The Innkeeper
chapter-1276

"Please take a seat," the figure made of cloth said, and Lex suddenly found himself in a cozy sitting room, with countless auburn lamps. The room seemed simple and plain, but Lex could feel that nothing in this room was as it seemed. If his tenet had not completely sealed itself up, hiding completely from being exposed to laws, he might have seen the truth of things.

As it was, Lex could only use his eyes, and even then the ability of his left eye seemed to have gone dormant. His spirit sense completely withdrew into his body, as if it was exhausted from overuse.

In truth, Lex's body was reacting in the most appropriate way possible. Since he was an immortal now, and was capable of being the cosmic weight of some secrets, he inherently knew that he should not, in any way, seek to understand anything about Dao beings.

Lex sat down on a sofa and found that the piece of furniture filled him with a reinforcing power. His body became stiff, but at the same time, he was aware that it was the strongest, most durable his body had ever been.

It also brought him new insight about how amazing the effects of the Inn were, which could allow him to casually meet beings of Dao, whereas in reality it was a lot of effort. Though to be fair, whenever a Dao Lord would visit, much like his body was reacting by restraining itself, the system ceased most of its functions to hide.

Lex heard a door open behind him, followed by a few gentle footsteps, but he could not turn to look.

"Please excuse the formalities," a warm voice said from behind Lex. "Unfortunately, due to some unfortunate circumstances, my state is slightly unkempt, and it is not appropriate for me to appear in front of people. I hope you do not mind."

If it was the governor speaking, and Lex suspected it was, the man was awfully polite.

"Not at all," Lex's voice echoed through the room, though he did not speak. His body had gone completely still, incapable of moving, which is why he had to use his spirit sense to speak. Fortunately, anticipating just this, the sofa he was sitting on contained a formation that allowed spirit sense to produce perfect sound, so he didn't need to reach out to the governor with his spirit sense.

"It is an honor for me to even be here."

"I'm glad you feel that way. First of all, I would like to thank you for your cooperation with the Henali. Your efforts have played a great role in foiling countless plots of the terrorist organization Sanguis Pluvia, and prevented a catastrophic disaster which could have affected the entire universe."

Lex was silent for a moment. He had discovered that he lost the ability to speak lies and half truths. Anything he said had to be the complete truth, not that he thought for even a second that he could lie to a Dao Lord.

"Truthfully, I just wanted revenge," Lex said. "They targeted my family in horrific ways, and for that I wanted them to suffer."

"It is completely understandable. I have directed Jotun to help you in this regard. If there are any matters pertaining to your family's security with which you need help, you can reach out to him. In fact, I have also directed him to reveal the origins of your family to you. If you stayed within the Origin realm, it would not matter. But if you venture into other, older realms, then your ancestry might get you into trouble."

Lex raised an eyebrow. What's this? More secrets about his family? How wonderful. Fortunately, his sarcastic thoughts weren't projected into the room.

"Lex, I confess, that there is another reason I wanted to meet you besides handing over your rewards for helping us, and simply thanking you for your contributions. I would like you to deliver a letter to the Innkeeper. It is of the utmost importance that it be delivered as hastily as possible, for it pertains to matters of grave importance."

Lex discovered that a table appeared to his right, and on it appeared a simple, plain envelope. He saw some words written on the envelope, but his eyes automatically looked away, as if just the sight of them would be lethal.

Besides the envelope was a gold ring in the style of a simple, plain band.

"From what I understand, you requested the heart's blood of a Jorlam as a reward for your help. Within that ring, there are two entire Jorlam hearts, as well as their hearts blood. Just so you know, feeding a World Eater one of those hearts will speed up its growth rapidly, and keep it from needing to eat countless star systems before it was born. There are also a couple of other rewards in there from me, as well as a missive from the Dragon King for someone named Charles Best. I hope you found this cooperation fruitful, and find us again if you ever need some kind of revenge."

Lex heard the governor stand from his sofa and walk towards the exit.

"Oh, by the way," the governor said just before he left. "I hope you do not mention Glaticus to anyone. The Innkeeper will likely take care of things when he reads my letter, but on the off chance that he does not read it immediately, I thought I'd put forward that request, anyway."

"I'll make sure no one even remembers the name," Lex promised.

The governor did not respond, and instead looked at Lex one more time. At a glance, it did not seem like there was anything wrong with Lex, but as soon as he tried to influence Lex's thoughts, a dangerously powerful aura emerged from within his body, as if to warn the governor.

If that aura truly belonged to the Innkeeper… then Hiran was extremely glad he decided to probe the Innkeeper through Lex rather than trying to silence him directly. That man… was he truly just a Dao Lord?