The Innkeeper

Harry and Hailey had been planning their wedding for a while, by their own standards. It had been a few months, and honestly they could not wait any longer. To be honest, there was no real need to either.

Due to the sensitivity of sharing his identity, Harry was not intending on inviting any of his friends from Earth to the wedding. Not that he returned to Earth much at all these days, but that did not change the fact that he did not want his identity disclosed. What if someone targeted his friends to reach him? He'd seen enough movies to know that greedy people could do anything.

Hailey, as well, did not want to invite anyone from her planet. In fact, she was even reluctant to return at all. She could not imagine going back to the ridiculously difficult and tedious life she had lived previously. Though she always knew she was being overworked, she had no idea just how much of a terrible life she was living till she saw the living standard at the Inn!

Still, while they had no invites from their own planets, they both had made plenty of friends with their identities at the Inn. Just coordinating and inviting all of them was a hassle.

Another reason Harry delayed was that he was secretly hoping the Innkeeper would also become free by then to attend his wedding, or possibly even officiate it. Unfortunately, on the morning of his wedding, the assistant Innkeeper told him that the Innkeeper had important business which kept him busy.

There was a tinge of disappointment in Harry's heart, but he suppressed it. It made sense, after all. The Innkeeper was an important man, he had better things to be doing than attending his employees weddings.

Harry had rented out the entire Midnight manor for the wedding despite the fact that there were perhaps a little over a 100 guests at most. For some people that number may be huge and for others it was small. For Harry, an orphan with no contacts of friends other than the ones he worked his behind off for, and for Hailey, a simple farmer girl previously, the number of guests was massive, and something they were very prideful of.

The guests contained, other than some of Harry's colleagues, some of his regular customers, friends he'd made at the Inn, as well as many of the contestants from Lady Cosmos who became friends with Hailey.

It was an absolute ball, since the wedding style they had opted for was a merger between traditional western weddings and those from Hailey's world.

Yet while they were dancing and singing and playing wedding games, things instantly went from perfectly joyous to deathly still!

A small group of guests from the race known as Gilati were at the Inn, and happened to be nearby the manor. Moreover, while they had not come to the Inn with devious intentions, when they saw Jill, the winner of the Lady Cosmos competition, attending a function at the manor things instantly deteriorated.

The Midnight Inn's security room immediately picked up their malicious intentions, but there were four of them and all of them were in the immortal realm or greater. The security personnel did not even have time to register the situation and try and attempt to resolve the situation before the four of them crashed the wedding with their auras full on display.

The strongest known members of the Midnight Inn were Qawain and Anita who were both at the Earth Immortal realm. They were extremely competent, but even so they could not go 2 against 4, especially when some of them seemed to be at an even higher cultivation realm!

The aura of the four put great pressure on everyone at the event, but even as they tried to understand what was happening, the four miscreants were not following the traditional bad guy sequence. Instead of peacocking and strutting about, as was the stereotype, all four of them surrounded Jill while one of them grabbed her by the throat.

"I heard you were saved by a dragon last time, but the dragon's not here now. I wonder who's going to save you now?" asked one of the four hideous, fat, blob monsters. The Gilati race were not humanoid, but instead looked like a fusion between a slug and a beetle, in that they were too disgusting to describe. All that mattered was that copious amounts of ooze that came off their body, and the many number of creepy limbs.

"This is the Midnight Inn! Do you know what you're doing?" asked Harry forcefully as he gathered himself up from the shock of what was happening, and the pressure of the four beings. Yet instead of answering him, one of them only flicked one of their limbs his way, attacking him from a distance.

Like a cannonball his body launched from the venue at a speed none could follow, his state completely unknown.

Everyone paled and a few guests immediately departed from the Inn, directly teleporting away. But not everyone could teleport away, and the Inn staff had no idea what to do. Even Velma, who had been extremely stressed lately, momentarily faltered, especially because she could follow the trajectory of Harry's body. From the Midnight manor it had launched all the way to the Midnight mountain! There was no way a normal human would survive that attack!

*****

A few hours earlier.

John, one of Lex's few temporary workers, had been working at the Inn for a long time - nearly a year, in fact. Considering his age, this was not actually a long time, but due to the nature of his system, and thereby his profession, he was not suited to stay in one place for a long time.

He had received his system very early in life, so it and the quests it gave out had ultimately influenced John's life more than he had ever originally realized. Only many years later, after he got caught and imprisoned, did he take the time to reflect on his life.

It was inside of a prison cell that he realized that… while his life may have seemed destined to head on this path, it had not necessarily needed to be that way.

Still, these were the thoughts of a man full of regret, and with no hope for the future. All that changed the day he entered the Inn. From the moment he entered, he no longer thought of mundane matters such as regrets, or how his life could have been. Since he saw hope of escape, that was all he was focused on.

Still, the chains that bound him were not simple at all. How could they be, when they so thoroughly bound an Immortal? Moreover, it was so sturdy that it managed to resist any ability or item his system was able to provide him with.

So while he was vulnerable and on the journey to break free of his restraints, he decided to stay at the Inn. Yes, the Inn often had unusual or dangerous guests, but while the Innkeeper was around, John felt incredibly safe. Then the Innkeeper went away on certain business, and things began to head downhill for him.

Without the Innkeeper to hold down the fort, the security of the Inn took a huge hit. More than once people had tried to invade it, though even from far away the Innkeeper managed to provide solutions.

But while security issues were handled, somewhat, more issues arose. The most significant one was… John was pretty sure that the assistant Innkeeper knew about, and could in some way, influence his own system. Though his system did not behave strangely at all after that one quest to eliminate the Raskals, it set his mind at unease.

But while he was thoroughly disturbed by that thought, the reward from that one quest was extremely useful. John ended up getting what was called a 'Jericho puzzle piece'.

Initially, this did not entice him at all whatsoever, but when he got the reward he realized how truly useful it was for him. He learned from the description that this Jericho which was being mentioned was actually a copy of the first ever prison constructed in the entire universe. While it was just one piece of many, it had a very useful effect. It could help him solve puzzles, and the most important puzzle John had on him were his bindings.

It took him a long time, but he finally removed the chains. But he did not enjoy his newfound freedom as much as he imagined. After all, now he had a decision to make. He could return to his old life, or he could continue staying at the Inn for a while. There was no rush to leave, right?

Either way, he would decide after Harry's wedding. If nothing else, that kid had cut his hair for free for a year, so he owed him that much.