Two days after Lex originally checked in, a small group of people entered the Bent Benches tavern. As could be expected, the place was completely devoid of any customers.
“Is anyone here?” one of the men yelled in an annoyed tone.
“Just give me a moment, I’m dealing with something,” replied a voice from behind the counter. The group leaned over to see a thin young man, rolled up in the fetal position.
“We’re looking for this man, have you seen him?” the first man asked, holding out a picture of Lex.
“Just a few minutes, please, I’ll be right with you,” the man replied, as he started rocking, his breathing becoming heavier and louder.
“What do you mean, a few minutes? Stand up and answer me brat, you don’t know who you’re dealing with,” the man said as he jumped over the counter and reached to grab the man on the floor. But things did not proceed how they usually did.
The tavern keeper reached out his hand and grabbed, not only the man’s neck, but his entire body as his hand had enlarged into a massive claw.
“I said, give me a few minutes,” he repeated himself, but his voice was no longer that of a human. It was unfortunate that the man never heard his voice, as his body had been squished within the tavern keeper’s claw.
The rest of the group yelled as they retreated in horror at the gory sight they had just witnessed, yet their noise only aggravated the tavern keeper further. His pupils thinned into vertical slits and his face started growing into a massive maw. Green scales started to cover his skin, but before the transformation could continue, a single streak of flame breathed out of his nose burnt the group to a crisp.
With the interference gone, the tavern keeper closed his eyes and started taking deep breaths, slowly transforming back into the shape of a human.
“Take deep breaths,” the man kept murmuring to himself, as he continued to calm himself down in peace.
*****
Lex woke up feeling rested and great, as he let out a big yawn while stretching. It was not that he let himself fall asleep and let down his guard, but that with Fenrir nearby it was a lot harder for anyone to sneak up on Lex. Fenrir was not strong in his cultivation, but his senses were unmatched. Not only could he sense living things or fruits or basically anything edible nearby, he could even accurately sense the emotions of those nearby.
Using that ability, Lex had spent the last day getting to know the others at the campsite. In fact…
“Hey Joel, you guys ready?” Lex asked as he walked out of his tent, scratching his head.
“Just about,” answered a cat-man, or more accurately a male Neko. “I’m just cooking up breakfast while the rest pack up. We can leave once everyone has eaten.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” replied Lex as he watched the group. The group was composed of five guys and four girls… eh, five males and four females. Joel and his girlfriend were Neko, but the rest were from various other races. They were tourists who came together and formed a tourist group, under the lead of an avian beast that ran a local tourism company.
As Fenrir had identified them as honest and friendly, Lex had joined their group, at least until their next destination. After that, he would decide whether to stay with them or not. After all, there was no better way to understand aliens on vacation other than to join them.
As usual, Lex leapt onto Fenrir’s back, and the duo went into the forest hunting for fruit. Lex had tried hunting for actual game, but there didn’t seem to be many animals near the tourist areas.
While Fenrir ran, Lex’s mind wandered back to what Mary had told him about Tetsuya. He had not had much of a reaction to learning about the Inn, or even that he had been saved despite the seriousness of his wounds. He simply bought a Travel face wash kit, which allowed him to change his appearance for 24 hours, and left the Inn.
Let alone Lex, even Mary was confused by his behavior. But there was nothing either of them could do about it.
After gathering enough fruit, Lex returned to the campsite and shared his harvest with the group. Since he was tagging along, it was only right that he contributed in some way to the group.
After breakfast, they left for their next tourist destination, Heaven Island. This was a popular destination because of the unusual feature that the island was floating! This was not a man-made island, but was one naturally formed. According to the tourist guide, the reason the island floated was because the ‘island’ was originally a massive asteroid that had unusual magnetic properties.
It floated around constantly in the sky above a large canyon and was completely unable to leave the canyon’s boundaries. It was suspected that the canyon emitted a certain spiritual field that prevented the island from falling, but also from moving out of the canyon itself.
After a brief study conducted by the Dimitri family revealed that the island did not contain any extremely rare ores, they renovated the top enough to accommodate plant life, and turned it into a tourist destination.
After extensive study, as well as communication with the locals, Lex learnt that all the planets in the X-14 system had a strong tourism industry going. The reason, as far as Lex could tell, was that since all planets were firmly under the control of the Dimitri family, there was no room for internal strife. The planets were not divided into countries, but zones according to their agricultural produce, and none of the tourist attractions were anywhere near important agricultural lands.
