The Innkeeper - Chapter 1527

Chapter 1527: How peculiar
Jack, still unable to move, was looking directly at seven small dragons, all identical except for in color. From all the legends he had heard, Jack could easily identify the brothers.

Envy had green scales, looking like a jade sculpture come to life. Pride was purple, his scales making him look like a veritable sea of amethyst. Wrath was, quite predictably, red, like the scorching sun over a desert. Sloth was light blue, and just looking at him made Jack hear the soothing ocean waves, making him want to doze off. Lust had scales of deep blue, like brilliant sapphires covering his body. Greed was a matted gold, like oldest treasures, forgotten by all save time. Gluttony was orange, like a packet of cheetols chips.

Jack had heard way too many stories about them not to recognize them. Yet, similarly, because he had heard too many stories about them, he could not be sure about what their personalities were really like.

He had completely sealed off his thoughts, something he already had some experience with, but he wasn’t too sure if that would keep his secrets safe. He was already surprised that the Dao Lords had been unable to look into his connection with his other body – something he more or less was prepared to be revealed.

He did not know whether it was a good thing or bad that he had managed to keep some secrets from the dragons, but it seemed like he did manage to get their attention. From having the Artica race trip being outright denied, he had progressed to somehow arousing their curiosity, which was pretty good.

The purple Pride was especially intrigued in Jack, as he brought his head in closer to stare at the frozen fairy.

“Most peculiar. Though he has no thoughts wandering through his mind, it is not stunned by our presence, but is merely held still by his own command. It’s almost as if he has some kind of resistance to the aura of Dao. Let me see… ah, there we go. His body bears traces of exposure to Amber Chaos Resin.

“How could a mere Nascent soul realm fairy get its hand on resin like that, even absorb it, and not get turned into a puppet by some other power? It seems this fairy in particular is somehow resisting the Karma that grips its race.”

Gluttony suddenly turned and looked at Jack with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“Amber Chaos Resin? Say, do you think fairies taste good? I’ve never had one before, you know, because of the stench. But I could give this one a try.”

“Shut up Gluttony. Obviously you cannot eat the fairy,” scolded Wrath. “I change my vote. Since the fairy has interesting secrets, then it might be worth it to see where he leads us.”

“Think carefully about this,” Sloth groaned. “Leaving will mean dealing with so many problems, not to mention it will end our long seclusion. Do we really want to deal with the repercussions of that?”

“Come now, isn’t this mystery just delicious?” questioned Lust as he licked his lips. “It’s about time we did something fun. Besides, the Age is coming to a close, or so I’ve heard. If we do nothing, we won’t even know how we got left behind.”

The brothers suddenly turned to look towards Greed, the golden dragon, who suddenly began sniffing the air.

“What’s wrong?” Envy asked, suddenly getting a feeling like he had actually underestimated this fairy.

“The fairy has mysteries, and so does the unicorn. But how did you ignore the biggest mysteries of them all?”

Greed waved his hand, and summoned both Goldilocks, and the crystal alligator, both of whom were similarly covered in red, looking like they had just come from a bloodbath.

“In his crew, he has two physical beings with the disposition of being elementals! How can someone under the influence of Karmic bad luck gather a crew with two physical elementals? Especially when… such a thing should not even exist!”

The brothers stared at the two in shock, and then immediately looked at the rest of Jack’s crew. Ollie, the Shadow Talon, was relatively mundane, merely having the ability to turn his physical body incorporeal and enter the shadow plane.

Longbeard, the gnome with a beard four times longer than himself seemed even more ordinary – if one ignored the fact that his beard hair was made up of Adamantis-Weave Spider silk, a material so tough it would take a Heavenly Immortal, at minimum, to cut it. No wonder he had such a long beard – he literally was incapable of shaving it!

Monk, the bear cub, appeared the most harmless – if one ignored the fact that he was being fed power from countless bear related lores that should not have belonged to it!

Pebbles, the hamster, looked utterly ordinary as well. In fact, if one ignored the fact that he had, at some point, attained both immortality and invincibility to overcome his tendency to have a heart attack over every little thing, then he really was nothing more than just another hamster.

That left Bob. There was nothing ordinary about Bob, the Deity of Sugar Rushes! Such a dangerous title was actually the least of his titles! The little drama cat was actually associated with the divinity of Entropy! What kind of ridiculous title was that?

The seven brothers looked at the entire crew, and then turned to look at Envy, wondering how he had missed something so obvious. But Envy, just as confused, looked back at the fairy.

“It cannot be helped. Whatever or whoever is hiding his past… is so powerful that certain aspects of this fairy have been hidden from detection. The most devious thing is that one will not even detect that they have overlooked something. I am truly curious as to how this little fairy managed to get such protection.”

“Enough!” declared Pride, puffing up his purple chest. “Look at you all, investigating a mere mortal like school girls gossiping. Vote, and decide now our next course of action. If we are to depart, then let’s go. If we are to stay, then return these mortals back to where they came from. Whatever secrets they have, is it worthy of us to spoil our status and prestige to look into it?”

“Don’t you tell me what to do-” began Wrath, but Sloth just sat atop the red dragon’s head, preventing him from speaking. All the brothers knew that if Wrath and Pride got into another argument, the mere Nascent realm fairy would die of old age before their argument finished.

“I vote yes,” declared Envy, as he gave Wrath a smug look.

“Ugh,” voted Sloth.

“I am interested in seeing how this task brought by a mere mortal will turn out. In that case, I also vote yes.”

“I sense this will be a very exciting trip. Yes,” declared Lust.

Before the other brothers had a chance to vote, Pride already spread out his aura from his body. Finally, Jack’s pitiful mind was entirely unable to cope, and he blacked out, no longer aware of what happened afterwards.

“Since we have a majority vote, then it is decided. We leave the Folklore realm. Our many old friends will be… very excited to see us, not to mention those lizards who call themselves dragons. Make preparations. We will depart as soon as we are ready.”

By now, Lex was entirely used to the connection between him and Jack being disrupted, so he was not at all surprised when he found himself unable to sense Jack anymore. He could sense that his other self was alive, and that was enough for now.

What was more interesting was that, for whatever reason, the dragons seemed unable to find Lex through Jack. He would have pondered more into the topic, but at the moment he was entirely occupied, trying to fix his physical body.

Meanwhile, within the Midnight Inn, while all the excitement was at its peak, whether from the Midnight Games or from the Death matches, there was one person whose mood was at an all time low.

“Oh cheer up, Vera,” said Kristine, Vera’s mom, as she fixed her own earrings. Compared to the sulking Vera, her mother looked spectacular, having taken special care to dress up. She had even received the personal grooming of Harry Styles, which was easier said than done. It was not so simple getting an appointment with him anymore.

“Cheer up for what? I would definitely never meet that man if he hadn’t somehow taken my powers away,” Vera said, sulking.

“You don’t know that he was the one who did it,” Kristine pointed out. “The Nexus point is getting closer, and it’s affecting all oracles. It’s not such a big deal if you get affected too. Besides, he’s your father. He’s perfectly entitled to grounding you if he thinks you’re misbehaving.”

Vera snorted, ignoring her swooning mother. Once Kristine was completely satisfied with her appearance, the mother daughter duo finally left their room, off to meet Vera’s father, who had only recently arrived at the Midnight Inn.