, and no amount of anger would suddenly make things better. He needed to spend some time studying, learning how best he could help the Inn. For that, he had discovered a new facility – the Henali portal.

Without saying a single word, Luthor left the Recovery pod and made his way to register for the portal. The universe had bested the Inn today, though it could not best the Innkeeper. But such a day would never come again. A golf cart, an incredibly upgraded golf cart, pulled up besides Luthor as he was walking.

Gerard, who was in the driver’s seat, signaled Luthor to get in.

“I’ve been talking to some of the fellas. Everyone feels the same way. We’re too weak.”

Luthor said nothing. He had no words left in him right now.

“To be honest, we can’t be blamed. We’ve been trained to be hosts, not fighters. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change. I remember the little lass Velma told me about a rumor once, about a place that can train people to become strong.”

“I don’t know if the place is true, but apparently there is a trial you can take to enter. I’m going to start searching for the trial. If you’re interested, once I find the trial, you can come as well.”

“What’s the place called?” Luthor finally asked hoarsely.

“Ventura.”