The Innkeeper

“Before you do anything, someone sent you a message I think you should listen to,” Mary suddenly interrupted Lex’s thoughts, before directly playing the message. Considering the current situation, Lex knew Mary would only interrupt him if it was important, and indeed it was.

Firstly, her timely interruption woke Lex from his stupor. He realized that he had once again become furious, the same way he had on X-142, though obviously not at the same level. It was strange, Lex never had any anger issues in his life prior to this. But then again, he lived a life where he never really encountered any bullying or blatant antagonization. Fortunately, once he realized that, he quickly calmed down. Secondly, the message provided him with a way to resolve this situation without having to resort to violence. Well, without directly having to resort to violence.

Before he said anything, though, he scanned the audacious girl.

Name: Heidi

Age:18

Sex: Female

Cultivation Details: Qi training level 3

Species: Human

Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1

Remarks: She reeks of a girl with Daddy issues. Her boyfriend could either be extremely fortunate, or extremely unfortunate – there is no third option.

With nothing special in her status worthy of note, in Lex’s mind this matter was no longer worthy of his attention. So far, he had avoided trouble at his Inn due to the clear intimidating reputation he had established, but there would always be people who were not guided by logic. In fact, there were likely more of those out there than the logical type, it was just that Lex had the good fortune of avoiding most of them so far.

Normally, Lex would address others as ‘dear guest’ to make them feel comfortable and respected, but this time, he could not be bothered.

“Heidi, this is the Midnight Inn. We take pride in our service to any and all guests who honor decorum, but for those who display impropriety, we have no patience. This is not a feud between the ‘younger generation’. It is simply you mistreating one of my staff, and me not standing for it. It is already a testament to my good temper that I even bothered to provide an explanation for my decision, let alone the light punishment I declared.”

The Innkeeper’s expression was only mildly perturbed, but all who were watching felt the pressure of his words. It was like a suffocating feeling, pressing down on one’s chest, keeping them from breathing. For a moment, some were truly afraid of what would happen next, and were ready to escape at a moment’s notice.

It just so happened that Ragnar, the General in charge of the Jotun forces in the Vegus system, happened to come to the Inn just in time to witness these things. He had originally come to the Inn because he needed to consult the Innkeeper on certain matters, but decided it was best to wait till the situation was resolved.

“Since you are from an underdeveloped planet, it makes sense that you cannot understand that being served by my employees is a privilege and an honor, but it is not my place to explain these things to you. Originally, since you were sensible enough not to actually try to harm my employee, I was simply going to send you back to your planet and end this farce. Yet it seems your words have struck a nerve with someone, and so, I will indeed let the ‘younger generation’ handle it.”

Heidi, who was originally furious, was now flushed with embarrassment and wild jealousy. She accused him of bullying and tried to discredit him in public since she was so used to being around people who cared more for face than anything else, but the glaring indifference in his eyes let her know that if she had not harassed one of his employees, she would never enter his eyes for the rest of his life. His apathy for her was only matched by his concern for his employee. When was the last time someone had cared like that for her?

Before she could think much further, however, someone came and stepped in front of her. He was one of the more renowned workers at the Inn, Z. Not only did he have a crowd of mothers wanting to spoil him, and the odd girl finding his shyness cute, but he was extremely popular amongst Lex’s employees as well.

While they all had unique personalities, most of Lex’s workers had an air of naivety to them, and it was only with Z’s incessant guidance that they took care of themselves somewhat. Of course, he still would not show his concern openly. With everyone’s first paycheck of 100 MP, he had them buy phones, and he shared all his concerns over a discord server for the Inn employees only.

Right now, though, he did not look like a shy geek who spent all his time in front of a screen. Currently, he was looking up at Heidi (he was shorter than her) with his arms folded and a look of disgust on his face. No one could tell at all that he practiced this look in the mirror every time he saw an awesome anime protagonist.

“For insulting big sister Pamela, I could diss you so long and hard, it would put shame to every diss track in history. But I don’t have time to waste on the likes of you, I’m right in the middle of watching Overlady, so how about we get right to it. I challenge you to a fight in the arena. If I win, apologize to sister Pamela. If you win, I’ll apologize on sisters behalf and give you all the MP I have.”

Internally, Z snickered. He only had 1 MP left.

Heidi suddenly realized that a massive crowd had gathered, and now they were all watching her. Not only were there numerous guests, slowly more and more of the Inns workers had started to gather. This was the first time any of them faced such a situation, and as a tightknit community, they were all extremely concerned for Pamela.

Even with her inflated ego, anger and embarrassment clouding her mind, she started feeling pressure under the gaze of the enormous crowd, and was thinking of what she could do. But before she could think of anything, Z spoke once again.

“Of course, since the whole matter started with you guys taking advantage of sister Pamela, you must join in the challenge as well.” He was, of course, looking at Sean and his friends. “Naturally, I’ll take you all on together. Don’t worry, I know this is too unfair a fight for you guys, so I’ll only use one hand.”

As soon as Z said those words, the crowd erupted in murmurs. Lex felt his heart drop, but he did not let it show on his face. He wasn’t even sure if this was the same Z who never moved from in front of the TV screen. He had never seen him jog, let alone fight, and now he was handicapping himself. If he failed, Lex wouldn’t know where to bury his face from embarrassment.

Heidi, on the other hand, suddenly saw hope. Like she knew how to escalate situations, she recognized the current one very well. This kid was trying to show off in front of some girl, she herself had experienced such things a hundred times. She had to take advantage of the situation before the kids’ heads cooled down. She would vent all her frustrations on him!

“I’ve really seen it all,” she yelled, making sure all the crowd heard her voice clearly. “The Innkeeper of the famous Midnight Inn likes to bully little girls, and the rest of you like to force us into fights! I’m not as barbarish as you, but that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of you! Come on Sean, let’s go! Or is the only thing you can do is ogle at dirty skanks? And you, little kid, don’t cry when you lose! I’ll have you beg for an apology for every dirty look that ugly wench threw at my boyfriend.”

By calling out her boyfriend, she put the pressure on him to join her in the fight alongside her. She really needed him and his friends as she herself… could not fight at all! They were living in the 21st century, with her prestigious background when would she ever need to fight? Her cultivation realm was only to prolong her youth and keep up with her siblings.

Word of the fight spread across the Inn almost immediately, and almost all the guests showed up to the arena to watch the fight! There had been a few matches here regularly since Marlo and Brandon had their duel, and it had become one of the most popular spots and always hosted a crowd, either supporting a fighter or just enjoying the match.

None of that could compare, however, with the massive crowd that was gathering now. Not only because of all the guests, but because after asking special permission, all the workers across the Inn came here to show their support for Z.

Every one of them seemed to take the feeble looking kids win for granted. Only Lex was worried inside, though one would not be able to tell by looking at him.

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