The Innkeeper

Naturally, Moon did not respond. She was sleeping, as she fused with her world which was also becoming a realm. It would be a long time before she woke up, which honestly sucked for Lex a bit.

They'd eventually reconnect, should nothing unexpected happen, but by then Lex would have lived a long life, whereas Moon would still have the mere experience of a few decades. The difference between them would be immense.

"Someone recently told me that I am carrying an immense amount of Karma," Lex said. He did not even know if Moon could hear him, or if she would remember this conversation. But from time to time, Lex came and chatted with both Moon and Liz.

At least Moon was still friendly towards him - at least based on the last time they talked. Liz, on the other hand, had been so wary that she wanted to escape as soon as she could. Quite frankly, Lex was convinced that the moment she finished bonding with Nemo, she would bail, which was fine.

She was not a prisoner here, and he was not her warden. Even if he wanted to help, he could not force his help onto someone else. Nor did he want to impose a brotherly bond or relationship upon her.

It was just that when he met his sisters, more than ever, Lex felt a hint of loneliness. He did not feel it most days, since he was busy, not to mention despite the system's remarks, he had many people he called friends.

Sure, most of them were from the Inn, but the Inn wasn't exactly a traditional workplace, and the workers did not have the same dynamic as jobs back on Earth. They genuinely cared for one another, treating each other better than many families back on Earth.

Seen through a certain lens, they certainly treated Lex better than his own family treated him, so there was no harm in treating them like family too.

Despite all of that, when he approached Moon and saw her sleeping, he could not help but feel like something was missing.

He once hated his ancestor too, but eventually Lex figured that hate was more because he felt like he should hate William, rather than Lex actually hating him. The guy clearly grew up in a different era, and did right by his family. Lex couldn't really blame him for something one of his descendants, hundreds of generations down, did.

More importantly, the bond William had with his brothers, the Emperor of Jotun included, was something he genuinely admired.

Lex sighed. He was getting unnecessarily emotional.

"They also told me that if I don't want to carry all that Karma, even though it's positive Karma, one way to get rid of it is to have a child. The child will inherit and absorb that Karma on my behalf. That sounded a little unusual to me, so over the past few weeks I looked into Karma as much as I could.

"Turns out, there is some truth to it. Even if a parent doesn't have an excess amount of Karma, any time they have a child, that child will inherit a portion of the parents Karma. The amount inherited is varied, and depends on many different things, but I looked into it as much as I could.

"A common form of expression of positive Karma inherited by the child from the parent manifests in the form of good physique, cultivation talent, and all sorts of things that are generally considered a positive for the child."

Lex paused once more, as if to let his words hang in that room for a while.

"Now, I'm not exactly saying that this is what happened, but one has to wonder… what kind of Karma would it take for our parents to have for Belle to be born with the heart of a Valkyrie. How great must the Karma have been for me to have a bloodline that could literally evolve all humanoid races in the universe?"

The words Lex spoke were simple, and yet as he spoke the look in his eyes became more and more grave even as the tone in his voice stayed the same.

"So it turns out, positive and negative is too generic a term. Even among positives and negatives, there are subgroups. I wonder, if it really was Karma that allowed Liz to be born with a 100% affinity to bonding with Beasts, exactly what kind it must have been. If it really was Karma… I wonder what they did to give birth to someone with a physique as unique as yours."

Lex's fists clenched tightly as he thought about all the clones of Moon he'd found, and all the clones he probably didn't find. Ironically, he had spent the least amount of time with Moon, but it was what happened to her that affected his emotions the most. Find your next read at empire

"It makes sense," Lex whispered, his voice barely audible at all, as if he was afraid Moon might really hear him. "If their purpose was just to offload their Karma somehow, it makes sense that they had kids without really worrying about being unable to protect them. If that's the case, they were just more worried about protecting themselves."

Lex's fists were clenched so tightly that his hands shivered, but finally he relaxed his grip, and allowed himself to calm down. It was as if he was no longer controlled by emotions anymore, but had entered a state of being clear headed.

"To be honest, I find this theory a little absurd because I can't even imagine the kind of Karma they would need to have for this to be the case. Regardless, if they really were just using us to dump their own Karma, whatever it may be, then I will deliver retribution to them with my own hands."

To be entirely honest, if it was just for himself, Lex could have just stopped caring about his parents altogether, and would rather focus on building a better life without them than getting even. But he could not forgive them for what Moon had been through. In his eyes, they were just as guilty as Damian was.

The only difference was that with a Demi-Dao Lord protecting him, Lex had to temporarily give up his revenge plans for Damian. That should not be a problem with his parents.