The evening of the day when Jianmen took the students to the Grant Academy, Rash once again took over the Inn watching duty. And since Jianmen had been controlling the rate of reservations coming in and had blocked off all of the civilian traffic, the workload would be extremely light, if there was anything at all.
“Hello.” just when Rash was sitting behind the reception’s desk watching a video with Snowball on his shoulder, a plain looking middle-aged man in a knight’s robe came in: “I have a reservation for a three day stay, starting today.”
“Alright, are you Mr … Ben?” Rash checked on the records of reservations and found one entry out of three that would start from today: “For a premium room with a view, a quiet meditation chamber, and a medicinal bath, healing materials not included?”
“Yes, that would be me.”
“Alright, Mr. Ben.” Rash reached into the drawer and took out a bronze key attached to a red wooden tag: “Enjoy, and premium room reservations come with one free serving of our drinks and snacks each day, here’s our drink and snack menu. What would you like for drinks and snacks for today?”
“Umm - I’ll have a bottle of Snowy Rose Petal Wine, and some Blue Sparkling Wine Crunch.” Mr. Ben took a quick look at the fine paper menu handed to him and answered: “Can I just take them up myself? I want to do some meditation and don’t want to get disturbed.”
“Sure, just give me a minute.” Rash jumped off from the back of the reception’s desk and headed into the kitchen.
While Mr. Ben was waiting for Rash to prepare his food, he took the time to look around the lounge and took a deep look into the diner. This was something a lot of power wielders, especially those with affinity to magic and knowledge of and experience with energy fields and related theories would do when they visited the inn for the first time.
“Here, sorry for the wait.” Rash took out a tall transparent bottle with light pink liquid inside, and a wide glass containing six glistening light blue balls of ice, placed them onto a wooden tray and : “Snowy Rose Petal Wine, Blue Sparkling Wine Crunch, all preserved in the best temperature, and you would have freezers in your room, if you want you could store these in there.”
“Thank you.” Mr. Ben held the tray in his hands without even a bit of shaking, took another look at the lounge one more time before turning around and started walking up the stairs.
While Mr. Ben was walking up, a young woman wearing a civilian style cartoon T-shirt and a pair of jeans was walking down, with a teenage girl and two young boys behind her.
“Really? That’s really awesome!” one young boy said to the other: “I wish I had a magical aunt like you do, then we would’ve known about magic earlier, and maybe we can get some magical gifts!”
“Yeah, but it was very scary.” the other young boy said with a bright smile: “I almost got caught by a wolf man, and those ghostly people were all trying to attack my aunt. Wooo, I don’t want to go through it ever again.”
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“But your aunt does sound super cool, Alex.” the young woman smiled and she gently pulled the two young boys to the side to make way for the incoming Mr. Ben: “So she works here? I’m looking forward to meeting her some day.”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Alex laughed: “She said she would need to go take a test, and then she will be back. Let’s get together and have a party!”
The young woman was just about to acknowledge this invitation, but she sensed that the middle aged man going up the stairs facing her was looking at her so she turned towards him. The moment the middle aged man noticed that the young woman was looking his way, he turned and started looking ahead.
“Ms. Brown, good afternoon, what can I help you with?” when the young woman got to the first floor with the teenage girl and two young boys, Rash asked.
“Yeah, I was just thinking if I could take a walk around the inn with the boys and my sister.” Natalie Brown asked: “We’re not going to walk far, just the space and streets around the inn, is that okay?”
“Yes, technically the streets around this inn are also parts of the inn, so feel free to stroll around.” Rash answered: “But, you won’t be able to - I mean you shouldn’t go beyond the borderlines - it’s sealed off by the same kind of spells and arrays that are protecting this place.”
“Understood, thank you.” Natalie Brown nodded, and feeling grateful that Rash was kind enough to not mention the fact that she was basically a prisoner here, then she hesitated and asked Rash with a low voice: “Hey Rash, can I ask you a question? Who was that man?”
“He’s a guest, a Mr. Ben.” Rash answered: “But that’s all I can tell you. Why?”
“He just feels - a little familiar.” Natalie Brown thought for a brief moment, then said to the boys and her younger sister: “Hey guys, let’s go back, shall we? I’m feeling a little sick - can we just get some cake and go back to watch TV?”
“Oh, are you okay?” Natalie Brown’s younger brother asked.
“Yeah, yeah, just feeling a little dizzy and chilly, must be a cold from the other day.” Natalie Brown feigned dizziness and put up a slightly sickly look: “Let’s get back, hey, Rash, can I have some chocolate cake?”
“On it.” Rash stood up and headed into the diner again.
Meanwhile, when the middle aged man went into his room, he took out a small piece of paper and wrote a name on it: “Natalie Brown.” But when he folded the piece of paper into a paper plane and tossed it out of the balcony, he found that the paper plane just circled back and landed right by his side.