The Innkeeper

There was an awkward silence in the hall, following Lex's questions. Well, this much was to be expected. He more or less knew that these noble born kids who had been spoiled rotten would have never even perceived that they would ever need to do such things.

However, what Lex didn't know was that he still overestimated them. Let alone have experience in them, this was the first time they had ever heard of such chores? Scrub the floor? Clean windows? Wash... dirty dishes? Were these things that actually had to be done?

"I have a lot of experience overseeing groceries. I can help with that," said one of them weakly. Only he knew that the extent of his experience was borrowing from his father's warehouses without showing any discrepancies. Unfortunately for him, that was one of the departments that the system handled for Lex, and since he had more or less given up pretending to be ordinary, he did not need to put up that front.

"I... I've hosted a few orchestras. I can probably arrange good entertainment," said another.

"I can probably source excellent wine."

"I can..."

"I have..."

"I..."

Once they started, they went on a roll, but almost all of their experiences were utterly useless to Lex. In the end, Lex decided to give them the absolutely most basic jobs, making it more difficult for them to mess up.

"Stop, all of you, just stop," Lex said, hushing their attempts to list their 'skills and experience'. "I'll give you all simple tasks, but I doubt you'll be able to master them, so we will treat today as training. Training days won't count towards your week long punishment, so I suggest you pick up your tasks as soon as possible."

All of them, except the one who knew an orchestra, and the original offender who assaulted Nini, were tasked with various cleaning duties, from cleaning rooms, taking out trash, making the bed, clearing the kitchen, washing dishes, and more. The triplets and Rick were tasked with teaching them and overseeing their duty.

He had to say, he was actually quite satisfied with how hard the girls worked, and was actually planning on increasing their salary right from the beginning. Currently, they were each being paid 1 silver coin each for a week's work, and he planned on doubling it.

As for the two remaining miscreants, Lex was actually quite interested in arranging a musician to visit the tavern regularly, so he tasked the one who arranged orchestras to find him a musician willing to play at his tavern. Lex would then see how well the musician performed. As for the guy who tried assaulting Nini, Lex had him scrubbing the main hall floor - with nothing but a towel rag. That would be his only duty for the entire week, and Lex had no intentions of letting him take breaks or clean half heartedly.

Besides that, today Betty, Big Ben's wife, would be in charge of the cooking. She applied for the position when Big Ben was hired here, and Lex said that he would decide based on her performance. A few others were also scheduled to come today to interview for various positions. It would be a full day.

*****

Although it was not cold, Anakin folded his cashmere scarf - one of the times he stole - inside his velvet coat and buttoned up. He picked the gold embossed smoking pipe from his mouth and blew out some smoke into the wind. With his free hand, he reached into his coat pocket and lifted the jewel encrusted pocket watch and checked the time.

His latest business associates were late, and he could not really tell by how much because his pocket watch had no batteries in it, which annoyed him. He slid the watch back in his pocket, put the pipe back in his mouth and continued to smoke.

He did not mind his associates being late, for the Lady Cosmos competition was on break. The contestants needed to replenish their strength and be completely rejuvenated for the last portion of the event. Therefore, he really had nothing else to do.

It was not his intention, but circumstances forced him to relax in decadent luxury.

He did not have to wait much longer though, as the three men he was waiting for quickly entered his sight. To be specific, they didn't really agree to work with him, but he told them where to find him when they could not figure out a solution on their own.

Eventually, despite their reluctance, they ended up coming here. To be clear, Noman had no issue he wanted to resolve, but no one else dared let him roam free and unsupervised. After all, if he truly knew their secrets, or at least some of them, they would have too much to lose. He was, however, mildly interested in the business opportunity Anakin mentioned, for he wasn't lying when he said it.

"Gentlemen, I see you finally decided to avail my services," Anakin said in an extremely practiced manner. "Before I tell you the solution to your problems, and guide you through them, I have prepared a small contract. I believe we'll be able to enact it through the Guild room. You can read it at your leisure. It's just the basics, really. I'll accept a 1000 MP payment from each of you, up front, and you'll share any expenses incurred during the resolution process on my behalf."

The three men glared at him angrily, but Anakin was immune to any such looks. He was a self-made man, so even when he gained a lot of wealth, he kept an eye out for more opportunities.

"What assurance do we have that you'll actually resolve the problem?" asked Rafael. "Moreover, how will you ensure that this one never interferes with my business again?" He asked, pointing towards Noman. "Even if the problem is resolved now, if he keeps going around spouting nonsense around me, it'll affect my business."

"For the resolution, you have no choice but to trust me. As for future encounters, I believe Mr. Butt and I will be business partners in the near future, so you won't need to worry. I'll make sure he no longer shares his gift with anyone for free."

The rest grumbled but, eventually, gave in and signed the contract. Pleased with the small fortune he just made for himself, Anakin took a moment to dwell in his accomplishment, before he became serious.

He had the trio follow him until he brought them to a building at the Inn they'd never seen before.

"Gentlemen, the building behind me is like none other. It is an exclusive feature of the Midnight Inn and is known as the Chamber of Secrets. Within it, you can deposit any knowledge you have to store, effectively removing it from your brain. Moreover, at the time of the deposit, you can set the required conditions to reclaim the secrets.

"So, to resolve your situation, you can openly ask each other any questions you need to relieve your concerns. Once you're convinced, everyone in the know can go into the chamber and directly deposit all sensitive information related to each other, with the condition that it cannot be retrieved unless all three of you agree. Naturally, you can skip the sharing process and directly go and deposit the secrets, but where's the fun in that?"

For a moment, everyone was dumbstruck. Did they just pay 1000MP... to learn about something they could have found out for free? No wonder there was a no refund clause in the contract.

*****

Lex was in the kitchen trying the soup Betty made, which was really very good, when a sudden ruckus from the main hall attracted his attention. There were multiple voices yelling and a woman screaming desperately above them all. Lex's heart dropped, and he suddenly thought of the serial killer on the loose.

He bolted to the hall, ready for a fight, but the sight that awaited him was not of a murder, but of a family with many small children.

The mother, who had a baby strapped to her chest and was holding several bags, kept the main door open using her body while four prepubescent children ran in the hall. A couple of older kids, teenagers seemingly, trudged in as well, over encumbered with bags and boxes, barely able to see where they were going.

Outside, there were a series of carriages and more families disembarking. There were numerous kids, the source of most of the yelling, and several mothers as well, trying to reign in the kids.

"Excuse me," a man yelled over the noise, finally attracting Lex's attention. The man looked battle weary, though maybe that was just the result of the many kids.

"Do you have any rooms available? If you do, we'll take them all. We got lost in the darkness and barely made it to town. Most of the other places we've run across so far are full up, with everyone waiting for the darkness to pass. If you can fit us all in, I'll pay extra."

Before Lex could reply to the man, one of the kids ran headfirst into the bar and started crying, attracting the man's attention. Then another one puked.

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