The Innkeeper - Chapter 2278: Learning from mistakes

Chapter 2278: Learning from mistakes

River and Pearl’s history was both simple and complicated. She was a high born lady, brought up in prestige, raised to greatness, educated so as to not bring disdain to her family name. He was a rascal who didn’t like the idea of inheriting his fathers embroidery business, and so he ran away to see the world and live in adventure.

It also helped that he was tremendously handsome, had high cultivation talent and was friendly enough to befriend even a rock.

When they met, he had been hiding his identity because in his small town his father had been well known, so he used to think everyone everywhere would know him. Similarly, Pearl was hiding her identity because everyone everywhere did know her, but she didn’t want to get caught sneaking out of her vacation home and get into trouble.

Suffice to say, they hit it off. Their cultivation levels and talents were similar as well, causing them to resonate with one another’s experiences in a way. Her cultivation level wasn’t higher because her family had forced her to cultivate slowly to strengthen his foundation. His wasn’t higher because he was broke and didn’t even know there were ways to speed up cultivation.

Over that summer, they spent time together, helped each other, and slowly developed feelings for one another.

Then, her family was attacked suddenly one night, while she was out to meet him. Though they had survived, ever since then she had been hunted by enemies day and night. River, of course, left everything behind to run away with her to hide from her pursuers – because it was the right thing to do, and totally not because it gave him plenty of opportunity to flirt with her while traveling.

Unfortunately, things kept going from bad to worse, and he was eventually poisoned, dissipating his cultivation and crippling his meridians.

Their time together could be called short, or it could be called long. The only thing that was unquestionable was that as they faced life and death, as they faced trial and ease, they only grew closer to each other.

During all this, there were a few things they had never discussed, though, and key among them was the future. With so much uncertainty all about them, the future was something they scarcely thought about, simply because it wasn’t promised.

Only recently, though, had that changed. With Cliff teaching Pearl and River, with the elves offering protection, with life slowly becoming stable once more, the two of them gaining some small measure of confidence in themselves, they once again began to think about the future.

Still, for now, it remained unspoken. Neither of them had talked about, or thought about the future just yet.

Their lives in the elven village soon developed into a steady and stable routine. The elves had a very different perception of time from humans. From the moment of their birth, all elves had a minimum lifespan of 200 years.

Yet as they grew from children into young adults, their lifespan increased instead of decreasing. Almost all elves were basically guaranteed to reach the Foundation realm as long as they didn’t die, so their lives and their youth were structured accordingly.

Until reaching the Foundation realm, they were considered children, and so were protected and educated within their forests. They were given basic, introductory education in almost all things, so that they had some awareness of the world around them. During that process, their affinities, preferences, talents and skills would all be observed, and then they would later on receive a more detailed and extensive education in the relevant fields.

Almost all elves that River and Pearl met were exceptional in some medical field. Some had talents for pharmacology, while others were great doctors, vets, alchemists and so on. There were also doctors who specialised in healing damaged spirits – or as humans liked to call it, therapists.

The difference was that instead of talking and ripping off a lot of money from their patients, these kinds of doctors focused on directly healing the spirit, and then ripping off their patients.

As it happened, River and Pearl took this opportunity to have her checked out. Although Cliff’s assurance of the progress on her curse was one thing, it wouldn’t hurt to have someone else look into it as well.

As it turned out, upon investigation, the curse inside Pearl was discovered easily. Not only was it discovered, the state of its existence caused a huge ruckus since the curse was fading without hurting Pearl at all! This was something beyond anyone’s understanding.

Yet, in an unusual series of events, her curse went from causing a huge commotion from being something no one talked about at all in a single day.

River didn’t understand what happened, but Pearl did. They’d already promised to hand over their techniques, so the elves watching over them did not want to attract any unnecessary attention until the handover was done.

Thus, they then entered into a steady routine. They would spend their day cultivating, studying, and meeting all kinds of students who came to the village to study. The students weren’t just limited to elves either. Almost all noble races made appearances at the village.

While the presence of two humans attracted a lot of attention, because of their location no one caused any trouble. There was also the fact that River quickly became friends with everyone he met, developing a wide and extensive network across the noble races.

During this time, all Cliff did was absorb energy. River was gaining slow but study feedback. By building his network, he gained an opportunity for himself and Pearl to learn more about the races and the Land of a Hundred Rivers. At the same time, he continued to build a strong impression about the relationship between him and Pearl.

Letting everyone witness his love for her was also a part of his oath, so that gave him some minor feedback. Building a comfortable routine and a good circle of friends and acquaintances made her time in the village more pleasant as well.

So, they did not even seem to notice as the first six months passed by, for the novelty of an elven forest was slow to wear off. However, as those six months turned into a year, both Pearn and River started to feel like they were lost. They’d heard no news about what had been decided regarding the investigation on the Sunborne family, or when they’d be allowed to leave.

Since their days were so full during this time, Pearl had very limited cultivation time which is why she still hadn’t reached the peak of the Qi training realm.

Still, she did not feel an ounce of happiness. While they were aware that elves had a different concept of time, they didn’t think they’d be forgotten for over a year without a word.

The longer things went on like this, the more they realized that maybe they hadn’t been left here by accident.

At the one year six month mark, River asked Cliff if he had any idea about what was happening. In reality, River did not think Cliff would know – he was just making conversation because when it became too silent, his mind would wander off to dark thoughts.

To his great surprise, however, Cliff gave him a definite response.

“They will not let you go until either Pearl’s curse is completely gone, or until she reaches the Foundation realm,” Cliff said in a bored voice, as if he wasn’t the least bit interested. “It’s your own fault for letting them know about the curse. Now they’re observing you to learn more about the extent of the technique.

“You shouldn’t trust someone blindly just because they seem like good guys. Their morality and sense of justice might not be the same as yours. Now, until they know the full value of the technique, you won’t be going anywhere. Between the two, I recommend reaching the Foundation realm and being deployed in the army. Even the elves won’t be able to prevent Pearl from being deployed, and it’ll be the perfect excuse to leave their territory of control.”

River was stunned, looking at Cliff feeling… honestly, he didn’t know what to feel besides shocked.

“Why didn’t you warn me in the first place?” he asked, sounding betrayed.

Cliff shrugged.

“One of the best ways to learn is by learning from your mistakes. Better that you learn early on, from a mistake with only minor repercussions. If I had warned you, the lesson would not have set in for life, and you would have continued on like that until one day you’d make a mistake with far greater consequences.”

Honestly, Lex wasn’t too disappointed in River. His mistake was only trusting in someone who seemed trustworthy. His own limited exposure and simple background made it so River was naturally very trusting, even after everything else he’d been through.

Not like the poor guy had the internet and anime to teach him about the many complexities of life.

Not to mention, Lex himself felt no loss because the energy here was abundant enough that he could continue to gather energy without worry.