It had been quite a while since Jes had had a new customer. Even Diane was nowhere to be seen. He wondered by himself why no one has come to visit his inn even though it is right next to a road that leads to Etsi. The only conclusion that he came up with was that people didn't trust the inn that was right next to a town. He thought "Maybe because they trust the inns in the town more."
And then one day, a big man came through the door. He emanated an aura of a tier 9 and Jes was not pleased by that fact. But what mattered to Jes was that he had a new potential customer to take care of, so he couldn't help but to smile his heart out. He then said the welcoming line "Welcome to the Unseen Moon Inn. Are you looking for a place to stay the night? Or perhaps you are looking for tasty food or alcohol."
The man said nothing for a while and just stared at Jes for a while. Jes was getting a bit worried and asked "Is something wrong dear customer?"
The man then said "You don't look strong." To which Jes retorted "Well I'm but a humble innkeeper." And then it became silent for a while.
Jes decided that he has to ease the tension for the man to become a customer. He then went and grabbed a bottle of alcohol and put its contents into a mug. Then he said "Please enjoy. It's on the house."
The man then decided to sit down at one of the tables and Jes brought the drink to him. The man drank a little of it and said "Not bad." Then he continued drinking the rest of it. After he was done, he said "One more please." To which Jes said "This time it will cost you." And the man asked "How much?" So Jes said "Five copper." The man then said "That's cheap" and handed over five copper coins. Jes took them and then went to grab more alcohol for the man.
After the man had drank one more, he said "This would taste great with some pork." To which Jes said "We have that on the menu if you'd like to order." To which the man said with a surprised look on his face "You do?" Jes said "Yes. Would you like some?" The man said "Yes please." Jes asked "With another drink?" To which the man said "Yes please." Jes then said "That'd be twenty copper." The man handed the coins to him and Jes began to work.
When Jes was done cooking, he handed the food to the man who began to eat immediately. The man said after taking one bite "Damn this is good. You could be a good chef." The man then focused his full attention to the food and drink in front of him.
After the man was done, he said "That was amazing. You could make a bar or a restaurant or something. Why don't you become my chef?" Jes just replied "I'm afraid I have to refuse." The man then said "A shame. Oh right, I didn't come here to eat your food and drink your beer. I came here to see if what my daughter said about you was right."
Jes said "You are talking about Diane?" To which the man said "Yes. How did you…?" Jes just answered "I can feel these types of things."
The man then rose up from his chair and took off his disguise. His skin changed to a little darker tone, he grew two horns, his eyes turned red and then a tail came out. He then said "My name is Harm Curser. The king of the territory of demons and a leader of the demon army. I'd like for you to join my ranks." Jes replied "I will humbly refuse." To which Harm said "Figured as much. Say, would you care for a little sparring match?" Jes replied "Isn't the word of your daughter enough?" To which Harm said "I trust my daughter, but I at least want to know how strong you are in person."
Jes says "I was told, by your daughter I might add, that I should keep a lower profile to keep my humble innkeeper persona." Harm says "Would it work if we fought during the night?" To which Jes said "If I don't have any other customers." Harm then said "Great. Then let's chat for a while."
The two talk about many things as they wait for the night to come. It becomes clear to Jes that Harm is quite a reasonable man who doesn't necessarily wish for conflict. Jes finds this quite surprising since demons do have a tendency to express themselves in physical manor, which is most often violence of some kind.
When it was getting dark and no new customers seemed to be coming, Harm and Jes went outside and walked a bit to a more discreet location. Once they had found a good spot, they began to battle.
Harm tried to punch Jes with enchanted fist that would level an entire fortress, but Jes just took the hit with the palm of his hand as calmly as always. Harm began to do multiple punches with similar magnitude in rapid succession. Jes just took all the punches with the palm of his hand without moving an inch. This continued for a while as the explosive sounds of Harm's punches echoed to the ears of the guards at Etsi.
After Harm was done with the punches, Jes clapped his hands and said "Well done dear customer. You made me put a little bit of effort on this. Now, are we done yet?" To which Harm said while breathing heavily "You don't feel even a tiny bit tired?" Jes smiled and said "Not really. If you are tired, I can offer you a place to stay at a discount." Harm smiled back while still catching his breath, "Sure, I'm too tired to travel back to my territory anyways."
Then the two went back to the inn and Harm paid the discounted sum and went to bed.
Meanwhile the guards of Etsi went to check out what those explosive sounds were about. They even came to ask Jes about if he had heard anything, to which he responded "I'm sure some people were having a spout." The guards still continued to look around, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Jes had made sure that the ground that was blown away by Harm's punches were returned to their original form.
The next morning Diane came to the inn asking if her father was there, Jes answered "Yes" and soon after Harm himself came down the stairs and saw that his daughter was a bit annoyed. He then said "Well… Sorry" while giving a worried smile. Jes saw this as a good opportunity to offer food at a discount for Diane as Harm had already paid for the breakfast. Diane accepts and says that Harm will pay, to which Harm says "Sure". While Harm came to pay for Diane's portion, he said "Thanks for saving me back there." To which Jes said "No problem. I saw this as a good opportunity to get some customers." Harm just smiles and says "Of course you did" and gives Jes the money.
After Jes makes their breakfast, they both eat happily, though Diane lectures her father for leaving his kingdom to fend for themselves for a day. After they were done eating, both left while thanking Jes for a good breakfast.
And so it became silent yet again in Unseen Moon Inn.
Then a couple of days later, a man and his daughter came to the inn looking for a place to stay the night. Jes happily told them how much it would cost and then the man paid for the two of them. The man said his name was Johan and that his daughter's name was Hannah. The daughter looked to be around eight who had already reached tier 1 and was bordering tier 2. Jes felt something familiar from her.
