The impressive show of force from Blazelle and the tempting power she presented to the Bastard Bandits effectively turned the tides of their opinion.
At first, almost all of them were completely against the subordination of their group into Flarecorp. But now that they saw what Blazelle was capable of, what Flarecorp was capable of, they understood that they had no chance against them in a straight on war.
She was just the third-in-command, meaning there were two more powerful people above her. Yet, the Bandits knew that the strange apparition of fire standing guard above her was enough to decimate them all.
It threw away everything they knew about power and mana. It was the equivalent of seeing true magic in a magicless world.
And what they don't understand, they fear.
Blazelle was able to take control of the Bastard Bandits and use it as her own army.
In truth, she was just here to consolidate the territories and prepare them for the arrival of Flarecorp, but nobody knew that Hestu failed in his mission.
Now, she had to clean up his mess—starting with the one called Reborn.
She can't wait around for them to appear here in the forest. She had to strike them while they were unprepared.
"Tell me everything about Reborn," she demanded.
The bandit scouts told her everything the public knew about Reborn: their expansion into Angora City and the Grafted Cluster, their strange innovative products, and most of all, their Golden Road project.
"A Golden Road project?" Blazelle uttered. "Is it a coincidence or is he part of the race?" she asked herself.
"It doesn't matter. It will all falter in the face of Flarecorp anyway. If they have already started their Golden Road project, then we shall destroy its reputation. By the time my cousin arrives, this Southern Tip must be cleansed of all things Reborn."
Blazelle shouted orders at the bandits, who quickly accepted her words. Wano, the Bandit Leader, could only stand around in the sidelines and watch as the Bastard Bandits got turned into Flarecorp's possession.
"Harass all travellers using the Golden Road. That ought to make them distrust Reborn."
In all the years of the Bastard Bandits' history, they had always stayed within the protection of the forest and the Fairies. It was what made them hard to get rid of.
But now, Blazelle was taking out their territorial advantage and attacking Reborn in their own turf.
He knew Reborn. Despite them acting as a peaceful merchant company, there were a lot of rumors about their impressive firepower. Mithril Artifacts, for instance.
They had a lot under their sleeves, and they wouldn't simply just stand around while their territories got attacked.
Case in point, he knew Sleazy had gone off on his own and tried to attack Reborn. And he ended up disappearing from the face of the Earth.
Things could end up the same as that.
…
…
…
Michael transported himself to the Truck Stop in the Golden Road right in front of McTony's.
When it first opened up, the restaurant saw no more than 50 people a day. For Tony and Remy, this many customers was already well above what they had back in their rundown little restaurant near the slums of Angora City.
They were already quite satisfied if this were to continue day in and day out.
But just after a week of its opening, they saw their numbers jump up to almost a hundred customers! The fact that McTony's was located in the middle of nowhere made this even more impressive since there was less foot traffic here.
Michael visited on the peak hour, just after the sun had set. Travellers and merchants used this Truck Stop to camp and sleep in for the night.
And when they saw a restaurant open, they decided to eat in before going to bed. So, the restaurant capacity of fifty seats was nearly filled, with just a few vacant positions left.
Michael walked in and saw Tony and his kitchen staff hard at work, tossing pans with a raging fire almost reaching to their heads. Even when they used spells like [Cook Evenly] and [Automatic Stir] to make work more efficient, it seemed like it still wasn't enough.
"Excuse me, I'd like to order a McTony's!" one of the customers on the counter shouted, trying to get the chefs' attention.
Just then, he saw a small boy use a small stool to reach eye-level with him.
"Alright, sir," Remy adorably said. "I'm sorry, but you will have to wait fifteen minutes for your order, is that alright?"
The man wanted to complain, but saw how much the chefs were working hard to fulfill orders. He also didn't want to be the guy to lecture a little kid, so he just nodded and waited like the other customers. He consoled himself with the fact that McTony's chicken was worth the wait.
"A lot of customers today, huh?"
Michael approached the counter, with Tony and the Rebornian chefs greeting him with a strained smile.
"Michael! You couldn't have come at a worse time," Tony said, juggling two pans of chicken in his hands at the same time. "I can't believe it, but this is the first time that the restaurant has been filled to capacity! I know I should be happy, but this is stressful haha!"
Despite his complaints, Tony saw joy in his work. For the first time, he saw how much people loved his chicken.
"Any problems with the ingredients?" Michael asked the Rebornian Chefs assisting Tony.
"Not yet, boss. We still have a lot of chickens in our freezer, and we have more coming in tomorrow delivered from Barcus' chicken farms. However, we didn't expect the customers to increase this much. Our stock of Dragon's Whiskers is getting low."
Michael had Tony and the other chefs coordinate with all the merchants in the Kings and Queens region for any Dragon's Whiskers that they had in store.
When the store first started, the stock lasted well enough. But now that their restaurant had filled capacity for the first time, it seemed that they would need a lot more than that to satisfy demand.
The chefs gave Michael some paperwork that graphed the rapidly increasing customer base of McTony's. According to their projections, this wouldn't be the first night where they would get this much customer in the peak hours of the afternoon.
"I'll have Sheina contact some of the Adventurer Guilds in the Queens region and formally issue a mission for Dragon's Whiskers."
With the extravagant fee they posted, their stock of Dragon's Whiskers would at least be able to give them a stock for a few months.
Just then, the restaurant door opened and a group of customers entered inside.
The excitement was clear on their faces. Anyone could tell that they were returning customers of McTony's.
However, the smile on their faces soon turned into disappointment when they realized that the restaurant was filled with people. There were no more seats left for them.
"Aww damn…guess we'll have to come back another day."
Michael heard this and turned to Remy. "Are they always leaving like that?"
"They don't have any places to sit," answered innocently.
It was then that Michael remembered an important aspect of fast food restaurants: take out.
But it was in that exact moment that Michael saw a shadow emerge from his feet.