The Innkeeper

Chapter 2326: Insignificant

"What the hell did you do?" Ballom questioned, his entire being radiating with anger as he barged into the meeting room, Dao radiation leaking from every pore of his body.

The fact that there were so many secrets being kept these days might have made people forget, but it was almost impossible to keep secrets from Dao Lords. Or, well, at least incredibly difficult and costly.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before the whole affair was revealed to everyone. While the Innkeeper had allowed the Humanoid Alliance to use his Inn to access the Dream realm, he had asked them to protect the tavern during the time that they did.

While certain factions of the alliance did just that, other factions of the alliance used their access to the Inn to learn everything they could about it and kidnapped one of the Inns’ workers from within the very tavern they were meant to be protecting!

Since they were privy to the security details of the tavern, it only became easier for them to plot out the perfect plan to ensure that their mission was a success!

Yes, for a time, they had managed to keep this a secret. But it was inevitable that this secret would be revealed. To begin with, something like this wasn’t worth the effort and investment it would take to hide it from other Dao Lords.

Now, it was an open secret among the Dao Lords that the Humanoid Alliance had abused their agreement with the Innkeeper. The funniest thing was, most of the Dao Lords who learned about it felt like this was a terrible exchange. If they were going to strain their relationship with the Innkeeper, it should at least be over something valuable?

A single, immortal human? Going for him was basically the same as annoying the Innkeeper for no reason. The Humanoid Alliance had, to a small extent, attracted disdain from others. Of course, it was only a small amount, for most weren’t qualified to pass judgment on a behemoth like that.

The meeting room held only two others. One was the Runeking Dao Lord, and one was a Celestial Dao Lord.

The Dwarf looked a bit amused, even smug, as he looked at the furious Ballom, while the Celestial looked annoyed.

"Ballom, intruding on a disciplinary meeting is against protocol," the Celestial said as he looked towards the Devil.

"Oh, I forgot, we don’t allow intruding on meetings but betraying allies, provoking friends into enemies and ruining the reputation of the alliance are fine," Ballom retorted furiously.

The Celestial seemed to have anticipated such a response, and so wasn’t fazed by his anger. The Dwarf, however, actually seemed to enjoy Ballom’s fury.

"Oh come now, don’t overreact," the Runeking said as he waved his hand. "It’s a mere immortal human, and he’s not even related to the Innkeeper. Besides, the Innkeeper has indicated many times that he’s interested in allying with the alliance. If that’s the case, shouldn’t he contribute to our cause?

"A single human with the chance to inherit the legacy of Zarek is not too precious yet not so useless. He has a decent chance of reaching the peak of the Celestial realm, but that’s all. If he can’t even contribute that much to the cause of reviving humanity, then what right does he have of trying to join the alliance?"

The Celestial suddenly waved his hand, locking Ballom in place and preventing him from transforming into his Devil form. On one hand, the radiation from that would pollute this meeting room for centuries, and on the other hand, he didn’t want to deal with a fight with all he had going on.

"Runeking is not wrong - joining the alliance would mean that the Innkeeper would have to contribute. No one can simply take benefits from the alliance. Having said that, there are ways of going about this. Your aggressive manner was highly inappropriate, and regardless of the value of the human, the disrespect to the Innkeeper will become a hurdle in trying to recruit him. At the same time, this has affected the credibility of the alliance.

"This has also reduced the chances of cooperating with the Innkeeper in the future, thus I cannot look the other way. Runeking, you will be sentenced to a hundred years in the forge, crafting for the alliance. You are forbidden from leaving until your time is up."

The Runeking didn’t seem bothered at all by his punishment, and merely winked towards Ballom as he hopped on his feet and slowly sauntered off.

Ballom’s anger hadn’t subsided in the least. In fact, he seemed even angrier than he was when he came in.

"When the fallout from this comes, and it will come, do not expect the Devils to participate in the clean up," Ballom said angrily towards the Celestial.

"You cannot speak on behalf of the Devil race, Ballom. Besides, you know I agree with you on this matter. Runeking shouldn’t have acted against the human. Losing access to the Midnight Inn’s teleportation capabilities could be a huge blow to the alliance."

Ballom snorted.

"If you agree with me then return the human to the Inn before the situation gets worse! At least that way there’s a chance to redeem the situation," Ballom exclaimed.

The Celestial, unfortunately, shook his head.

"I wish I could, but the Runeking has a large lobby behind him, and they’re all dissatisfied with the attention that the Innkeeper has been getting. They feel like if he joins the alliance, it will severely affect the distribution of resources among Dao Lords, so they want to use this event to pressure him and remind him that even if he joins, he would be a newcomer.

"While there are many who feel like this is pointlessly offending the Innkeeper, however since they’ve lost the initiative it’s not so easy to overturn the situation at this moment. The best we can do right now is damage control. If you want to return the human, you can gather up a lobby of your own, but with the situation at Eden getting a vote through is nigh impossible."

Ballom was clearly furious, but instead of arguing with the Celestial anymore, he only smiled, and then let out a low laugh.

"You all keep saying that you ’just took an immortal’. Buddy, when you sit in front of the Innkeeper and he looks at you, immortals and mortals with the exact same gaze, you’ll come to understand that you’re just as insignificant to him as that immortal is to you."

Ballom turned around to leave, no longer interested in continuing the conversation. He now had to do his best to make sure that when the fallout came, he wouldn’t get caught up in it. Ideally, he could even discover where Z was being kept. Yet that was easier said than done, for he was sure that the Runeking was specifically blocking him.

He’d see how things went.