The Innkeeper

When Darius woke up in his room, surrounded by medical equipment and nurses, the first and only thing he felt was rage. Absolute freaking rage! He wanted to scream and yell, but he had to contain himself. Although he was spoiled, he was not an idiot.

The one thing he could not do was embarrass his father, so he needed to find out exactly what had happened. He signaled someone to retrieve his personal computer and sent everyone out of the room. In his mailbox, the first thing he saw was the video of Tetsuya's execution.

Immense gratification filled his heart as he watched this old nemesis die. It was a shame he couldn't send this assassin after his step-brother as well, but he was already employed by the Dimitri family, so he was off limits.

He watched the video a few times, then deleted it. This matter was definitely going to be investigated, and he could leave no evidence connecting himself to it. Everyone would suspect him, but as long as there was no evidence, no one would convict him.

That's when he saw the various videos of himself being dragged through the streets by Tetsuya, as well as videos of himself being beaten by that kid he had attacked on the street.

He wanted to explode in anger once again, but he contained himself. He took out a phone and dialed a certain number, which was picked up immediately.

"Are you satisfied with the results?" the person on the other end asked.

"Very, but I have another job for you."

"Unfortunately, we can no longer work together. Our associate who did the previous job has already left the planet, and we have no more resources to spare."

"I did you a favor," Darius said, through gritted teeth.

"And in return, we did you one as well. We are now even. If, in the future, the possibility of working together arises again, we will contact you. Until then, farewell."

The other person shut the phone, further ruining Darius' mood. But at the same time, he understood that they had completed their original deal. There was no reason for them to go above and beyond.

He grit his teeth and decided to take matters into his own hands. He dialed a second number, this time, to a private detective. He needed to know where that brat was staying. What to do about him would come later.

*****

In an office, a uniformed man was filling out some paperwork. His expression was grim, though this wasn't because of any recent incident. He was just always in a grim mood. His door opened and someone entered, and just as the uniformed man was about to scold the person for interrupting him, he noticed who it was and his grim expression changed to that of surprise.

Compared to the uniformed man, the person entering was much younger in appearance. But the matter only went as far as appearance, because unlike everyone else in his family, this person's first name was Dimitri. He was the founder of their family, and though it had been many years since he took part in family matters, his position of authority would never change.

"Ancestor, forgive me for not greeting you. I did not know of your arrival," the uniformed man said as he quickly got up.

"Be at ease child, I don't care for formalities. I just awoke from my cultivation for an important matter. I am truly saddened to hear about your fathers passing, and would normally spend time with you to mourn, but I have urgent matters that need to be taken care of. I am told that you are in-charge of security now."

This was a common occurrence in cultivation families. Higher leveled cultivators would often outlive many of their younger generations who did not have the same level of cultivation talent, and so could not extend their lifespan. To an outsider, this may seem tragic, but the cultivation families were already used to it.

"It is an honor for my father to be remembered by you, ancestor, that is enough. Indeed, after retiring from the Jotun army, I took charge of our family's forces."

"Good. I have received a personal missive from the Jotun Empire. Increase security on all planets by a hundred times and decrease sales by 40% and use whatever is not sold to increase our reserves."

"Did something happen?" the uniformed man asked, his signature grim look on his face.

"I'm not sure. I reached out to a few acquaintances, and everyone was being told to slowly start mobilizing. The few who haven't been informed yet will probably get the call soon."

This was highly unusual. Although the Dimitri family had leased this X-14 system from the Jotun Empire for 10,000 years, after the original lease was signed, they had not been contacted again even once by the empire, and were left to their own devices. Such a missive out of the blue was not a good sign.

"Do not worry too much. While this is unusual, the situation is not grave yet. I've even reached out to all battle fronts, and there is no unusual activity. All we need to worry about is ensuring everything stays normal at our end. Has anything unusual happened on any of the planets recently?"

"There was a terrorist attack in X-142, but I was going to let local authorities investigate it."

"No, go investigate yourself. The timing might just be a coincidence, but since we're mobilizing, we'll leave nothing to chance."

"Understood," the man answered, his voice as grave as possible. When his ancestor departed, the man left his office with the determination to face a fight to the death. His subordinates did not react to his expression, however, as for them this was naught but an ordinary Monday.

*****

A day passed calmly, and Lex finally departed the train at his destination. He had arrived at the Fergen Forest, one of the original and untampered sites of the planet. The trees in this forest were massive, with even the smallest being 200 meters in height and over 50 meters in circumference.

This was the largest natural forest on the planet, and at least the first few miles of it were considered a tourist attraction. Beyond that there was a gray zone where people were encouraged not to enter, and after that began the territories of the wildlife. While the Dimitri family could obviously eradicate all hostile beasts or animals on the planet, they did not as they wanted to maintain the natural ecology of the planet as much as they could manage.

Lex had no interest in going to those dangerous areas though, he was here purely as a tourist.

"What do you think, Fenrir? A beautiful sight, isn't it?" he said, as he walked towards one of the concession stands.

Fenrir, of course, could not respond, even in his thoughts through their shared link. But, because they were now bound, Lex could at least better understand the pups feelings. What surprised Lex was that the dog had a lot of memories of pain, despite being born only a few minutes before Lex summoned him. Fortunately, those were only vague memories, and Fenrir was quickly overwriting them with new, happy ones.

From the stand, Lex grabbed a map, some snacks for himself as well as some for Fenrir, and then quickly climbed onto the pup's back.

"Let's go," Lex said, and the pup started jogging towards the giant trees. The duo made an unusual sight, but still no one gave him a second look. The trees gave off a pleasant aroma, and the first was rich with all kinds of interesting plants and insects. With the help of the Fancy Monocle, they harvested some of the edible wild fruits, and the two feasted on their harvests.

Towards the night, they followed the map to a designated camping area in the forest that overlooked a waterfall coming out of one of the giant trees. Massive fireflies flew around the forest, giving off purple light that illuminated the campsite like a scene out of a cartoon movie.

A massive bonfire in the middle of the campsite attracted the most crowds, where a group was sitting on the ground playing musical instruments that looked similar to a flute. Lex traded some of his fruits for some barbeque and rented one of the better looking tents since he hadn't brought one of his own.

Fenrir made friends with a massive green colored slime and jumped on it like a trampoline. After a few jumps, he discovered the slime suddenly changed and instead of bouncing off, Fenrir fell right into the slime. Some of the kids who were watching from nearby laughed, and the pup looked aggrieved when the slime let it out.

Lex chuckled, as he took the time and chatted with the locals. It may have seemed like he was just making friends and enjoying himself, but in actuality, he was doing research. What kind of activities did the citizens of X-142 like? Currently, the answer seemed to overwhelmingly be spending time in nature. He had at least until the rest of the week to find out what that exactly meant, and if there was anything else on the list. Being an Innkeeper was a never ending job.