The Innkeeper

Each of the commanders for the four armies looked warily at one another, while also keeping an eye on the projection in the sky. Their senses were deployed to the maximum, and as soon as something unusual happened they would be able to respond to it. But, once the introductory song ended, instead of a conniving plan of some kind, a fabulously dressed woman appeared in the projection. It was Audrey.

"Welcome one and all, to the first ever, Interstellar Lady Cosmos pageant," rang her voice across the plains. Oddly enough, the one army that consisted of a race that had no ears felt her meaning communicated to them through the extrasensory form of communication they normally used.

Audrey began explaining a little about the pageant, since most viewers were probably not familiar with the concept, but the commanders were simply bewildered. Try as they might, they could not find the source of the projection.

The battle on the ground continued, and while the soldiers were slightly distracted by Audrey talking, they managed to continue the fight. Until, that is, over Audreys monologue they started a slideshow of glimpses of some of the contestants, dressed up in breathtaking attire.

"Martha!" All four of the commanders yelled at the same time, recognizing an image of a half fairy, half human celebrity.

She started out as a pirate, until one of the spaceships she was robbing belonged to an interstellar marketing agency, where one of the recruiters risked his life to get her to sign for one of clients as a model. From there her charm and natural charisma launched her career, and she became a celebrity in many star systems.

The commanders, realizing they momentarily lost composure quickly gathered themselves, until they also realized that the others had done the same.

"Why did you say Martha?" one of them asked hesitantly.

"Martha is my idol!" declared one of the aliens, a humanoid, four armed being with six thin eye slits on its face.

"My daughter is obsessed with her," said another alien.

The fourth, instead of saying anything, showed a tattoo of the name Martha over his heart.

Just as the four commanders were suddenly considering what to do next, Audrey up on the screen said, "follow us on our journey as we showcase and celebrate the best that our contestants have to offer, to compete for the final glory of being titled the first ever, Interstellar Lady Cosmos."

"I'll spare your life today," said one alien, before immediately ordering a retreat back to the nearest city. Another two shouted some random excuse while the third one didn't even bother, and immediately ordered his soldiers to return to base and start a feast. He liked to eat something while he watched stuff.

*****

The show finally started. Lex watched for a few minutes, and also observed his Inn. Currently, other than the contestants themselves, there were only 1 million observers. The early, relatively empty village now seemed somewhat full. Every park, every restaurant, every rooftop had small gatherings and, Lex noticed, that a majority of his guests were some subspecies of humans.

That was probably because most of his exposure so far had been with humans. Or were humans just that common in the universe? Time would tell.

Naturally to take care of 1 million guests, and probably more incoming, was not something a few thousand staff members could handle. But Lex was not ready to hire hundreds of thousands of permanent workers just yet. Fortunately, the event management panel gave him the option of temporary workers.

For the price of 8 million MP, he hired 300,000 temporary workers, all of them at the peak of the Body tempering realm. They came highly trained, and seemed to be easily handling the pressure so far.

He sighed, and then stopped paying attention to the festivities. He really didn't have the time. He had mastered quite a few arrays in the past month, but his deployment time was still low. He would focus on that for now.

As for the Lady Cosmos pageant? With the number of participants they had, even if they aired 24 hours a day, everyday, it would take quite a while for the preliminary round to end.

Since the pageant was no longer primarily focusing on beauty, since with many different species involved judging beauty became more difficult, a great emphasis was placed on talent.

The first portion would allow the participants to showcase their talents. Any participants who were mortals took on tasks such as playing instruments, playing sports, creating arts etc. and would only be judged amongst themselves. They would not be pit against someone at the Foundation realm, who would most likely be using their cultivation as a part of showcasing their talents.

If Lex had been watching, he would notice that one of the first participants being shown was a ballerina, and a familiar one at that. This ballerina had also performed once during the cultural part of the Midnight Games before disappearing. Since then, not only had the poise and technique of the ballerina improved immensely, but so had her ethereal beauty. Even nonhumans who had completely different criteria for beauty could not help but be attracted to her performance.

But, as moving as her performance was, it was one out of over a million. When the participant disappeared from the Inn after her single performance, almost no one seemed to notice. Almost because Anita, who had a detailed record of everything that happened during the Midnight Games was also currently recording everything happening at the pageant, immediately picked up on the detail, as well as the pattern of disappearance.

It was also at this point that someone tried to harass one of the participants who was waiting her turn.

A slim and greasy fellow tried to slip his hand over the small of the contestants back and pull her close.

The girl yelped and moved away, for she had not been expecting to suddenly be grabbed.

"Oh come on dear, I was only-" the man never got to finish his words.

The Delinquent Viper Vine burst from the ground and tightly wrapped itself around the man. The commotion attracted a lot of attention, and by the time people began to look, the man was being held upside down in the air, 100 feet (30 meters) in the air.

The man continued to hang in the air until the current participant showcasing her talent finished, at which point instead of the next contestant, the screen turned to a projection of the man.

The Dragon, which had up until now kept its distance from the crowds, flew up into the air, its wings spreading strong gusts of wind threatening to topple over anyone nearby.

"This is the first and only warning," the dragon said in a deeply terrifying, gruntled voice. "On orders of the Innkeeper, anyone who targets a guest of the Inn in anyway will be treated as an enemy of the Inn."

The appearance of a dragon on the show was nearly enough to shock anyone watching, but the fact that the dragon took orders from someone was about to rock several worlds. Lex had planned this little performance early on, anticipating someone trying to take advantage of the numerous girls. His aim had been to dissuade any trouble makers. While he did achieve that, what he did not expect was that the viewership of the show was about to explode, along with the popularity of the Inn!

"I… was… only… try…" the man tried to speak with a trembling voice, but before he could finish, he disappeared. He had been kicked out of the Inn, but none of the viewers knew that. Instead of horrified, they were enamored! Strong, decisive, cruel. These were the things people loved. Well, at least the people on the planets the pirates had spread the Inns keys to. At the same time, many people who were hiding from various threats or enemies suddenly gained a new destination to run towards.

With such a dramatic start, the Lady Cosmos show was kicked off. Ragnar too was shown a recording of the scene where the dragon made an appearance, and suddenly raised an eyebrow. First a Celestial, and now a dragon? The Innkeeper really knew how to pick his guards.

He was tempted to go see the dragon firsthand, but now that he was on his way to a battlefield, his every move was likely being monitored. He did not want it to seem like he paid too much attention to the Inn, so he dismissed the video,

Back at the Inn, Xeon, the Drake refiner who was vacationing at the Inn had just come out of his room after a several weeks long nap, and was dumbstruck. A… a… a real dragon? And it seemed to be… working for the Inn!

Suddenly, he ran at his fastest speed to search for Gerard, the only person he really knew at the Inn. He had to get a job at the Inn! HE ABSOLUTELY HAD TO!