The Innkeeper

“Of course there were intruders! Does this look like the kind of redecoration I would do?” Lex said between barred teeth. Someone had come in and trashed his entire apartment, and then came once again to threaten him, but Bluebird delayed their response to find Jessica because she had a connection to him. He was feeling pissed at Ultimate Fighting Fortress (UFF) and annoyed at Bluebird, and it was coming out right now.

“Lex calm down, you’re being too aggressive,” Mary told him. “You need to maintain a good relationship with the authorities.”

Lex realized his words and tone were too strong. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds before breathing out.

“I apologize,” he said looking at Jessica again. “I was a bit emotional. I am not used to this kind of thing.”

“It’s completely understandable,” Jessica replied, looking around the apartment. To be honest, handling incidents of cultivator violence was not her domain in Bluebird. Her work was more logistical, and she rarely ever entered the field. It was true, however, that she was called on an emergency basis to handle this case because of her connection with Lex. She had been on a date that had to be cut short which annoyed her, but she maintained her professionalism. She had been briefed that other than handling the immediate incident, she should try to investigate Lex’s relationship with Marlo as well as if he had any information on him. No one expected Lex to know, but there was no harm in being thorough._.

“Before anything else, are you hurt? Do you require any medical attention?”

“No, no I’m fine.”

“Then can you walk me through what happened?”

As the two of them talked, the two police officers were looking around the apartment to get a clear idea of the scope of the incident. There wasn’t a single part of the apartment that hadn’t seen some damage.

“Three guys broke into my apartment and started trashing the place. I tried to ask them what they wanted but they were very forceful.” Lex lied through his teeth flawlessly, as if the truth was exactly as he described. He didn’t want Bluebird to know he was gone for a while and the apartment was destroyed behind his back. “They seemed to be looking for something. When they couldn’t find it, they came for me. Fortunately I have this for self defense,” he said, pulling out the Heavy Harley. “As soon as I took out the gun I threatened them to leave. Maybe I could have told them to wait till you guys appeared but I didn’t want to take a chance.”

Jessica took a look at the gun and said, “Yes, we saw that you had a registered weapon. But you should be more careful, if they had weapons as well it could have turned into a confrontation. Do you have any idea what they were after?”

“No clue, they weren’t exactly chatty and I wasn’t in the mood to ask.”

Although Lex was trying to control himself, it was apparent that he was agitated, though no one thought that was unusual as he had just been through a traumatic experience. Jessica asked him a few more questions, but Lex would always answer that he did not know anything. He did not know who these people were, why they were after him or what they were looking for. He was completely attempting to distance himself from the situation.

Finally, with no actual information on hand and no way to lead the conversation Jessica had to ask the question she was wondering up front. “It says on your profile that you’ve registered for self defense classes, but your trainer took a leave. Do you know anything about that?”

“No not much, he just gave us a week off…wait, was this because of him? Did these people find me because they were looking for him?” Lex asked, feigning his shock and anger extremely well.

“No, of course not. I just thought that if he were around you could ask him what to do in a breakin situation. Having a direct confrontation against three intruders is not a smart idea.” Jessica covered herself really well, but Lex showed a doubtful look. They asked him a few more questions, until they finally left. They told him they’d contact him again if they made any progress on the investigation, and asked him if he wanted to follow them to a safe house. Lex naturally declined to follow them as he had other plans.

He took Mary’s suggestion and decided he was going to drop out of Marlo’s class and leave for a while. As for his family…he decided that he’d tell them about cultivation whenever he met them personally next time. Actually there was a Bluebird program that helped new cultivators explain to their immediate families about the cultivation world. This was so that there would be a bit of credibility when these people talked to their families, and to avoid accidents. However Lex didn’t want to think about that right now. Dealing with family was always complicated, he wanted to avoid thinking about it.

Leaving Marlo’s class was not normally an easy procedure, as it was in his contract that once you started you could not stop or you would be prosecuted. It was an unusual clause, but in this situation Lex had an easy out as he could claim his life had been endangered because of Marlo. He wrote up an email and sent it to the official email attached to the self defense class before he left his apartment. He only grabbed his phone, wallet, Bluebird token and Heavy Harley that he stored in his backpack, nothing else in the apartment was worth putting any effort into. He hailed a taxi and told the driver an address he’d looked up online. He arrived at a skyscraper and quickly made his way in. At the reception he showed his token and said, “I’m here to register at Ballor’s castle.”

The receptionist scanned the token, and after checking if everything was in order, told him to take the elevator to the 20th level. Of course, the 20th level she was referring to was the basement level, not the floors in the highrise. Lex, already used to this system by now, and directly went underground.

The reason why he was so decisive about coming here was because he’d done a lot of research on Ballor’s castle since Larry told him about it. They took their role of protection quite seriously, and had a very positive reputation in the cultivator community. He would relocate using their help, and also finally gain an affiliation with an organization on Earth. Although he wanted to avoid doing so, it couldn’t be helped. At least this one was not so demanding of its members.

When he reached the floor he was greeted with a bold ‘Ballor’s Castle’ imprinted on the wall, along with various images of its leading members. Lex only glanced at it before heading towards the reception on this level.

Joining an organization was not as quick and straightforward as he had seen so many characters do in books. After scanning his token and checking his profile on the Bluebird database, they checked his criminal history. Once they were done with that, they checked his social media to check if he had any extremist views or dubious connections. Then came the paperwork. Oh lord, there was so much paperwork!

Lex felt like he’d spent hours filling out forms, answering questions, and then redoing some parts that the receptionist told him he did wrong. They wanted to know everything about him, from his academic records to his professional experience, his medical history to his political affiliations if he had any. When it came to his cultivation, it was mandatory to list his level as well as how long he had been cultivating for, followed by optional questions where he could write down the details of his cultivation technique. Lex left all the optional questions and then submitted the paperwork and began waiting for the final process, the personal interview. Under normal circumstances he was told that the interview would be scheduled in a few weeks, but he told them that he was in an emergency, after which they revealed to him the option to pay for an express interview. He didn’t know if he should be cursing or grateful for the capitalistic mentality.

Naturally he paid the $5000 express fee and was led to the interview room where he waited silently for his interview to begin. To be honest, he was surprised by how thorough the organization was in its joining process. He assumed it would have been easier and more straightforward. The receptionist then told him that because Ballor’s castle took their role so seriously, they were also very selective in who they allowed in. Criminals or people with potential ulterior motives were not allowed to join. He supposed that was good for him, as long as his interview went smoothly and he could join. For now, all he could do was wait.