Chapter 450: Lotsa duels
"Urgh!" Claudia groaned. She was not expecting the arrival of the Wyverns to be ahead of schedule. Even they weren’t prepared for such an upheaval.
"Madam...there’s more requests for duels today than we’ve ever had in a month!" complained one of her employees.
Seeing as her subordinates were starting to get flustered, Claudia immediately took charge. "Don’t worry about the duels. I have already sent word to my family and they will send in reinforcements to become arbiters."
Since only Montgomerys were allowed to mediate between duels, Claudia had to ask her family for some assistance or else she herself would get buried with requests for duels. It was still manageable for now with their current staff in the Association, but that would quickly change in the coming days.
She predicted she would have a constant headache ever since those Wyvern’s arrived on the continents’ shores,
"Ummm, miss Claudia! There’s been some development in the Upperwood District festival!"
Claudia sighed. She almost forgot that there was still an ongoing permit test in the festival. It was such bad timing that the Wyverns arrived in the middle of a competitive festival. Now, it has become even more competitive than ever.
"What is it?" she asked.
"There’s been a lot of activity in Main Street, miss Claudia. A lot of people have been requesting us to mediate some arguments about the ownership of land there."
Claudia frowned. As far as she knew, Main Street was actually one of the quieter streets in the Upperwood District. The flow of foot traffic there was very minimal and was mostly traversed by horses and carriages. And during the festival, the number of people that go there was even less.
She had to look at the map of the Upperwood District just to confirm her thoughts.
"Why would they have arguments about this land?" she muttered out.
"It’s because of this," said one of her employees as he handed out a parchment to her.
Claudia looked at the paper and noticed that it was a map of Metropolis itself. However, there was a certain pathway in this map that was highlighted with red paint.
Her eyes then flowed to the top of the page.
{Welcome Parade for Global Tourists}
{Brought to you by the Gilderaan company}
As it turned out, Alaric planned for a welcoming parade once the tourists arrived in Metropolis. This was a very smart play from him, as he would be able to control the flow of traffic from the tourists and therefore control the flow of money.
And since his company was so influential in Metropolis, the general public quickly accepted this parade route as something definite.
This was the advantage of preparation. Judging from how well-thought out the parade path was, it seemed as if Alaric had been planning for this for a long time. And because he learned about the arrival of the Wyverns so early, he was able to prepare these parchments that he spread throughout Metropolis.
Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to compete with Alaric and his company, a lot of companies then resorted to simply following his route and taking advantage of it.
Claudia realized that this was where all the duels originated from.
A lot of companies were vying for those lands that were directly on the path of the parade route. They wanted possession of those territories so that they could establish a store or a building bearing their company’s name. That way, they would be the first ones the tourists would see during the parade.
And coincidentally, the Main Street of the Upperwood District was part of the highlighted route.
Claudia looked at her scrolls and tried to see who was currently in possession of Main Street.
And surprisingly, it was owned by no one.
This was because Main Street used to be a part of the Flarecorp company. Ever since they were excommunicated from Metropolis, all of their territories have been picked apart by the Legacies to take for themselves. Still, there were a few pieces here and there that were left behind, just like Main Street.
Many companies ignored this piece of land at first because the foot traffic there was bad, but now, it was being fought over by every single company in the Upperwood district.
"So now, everybody’s trying to get a piece of this land, huh?"
Claudia could only curse Alaric inwardly for picking such a bad timing for announcing the parade route.
"What am I going to tell Michael," she grumbled.
When Main Street was an unwanted piece of land, Claudia decided to give the land to Michael for him to establish his Reborn company.
She thought that this was the perfect place since they had done so well during the Upperwood District festival. They already had customers from this area, so it would be a good starting point for their company to build up on.
Unfortunately, the appearance of the Wyverns changed all of that. Now, other companies had set their sights on the land and were already planning on getting it for themselves. They received a lot of duel requests already, and she expected more would come in the coming days.
She had no authority to strip the land away from anyone, especially since it was so sought after by everyone else.
"What should we do, miss Claudia?"
"There’s nothing we can do but fulfill their requests for the duels," she sighed. "Whoever wins will ultimately receive Main Street."
Even the other employees felt bad once they heard this. Were already quite biased towards Michael because of his ballpoint pen, so they were all rooting for him to succeed. Unfortunately, the competition was far too fierce for a boy like him.
Claudia couldn’t help but think back to yesterday when she saw Michael’s true strength first-hand.
She knew that Michael had a chance to win against the other companies competing for Main Street. If everything had gone smoothly, then he could have had a chance.
But unfortunately, he passed out during the coating of his Mithril weapon. She had even asked the help of a healer from Aerith’s apothecary, but even they could not explain Michael’s unexpected unconsciousness.
The healer didn’t even know when he would wake up. They didn’t know if it was tomorrow, a month from now, or even a year from now.
She could only hope that he would wake up before the duels started.
"Let’s go deal with the duels," she said to her employees.
...
...
...
Michael looked at the vial of Soo in his hands, seeing three drops still left inside.
After knowing what these drops of Soo were worth, he couldn’t help but think of them as even more precious than his own life.
"Three drops. Three upgrades," he muttered.
He then took out the Drone from his pockets and saw the change that it had undergone.
It’s not just a dream, he rejoiced.
Two halves of a sphere were planted on the top and at the bottom of the Drone, acting as a 360 degree view camera for him to see through. He was surprised to see that the addition was made out of Mithril as well, despite him not giving anything for it to mold.
Did the Mithril grow because of Soo?