The owner of the inn was named Gagarin Belov. Thirty years ago, he had sold his ancestral property to open a hot spring inn, then a new kind of tourist business.
Thanks to its good location and support from the local government in Indo, the family's business had always done well.
They had little room to expand, but the income was enough to lift them into the middle class.
Everything changed last month. His son, who worked for a government department, was suddenly fired over a minor matter. The family's "connections" in the church also distanced themselves.
Then came harassment from gangs and constant trouble from various authorities. Some newspapers even launched a frenzied smear campaign against the inn. Customers grew fewer and fewer, until almost no one came at all that week...
Belov thought he must have offended someone, but his inquiries turned up nothing. All he learned was that a gang had its eye on his hot spring inn and wanted to buy it for next to nothing.
Neither the police nor the church seemed inclined to intervene.
When Abner first learned that the innkeeper's surname was Belov, he thought little of it. Miss Gwen had told him, while introducing Indo Port, that her maternal grandfather's family lived here and was also named Belov.
But Belov was a very common surname in Feysac. After Roselle brought the Industrial Revolution to the continent, great numbers of serfs were freed and acquired surnames. There had even been cases of whole villages taking that name. So Abner had not made the connection at first.
But the family had come under attack at almost the same time the Church of Combat placed a bounty on Miss Gwen. That was too much of a coincidence. Abner continued to "guide" the elderly Mr. Belov