The Innkeeper

The acolyte woke up covered in cold sweats, his mind aflutter with the memories of what he just dreamed, trying to hold onto them as they slipped from memory. He saw a sword, deadly beyond measure. He saw a dragon king that was not a dragon. He saw a war between worlds – not between races that lived on those worlds, but two actual worlds themselves. He saw a rain of lightning. He saw chaos, and confusion. He saw things he could not understand, and he saw things he could not have imagined, and amidst it all, he saw a wooden tavern that provided excellent room service.

For a few moments the acolyte tried to recall what connected all these flashes in his dreams, but the thoughts slipped from his mind. He could not remember.

The acolyte sighed, and then removed himself from the warm embrace of his blanket. He wanted to go wash up since his whole body was sticky with sweat. But he only took a few steps before he paused, and something attracted his attention.

In a notebook beside his bed, he had entered a few scribbles. He didn’t recall doing that, so it must have been during his sleep. He picked up the red, leather notebook and read the lines that were barely legible.

The time is nigh. The warbringer is going to war.

The acolyte groaned and put the book down. Ever since this accursed warbringer came into his life, he had not been able to divine for another person at all. It was as if all his divination skills were thoroughly pointed only towards this warbringer.

That could have been a great opportunity if he knew who the warbringer was and actually became his dedicated diviner. But since he didn’t, there wasn’t much he could do.

The acolyte left the room, unaware that in his drowsy state he ignored the smudges in front of the two sentences that had been written. It was as if something had been erased.

*****

Lex completely locked away his anger. He was more than capable of that. Instead, he spent his time with Moon. Due to her weakness, she spent most of her time the last couple of years sleeping. Even when she was awake, there was very little she could actually do before she became exhausted.

Now that she suddenly felt energized, there were many things she wanted to do. She flew with Lex, showing him her lake and her countless pets. She took him to a nearby village, which existed solely to maintain the surrounding areas and constantly check up on the palace.

Even if Moon preferred solitude, she could not be completely alone due to her weak state. As a result, a caretaker would visit the palace everyday at a fixed time to check up on her.

Of course, at the moment the village was in chaos – not because the planet had been kidnapped, the sun was eaten by a massive roaming planet thing that then later lassoed their planet and began dragging them along.

Instead it was because the saintess was up and about, finally recovering from whatever illness kept her so weak for so long. The planet had not always been a Utopia. It was the saintess who had made that happen, which is why she was deeply loved by the people.

Of course, there were 14 people in the village who harbored ill intentions towards Moon. Lex sensed them right away, and guessed that they might have something to do with the assassination attempt on Moon as well as the formation failing.

No one in the village noticed how or when those people disappeared. No one even remembered them. It was as if the very memory of them had been erased from their minds.

Of course evidence of their existence could not be erased, but everyone in the village was too preoccupied anyway to focus on such things.

They were also amazed to meet the saintess’ brother, who was both friendly and young, yet had such a powerful aura.

After they were done with the village, Moon took him to the district capital, from where she ruled over the planet. Even though the sun was gone, everything was still functioning, so from the capital she reassured her people that they were still safe, and that things would soon return to normal.

But at that point, she started to get drowsy once more, so Lex teleported her back to her palace so she could get back in her hammock. Even then, Moon talked with Lex until she eventually dozed off.

Lex did not leave once she was sleeping. Instead, he laid back and thought about various things.

Moon had hinted at the fact that both Belle and Liz weren’t exactly having the time of their lives either. He hadn’t asked yet, but he’d need to ask sooner or later. Once this planet was linked to the Inn, Lex would be able to teleport freely so he could go find a way for Moon to bring the planet with her where she went.

It sounded like an absurd thing to say, but Lex had seen enough absurdity to know that anything was possible. He also needed to find ways to increase her cultivation level. The reason why she was so frail was because of the level difference between her and the planet, but if she was able to reach the immortal realm, fusing with a planet would not be tough at all.

Not to mention, Moon told him that due to her unique physique, she did not need to worry about having a poor foundation. No matter how she cultivated, her physique would optimize her condition on its own. Basically, she was on the best cultivation path she could ever actually walk, so even if he took some drastic measures, the results would ultimately be optimal.

He had to do all of this soon, as the preliminaries for the Champions tourney were about to begin. Originally there were supposed to be four more years, Origin realm time, till that happened. But the timeline had been brought forward after the discovery of the Jorlam for some reason.

Lex could participate through the token given to himself, as well as through the one the Innkeeper had gotten. But since he did not want to bring the Innkeeper to light these days, he’d use his own token.

After all, in his years of operating the tavern, he’d learned a lot about the tourney, and it was there that he would find the perfect opportunity to become an immortal.

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