The lack of large-scale internal strife, presence of security and various attractions focused towards different species made the planet’s prime location for a booming industry. For example, while Lex was heading towards the Island, he learnt that swamps were a major attraction towards slimes.
Another interesting, and unexpected thing Lex learnt, was that slimes were first-class citizens of the Jotun Empire. Apparently, as far as the brief description on the list provided by the Emporium told, not only were slimes born without a lifespan, meaning they would never die unless killed, they had an unequivocally strong backing, so much so that the Empire allowed them to travel their territory without any intergalactic visas.
This did not match Lex’s impression of the squishy, jelly-like beings that could change their bodies to immediately become excellent trampolines, but he decided to accept it. The universe was a strange place, he had to be flexible in this thinking.
The group Lex was with did not travel by train, but by a vehicle called Hover plates. It was literally what it sounded like; it was a large, flat platform that rose into the air and flew in the direction you wanted. Of course, it had several formations on it to control how much wind blew into the tray so the riders wouldn’t be bothered, and to prevent them from falling off.
Once they arrived at the Island, they checked into a hotel for two days, after which they would continue on their journey elsewhere. Although Lex didn’t have a booking, he spent nearly all the spirit coins he brought with himself to get a room. This was really good for his research. He would take detailed notes about the hotel and reflect on how he could improve the Inn.
*****
Darius was sitting in his room, smoking out of a pipe while he watched a show. It had been a while since he hired someone to look for that kid he had a fight with, and though they didn’t reach out to him yet, he was confident in their abilities. After all, he had worked with them before.
Suddenly, however, the door to his room was kicked down and his father entered the room with a look of such fury on his face that Darius had never seen anything close to it. He didn’t know what had sparked his father’s anger, but he had a strong guess. He had to maintain his innocence.
“Father,” he began saying, but before he could continue, he was slapped across the face so hard his body hurled across the room!
Confused, in pain, and panicking, Darius tried to look at his attack to understand what exactly was happening. That’s when he noticed them. There was a group of guards, all wearing the uniform of the Dimitri family’s elite forces. At their head stood a middle-aged man wearing office clothes, but there was no doubt for even a second that he was in command.
“Little brat, before you start speaking, it’ll be best if you hear me first. I don’t care whether you were involved or not in the terrorist attack or not, since you had an enmity with the only victim, you’re already on the suspects list. Do you know what that means? It means you’ve already been sentenced to death, without a trial.”
Darius physically felt his stomach lurch, and his heart stop beating for a moment as he listened to the man. No, he couldn’t die!
But just as he was about to speak again, the man reached forward and clamped Darius’ mouth shut with his hand.
“Whether you did anything or not, you’re already guilty. I’ll give you one chance to speak, so I better hear something that’ll help me trace those terrorists. If I hear something I like, maybe I’ll reduce your punishment. Otherwise, I’ll personally make sure there’s nothing left of you to put into a grave.”
With that, the man let go of Darius’ mouth and took a step back to let him speak. By now, Darius’ mind had almost shut down from fear. He could not think, not even of a way to save himself. His eyes shifted to his dad, but instead of support, he only saw unbridled anger.
After a few moments, when he didn’t answer, the man no longer bothered wasting any time with him. He stepped forth and injected some serum into his neck.
A minute later, he asked, “what connection do you have with the terrorists?”
“They reached out to me a few weeks back,” Darius answered, his mind completely numbed now, and his eyes vacant. “It was the day Tetsuya broke through to the Foundation realm, and he had beaten me up badly when I tried to ambush him during an academy trip. They offered to kill Tetsuya for me, as long as I did them a favor. I used my connections to distract one of the guards in the space station in the city, the one for people traveling to and from this planet. It was barely for a few minutes, and nothing happened, but they considered the favor done. After that, they didn’t contact me again for so long I thought someone was playing a prank on me. Until they sent me a video of them killing Tetsuya.”
The man nodded, as if he heard exactly what he expected. He turned to one of the men behind him and said, “interrogate him thoroughly. Get all the information we need. Once you’re done, kill him.”
Darius did not react, as his mind was still numb, but his father did. Instead of feeling aggrieved, he was instead relieved. If they killed Darius, their anger should be reduced. Or at least, that’s what he thought until the middle-aged man turned to him and said, “for raising such a treasonous child, you share in the blame of his crime for not providing a better upbringing. You better start thinking of ways you can help with the investigation, or your execution will be next.”
The father fell on his knees. He was doomed.
