The Innkeeper

The third Midnight game started in a heavy mood. Not only was the location a desert, a sandstorm was raging. There was no visibility and no way for Alexander to deploy his satellite in this weather. That was not to mention that he wasn't fully recovered from his previous wound. To top it all off, in the surprise attack Pramod had pulled off on the Jotun soldiers with the curse, over 300 of them had died and 800 of them were critically injured. Crawford-41 was also amongst the soldiers that died.

The only slightly positive thing was that Pramod no longer joined the games and had left already.

"Find shelter," Alexander said to his few over 600 remaining soldiers. Too many of them had been critically injured and could no longer fight for now. "We're going to hunker down and wait this one out."

Alexander felt it was unfortunate that he had to avoid fighting today, he would lose his lead in points over Cara, but it was better than being reckless.

But while the Empire and the Earthlings had suffered greatly, the Beasts took this opportunity to gain some points. Their performance had not been the best, but the difficult environment for humans posed no problems to them. The tournament was far from over.

*****

On Earth, the council was having yet another meeting. All the participating members were in a grave mood. Just a short while ago, they were celebrating their grand victory and subsequent freedom, only to be brought to heel by some mysterious 'mistress' and her secretary Fernanda. It was fortunate that she didn't have many requirements - only that civilians remain uninvolved in the conflict and to avoid major damage to the Earth.

The good news was, upon being given the ultimatum, they had responded quickly and eliminated those that could be, or made deals with those that could not be.

"According to the latest report, last night South Korea launched a surprise attack on the North. Within a single night they took over the country. Their attack was extremely precise and calculated, as if they had been preparing for this for a long time. We just received a missive from them. Starting today, there will no longer be a South or North Korea, only a single Korea. They've agreed to join the council so long as they can rule without any external interference. We've gone over a preliminary list of rules they plan to implement and have no issues, so expect one of their members to join us soon.

"The issue about Japan, however, remains. We've lost all contact from all of our agents, and we're not the only ones who've suffered as such. The entire country seems to have stopped all external communications. We're preparing a diplomatic envoy to go and meet with their leaders, but just to be safe, I want a Foundation realm expert on the team.

"Is there anything else on the agenda we need to discuss?"

The room was silent, and no one answered Bernard, who had been speaking. Aware of everyone's mood, he smiled and said, "No need to be upset my friends. This is not a bad thing. Previously, we were going to look towards the Midnight Inn to fuel our progress, but now we know that we have some kind of backing in this vast universe. In a week's time, we will meet Fernanda again, and then we can discuss the future of Earth. We are no longer limited to a single star system, and grander horizons await us."

His words seemed to lift spirits, but only Bernard knew what he was thinking behind his warm, hazel eyes.

*****

Lex did not rush into the house, but walked with quiet and steady steps. When he reached the door he paused to check for any sounds coming from the house, but there were none. He looked at the broken door and saw the imprint of a shoe embedded dead center. The door had broken along with the hinges. Such a kick could not have been delivered by an ordinary person.

Tightening his grip on his gun, Lex slowly entered the house, careful not to step on anything that would make any sound. He ignored the stairs leading upstairs and walked past to check the ground level first. The kitchen was at the far end of the corridor, the living room to the right, and a bathroom under the stairs.

Just as he entered the living room to check it out, the cold, hard barrel of a gun pressed firmly against the side of his head.

Lex froze, suddenly caught by surprise by how quietly and calmly the attack had caught him. Before he could make any plans or try anything though, a familiar, cold voice started to harshly scold him.

"What are you doing, walking around with a gun? Watched too many movies, have you?"

Relief flooded through Lex's veins as he recognized Belle's voice and turned to look at his elder sister.

It was not a gun she was holding up to his forehead, but the front of an unusually shaped candle stand. His own imagination had done the job of mistaking it for a weapon.

"Belle I'm so glad you're alright," he said, taking a step back to get a good look at his sister. She did not look hurt or harmed at all, and was dressed extremely formally. Behind her, Lex could see an open laptop and several documents. It seemed like she had been working when he came in.

"Why would I not be alright? You think everyone is as incompetent as you?"

"I saw the broken door, I thought that…"

"Yes, yes, the broken door. That gave little Moon quite the scare," she said, her voice seemingly still as cold and even as before. Only someone who grew up with her could pick up the trace of concern in that voice.

"Since you're here with a gun, I'm guessing you already know about the situation."

"Yeah, there's a war."

"Yes, a war. But it's very different from normal wars. They're not targeting cities or civilians, only the top brass. Well, that has nothing to do with me. The only reason we're even slightly involved was because I recently started a job in the municipal government. I had been having meetings with a few people of interest to the council, and they were checking to see if I was harboring anyone."

"Wait, you know about the council?" Lex asked, surprised. The only reason he knew about the council was because of the Inn - how did his sister know?

"Yes. They're very reasonable people. After I pointed out the flaws in a number of their plans while they were interrogating me, they hired me. If things go according to plan, I should be assigned assistant to the new acting mayor of London by the end of the month."

"What? I… you… what? You're… working for the council?"

"Yes, they were very impressed with me," Belle said in a bland voice. "Instead of an assistant, I might have become the new acting mayor directly if I was a cultivator. According to their new policy, only cultivators can hold important government positions like that."

"Wait, you know about cultivators?" Lex asked, even more surprised this time.

Instead of answering him though, Belle only let out an exasperated sigh.

"Do you have a list of things I shouldn't know about? Can we go over it right now? I hate having to repeat myself."

"No, no, that's not what I meant… just that I only learnt about cultivators myself recently as well. But now that you know, it's great. I won't need to bother explaining it to you. Do you have cultivation techniques? If you don't, I can find some for you guys."

"Don't bother with that, tell me first, are you ill? You don't look so good."

Lex was startled by her sudden question. As far as he knew, his tumor had not affected his appearance at all, but before he could answer, Lex fell limp to the ground, unconscious. Belle did not bother to stop his fall, with his constitution, he would be alright. It was his soul she was concerned about.

Taking a silver pen out of her pocket, she twisted the cap, shooting a ray of energy at Lex that covered his entire body. Since Belle did not know what secrets Lex had, she did not want to take any risks and completely blocked out all of his senses. Even Mary, who was connected to Lex by the system, did not notice his condition as her focus was diverted towards managing the Inn.

"Moon, get down here. Check Lex's soul, it's extremely unstable."

The teenager who had been spying on her siblings was startled when she heard her elder sister and quickly came towards Lex.

"I can't use my abilities like this. I need to connect to the relay station and establish a connection with my main body."

"Then why are you still standing here?" Belle asked, her voice still cold and bland. But little Moon picked up the impatience in her voice and quickly ran before Belle got angry.