The Innkeeper

Chapter 1394  If only there was a place you could rest and recover

Lex could see that Tetsuya was nervous, but was hiding it well. It was good to see that after a few years, he had tempered his personality a little. Based on how arrogant he was back on X-142, he might have already inadvertently offended Lex. Or, well, considering that he had already made an enemy of the Empire that ruled this planet, maybe he hadn't improved as much as Lex imagined.

He would see for himself, since the next set of guests coming to the Treehouse seemed to be from the Empire. Or, atleast, that's what Lex assumed considering that a military convoy was heading his way.

It wasn't enough to be called a small army. It was more like the protective detail for a high-value member of the Empire.

Lex also considered that they might be after Tetsuya, seeing as how they were coming from the same city as him.

He was imagining how this confrontation would go, trying to think of ways in which he could avoid an all out war with the Empire. For that he would have to convince them not to try and invade his Treehouse.

Under ordinary circumstances, it would be tough to convince the rulers of a planet to ignore a possible treasure on their own planet, reining in their greed. But nothing Lex did was ordinary, not anymore, so he wasn't worried.

Using his left eye, Lex studied the oncoming convoy, planning things out, when he noticed something interesting. He could read the laws surrounding the convoy as if they were words in a book. It wasn't just the ordinary laws associated with living beings that Lex saw.

He saw all the laws involved with making their convoy move, all the laws that worked together seamlessly to result in the kind of energy transfer that powered their vehicles. More interestingly, he saw the laws that wirelessly connected the convoy to something far away - as if on the other side of the planet.

What was interesting about it was that, even though whatever this convoy was connected to was far away, since that connection existed here, its associated laws were equally present here as well as at the point of origin of the connection. That gave Lex an idea.

He wondered if he could hijack the laws that facilitated the connection, and change the type of connection. Or maybe if he could use the connection to send back a different kind of feedback.

Feeling a little excited, Lex waited at the very edge of the garden for the convoy to arrive. He did not have to wait long as a number of floating cars stopped just short of the garden.

A number of soldiers, all of some variant of humans Lex was not familiar with, got off holding weapons that looked similar to guns. A few of them - the ones wearing special armour clearly identifying them as superior officers or something along those lines - even had a few other weapons, though Lex didn't get how they might work. They looked like sword handles, without the actual swords to go with them.

Once they formed a protective barrier, a secretary got out of one of the vehicles and held open an umbrella right beside the last car out of which no one had emerged just as yet.

But once the umbrella arrived, the passenger door opened, and a young man with way too many earrings got off, a wide yet arrogant smile on his face.

"What a good day to be out and about," he said from underneath the shade of the umbrella, and looked towards Lex with interest. He found it peculiar that Lex was not immediately kneeling at the sight of him, but as a reasonable man, he would not immediately order a mass execution for such a minor transgression. He had underlings who would do that for him.

Yes, he was both reasonable and wise, which is why he had not actually stepped onto that green carpet of death right in front of him.

"You there, inferior human," he said, pointing at Lex. "What is this place, and what is it doing in my territory? Do you know how much paperwork I'm going to have to do to explain this?"

Lex smiled back. Surprisingly, he discovered that the blatant antagonism of the person in front of him didn't actually infuriate him.

It was as if Lex was watching a little child play. How could an adult get angry at a little child who had no idea what it was doing? At most, the adult would guide the child so as to not make mistakes in the future.

From his experience traveling back on Earth, he knew that many asian cultures had a long, rich history centered around how to raise smart, well mannered children. If he wasn't wrong, that ancient art, consisting of countless generations of research, contributed by a wide number of parents, one generation after the next, was called the 'Art of whup-ass'! n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I cannot imagine the kind of paperwork you will have to do," Lex answered politely, his eyes looking not at the man but at one of the flying cars. He could feel that the distant connection was linked to something in that car, and a simple sweep of his spirit sense revealed some kind of video call to a supervising officer far away.

"This is the Treehouse tavern. It is a place where travelers can rest and replenish their energies if they so wish. Also, I'm pretty sure that this place was not considered anyones territory. There was nothing here before the Treehouse arrived."

"See, this is why your kind is inferior. Can't you use your brain? It was not my territory before, but it is now. Promptly vacate the premises, and write me a detailed essay about what else makes you an inferior human. Chop chop."

The man clapped as he told Lex to leave, while he looked up high at the tree's canopy.

Lex coughed, as if clearing his throat, and spoke once more.

"Perhaps I did not make myself clear. Let me do my introductions once more. This is my Treehouse tavern - a place where travelers who are not brain dead, and actually follow simple rules of basic decency can rest and replenish their energies."

Lex did not take a step forward - he did not want to leave the grass - but as he reached forward, the arrogant man seemed to arrive right in front of him, as if the space between them had shrunk.

Lex's hand softly and gently rested atop the man's shoulder, yet the moment contact was made, the man's eyes constricted. His brain shut down out of sheer fear, as he felt the weight of an entire world - nay, an entire realm - press down on his shoulder! As if that was not enough, mixed in with that soul crushing weight was the deterrence of Domination.

None of the surrounding soldiers felt the same weight, though oddly enough they found their bodies frozen still. They could not react to save their superior even if they wished. It was as if they were trapped within their minds, their bodies puppets being controlled by some external force. From up above in the treehouse, Tetsuya looked down at the scene and could not understand what was happening. How could he guess when he could not feel the pressure those soldiers were under?

Yet there was someone else who did feel the same pressure those soldiers were feeling. On the other side of the world, in a protected, underground base a Nascent soul cultivator had been watching the progress of the investigation team that had been sent forward.

He didn't care much what happened - at least, originally he didn't care.

He had been watching the scene unfold through a live video, yet when Lex moved his hand to place it on that arrogant man's shoulder, the Nascent soul cultivator saw something else. To him, it looked like Lex was looking right into his eyes, and when Lex placed his hand, the cultivator felt a hand press down on his shoulder, as well as his soul.

Shock, horror, fear, and a little excitement flickered through the cultivator's mind, right before he too felt the effects of Domination, shutting down his mind.

Lex did not do this for too long, lest he break someone's mind. When he lifted his hand once more, the arrogant soldier once again returned to his original position, far away from the garden. At the same time, all the soldiers collapsed onto the ground, as if they could no longer stand the pressure that they had just faced.

"Oh dear, you guys look extremely tired. If only there were a convenient location nearby where you could rest and recover. Oh wait, I know just the place. Follow me."

As Lex turned around, all the soldiers began to float above the ground, held up by Lex's spirit sense, and began to follow him.

On the other side of the planet, the Nascent soul cultivator picked himself up off the ground as excitement painted his expression.

"It's him! It's Dragonsbane! I have to get an autograph!" the man yelled like a little child.