The Innkeeper

Chapter 2015: Have you decided the laws?

Compared to the Origin realm, where the build up of this meeting had involved countless ceremonies and large scale preparation, it appeared that the Midnight Inn hadn’t announced this meeting at all. That actually served the Governor’s purposes fine.

The whole reason they were doing things with such fanfare in the Origin realm was to divert attention. The Midnight Inn did not include the entirety of the Henali’s plans, though of course only Hiran himself knew that. Even the other Dao Lords thought that whatever cooperation that he was going to strike with the Innkeeper was key to securing the Origin realm.

In truth, all he had requested from the Innkeeper was a place to have a discreet meeting. Yet the way in which he had done would obviously allow the information to spread. That was because he didn’t really expect that the Innkeeper would be able to host a meeting of Dao Lords which could not be spied upon.

It wasn’t that he was looking down on the Innkeeper or anything - it was just too difficult. Even the Henali themselves could only host such a meeting amongst themselves. If they were to involve other, external Dao Lords into it, it would become fundamentally impossible to avoid having information about such a meeting leak, even if the contents were kept secret.

So, in simple words, whether the Innkeeper delivered or not, this was only ever meant to be a diversionary tactic. After all, the Henali were not some random force in the universe. Just because they liked to do things civilly did not mean they were weak. Far from it in fact.

Still, he was looking forward to meeting with the Innkeeper. The man had attracted a lot of attention lately, with the unbelievable reach of his Inn. Many wanted to understand his affiliations more clearly, which is why they had been approaching him. From what the Governor could tell, he was the first one that the Innkeeper had responded to.

Mary, who was generally very talkative to most guests, did not say much to the Governor. Concerning Dao Lords, her general attitude was to say as little as possible to avoid all complications, much like Lex.

The two of them entered the Innkeeper’s office and found him sitting at his desk, writing a letter. Although the Governor did not peek at the contents of the letter, he could tell almost immediately that it was another Letter of Intent. Was the Innkeeper inviting someone else, or was he going to go visit someone?

"Innkeeper, I have been looking forward to meeting you," the Governor said with a warm smile as he walked up to the Innkeeper.

Unlike other Henali, which often took a humanoid form when entering the Inn, to make it easier to communicate with the Innkeeper, the Governor appeared in his natural form. The Henali were a strange race, not commonly seen across the universe, such as common beasts which appear everywhere.

Although the Governor was well dressed, it was easy to observe his body. He had a dark complexion with skin like smooth, polished stone. A tall, yet slender frame easily supported his eight arms, and though his face had the same general features as a human, such as lips, a nose and ears, he had a whole lot more eyes than humans.

To be specific, Henali had 26 pairs of eyes, which meant that the Governor had many small yet luminescent eyes all around his forehead in ring patterns. Of course, that was not enough to hold all his eyes, so some appeared in shoulders, chest, and the back of his hands as well.

It was... an unusual sight, to say the least, yet the Governor gave a peaceful, yet powerful impression just by looking at him.

"Governor, I have been looking forward to meeting you as well," the Innkeeper said with his soft, signature warm tone as he put down his pen and stood up to greet the Henali. "Please, have a seat. I apologise for not being able to meet with you sooner - I was caught up in some matters of importance, and I did not want to do our meeting a disservice by being partially occupied."

The Governor chuckled, though internally he was marvelling at the Innkeepers complete lack of aura.

"Please, you honor me with your consideration. We have such a positive history of cooperation, considering you chose to establish your Inn inside the Origin realm previously, so there really is no need for such formalities between us. We were sorry to see you go, but it is also great to see you doing so well for yourself here. Have you already decided how you will shape the laws of your realm?"

The Innkeeper smiled softly as he looked at the Governor’s many eyes. Internally, Lex had his full guard up. It was clear that this Governor would not be an easy character to deal with, and that he was probing the Innkeeper already, and on many levels.

By mentioning their positive history, and the fact that the Innkeeper decided to start his Inn inside the Origin realm, it was almost as if the Henali had done him a favor, since that was technically their territory. Lex also felt like the Governor was trying to work out if the Innkeeper had discovered, or even taken advantage of the many secrets of that realm, for it was fairly obvious to Lex by now that the Origin realm was special, even among other realms of its size.

Then, there was the probe of what laws the Innkeeper would choose to shape his realm into. Now that was a question with a depth that Lex couldn’t even discern, for he was not sure at what level Dao Lords might do such things.

The two of them had all but spoken two lines, and Lex was already getting caught in the Governor’s web, reminding Lex that even among Dao Lords, there were levels. The Governor might be the strongest Dao Lord that Lex had ever dealt with - besides Eclipse, of course. And maybe Wu Kong. But neither of them seemed to be as tricky.