The Innkeeper

Chapter 1328  Divine Kingdom

Lex gave Mary a glare and she meekly stepped back and stuck out a tongue pointed at him.

”If I get more of them Iʼll give you. For now, I will keep this one in case I need it. Now, can we focus on other things. Whatʼs an Elysian? Can you tell me?”

Lex had read many books and learned about countless races that existed within the Origin realm, all from books he got from the Emporium. Yet the Elysians werenʼt one of them - likely because they had something to do with the Heavens, and not the Origin realm.

”I canʼt tell you- oh wait, it seems like I can tell you,” Mary said, sounding surprised herself. ”This is genuinely surprising. Then again, I guess we havenʼt had a nice, long question and answer session in a while. Maybe becoming an immortal has finally allowed you to learn a few things.”

Once, Lex used to get irritated that the system withheld information, but he now understood that as a mortal, learning too many secrets put an immense burden on his mind and his being. Sometimes, it was literally more dangerous than an actual enemy.

”Just like Hellions and Humanoids, Elysians are another race group in the universe. Iʼll be quite frank with you, Hellions and Elysians both hate each otherʼs guts, but often have that enemies to lovers deal going on between them. But both of them really hate all humanoids, so on the list of races to watch out for just for being a human, I would count them both.”

Mary flapped her wings and took flight, and while Lex pondered the implications of what she told him, she herself was quite curious about how much freedom she had been given to communicate with him.

It was like a whole new era was opening up for the Midnight Inn if she could truly begin guiding him freely.

”Why do they hate humanoids?” Lex asked.

”Itʼs because of devils and angels,” Mary told him, suddenly feeling excited about sharing universal gossip. ”You already know that controlling major realms influences a race, raising its position in the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum. What you donʼt know is how. ”Much in the way you took control of a Minor realm back when you were in the Crystal realm, Dao Lords can take control of a Major realm. Yet when that happens, itʼs not just the Dao Lord that gets the feedback, but his entire family, as well as his entire race.

”Youʼve seen how devils transform into their alternate forms right? And how angels can control divine energy? Well, both of these abilities are things their races didnʼt originally have. The devils took over one of the Hells, namely Garvitz, while the angels took partial control over a Heaven named Eden, and thereby gained benefits for their races - benefits that originally belonged to Hellions and Elysians.

”Donʼt think that just because the angels only have partial control that theyʼre weak. Based on the ongoing trend, itʼs only a matter of time before they claim total control over it.”

”Interesting. Interesting. So all Iʼm hearing is that when I complete these two quests, building both a Heaven and a Hell within the Inn, Iʼm going to piss off both the Hellions and Elysians. Excellent.”

Mary shrugged.

”Not necessarily. I think you should look more into the concept of Heaven and Hell. They donʼt necessarily need to cover the entire realm. I think, instead, if you have both Heaven and Hell inside the Inn, youʼll be on the path for a genuine Divine Kingdom. Now that… wops, looks like we found the limit of what I can say.”

Lex frowned, and tapped his finger on his arm chair. A part of his attention was on the Midnight Games. These games would continue for an entire year, but he still needed to manage it.

Fortunately, there didnʼt seem to be any urgency, so he could take a bit of time to look into this Heaven and Hell business.

”Can you ask Gerard if Lilith is available for a conversation? And do we have anyone with deep contacts with the angels?”

”There is an angel called Lucifer who has been trying to get a date with Velma. He seems to have a deep background, you want me to ask her to contact him?”

Lex snorted.

”No, thatʼs fine. After my meeting with Lilith Iʼll just look into the Inns guest list. Iʼm sure I can find a decent angel to have a meeting with.”

Mary disappeared, but reappeared just a short while later.

”It seems like Lilith will be unavailable for the foreseeable future. She has been summoned back to meet with her father. According to the note she left Gerard, that summons could last anywhere from between a few days to a few centuries.”

Lex paused, but then sighed.

Looks like he would have to look into the angel angle first. Speaking of angels, the first time he heard of Eden corp was from Giselle, who wore a watch from them. She was also quite knowledgeable in the randomest of matters. Considering he had to talk to her about getting a Defiler core anyway…

”Alright, thatʼs it for now. Iʼll handle things from now on.”

Mary gave Lex an odd look, and hesitated, before eventually deciding to speak her mind.

”By the way, I donʼt know if youʼve noticed, but thereʼs a pretty big thing going on at the Inn.”

Lex suddenly sweeped the Inn, ensuring that there were no issues. Whe he couldnʼt find anything wrong, he turned to look at Mary for an explanation. ”Well, you already know that Harry got married to an outsider, and had a kid. Everyone loves Hailey and their kid, but that has also built an impression in their minds that itʼs okay to marry outsiders - which it is, Iʼm not saying itʼs not.

”But for the most part that has not happened before since the workers usually focus on each other in their free time, and the guests never saw the workers as anything more than Inn staff. But the Battalion is changing that. In the Midnight Games, everyone can see how they go from battlefield to battlefield, crushing their enemies and claiming one victory after another.

”Well, I think Iʼm putting it mildly when I say that has influenced a lot of the ladies, as well as the gents, and in an unusual development, a sentient apache helicopter as well, to have a favorable impression of them. Iʼm putting it very, very mildly when I say it like that.

”So you should just be mentally prepared that a lot of them might start getting into relationships soon. While in itself thatʼs a good thing… youʼve never really faced internal conflict within your workers before. But the addition of their partners who were not born of the system might just change that.”

Mary silently marveled at the amount of freedom she was suddenly given. This was just one of the things she had wanted to warn Lex about for a long time, but she had always been restricted. Now though, for whatever reason, she could.

”Where there are people, conflict is inevitable,” Lex said dismissively. ”Velma has already discussed this with me, by the way. Sheʼs organized some classes to teach workers about foreign dating cultures, and I did a survey among the workers about their general sentiments.

”I donʼt think they will tolerate a partner who breaks the rules of the Inn. Besides that, any arguments and disagreements they have can all be handled. We canʼt shy away from these little problems.”

Of course, since Mary had brought up the problem, Lex would give it more attention. But for now, he teleported to the flying city of glass which was currently over the massive lake behind Midnight manor.

The city was one of the more popular destinations among mortals, and was an even more popular spot for dates, not that that had anything to do with his purpose here.

Lex had come here to find Giselle, who was sitting in a cafe having a meeting with an alien woman.

She was a reptilian, which meant that although she could stand up right like humans, communicate and do everything else humans could, the scales and the long tails would always make them distinct from humans.

Whatever their conversation was, Giselle paused when she sensed Lexʼs approach from the distance. He waved at them with a smile.

”Sorry, I hope Iʼm not disturbing anything important,” he said warmly. ”I wanted to discuss something with Giselle. Is this a bad time?”

Both the ladies looked at Lex, though the reptilian lady scrutinized him more openly.

”Are you sure?” she asked, with doubt in her mind.

”Positive,” Giselle said, and turned to Lex.

”Were you aware that there are a number of bounties on your head?”

”Oh yeah, from the dragons,” Lex said with a nod. ”Iʼm pretty sure they might be revoked soon. I think weʼre on good terms now.”

The lizard lady sighed in disappointment.