The Innkeeper

Chapter 2377: Picking Sides IV - Ballom

Ballom sat back in his chair, looking over the plans on his table. Garvitz was one of the few realms which could still access the rest of the universe so the focus on the Devils had increased drastically. As such, not only had the Devils given up on some of their lesser important war plans, but free and available Devils had been called back to the realm.

Unless they were doing something incredibly important, working for the betterment of the race was absolutely crucial. Ironically, in matters like this, the Devils were a lot more straightforward than the Angels who had a lot more politics to navigate for such matters.

Though, to be fair, it was also because the Devils were actually a whole lot more ruthless in matters like this as well. If one wanted to enjoy the privileges of their race, they had to fulfil their responsibilities as well. If the race needed them, and a Devil didn’t fulfil their responsibility, then all the other Devils would turn on them happily and distribute their assets among themselves after killing them.

Not only were they all holding their base to avoid issues, they were taking the lead in managing the Humanoid Alliance’s affairs across the universe. The Devils were already well recognized within the alliance, but now they carried even more prestige for almost all the races depending on them if they needed aid.

Unfortunately, while Ballom had immense prestige among the Devils themselves, he could not decide what direction they took as a race. If that had been the case there was some house cleaning he would have liked to do. He did not need to point it out to anyone that if they were still on good terms with the Innkeeper, they would have been even less restricted in moving around the universe.

Fortunately, regardless of what the alliance did, it did not affect his personal relationship with the Innkeeper. It was for that very reason that he had also personally looked into locating the kidnapped worker of the Midnight Inn. Unfortunately, there had been some unexpected developments on that front.

The person known as the Grand Conqueror apparently had access to a private realm to which he could retreat whenever he wished. That, combined with the fact that he was being protected by a faction of the alliance, meant that Ballom could neither locate him, nor Z.

That, however, was an old problem. Lately, Ballom had spent less time thinking about the Innkeeper and the Midnight Inn, and more about his personal issues. The Innkeeper was, reported, inside the Gilded Hollow, working hand-in-hand with Eclipse on some issue.

It was just a rumor, but it made him think about another rumor that Hiran had mentioned - that Eclipse and the Innkeeper were engaged. In short, the Innkeeper certainly didn’t need Ballom to look out for him as he was covered.

Ballom, unfortunately, was not. He had a number of private ventures and investments that were now either hanging in limbo or had failed, causing him immense loss. Very few of his long-term plans succeeded, and most had to be compromised to avoid the worst case scenarios due to the ongoing universal situation.

"You look so handsome while you’re brooding," said Bridget, Ballom’s wife, as she lay her head on a table beside him and looked at him with dreamy eyes.

Ballom genuinely could not understand how someone who could reach the Dao Lord realm could still be so in love and so obsessed with someone else. He even had suspicions that the whole reason she passed the Dao tribulation was because of her obsession with him. He didn’t know how to feel about that.

"I am not brooding. I am plotting. There is a fundamental difference," explained Ballom, though it made no difference to her what it was called.

Just as he was about to share some of his concerns, something unexpected happened. Bridget frowned. For as long as Ballom had known her, Bridget had never shown any kind of negative expression in front of him so blatantly like that.

Considering her current status, it didn’t actually matter, but considering how she presented herself, something like this was a severe break in her character.

"What happened?" Ballom asked, taking the change very seriously.

Bridget looked at him with confusion in her eyes, and it was clear that she was trying very hard to make sense of something.

"The rate of the flow of time within Garvitz just changed. It is now flowing faster than before. Let me calculate the difference," she said.

Ballom shook his head.

"That’s impossible. Garvitz is a Mature realm, and the flow of time for all Mature realms is fixed. Besides, I didn’t notice anything, and if the flow had increased I would have noticed as well."

Yet Bridget only shook her head.

"My Dao touches on the concept of Time, since I’ve used it to keep myself young and beautiful my whole life. I’ve gone countless years using it without the slightest break. I’m a whole lot more sensitive to time than most Dao Lords in existence."

Ballom froze, because this was genuinely something that surprised him. Bridge’s Dao touched upon time? What the hell? Was his wife actually a whole lot more powerful than he actually knew?

"Here, look at this," said Bridget as she manifested the flow of time for Gavitz as a stream, while pulling up an old stream of the previous flow of time. "Look at the two streams. You’ll see that the current change is slight. For every trillion years previously, the current Garvitz is one second faster. The actual change is insignificant, but the implication of such a change... I actually don’t know what it implies, but I’m sure there’s something."

Ballom’s expression fell as he looked at Bridget, realizing that she had stumbled upon a massive secret. In a fraction of a second, Ballom went over countless bits of information he had gathered over the years and came to a very terrifying conclusion.

"Here, come with me," he said as he grabbed her hand and opened up a portal to an unknown place.

Bridget seemed so thrilled that Ballom held her hand that she didn’t even ask where they were going. When they passed through the portal, though, she was stunned because she had not been anticipating arriving in this place at all.

"We are here to... swear non-interference. We will neither act on, nor reveal the knowledge we have just gained," Ballom said as he bowed softly.

Bridget looked at Ballom, and then the figure he was bowing to, before bowing as well. She was sure he knew what he was doing.

"You’re a whole lot smarter than I expected, Ballom," said the figure in an amused tone. "Be at ease, I would not have targeted you even if you hadn’t sworn an oath. But I welcome it nonetheless."