The Innkeeper

Everyone was on edge, for usually when an issue arose, even if the Innkeeper did not return, he at least passed a few orders that would, to some degree, resolve all dangers. Now, however, not only was the Innkeeper not returning, but he had passed no new orders.

If Luthor were not inside an extended cultivation retreat, to be disturbed only if the Innkeeper summoned him, he would have been disgusted by the staff's reaction.

They were there to ease the burdens of the Innkeeper, not to become his new burdens. Still, while the staff did not have the same level of determination, they were not pushovers.

Security had been ramped up to the maximum, and no one was taking a single moment lightly. The four Gilati's had been banned from leaving the Inn by Gerard using his authority as the head of security. This gave John as much time as he wanted to conduct a thorough 'investigation' of their motives.

The fact that he had to pass two of the Gilati's to the Galactic Sovereign turtle as fertilizers was an unfortunate failure on his part, for his extensive enthusiasm for conducting his interrogation was too much for them to handle. Fortunately, two still remained to resolve all doubts relating to this matter.

Jill had been placed in protective custody, meaning she had been given a small house which had a defensive formation others could not enter at all without her permission, free of charge. Of course, it was not free at the moment, since none of them could make that decision on Lex's behalf, but the staff were pooling their MP to pay for it, and once Lex awoke, Mary would take the payment from him.

In the security room, it was all hands on deck, as everyone was paying the maximum amount of attention possible to anyone exhibiting any kind of malicious intent at all. Even Qawain was on duty at the security room for now, so that the moment an issue arose that was even slightly beyond the scope of ordinary guards, he would handle it.

With all this going on, it need not be said that Harry's wedding and any other unnecessary event had been put off for now. Harry was undergoing treatment, but no one knew his exact situation, and Gerard, the person who admitted him, was completely heartbroken, for he could not even imagine the kind of pain the child must have suffered to live through his ordeal. Moreover, he had to live with the burden that the Innkeeper himself may not arrive any time soon to resolve their issues since he himself was in some kind of coma.

But there was no real time to be heartbroken, for there was a steady surge of incidents happening at the Inn, ever increasing in absurdity.

Fortunately, the reincarnation of the spirit tree from Nibiru, now known as Young McDonald, had complete access to the Vines hidden under the Inns grounds. Under the guidance of Mary, the plant was actually performing very well - right up until it wasn't.

The fault did not lay with the plant, but with the unusual sequence of events. More and more people started transgressing, even though only moments earlier they lacked all motive and intent for harm. It wasn't even big transgressions, but small ones like suddenly pushing another guest forcefully, slapping away someone's hand or maybe destroying a plate of food a server was bringing.

Then minor fights began to break out. Then guests tried to leave without paying for their availed services or purchases, but the system had precautions against that preventing them from leaving. This, in turn, caused them to start accusing the Inn of mismanagement, harassment and blackmail.

The situation was deteriorating fast - faster than the security team was able to respond to it. Though there was nothing she could do to prove it, she strongly began to suspect that someone was making an organized effort and testing the Inns' bottom line. The longer the Inn was unable to stabilize the situation, the more things would escalate.

It was funny, almost, that up until recently everyone used to think that the Inn was working like a well oiled machine. This was because none of the workers had any internal function, as it was everyone's goal to make the Inn as successful as possible.

But the latest series of events only proved that all they were doing was barely keeping the Inn functioning. If there were any problems, so long as they were within an acceptable range, they would be able to solve them. But as soon as multiple problems occurred at the same time, or the problems escalated even slightly, things went beyond their control.

Fed up of the problems, and unable to come up with a proper solution, Mary made a drastic decision, though she did not think Lex would blame her for it.

"Start banning people," she informed the security team. "For the slightest transgression, evict the guest and ban them from returning to the Inn."

Gerard only nodded and passed on his orders. This was within the range of the authority given to him by the Innkeeper, so it was not like they were making stuff up as they went.

Though the security team wasn't nearly as large as the number of guests they had, within the hour, people began to notice the trend of their swift actions. They did not bother to wait and listen to any explanation, and so long as anyone transgressed, they were kicked from the Inn.

When this happened, a lull began to appear in the number of transgressions. Just as everything was going according to plan, in a very public manner, the champion of the arena very publicly challenged the Innkeeper to a duel!

To be honest, there was nothing wrong with his actions, technically, and it was not necessarily an insult to be challenged as such. The Inns workers, however, did not see it this way. A fire was lit in their hearts, and for the first time they wished to abuse and insult a guest!

But, despite their anger, they could not break the rules. As a result… a standoff appeared.

"You are unworthy of even speaking his title!" scolded one of the workers at the champion, as the rest booed him from the stands.

Yet the champion was unperturbed. He stood in the middle of the arena like a star surrounded by worshippers, taking in their chants as praises. The other guests found the situation both disturbing and amusing.

It did not take a genius to tell that something unusual was happening at the Inn… yet what did that have to do with them? They were only here to enjoy the show!

"All I hear are excuses. Seems to me like he's a coward hiding behind his workers," said the champion, aggravating the situation even more.

He did not leave the arena, and instead kept insulting the Innkeeper more and more. Soon news of the ongoing standoff spread, and almost all the workers wished to go beat him up. With the current lull in incidents, even the Security team turned their focus on to the stage, expecting the situation to devolve any second now. Unfortunately, until he broke any rules, they could not kick him out.

But while the workers attention was diverted, the system did its job dutifully. An alarm suddenly went off in the security room, and when everyone turned to investigate they saw quite a few things that happened suddenly.

Too quick and too suddenly for the workers to react, and even the Vines to prevent, one guest had stabbed another one. The crazy thing was that, even after the stabbing, no malicious intent was actually discovered.

The guests who had been stabbed fell onto the ground, holding their neck, trying to stifle the bleeding.

But that was not all! In another part of the Inn, at the exact same time as the stabbing, someone had assaulted a worker! A young girl, with a cultivation level naught but in the beginning of Qi training, had been knocked unconscious, and was being carried on the back of a leopard Beast. Fortunately, the system had prevented the Beast from teleporting out of the Inn with the worker on its back.

In another part of the Inn, another guest had tried to sneak into the greenhouse and steal things, but fortunately the domain of the sovereign turtle was not so easily penetrated, and the guest had been caught.

Last, but definitely not the least, and possibly even the worst, someone had set off a gas bomb at the Midnight manor! A dense brown smoke began spreading quickly, turning anyone exposed to it deathly sick!

Time seemed to slow down in Mary's eyes as everyone reacted immediately! Even Qawain went out this time to destroy the smoke covering the manor! But Mary focused on none of that as she came to a conclusion.

Someone had declared war on the Inn.

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