The Innkeeper

Once he was done with Alexander, Lex went to check up on Harry. The barber kid was doing exceptionally well. His cheeks had filled out a little and his eyes had vigor that he had lacked when Lex first met him. Lex could not tell heads or tails of his cultivation, but he was confident enough to cut the hair of several Qi training cultivators each day, and that's all that Lex needed to know.

When asked if there was something he needed, he blushed, and after thinking for a few moments, said he didn't need anything. He was thoroughly confused about what he was thinking, but if it was important, he would eventually reach out.

John happened to be in the Mystery trial, so Lex decided to skip meeting him for now. Done with these tasks, Lex returned to his room, rubbed himself down with the ointment he received, and started cultivating.

Using his Leo persona, Lex had previously placed several orders of equipment and ammunition to be delivered at fixed intervals, both to Will and Chen. This way, he wouldn't need to ask them again each time he was done visiting a world, and avoid overlapping the appearance of Leo with the Innkeeper. As far as anyone was concerned, and according to what Leo told Z, Leo had to go to handle some personal affairs and would not appear for a long time.

Once he received his next batch of equipment, he would head out to another planet. X-142 was a very suitable planet for the purpose of attracting clients for the expo in six months, but he would need more. Until then, however, Lex simply focused on his cultivation.

Two days later, Lex had managed to gather a total of 34 strands of Qi and had entered the 4th level of Qi training. He had no intentions of stopping training, however, as the feeling of getting stronger was actually quite addictive.

Until...

"Hey Lex, there's an unusual situation. You might want to pay attention to this."

It was quite rare for Mary to interrupt his cultivation, as she would normally wait for one of his breaks, so the seriousness of the matter was apparent.

Lex concluded his cultivation, stabilizing his absorbed Qi, and got up.

"What's the issue?"

"One of the guests has gotten into an argument with one of the waitresses."

Lex raised an eyebrow and quickly scanned the Inn, found the problem and sighed.

Lex was not surprised that the culprit was one of the teenagers from Troy academy.

"Shut your mouth you stupid skank, I know what you were doing!" hollered a girl ballistically at one of his waitresses. Lex did not have much personal interaction with this waitress, and did not know her name, but that did not mean he would let one of his workers get bullied. But he needed to understand the situation first, so he quietly listened.

"Please, guest, it's nothing like that. You must be misunderstanding..."

"Misunderstand my ass," the overly privileged teenager yelled again. "You were flirting with my boyfriend. I saw how you were ogling him. Keep your skanky claws away from him or I'll make you regret it. You're lucky the principal has strictly banned us from fighting, or I'd be squeezing your head into the ground and shaving it bald."

"I assure you," the waitress replied, panic and desperation in her voice, "I was not making any advances on the guest. He requested some help, and I was only inquiring--"

"Oh, you're calling me a liar? We can just ask Sean. Hey Sean, did you call this skank?"

The screaming girl turned towards her boyfriend. He was standing together with a group of friends, snickering as they whispered amongst themselves. When asked, he quickly denied asking the waitress for anything.

Lex frowned. Since he could review any events happening at the Inn at any time, he quickly rewinded and saw that the boy had indeed asked for the waitress specifically. In fact, when Lex heard some of the remarks the boys were passing when they called her...

Lex's demeanor darkened. He scanned the Inn and found the principal of the academy, who was sitting with a few friends and chatting in a restaurant in Avalon. Lex directly sent his voice and told him to show up at the location of the argument, ensuring the displeasure in his voice was evident.

The principal nearly fell out of his seat when he recognized the voice, but Lex was already not paying attention anymore. As pissed off as he was, he slightly regretted that the screaming brat hadn't actually physically attacked at any time. That would have made the situation simpler to resolve; he could have directly retaliated.

Before the fight could continue any further, and before Lex had to hear anymore screaming, he took a deep breath to stabilize his mood, and teleported over.

