The Innkeeper

The heir sighed, as if lamenting the abundant availability of endless resources, practically paving the cultivation path for himself. What a burden it must be to be rich!

"You'll excuse me if I don't go into the details," the heir said casually, as if it was already understood. "But the point is that, ultimately, what Darmin values is a specific kind of talent. Unfortunately, I have talent pouring out of my every pore, so from the day I was born, I was destined to be heir. Did you know, I'm not even related to any of the previous rulers? 

"My parents ran a small clinic in the capital. When I was born, and my talents detected, the royal family adopted me outright. My parents received 13 billion supreme spirit stones, as well as noble titles, property, as well as the ownership of one of Tilaiya's 13 moons. Suffice to say, after that, my parents became extremely busy trying to give me as many siblings as possible. Unfortunately, none of them have even a spec of talent compared to mine."

The heir sounded both proud and mad at that statement.

"So who are you supposed to be marrying then, if not the princess? My name is Lex, by the way."

Since he was building connections, there was no point in hiding his identity, though he seriously doubted anyone would connect him in his current state to Lex William, dragon tamer!

"Oh, yes, introductions. Nice to meet you Lex, my name is Kenta Haru. Sorry, I'm not used to introducing myself, I forgot it was something one has to do. As for my fiancée, I am not sure of her identity yet. She has been selected for me. No doubt, she will also be tremendously talented, though not as much as me, or she would be the heir. Moreover, she will no doubt have a steady and stable personality, to keep me in check in the future."

Kenta sounded absolutely disgusted at his own words.

From behind the counter, the kitchen door opened and another elf walked out, holding a tray carrying three steaming bowls. Lex was already mentally prepared to face some extremely unusual alien food, but was genuinely surprised to find that he had been served ramen! It seemed that it was not so unusual that the elves also cooked ramen. After all, in their long lives, they had probably experimented with various kinds of foods!

The elf tapped the wooden counter twice, and three pairs of chopsticks grew right out of the wood!

Treating it as completely normal, the heir grabbed the chopsticks and began eating.

"So what's your plan? Do you think you can actually run away from the wedding?"

"Oh absolutely not," Kenta replied casually. "The entirety of Tilaiya is being monitored, not to mention the fact that all teleportation formations have been disabled to prevent me from escaping. No, I'll probably be ignored until I'm needed. But you know, as a man, I must at least show some form of protest! How can I just accept without expressing my dissatisfaction? I need to run away at least a couple more times during the wedding itself!"

"If… if you don't expect to actually escape, why did you run till you actually collapsed?" Lex asked, looking at their heir strangely.

"Well, even though the royal family knows I cannot actually escape, they also have to go through the motions and try and prevent me. To get away, I actually had to erase a formation that had been conjured right on my very skin! I had to actually excrete all the spiritual energy within my body to cause the formation to fail. I bet they never saw that one coming."

"So this is all just a game? How anticlimactic. And here I thought that I was going to help you escape from a wedding."

"Hahaha, no, to actually do that is impossible! This guy won't let me."

Kenta pointed at the empty seat beside him, and Lex looked there but saw no one. The seat was empty. He was just about to say so when he noticed that the third bowl, which had been placed in front of the seat, was empty!

His pupils constricted and he looked back at the seat, and this time saw a rather aged looking elf who winked at Lex. The elf had long, braided gray hair that reached the floor, and a short but well groomed gray beard.

"Please, go ahead. I'm quite curious to see how you can help my adopted son here escape his wedding."

The man had no aura at all whatsoever, and appeared entirely forgettable, despite the fact that it wasn't common for elves to have beards.

"Were you with us the entire time?" Lex asked, having quickly recovered from the surprise earlier. At this point, he was all too used to very strong cultivators acting mysteriously. He was even looking forward to the day he could do the same.

"Not really, but there's no place on this planet, or even this entire star system where my spirit sense cannot reach."

"Lex, meet my adopted father, or as I like to call him old geezer. Don't mention his age. Don't ask his age. When I was young and did something bad, he would punish me by making me count all the way to his age without skipping a single number. I've spent a few good years doing nothing except counting if you add up all the time I've spent, so I don't like to think about it."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Lex as he began to eat his ramen as well. Both Kenta and his father were surprised by how quickly Lex adapted to the situation, but did not comment on it.

"By the way, you shouldn't challenge me. I really can help him escape his wedding, even if you watch the entire process with your spirit sense."

At this point, both Kenta and his father looked at Lex with curiosity.

"Are you sure Lex? Don't let the geezer fool you, he's a genuine Celestial Immortal."