Jes then asked the man "Is the child's mother a god?" The man was surprised and asked "You can tell?" To which Jes said "I just have an eye for these types of things. No worries, I won't tell anyone."
The man said "Ok." Then Hannah said "You give the same feeling as mom. Are you also divine, mister?" Jes was a bit surprised that she could tell that even though he was hiding it. Then he said "I am a godlike entity, yes, but let's keep both of our things a secret." Then he put his finger close to his lips to indicate silence. Hannah smiled and put her finger on her lips the same way, smiled and said "A secret."
Jes asked "Are you going to wait here before the night comes or are you going to leave before coming back?" Johan said "We are looking for something to eat. You don't happen to offer meals, do you?" Jes smiled and responded "Of course we do. One meal is offered to a customer once they have purchased a room for themselves. Most often it's used for breakfast, but I can make it now if you'd prefer." Johan says "We would like to have our meal now please." Hannah also said "Please." Jes then says "I will get on with it then. Please feel free to sit down and wait." Johan and Hannah do so and Jes goes to the kitchen.
The moment Hannah gets a bite of the food, she shouts "Good!" Johan then says "Calm down Hannah. Don't be so loud." And Jes just says "Don't worry about it. There aren't any other customers here so it won't be a bother." Johan says "But still." Then Hannah says "He said it's fine. Now eat."
They both eat the food happily while they talk. Jes also joins the chat and talks to them about a lot of stuff. It comes to Jes' attention that Hannah's mother is the god of fauna named Aurora. A minor deity who shares a sphere with the god of life Vital and god of nature Natal, but god nonetheless. The reason why they were going to Etsi was because there was a church dedicated to Vital and Hannah's mother would like for her to go there to pay her respects. They would go there tomorrow, since it was Hannah's birthday.
Jes talked with Hannah familiarly as she was a child of a god. He came to care for the child like she was family to him in some sense, even though nothing could feel like family to him given the burden he bears. Even so, the connection between two godlike beings was something that Jes cherished as a senior.
When it was time for Johan and Hannah to go to sleep, Jes made sure that he would give them the best rest he could offer.
In the morning, Johan paid for the breakfast and ate it together with Hannah. Jes made sure to congratulate Hannah since it was her birthday. Once the food was eaten, two of them left with a smile on their faces as they said goodbye.
Later that day Jes heard a voice in his head. It was Johan's voice. Johan spoke in a desperate voice "Save her. Please someone save her. Someone… anyone… I'll do anything, just save her."
Then he felt something else in him. Two gods were demanding retribution. Vital said "Punish my priest, as he had defiled life still pure of all sins." Then Aurora's voice "Don't let them get away with hurting a child of a god."
These pleads gave Jes a clear mind as to what he should do. He went to the church of Vital and looked for his target. Other priests asked why he was there, but then Jes just asked while emanating an aura of death "Where are they?" The priests were so scared and could barely speak, but what little words they could utter were "They are in the basement." Jes said "Show me." The scared priest fumbles around and opens the door to the basement. Then Jes says "Worship thy god with pure heart, or thy shall suffer an ugly fate." The priests then flee. The reason why Jes let them go was because they weren't the perpetrators of the crime that was being committed in the basement. Yet he could not let them go unpunished, so he gave them a reason to pray for their lives.
Once Jes entered the basement, what he saw was a crime no one should commit. Taking away purity of a child of god. The deflowering of the child of god. The head priest was scared and ordered his men to attack Jes, but the three out of four men were also scared out of their minds. The fourth tried to attack, to which Jes responded by pulverizing the man to a bloody mess.
The head priest pleaded for mercy, but Jes had none at that point. All he could do is say in a calm way "You have committed a crime, worshiper of Vital. Your actions to deflower a child of a god has angered four gods. Your god Vital, the god of nature Natal, the god of fauna Aurora and me. Now, I would offer you to be erased from history, but ending your life here wouldn't be punishment enough for you. For this I will grant you suffering that is unimaginable by mortal mind. You shall fear everything in your life moving forwards. You fear people, you fear food, you fear water, you fear grass, you fear everything. And endless paranoia that can't be ended by merely dying. Even in death you shall not find peace. And as for your biggest fear that will hold you in life, it is the supreme fear of death. You have to live in fear of everything while doing the things you fear since dying is what you fear the most. Now…"
Jes gets close to the head priest and says the words "incassum luctari" and the head priest starts to scream in fear. He continues to scream "Get away from me! Don't get close to me! I can't stand being here! Stay away" Then the head priest runs away in fear. The men hired by the head priest also flee.
Then Jes picks up Hannah, who is numb. He then gets close to Johan, who was crying while watching the crime happen, and teleports to the inn. He then casts a spell on Johan to snap back to reality and asks "Do you want to forget?" Johan says defeated "I do." So Jes takes away the memory of the crime ever happening from Johan and Hannah and purifies Hannah's body. Now both of them just know that they went to the church of Vital to pay their respects. Jes also added memories of them leaving the church and having a good time in town to replace the missing memory. They both smile and ask for a meal. Jes smiles back and says "Of course" and goes to cook.
After the two had eaten their meal, they went back to town and asked for a carriage back to where they came from. Back to Aurora. They said their goodbyes to Jes and went off.
Before they could reach the place where Aurora was, Jes asked if the gods related to the incident would also like to forget this happening. All of them wanted to remember so that they don't make the same mistake again. Jes respected their wishes and didn't do anything to their memories.
And so continued the wait of new customers. Jes would reminisce about Johan and Hannah for days to come with warmth and sorrow.