It's been a few days after Michael first met Fudge and awakened the little creature into an intelligent little pet.
He let Fudge accompany him everywhere he went, sticking to his shadow at all times and observing the human world just like it wanted.
"Young master," Fudge whispered from his shadow. "I have successfully spread my clones around the City.
I have become its shadow, its silent observer.
There are already a couple of promising candidates that I will soon contact to hopefully join me in my mission. Our main job is to spread our forces to the entire world, influencing them into becoming loyal servants of the great Michael Vanderbilt!"
Michael shook his head in exasperation.
He still couldn't believe that ChatJK2 taught the little bugger nothing but anime tropes and plot ideas. Instead of giving it something useful like Castelle's Business Management college course, ChatJK2 gave the slime an excuse to act like an edgy teenager.
Because of that, Fudge used its shape-shifting ability as a slime to create the perfect costume that embodied the 'shadow ninja', as Fudge liked to call it.
"Fudge, it sounds like you're trying to start a cult," Michael replied to his shadow.
"Cult?" Fudge whispered to itself. "I like the sound of that…"
Michael ignored that.
"Now, would you please let me work on the sewer project?" Michael said as he put his focus back on the papers in his hands.
After a few weeks of preparation, they were finally ready to start the construction of the sewer system. Castelle organized everything from employment to scheduling and even to material procurement. This made things move extremely smoothly.
And despite Fudge's weird quirks, the little slime was actually very useful in finding talented individuals who could help in the construction.
As it turned out, its clones were actually connected to Michael in some way, allowing him to remotely assess the talent of a lot of people.
It was unfortunate that he didn't find talent as great as Castelle or Fudge, but he still discovered a lot of people who didn't know they had talent in construction or manufacturing.
Michael told Castelle about those people and she quickly hired them into the company.
Once she met the edgy little Fudge, she was quickly smitten with its cuteness and usefulness.
Fudge became the reason why Reborn was able to recruit a lot of talented individuals.
Meanwhile, his parents were also hard at work for the sewer system.
They were able to procure a proper City permit courtesy of Michael's father, who used the Vanderbilt name to quickly get things rolling. As expected, the higher-ups immediately signed the papers and gave funding for the project.
Michael's mother also did some heavy work during the past few days. She quickly spread around her circles that Reborn was having a public showing of their innovative new inventions that could provide running water inside homes without the use of magic.
As expected of gossip, it quickly spread like wildfire. When the day of the presentation came, thousands of people gathered in front of the Reborn office.
For this showing, Michael created a very simple recreation of the plumbing system using glass pipes, allowing the people to see that there wasn't any sort of magic going on.
As soon as they saw water flowing like a wild stream, the spectators gasped like they had seen a ghost.
"Oh my god! The water is moving!"
"It's a waterfall! How is that possible?!"
To assure them that there was no funny business going on, the Magic Tower itself supervised the presentation and assured the general public that there wasn't any magic in the contraption.
Since Reborn and the Magic Tower had a good reputation within the community, a lot of people trusted their words.
Castelle also made sure to have a couple of employees publicly try out the faucets and showers while using Reborn soap and shampoo. This immediately enticed the women into wanting the plumbing system for their homes.
But perhaps the most popular product was the revolutionary toilet.
"Wow! Amazing!" they clapped as all the waste got flushed down the toilet.
"It's so convenient! With this, we don't have to dirty our hands! Incredible!"
Just one presentation of the toilet immediately made people buy into the whole package. They wanted faucets in their kitchen, they wanted showers in their bathroom, and most of all, they wanted toilets in their homes.
"And you're saying that we only need to buy the package, and Reborn will take care of all the construction? Talk about a steal!"
"I want it! I'll buy it!"
But as soon as Castelle announced that the construction was a first-come first-serve deal, people immediately clamored to be the first ones to buy the package.
"Me first! I got here first!"
"I'll pay double to have it constructed in my house tomorrow!"
"I'll pay triple!"
As the people continued to create a ruckus around the streets, one particular visitor looked at the chaos with a strange expression.
The woman wore an exotic robe, which seemed to have been made with a very expensive silk material.
She rode on a very large carriage inlaid with what seemed to be colorful scales from a monster. Leading this carriage were multiple bodyguards who wore a similar type of robe made specifically for combat.
It was clear that this visitor was a very important and a very wealthy individual.
"What is that?" she asked her bodyguards.
"That seemed to be some kind of presentation…but…strange, I don't sense any kind of magic in that water. How is it flowing?!" her advisor exclaimed in disbelief.
This immediately caused an expression of interest in the woman. She ordered the carriage to stop and observe how the presentation unfolded.
As she saw the faucets, showers, and specifically the toilet, she couldn't help but exclaim her desire to get one for herself.
Whoever created those inventions was an extremely talented individual, one whose ingenuity seemed out of this world.
"I want it. Buy it for me," she said to her advisor, who quickly moved to do as she said.
Even though her home was almost halfway around the world, which meant that the transportation of the plumbing system would take hundreds of thousands of gold, she didn't care.
She had more than enough money. She was a royal from the Draconic Kingdom after all.