Michael and Jaku returned to the Nation of Reborn, having gone through an extraordinarily packed few days in New Sparta.
But thankfully though, it seemed that he came in right on time as Castelle burst into his office in the morning with a wide grin on her face.
"Good morning, Young Master!" Castelle greeted, bowing with her maid uniform on.
"Urgh, Castelle, I told you that you don’t need to give me daily updates on the Reborn Company. I’m confident that you can deal with it on your own," Michael said, groaning with his head under his pillow.
Castelle flashed a smile. "Alright, Young Master. Then, I shall keep this Sand Dollar income report to myself then."
Suddenly, Michael burst out of his bed, his eyes wide open. "I’m awake!"
A month had already passed since the previous collection, meaning that he was about to get another burst of Sand Dollars for him to spend.
This was very important because Jaku just had his awakening, meaning that he would have to give him a Mini Drone of his own to use in his katana.
He was actually having trouble with it yesterday, but now, he was glad that it was going to be solved by a simple visit from Castelle.
"Tell me. How much did we earn from the rollercoasters?"
Castelle brought out her clipboard containing numerous pages of records that detailed the theme park’s expenses, sales, and all those other important stuff.
She flipped over onto the last page, showing a very simple graph that trended upwards.
"Last month, we earned 30,000 Sand Dollars, Lord Michael. But this month, we earned 60,000."
Michael’s eyes widened. That was a two times increase!
It had only been a few months since the Mermen theme park started, yet it had already accumulated such a big income.
"Most of the Mermen that come to visit the theme park also spend most of their time in the Nation of Reborn, further increasing the amount of Sand Dollars that they spend on a daily basis," she explained.
The rollercoaster basically lured people in the Nation of Reborn. And once they were hooked, they were more likely to consume the different products and services that the rest of the nation offered.
"But look at this, Young Master," Castelle said, flipping to a different page. This time, it was a different graph that had a lower increase than the one she showed before.
"Despite the huge increase in sales, the number of visitors we have has not increased all that much. It has basically stagnated."
"That’s... not ideal," Michael muttered.
All of the Mermen that had visited the theme park were all the people that Reed invited thanks to his wide connections within the Mermen community.
But of course, there were plenty of other Mermen that didn’t even know the rollercoaster existed. They probably had never even heard of the Reborn Company before.
Case in point, Princess Octavia and the thousands upon thousands of Mermen in their Lake territory had no idea about them at all. This was an untapped market that he had yet to break into.
Unfortunately, he had not yet figured out a way to fix that.
"Yes, Young Master, this is not ideal. But we have to look at the bright side. If we somehow advertise the rollercoaster to a much wider market, then our sales would skyrocket even more than it is now!
Not only that, but if we also increase the amount of rides we have in the rollercoaster, it’s just going to keep on adding an increase in our Sand Dollar revenue!"
She was right. And it wasn’t just the Mermen, it was the other Beastfolk races as well.
If he could get their attention, he’d be swimming in Sand Dollars.
"Thanks, Castelle. You’ve made my day," he said to her. "Now give me the bag."
She then handed over a cloth bag containing 60,000 Sand Dollars for him to use.
This is 6 drops of Soo, or 6 kilograms of GodForge pieces, he thought, weighing the bag in his hands.
Of course, his priority right now was to strengthen the Dragonborns. He still owed Jaku a MIni Drone so that his katana could officially become a Mithril Artifact worthy for a Maugnetic.
He walked over to Jaku’s room in their headquarters, needing to knock multiple times before the door suddenly opened.
For a brief moment, he saw lightning flash behind the door, followed by a thunderous crack.
Michael walked inside, only to see Jaku still sleeping in his bed.
He could feel the remnants of Aubility Power in the air.
He shook his head. "You know, most Maugnetics use their powers for fighting justice and defeating evil. But you’re using it to open the door and still continue sleeping?"
Jaku replied by snoring.
"Fine," he sighed. "I’ll be back."
He gave Jaku a little bit more time to sleep while he teleported to Serena and converted some of his Sand Dollars to Soo drops.
Once he was in the Mermen territory in the Nation of Reborn, he immediately sought out Serena.
But when he tried to look for her, she seemed to be nowhere in sight.
"Where is she?" he asked one of her attendants.
"She said she was going to follow you into New Sparta. Didn’t you meet up with her, master Michael?"
He shook his head. He was far too busy dealing with the Antique and pretending to be Keo, the professor’s assistant that he completely forgot about his plans with Serena.
They were supposed to go together and talk with the Mermen in the lake.
Has she met princess Octavia? he wondered.
They were sisters, after all. Though he didn’t know if they were in the same clique.
I guess I’ll have to go there and see.
He thanked the attendant before using his shadow teleportation skill to reach New Sparta.
He didn’t directly transfer himself to Princess Octavia’s Sunken Ship Lair.
It would be highly suspicious of him to suddenly appear there without anyone knowing. After all, everyone there knew him as Keo, the professor’s assistant, not as Michael, the magic genius.
And for now, he would like to keep that identity. He realized that there were a lot of doors that would be opened for him once they realized that he was the professor’s protege.
In fact, he wouldn’t have even met with important people like the two Werewolf Chiefs, the Draconian Zovirru, and even Princess Octavia himself.
There was something disarming about his identity as only a historian. They weren’t wary of him.
So, once he was in New Sparta, he immediately made his way towards the edge of the lake.
He was hoping that one of the Mermen would recognize him and inform Princess Octavia of his presence.
He walked up to the water, his feet once again unable to submerge under.
Then, he waited.
Thankfully, as he looked down at the vague bioluminescent lights that made up the underwater territory of the Mermen, he suddenly saw a few figures quickly rising up to the surface.
He recognized them to be a mixture of Mermen and Mermaids.
However, there was someone there that was different. They were human.
Not only that, but the white hair that flowed freely on her back evoked a very recent memory in his mind.