The Innkeeper

Chapter 1837: Princess Almira I

"Have you been... training or something? Learning or researching a new technique?" Giselle asked tactfully as she studied Lex.

Lex, who finally took a moment to focus on himself from whatever was distracting him, smiled weakly. A wave of his hand was all it took to change his appearance, clean up, and look presentable. Yet there was a faint and distinct smell coming from him that Giselle found incredibly familiar, but couldn’t place. The smell wasn’t bad or anything, and in fact was even a little pleasant. It was just... it tugged at some distant memories, and Giselle could not quite place why that was.

Lex’s thought strayed to the system, and the long months he’d spent studying it. The experience... was definitely unique, and had given Lex a number of surprises. At the same time, it made abundantly obvious to Lex of just how weak he truly was, and how limited his understanding of the universe was, despite how much he had grown. One could say that he had now learned enough about the universe to understand just how much he didn’t know. At the same time, Lex thought of the reason for his current condition, and couldn’t help but reveal a genuine smile.

"You could say... that I’ve been doing a lot of research, yes. Lately, I’ve been occupied with a project that is... a whole lot more than I anticipated. Come on, I’ll show you," Lex said once again, leading Giselle out of their cafe. "Sorry if I seem out of it a bit. I haven’t slept in a long time, and while normally that’s not a problem for me... this latest research of mine is a whole lot more draining than I anticipated."

Giselle’s expression turned solemn, trying to guess just what it was that could overwhelm Lex so much. She had to begrudgingly admit that Lex was really strong, not to mention insightful and experienced. Anything that could overwhelm him so much had to be a problem of catastrophic proportions, the likes of which hardly anyone could handle.

"What about you? How have you been? I can see you look a little weak. Have you been eating properly? Don’t answer that, I’ll have a meal prepared for you from my favorite restaurant. Trust me, the head chef in that place is a real talent. Scouted him myself."

Giselle sighed as she thought of everything she had recently been through.

"Well, you can say I found the Defiler I’ve been looking for, in a way. He’s hidden very well, and is hiding his traces beyond what someone at his level should be able to do. But that only makes sense - if he’s easily discovered then the Henali will dispose of him. Even so, I’m close enough to his trail that I thought I should invite you. Any closer and I might just run into him."

Lex’s expression turned serious upon hearing her.

"In that case, it’s even more important that you eat up. How much time do we have before we have to leave?"

Giselle sighed as she thought about the situation.

"We don’t have too much time," she said. "But the trail won’t go cold so quickly. I’m fairly certain the Defiler we’re hunting is on some kind of mission, and he won’t run away until it’s complete. The time rush is more to contain the damage he will cause rather than to chase him down."

Lex nodded.

"Alright, in that case, just give me a few hours. I’ll wrap up things here, we’ll get you fed, and then we can go hunt a Defiler. By the way, I myself am in a bit of a timecrunch myself, so we’ll have to wrap up this hunt in a few months at most."

He didn’t go into the details, but the gist of it was... the Pineapple on his forehead was about to reach the limit of how much it could restrict Lex’s cultivation. Studying the system had given him a tremendous amount of insight into various laws, and that had increased the strength of his tenet and law control so much that his timeline for the limit of his seal went from a decade to a few months.

Giselle was about to ask him why he was in such a rush when Lex walked them through a door that led to a minor realm connected to the Midnight Inn.

As soon as they entered, though, Giselle’s jaw dropped as she saw the results of absolute devastation. It looked like the surroundings had been struck by carpet bombs or something.

The entire landscape around them was devastated, with craters and random holes everywhere. There were even a few giant scorchmarks on mountains in the distance, smoke still rising from them.

As if that was not enough, dozens of immortals covered the lands, all wearing thick, yet oddly fluffy armor, as if to protect themselves. Each and everyone of them had a very serious expression on their faces as they scanned the lands for some invisible threat.

"What happened here?" Giselle asked in a whisper, afraid to attract the attention of whatever enemy had clearly snuck into the Inn.

"Well... I think the best way I can put it is that a few months ago, everyone at the Inn became uncles and aunts to a natural disaster."

Giselle looked at Lex with an odd expression, not understanding what he said.

"Huh?"

Before Lex could explain, the ground started to shake, as if a dormant volcano was getting ready to erupt.

Yet instead of a volcanic explosion, what Giselle witnessed was somehow even more horrifying. The ground in front of them exploded as a large, undead, chubby mole shot out, roaring as it did. Behind it, an army of cute and chubby undead animals and beasts followed, each and everyone one of them roaring.

Yet that is not the part that horrified Giselle. Riding atop the mole, sitting inside a Baby Car seat strapped to the head of the mole, was a cute, chubby little baby girl, dressed up like a princess and wearing a cute, pink bow. In her right hand, she held a rattle that looked like a princess’ staff, and in her left hand she held Naraka, Lex’s sword.