The Innkeeper

Lex did a bunch of mental math. Honestly, he was sick of going to other planets and dealing with matters unrelated to the Inn. Exploring the universe was fun, albeit Lex had to admit the only reason he even went was to increase the number of connected planets. But the matter of fact was, he had decided to only focus on the Inn for the upcoming period. Stil… it wasn’t like he could ignore Earth completely. Since that was the case, he would use others to handle matters there instead of doing things himself.

“The second matter has to do with Earth. Some time ago Velma passed information of a few people manipulating all major events from behind the scenes to cause war and chaos in general. I passed the information to the so-called steward of Earth, Fernanda. In fact, it has been quite a while since that happened. Your job is to follow up and see if she really did take care of things and handled those trouble makers, or if nothing has changed. If there is no change… I want you to spread the information to all those who have been impacted by the manipulation. Moreover, I want to see if you can get specific information on the people responsible for this. We will see what we can do once we know more.”

Since the original information had come from Velma, Lex did not think they would need him and was about to excuse himself, when Luthor stopped him.

“Wait, since you handle some things for the Innkeeper, there’s a matter that I need to consult you on,” Luthor said quickly when he saw Lex’s intentions.

Lex raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. He understood why Luthor was consulting him. As the Innkeeper, he had not been entertaining many briefings and meetings lately due to his limited time, though he did his best to address all emergencies. Soon he’d recover and he’d be able to take care of nonemergencies as well. Lex was so short on time, he still hadn’t gone through the notifications and rewards he’d received during his butter knife incident.

But that also meant that the workers had to make decisions on their own for matters they couldn’t consult the Innkeeper, and while Luthor seemed to be much better at this than his other workers, Lex noticed that they seemed to be particularly bad at this.

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“Go ahead.”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but there’s been a recurring issue at the Inn lately. One of the guests named Jill has constantly been under attack. Even if we banned the attacker, his accomplices kept coming. The Security room has a system to detect if anyone who comes to the Inn is related to a past offender, but for whatever reason, these new guests weren’t getting detected. Furthermore, they’d be completely normal guests, until they encountered Jill. Then, as if a switch went off, they’d start attacking her.

“Some time ago, we captured some of the offenders and I personally oversaw the interrogation. Yet I wasn’t able to extract any useful information. This is a conundrum no one can think of a solution to, and even the guest is becoming paranoid. She barely leaves her room regardless of how much security we offer her.”

Lex was quickly reminded of this issue. This was a troublesome matter, but what was worse was that Luthor was making a mistake in identifying the direction he should be working in. Lex did not know what was the reasoning behind why this was happening, and maybe it all really did begin because of the Lady Cosmos competition, but he honestly felt otherwise.

Regardless, the matter of fact was that a guest’s personal life or affairs were affecting the Inn. He did not doubt that they would have countless more guests in the future who would have enemies who would chase them to the Inn.

The part they should be focusing on was not solving the guests personal issues, but ensuring that the Inn would always be safe.

The Security room being unable to detect people who might cause problems, or had the intentions to cause trouble was the greatest problem in this scenario, as far as Lex was concerned.

“This is something I can’t casually comment on. Compile all the information you have regarding the incident and I’ll grab it from you next time. All I’ll say for now is, your focus should be on keeping the Inn safe rather than anything else. The Security room being unable to detect potential offenders is the greatest issue here. You should study the offenders thoroughly and try to investigate what was different about them that allowed them to escape the Security rooms detection.”

Before Luthor could say anything else, Leo disappeared. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help out, but that he was really running out of time and he had one more issue to take care of before he fell asleep.

The Innkeeper reappeared near the front of the Inn and sat down on a patch of empty grass. There was an ostentation of peacocks nearby, as well as a few rabbits. A soft wind was blowing across the plains, rustling the grass and tree leaves nearby. It looked like a scene out of a children’s book.

The Inn really was incredibly peaceful, when one took the time to enjoy it. Unfortunately, Lex was not here to enjoy.

He took in a deep, refreshing breath before he turned and looked down at the grass.

“You can’t hide from me, you know,” he said teasingly as he scanned the grass.

Name: –

Age: 0

Cultivation Details: Earth Immortal

Species: Common Earthen Monocotyledon

Condition: Malnourished

Remarks: When the righteous fury of the Butter Knife eliminated the unnamed miscreants causing trouble, this patch of grass was exposed to the profound aura of the attack and gained sentience as well as cultivation. But its body remains as fragile as common grass, and only its spirit has reached the immortal realm.

The last time Lex sat on his chair, he became aware of the fact that there was a patch of grass that had gained sentience. Moreover, because it was born in and from the Inn, it automatically became a worker for the Inn. Unfortunately, being born and gaining cultivation did not mean it gained intelligence. The grass behaved mostly out of instinct, which meant it photosynthesized and absorbed nutrients from the soil. Unfortunately, it was so effective that it was making the surrounding soil infertile, and drastically increasing the oxygen concentration in the entire Inn. Moreover, it was becoming weaker.

Like a newborn baby, it needed to be taken care of. Yet unlike a newborn baby, this patch of grass was in the immortal realm, and Lex needed to have a talk with it before someone could take care of it, lest there be an accident. Even the turtle had not taken the risk yet.

The patch of grass coiled together and formed a humanoid shape. The head turned to look up at the Innkeeper, and it felt a deep feeling of trust when it looked at his face.

“Hey there little fella. What have you been doing out here alone?”

The patch of grass knocked its head, as if confused by the question.

“Little fella, I’m going to send someone to take you away from here, okay? They’ll take you to a better place, this area isn’t suited for you.”

The patch of grass vehemently shook its head, and sat down on the ground as if it was throwing a tantrum. Its roots were here, how could it just get up and leave?

“Don’t be like that, trust me, you’ll enjoy it. You’ll have a weird big brother called Young McDonald and a weird uncle that’s a turtle. They’ll give you fresh water, and the best soil and maybe sometimes they’ll even spoil you with some fertilizer.”

The humanoid patch of grass scratched its head, as if it was thinking it through. Truth be told, it had been feeling lethargic lately. Unfortunately, it did not know anything, so it could not identify what that lethargy meant.

But Lex knew. The grass had gained an impressive cultivation, but its body was still so fragile it could rip by being stepped on. Moreover, it could not absorb the necessary nutrients to strengthen its body here, which was actually causing the grass to starve.

“Alright buddy, if nothing else, at least go somewhere safe. After all, you know this place is full of rabbit monsters that eat grass!”

The patch of grass nearly unfurled in terror as it heard the Innkeepers statement, and quickly started to nod its head. It didn’t want to face the dreaded rabbit monster! Though it didn’t know what that was, it also did not want to find out.

“Excellent. I’m sure you’ll like your new home. By the way, welcome to the Midnight family.”