Chapter 474: Asking about relatives
Michael didn’t want to pull this move, but he had to do it if he wanted to get his parents off his back.
"Mom...please don’t embarrass me in front of Claudia."
Bart and Lylia looked at each other and then sneaked a peak at the famous Claudia Montgomery.
"Oh right, your aunt-in-law. I see, I see. Then, it’s better for you to look more mature and independent," his mother said, winking at him.
"Shall we go talk to her and introduce ourselves?" Bart asked.
"That’s a great idea!" Lylia approved.
Michael had a bad feeling about this, so he pulled out another move to distract them from embarrassing him.
"Mom, dad. Did you know we had relatives here?"
Once he mentioned that, Bart turned serious and nodded. "Yes, we do Michael. The Vanderbilt branch in Metropolis was given to my older brother, Max."
"Were you two close?"
"We’re more like acquaintances rather than friends. I am the last child of your grandfather, while Max is the fifth child. He was born much earlier than me, and given more responsibilities and inheritances.
I remember looking out onto my window and watching him and my other older siblings sparring in our courtyard. I always thought they were cool. But I’m pretty sure he doesn’t remember me. I don’t even know if he knows me."
"With your father having a hundred siblings, it’s not weird for most of them to not even interact with each other," Lylia added.
Michael thought it was pretty sad for siblings to not even know each other. But it made sense. If Max was the fifth child of Yze, then he was probably given a lot of responsibilities and duties while he was still a child. He probably had no time interacting with other people.
"Did you meet with them here?" Bart asked.
"No, I just heard something about them from Jimmy."
Bart got curious and asked. "What was it?"
"They said that the Vanderbilt business here is struggling. They’re buried in debt and are slowly losing their assets in Metropolis."
"That’s awful," Lylia gasped.
Bart sighed and nodded. "That’s the way of life. Sometimes, we lose, sometimes we win. This is a different era now, one where the youth are slowly rising and overthrowing the current hierarchy. I experienced it myself, when you shut down my business."
Bart knocked at Michael’s head jokingly.
But it was true. The Vanderbilt business in the Kings region was completely destroyed once the Reborn company took over.
"Dad, do you want me to help them?" Michael asked sincerely. He wasn’t planning to, but if his dad asked him a favor, then he would probably acquiesce.
But Bart refused. "No, son. Us Vanderbilts are prideful. We don’t accept charity even when we are struggling. This is a lesson imparted to us by your grandfather ever since we were young."
"Then should we at least visit them?"
"I think that’s a great idea, honey!" Lylia claimed, tapping her husband’s arm.
Bart eventually relented. "I guess we should."
It was only common courtesy to meet with relatives. Although, Michael would be lying if he said he didn’t have an ulterior motive for doing so.
According to Jimmy, the Vanderbilts were so buried in debt that they had to resort to selling off their lands just to pay it off.
That was a complete waste.
Instead of selling it to other people, they could instead sell it to him! Since they were relatives, he would even give them a high price to buy their remaining land in Metropolis. It was a win-win for both parties!
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While everyone settled into their new base of operations, Michael and his parents left their headquarters and headed out to the supposed Vanderbilt estate in Metropolis.
Jimmy already did some investigating and found their mansion fairly easily. And thankfully, it wasn’t that far off from Main Street. They just had to travel about ten minutes using a horse-drawn carriage.
Once they reached their destination, Michael looked out the window and saw a fairly large mansion.
The design looked old and a bit out of fashion compared to the modern architecture of the rest of Metropolis. By ChatJK4’s estimation, it looked like the mansion was almost a hundred years old. This meant that they hadn’t done any redecorating or renovating in all the years they were here.
The mansion would have looked good as a vintage relic from the past, but the obvious degradation made it look dingy and abandoned. The paint on the walls were chipped, the metal railings were rusted, and there were even some holes on the roof that would surely leak water inside during the rainy season.
This place looked like the kind of setting that a horror movie would take place in.
"This place...looks awful," Bart muttered.
"Dear! That’s rude. What if someone hears you."
That didn’t seem possible, given that Michael didn’t see any sign of movement in and out of the house. And even when he used his Supreme Skill, he barely saw any Light mana signature from inside the house. Usually, a mansion like this would need a hundred employees to keep the place running. But now, there were barely ten of them left.
Michael walked over to the gate and knocked three times. There wasn’t any answer.
He had to resort to magic. A magic circle appeared in front of his mouth as he cast a sound amplification spell.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
It was only then that the people inside turned to look at the entrance. But strangely enough, they just ignored him.
Michael saw them physically turn their heads when he shouted to them. Yet they chose to purposefully cover their ears.
Curious, he looked at his shadow and asked for his trusty ninja slime to do some investigating.
"Fudge, can you see what’s going on inside? Why aren’t they answering?"
The violet slime popped out of his shadow and immediately jumped into Lylia’s arms.
"Master, the head butler thinks that we are debt collectors, that’s why they aren’t answering your calls," Fudge said, snuggling comfortably in Lylia’s chest.
"That was awfully fast."
Fudge was a good ninja, but not that good.
"Oh, I already spread my clones when we arrived. Teehee!"
He shouldn’t have expected less from Fudge, the nosy nelly.
He was about to reprimand the slime, when the front door of the mansion swung wide open and a man in a professional business suit stormed towards the gate.
"Excuse me, but my master has yet to decide whether he’s going to sell this place," the butler respectfully apologized. They already had a couple of offers for the house, but they hoped their situation would get better so that they wouldn’t have to sell it.
"We’re not here for that," Michael said.
"Oh, you’re not...might I ask who you are and why have you knocked on our doorstep?"
Bart stepped forward and took out something from his jacket pocket.
It was a golden emblem of the Vanderbilt family crest, something that all Vanderbilts were given during birth.
The butler moved closer and inspected the medallion. He looked at not just the authenticity of the emblem, but also the family status of its holder.
His eyes widened when he realized that Bart was a direct descendant of Yze!
"I deeply apologize for my actions! I wasn’t aware that a Vanderbilt would visit our premises."