The Innkeeper

Hailey wa bewildered, and for a moment, couldn't undertand what wa happening. Then he tried pinching herelf to enure he wa awake. Jut a her thought were about to piral, her aitant continued peaking.

"Do not be alarmed, dear guet, if thi i your firt viit to the Midnight Inn. The only way in and out of the Inn i through teleportation, and you were teleported here due to your interet in the Lady Como pageant. You are free to leave whenever you o deire, and the Inn take pecial care of ecurity, o you are completely afe here."

"The Lady Como competition?" he repeated, her attention directly diverting to what he cared mot about. "Why would I be brought here for the Lady Como pageant?"

"Why, to regiter, of coure. The pageant i in a month, but participant are uggeted to arrive a few day before the event o that you can become familiar with the format of the pageant and make preparation. Of coure, you can regiter any time between now and when the event actually tart."

"I can… be in the pageant?" he repeated, dumbtruck.

"Naturally," the hologram replied once again.

Hailey wa dumbtruck, and he looked once again at the wonderland that he had been tranported to. Wa thi really not a dream?

? *****

Earth, Intertellar Confinement facility

Vera Joel, a political prioner and a ecret oracle, wa cribbling mindlely in her notebook. She wa bored out of her mind. It wan't becaue the facility they were locked in wa like a prion. No, the facility had everything from variou port court, cinema, hopping mall, chool and much, much more. After all, the difference between a political prioner and a real prioner wa vat - they couldn't really be mitreated.

The one contraint on them, though, wa that after the dicovery of the Midnight Inn, they were regularly checked for golden key. Even if they wouldn't be able to go anywhere ele from the Inn, no one wanted to take a chance. And o he wa tuck.

Until omething changed, and he aw a viion of a new future. Her epreion changed from boredom to ecitement in a flah and he printed to find her mother, Kritine Joel. She whipered omething in her ear, before the two jaunted off to a nearby tore. From the helf, they picked up a couple of magazine and quickly returned to their room.

"Are you ure?" Kritine aked, but the only repone he got wa a flah of golden light. Her daughter had already found a mall ad for the Lady Como pageant and had teleported to the Inn. Kritine hook her head and quickly looked through her own magazine. A moment and a flah later, he too wa gone.

*****

Countle other women, or it would be more accurate to ay female, from variou part of the univere began to learn about the Lady Como pageant and tarted arriving at the Inn, one by one. Some aw the ad in magazine, ome in new crytal, ome in unkippable YouTube ad and ome aw the venue at the Inn itelf.

But, urpriingly enough, it wan't Le' own advertiing that pread the word the mot.

It wa the Iron Heart pirate, the one for which Booty wa firt mate, that did the brunt of the work. From port to port, planet to planet, tar ytem to tar ytem, they pread the word and enticed any who would be willing to liten.

It need not be aid that they recruited more member for the audience than they did actual candidate, for the love of beauty and competition thrived jut a much in the wort of degenerate a it did in cultured ocialite.

Naturally, they charged a premium for anyone who wanted a key for the Inn from them. After all, the Innkeeper wouldn't mind if they made a little pocket money while doing o much legwork, right?

*****

Completely unbothered by the teadily increaing traffic at the Inn, Le continued hi routine. Maintaining the mindet that Mary would let him know if anything went wrong, Le wa completely dedicated to being fully prepared for the Minor realm.

After all, thi wa the only time he would have. The pageant would begin right before he had to head to the Minor realm, and the two event would likely overlap. Soon after that would be Earth' Epo. Speaking of which, Miranda hould probably be coming by the Inn oon to dicu the detail for the event.

It wa like thi that Le pent hi time, the month gradually paing by, right up until 8 day before the Lady Como pageant. One week before the event began, the participant were encouraged to come to the Inn o that they could tart preparing. Le thought everything wa under control, for he had once again purchaed the unlimited room option that he had once gotten for the Midnight Game. He wa planning on purchaing the ame kind of ecurity a well and continued to let Mary handle thing, but that' when he called for hi attention.

"Le, I think the venue for the event… i going to end up being too mall. We're alo going to need more temporary taff to handle the influ of new guet."

"Oh? How come? Did we end up getting a lot of participant?"

'A lot' wa a relative term, and Mary didn't know what Le wa epecting. When he only advertied briefly on only three planet, he had ten of thouand of guet, o he hould have adjuted for the Inn' new reach, right?

"Not too many. Due to Audrey handling thing on Earth, we only have about 30,000 contetant from there and Mar combined. Due to variou other retriction a well, uch a e, age, and the requirement for a phyical body, the number of contetant wa alo dropped to about only 2.6 million. After -" Mary had to top giving her report becaue Le, who had been leaning againt a wall when he heard the report, lipped and fell, attracting the attention of Cwenhild and their teammate.

"Ecue me, I'll be right back," Le aid quickly a he quickly got up and ruhed to the toilet.

"Repeat that again! How many contetant do we have?"

"Approimately 2.6 million," Mary replied calmly. "After having a dicuion with the marketing and publicity manager Audrey ha hired for the event, we came to the concluion that the low turnout i due to a lack of trut or recognition of the pageant in the univere. After the firt one air, and people become familiar with the brand, turnout hould be much higher. Of coure, we can keep the participant in their room while it' not their turn, and thu manage them. But we can't force the guet to tay in their room all the time. Some of them will want to view the event in peron."

"Mary, did you ay… there are 2,600,000 contetant in the beauty pageant?"

"Ye. It' a good thing Audrey wa incharge on ifting through the applicant from Earth, otherwie, if everyone who applied wa able to participate, we would have ten of million of contetant during the firt portion of the event."

After he recovered from the initial hock, Le' mind tarted working in overdrive and he quickly realized he had been underetimating the allure of a model on a catwalk. Leaving the bathroom, he promptly told Cwenhild that he had ome urgent buine he needed to take care of, and left.

On hi journey back to hi apartment, he continued to liten to Mary' briefing. It wa tough to etimate how many guet there would be for thi event, but Mary informed Le that… the Iron Heart pirate had bought everal million key from them the lat few week.

Honetly, the pirate hard work needed to be commended. It wa not eay to travel to o many tar ytem in uch a hort time. Not only had they divided their crew into variou, maller group to advertie to a many ytem a poible, they had been working nontop. After all, there wa no uch thing a a repeat cutomer for them. Once their cutomer viited the Inn a ingle time, they would be able to get their own key. So, to make money, they worked nontop.

Le momentarily conidered hiring the pirate crew before dimiing the thought. He had other thing to focu on for now. A oon a he reached home, a particular gleam filled hi eye.

If Le were a cartoon, hi eye would have tranformed into giant dollar ign, a the capitalit in him had woken up once again - now with added authority.

Firt and foremot, Le checked how much MP he currently had. Over the pat few week, due to the increaed number of guet, hi income had een a mall boot. During thi time, he had made a decent 400,000 MP. Conidering how cheap hi room, ervice and food were, thi figure poke volume about the number of guet he'd had. That left him with a total of 7,311,000 MP.

It had been a while ince Le went on a crazy pending pree. He cracked hi knuckle and got to work.