The Innkeeper

Lex kept his gaze steady, not letting his emotions show on his face. It was a surreal experience, listening to someone tell him about the events in his own life. Even though he was there for each event, he had no idea that any of it was happening. Everything had happened right in front of him, yet he never knew.

Not that he took any blame for it, or allowed himself to feel guilty. He was a kid, and a mortal besides. There was no way he could have seen through all the deception. But still, it made him question if all his good memories were even real. When had his sisters been replaced with clones? He didn't even know.

Going off to college and being away from his family must have made it easy for them to be replaced. Spending years away in New York while they were supposed to be in London also probably made it easy for them to do whatever they wished.

But Lex had always thought that he had decided to go off to college far away because he was going through his own phase of wanting personal space and creating his own life. But now, for all he knew, that was something his parents could have engineered without him ever knowing.

It was the kind of shadow puppeting he was always afraid the system would do to him. Maybe on a subconscious level he always knew it was happening, which is why he was also afraid of the system doing it to him. He didn't want to live through another lie.

But right now, this moment was not about him. It was about Moon. He observed his little sister as she displayed guilt on her face, as if her birth itself ruined the lives of her family. Yet as much as he wanted to console her, he also did not want to interrupt her, as he knew how hard it was for her to speak about this.

"I'm not sure what exactly happened," she continued. "Belle told me that dad tried to hide me the same way he hid you, that he tried to use the same inscriptions. But my body is different. No matter what they did, my body would just return to its normal. The inscriptions would fade. I could not be hidden, and no one knew how to stop it. Mom and Dad assumed that if dad was stronger he might have been able to use inscriptions that could work, but with him restarting his cultivation, and then being weakened again after hiding you, the little progress he made was already remarkable.

"Then grandfather came, and he instantly saw that there was something special about me. But the thing was, no one knew what my physique actually did. They just knew it was very special. Even before cultivating, I could absorb spiritual energy, and change it into something that could heal souls, so everyone thought that my physique had to do with souls.

"While we were trying to figure it out, someone in our family apparently underwent the tribulations to become immortal, but barely survived. His soul was damaged beyond repair, and was on the verge of dying despite surviving the tribulations. Apparently I was able to save him. I don't really remember, I was too young.

"After that, grandfather became obsessed. He said that with my physique our family could produce hundreds of earth immortals, and maybe even heaven immortals. My powers were too valuable.

"That's when he took me away, and started doing tests on me to figure out what my physique was. He drew blood and took countless tissue samples, but couldn't figure it out. But what we did learn as a result was that no matter how badly I'm hurt, as long as I'm alive, I'll recover in a few hours at most. Not to mention, even my blood could heal soul injuries. Something like that had never been seen."

Moon was smiling as she described her abilities, but tears were streaming down her eyes.

Lex was also silently astounded. The ability she was describing is one that he also had, but it was something he gained after a lot of cultivation and using numerous valuable treasures and going through endless unique experiences. The fact that Moon was born with it was absurd. He could not even imagine how his mother was able to produce such a physique for her children. Did she… did she have some kind of system too? A system that strengthened her kids somehow?

"We never did figure out the true extent of my physique, because one day grandfather forcibly raised my cultivation to the Golden core level using various treasures and spiritual fruits. Once I reached this level, he fused my soul with this planet.

"He told me it was for my protection. That this planet was very special, and that it would keep my soul alive, and this way there was no chance of someone ever kidnapping me - not that I had any say in this matter. Then he personally built all the protective formations around the planet so that nothing could ever hurt me.

"But what nobody would have guessed was that after my soul fused with my planet, my physique became even more active. The way my physique always healed my body, no matter what injury I suffered, it began to change the planet. But because my physique has always been active for the past few years, never resting, my body became weaker and weaker.

"Grandfather told me that he found a solution to this problem, and that he was going to give me a surprise on my birthday. But, well, I don't know if he's going to be able to find me anymore. Not that I mind. This juice you gave me is probably better than anything he can find. Trust me, I've had almost everything you can imagine to strengthen the body."

Moon finally ended her speech, and smiled at Lex, as if to show him that she didn't mind her ordeals. But Lex just kept looking at her.

There were still many questions. For example, how come their parents just let her be fused to a planet? Though based on the trend of her story, they probably weren't strong enough to stop their grandfather from acting.

There was also the obvious question of why the formations stopped working if their grandfather made them personally.

The most… the question that Lex feared to ask the most was why Moon could say with certainty that no matter how badly she was hurt, she would heal. How badly had she been hurt?

But looking at his sister's smile so convincingly, Lex, who had no trouble forcing himself to walk through hell and high water as long as it served his needs, found himself unable to ask those questions.

Instead, he produced a small fruit he found in the Midnight realm. It looked like a lychee, which was a fruit he recalled Moon used to love.

"Here, try this," he said, peeling the prickly skin of the fruit.

"What about my story made you think I was hungry?" she asked, laughing. But she took the fruit from him and plopped it in her mouth. Then her expression morphed into shock as she was overwhelmed by its amazing flavor!

There was also the fact that it instantly spread warmth through her body and filled her with strength that even the juice had failed to deliver, but she was mostly focused on the flavor.

"What is that? How can it be so good?"

"It's just a random fruit. Here, try this," Lex said, pulling out a sandwich. This sandwich was the culmination of fifteen years of Kenta's training. It was actually good enough for Lex to have ordered a few to take along with him.

Moon, no longer hesitating, grabbed the sandwich from his hand and bit into it. Despite how it looked, the sandwich was incredibly soft, and she easily broke off. A surge of energy filled her body and before Moon knew it she was… she was floating!

"Ahhhh! What's happening?" she screamed, alarmed.

"The sandwich is so good it can make you fly," Lex said with a smirk. "Or at least that's what the cook said. In actuality, one of the ingredients is a plant that has odd effects on gravity. Come on, finish up the sandwich and then give me a tour of your planet. I bet you haven't given anyone a flying tour before. Well, at least one where you are flying yourself."

Lex stepped into the air as well, and accompanied his sister who was suddenly excited at the sudden ability to fly. He did not let her sense his seething anger at all, and instead kept the mood light, and talked of other things. Since Moon herself was keen on avoiding this topic, it was easy enough.

But soon, very soon, Lex would let a lot of people feel his anger in great detail.