The Innkeeper

Since Audrey was the one proposing the method of competition, and the focus of the challenge was to see who was the best and more worthy of having fans, she proposed a pageant. A tournament would have been more straightforward, but Audrey was not much of a fighter herself, not to mention the contestants were in various realms as well.

That was all well and good, but it wasn't like anyone could be forced into participating in the pageant. Tiffany neither understood the concept, nor cared for such a pointless contest. A few others as well were not so keen on the idea. That's when the crowds started getting rowdy, and some even tried to harass the focus of various fan clubs.

Let alone the fact that no one coming to the Inn was weak, the huge fan bases themselves weren't ready to see their idols being targeted. A fight nearly broke out and was only contained due to the timely action by the Security guards.

Lex was very firm in his decision that such actions will not be tolerated! Anyone who harassed another guest would suffer a temporary ban from the Inn, and the holographic personal assistants conveyed this message clearly to all guests.

He hoped that this would be the end of the matter, but as he had become somewhat familiar with Audrey, he doubted it.

And, indeed, the matter did not end there, though fortunately Audrey decided to be a lot more sensible in her next action. She went to Earth, acquired the rights to the competition known as Lady Cosmos, an annual international beauty pageant, and decided the next one would be held at the Inn.

Not only would the contestants be from the solar system, but from any star system that wished to join - making it the first ever, true Lady Cosmos. Brandon, who always supported his wife in every endeavor, immediately opened up his wallet.

He immediately spent an astounding 1.5 million MP on the event, and had a detailed meeting with Mary about what they wanted for the event. Since they were planning the event to happen soon, only 1 Earth month away, Lex had to take time out from his already jam-packed schedule to settle the details for the event.

This was not such a straightforward matter, as Audrey and Brandon were accompanied by their lawyer, who wanted to establish a detailed understanding of everything the event would entail. It was fortunate that Lex was not so easily flustered, regardless of how eloquently the lawyer spoke.

Since the lawyer was bringing up various requirements, Lex cut the conversation short by asking one crucial thing. Would the Inn simply be the venue for the event, or also take part in the organization of it?

If the Inn were only the venue, then they would only provide the basic facilities. However, if the Inn were also organizing, then they would try to fulfill the competition's needs, but according to their own regulations. Lex neither had a detailed grasp of the various laws on Earth, nor cared for them. The Inn was not subject to Earthen law.

In the end, they decided that the Inn should help organize the event for them, but there were a couple of important conditions for that. There was no way to enforce Earth's trademarks or copyrights in space, but since the Inn was helping to organize this event, they had to agree not to host another beauty pageant with the same name in the future if it was sponsored by someone else. Furthermore, although Audrey did not care, the pageant was a business and so they wanted to hash out the details of how they would generate income.

Lex let Mary handle the details of negotiating how the income would be split after giving her an overview of what he wanted - he really didn't have the time to be dealing with stuff like that, but he did want a cut for organizing the event would take a lot more than a simple 1.5 million MP. In the end, after everything was concluded, Mary briefed Lex on everything so that he could use the Event management panel to take care of everything.

This was a prime example of how his increased authority was coming into use, for normally he would only be able to broadcast any event happening within the Inn. However, Audrey wanted the event to be broadcast to every planet that sent a contestant - something he could barely manage.

But first, he had to prepare for the event as well as advertise it. When he was holding the Midnight games, he spent 50,000 MP per planet he advertised to, and sent the invitations to the leaders directly. This time, he planned to be slightly more subtle in his advertising, and also planned to advertise a little within the Inn as well. He had a lot of guests going in and out every day, even from parts of the universe he had not connected planets to yet, so word of mouth would also serve him well.

Counting Earth and Mars, as well as all the inhabited planets in the Nibiru, Vegus, and X-14 star systems, as well as the advanced way in which he wanted to spread the word, Lex directly spent 1 million MP on advertising. He spent another 40,000 MP on the venue, a large rectangular building with statues of gorgeous women wearing crowns, carved out of the finest marble standing fifty feet (15.2 meters) tall near the entrance. They were the previous winner of the contest.

The entrance was sealed for now, but a large marble plaque outside the venue stated the purpose of the venue, the details of the event, and how to register if anyone was interested.

He would arrange for security, the broadcasting and other miscellaneous tasks closer to the event itself.

Done for now, Lex returned his attention back to training and studies. Currently, he was sitting in his Kraven class, and the professor was discussing the biology of the strange creature that had managed to dominate their realm. Lex tried to focus back on class as he rubbed his temple. No matter how cultivation made his brain faster, it could not make up for how much he hated studying biology.

Amidst all his studying, training, doing research and practicing his arrays, Lex had overlooked two simple facts. He had overlooked how vast the reach of his Inn had actually become, and he had overlooked the universal love for beauty. He had grossly underestimated how many guests this next event would attract.

*****

X-142, A farming village

Hailey was slowly trudging back home after a long, exhausting day at the farm. Considering her peak Foundation realm cultivation, the difficulty of her routine was self-evident. She had lived her whole life in a farming village and from a young age she had been taught the wonders their farming produced. The value of their crop was phenomenal, which is why it took years of hard work for a single crop yield.

She had believed, she had worked, and she had toiled just to be qualified to be a farmer. But when she actually got to work, spending 16 hours a day, waist deep in mud, nourishing the crops with fertilizer with her own hands she realized... there was no glamor in the life she had always pursued, and there was next to no reward.

She got paid for her work, but even if one ignored the ridiculously small amount of pay considering her cultivation, she never had the physical or mental energy to do anything. Today was more of the same, and after returning home and taking a shower, she flung her frail body in bed.

But, as much as she wished to immediately fall asleep, her body ached too much to let her fall asleep. Eventually, she gave up, and pulled out an old news crystal. She got this the last time she visited a city, many months ago, but by now she had memorized the entire thing. Every news article, every bit of gossip, every adv- eh?

In the upcoming events, something new had suddenly appeared. For a moment she was dazed, and tried to remember if she had seen this before. But that was impossible, her memory would not fail her, especially when she had read through this crystal numerous times. What was going on?

More curious than anything, she read the new article that had appeared out of thin air. It was a pageant for the most capable and talented women in the cosmos. For a moment, she let herself imagine a life in which she could enter something like that, and her wings, fair and beautiful, involuntarily stuttered.

Then, the news article shone with a golden light and enveloped her. When the light disappeared, she was no longer in her home, but stood in the middle of a road, cutting through a massive field.

A hologram of another Cheonsa, a winged subspecies of humans, appeared before her and said with the most radiant of smiles, "Welcome to the Midnight Inn."