"What seems to be the issue here?" he asked as soon as he appeared. His voice was neutral, and did not betray his true feelings, but it was loud and carried clearly to the ears of all who were watching. Many of his workers who were also watching breathed a sigh of relief, and hope twinkled in their eyes. The guests had a different sparkle in their eyes, as they avidly waited to watch the drama unfold.

The screaming girl was not intimidated by the Innkeepers arrival, but instead became excited. She had grown in the lap of luxury, and was used to getting her way, but that did not mean that she was an idiot. She had a clear understanding of businesses, and she understood the extent they would go to to preserve their image.

Her reason for causing a commotion was valid, as the waitress had indeed been overly friendly with her boyfriend, in her opinion, and in such a scenario where she was in the right, along with her background, usually played out pretty much in the manner she wanted. It was unfortunate for her that her experience was limited to Earth where her background actually mattered, and that Lex did not have a boss he needed to appease by maintaining a positive relation with his customers - even the annoying ones.

"This desperate skank here was throwing herself at my boyfriend!" she explained to the Innkeeper in a haughty voice. "Is that the kind of establishment you run here? Interfering in your guests' lives and taking what you want?"

The girl was quite proud of her accusation, and just waiting for the Innkeeper to start appeasing her.

Lex looked at his waitress, who was staring back at him with hesitation and fear in her eyes.

"What happened?" he asked her, his voice noticeably softer.

"The... the guest... kept asking... me to bring things... for his friends. I was only... doing what the guest wanted," she replied, trying hard to keep herself from stuttering.

"Lies! She's lying! She kept flirting with--"

"Stop," Lex said, his voice rippling through the air and freezing the screaming girl.

He waved his hand, and a screen appeared in the air in front of everyone, displaying the events as they played out. Everyone watched, including the aggrieved waitress, as the boys kept taunting and flirting with the waitress. Something Lex didn't catch the first time, but noticed this time, was that one of the boys even tried to pinch her, and winked at her when she managed to avoid it.

The situation was clear to everyone who watched it, and the screaming girl blushed with her fists clenched as she watched. It was evident that her boyfriend was the one harassing the waitress, but she couldn't accept it.

But the situation was escalating, as their principal had also run over by now, and immediately panicked when he saw what the screen displayed. Unaware of what actually occurred, he thought it was the horrendous behavior of the boys that agitated the Innkeeper.

"I think it's obvious what really happened," Lex said, as he looked at the girl. To be honest, he really wanted to punish her in some way, but at the same time didn't want to go as far as to use violence.

He controlled the agitation in his heart and suppressed his rising anger as he turned to the principal.

"This is an establishment that takes care of its guests, but never at the expense of my staff. As this is the first time something like this has happened, I will let it go by simply banning the girl and those boys. Should it happen again, the repercussions won't be as simple as a ban."

"My gravest apologies Innkeeper," the principal began, wiping the actual sweat off his forehead. "I promise you, something like..."

"I disagree!" the girl screamed loudly, cutting the principal off, as she glared at the Innkeeper. Not only had the Innkeeper ignored her, and dictated a 'punishment' for her to her principal, just the fact that he had exposed her and humiliated her in public drove her insane. Normally, she really knew what lines not to cross, but as a spoiled child experiencing anything but adoration and support, the logical part of her brain was overridden by her erupting anger! Of course, she was angry at her boyfriend, soon to be ex-boyfriend as well for shamelessly flirting with other girls. Currently, however, she was still focused on the waitress and the Innkeeper.

"Just because she didn't say anything doesn't mean she's not guilty! It's her fault for flaunting herself in front of all those boys! And you! Do you feel proud, bullying a little girl? Since this is a problem between me and her, you should let us handle it ourselves! If you're shameless enough to interfere in a fight between the younger generation, don't be surprised when the same happens to one of your workers in the future!"

The principal nearly fainted as he heard the girl screaming, and almost already accepted today as the date for his funeral. Lex, however, turned to look at her, his neutral appearance turning grim, his anger beginning to seethe.