Somewhere far away from the Midnight Inn, in one of the territories of the Humanoid Alliance, the Runeking Dao Lord watched the recordings one of his descendants had submitted to him.

When he first heard of the recordings, he thought that it was a pointless endeavor, and had only accepted them to placate the child. After all, he had acted in the interest of the Runeking. That thought alone deserved encouragement.

However, he had not expected the depth in which the recordings had been taken. Not only had he recorded openly, he had called for one of the workers of the Inn to provide him with a full, in depth tour of the tavern and the Inn. Thus the Runeking got his first ever tour of the Midnight Inn, not that he was dying for one.

But it wasn’t the tour itself which had revealed some of the secrets of the Inn to him. Instead, it was his in depth knowledge of humans granted to him through the secret records of the Humanoid alliance. Thus, recognising the human with the ancestry of the human king was not an issue at all.

But that was only scratching the surface of everything. He discovered that many random workers in the Midnight Inn carried the genetics belonging to many old heroes of humanity, their lineage thought to have been lost to the ravages of time.

Beyond that, he soon found that many ancient human bloodlines, such as the Anachronistic Ignition, had been revived within the Midnight Inn. There were even some such as the Regalia Bloom which hadn’t been recorded in humans at all, and were actually bloodlines belonging to Elder races!

But that was not all. Nearly 100% of the human employees of the Midnight Inn cultivated the True Path, or something very close to the True Path. According to the records of the Humanoid Alliance, the True Path was called as such because that was originally how the humans used to cultivate. However, after the human decline began, the human race found it too difficult to cultivate it, causing the True Path to be split into three, individual cultivation paths.

Unfortunately, a side effect of cultivating like this meant that the path to becoming a Dao Lord became even harder for humans. This basically meant that the Innkeeper was singlehandedly recreating the foundation for the return of the human race!

Maybe many others had already noticed as much, but hadn’t acted out. The Runeking, however, did not want to see the Innkeeper become a member of the Humanoid Alliance. The arrival of such a strong member would cause a massive shift in the flow of resources of the alliance, and the Runeking already found his share insufficient. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

That did not, however, mean that the Runeking was going to act against the Innkeeper himself. He was too powerful. However, he didn’t mind creating some trouble indirectly. Thus, he spread the word. He only spread it within the alliance - he would never reveal such things to others. But the thing was, once attention was brought to a matter, it could never be hidden again.

Since the Innkeeper so openly and blatantly revealed his humans, their bloodlines and their ancestories, then he wouldn’t mind if word spread about them, right? He likely was prepared for any retaliation he faced.

One thing was certain, though. After this, it would become impossible for the Midnight Inn to feign neutrality. Clearly, he was backing the human race.

Runeking continued to watch the recording. He was sure that if these were the secrets the Innkeeper displayed out in the open, then the secrets he actually hid were even greater.

Meanwhile, within the Midnight Inn, the Innkeeper looked towards Weiss. He almost felt like the man was in a rush to act, as if he was afraid that someone else would beat him to the opportunity of proposing an alliance to the Innkeeper.

"Your offer is extremely gracious, but the thing is, I do not take the liberty of deciding my workers’ marriages," the Innkeeper patiently explained. "However, I can call my worker and see if he is interested in the proposal. Whether he agrees or not will be entirely up to him."

Weiss was surprised upon hearing the news, for this was something he’d never considered at all.

"But I’ve heard you have already established an alliance by marriage with the devil Ballom," he said, confused.

The Innkeeper chuckled.

"That is not an alliance, nor is it yet a marriage. One of my workers is dating his daughter, and that happened of their own free will. In fact, I expressly told Ballom that I will not interfere in the relationship regardless of what direction it progresses in."

Understanding dawned on Weiss, making him realize that he’d completely misunderstood the situation.

"In that case, I seem to have acted in ignorance, and I apologise. However, I would still like the opportunity for my daughter and your worker to meet. Whether they find each other compatible, or have any thoughts about each other, will be left up to fate."

The Innkeeper looked at Weiss, and then looked towards Tildie. She was pretty, that much was true. She was also sweet, and also powerful. Z would be very lucky to end up with someone like that.

While he had previously expressed interest in pursuing Moon, she was asleep and would be for a long time. Besides, they hadn’t even established their relationship. Lex would not blame him for taking on such an opportunity. The only reason he felt somewhat hesitant was because it was clear that Weiss, despite being considerate, was only interested in Z because of his ancestry.

He communicated with Z, and saw that he was open to meeting with Tildie.

"He is willing to meet with her. You can go find him in the Dream tavern. While we wait, Weiss, why don’t you tell me about your home. How are things there?"

Weiss was not expecting the sudden question, but it was clear that the Innkeeper did not want him to interfere with the children. He didn’t mind. He loved talking about his home.

"I was born in Avalon..."