Chapter 815: One phone call away
The Duchess looked at the strange metallic brick in front of her.
“What’s this?” she asked him.
“Wait right here,” he said before teleporting away without even giving her an explanation.
Once she was alone, she nervously poked around with the brick, not knowing if it was a bomb or a metallic sculpture.
“Where the hell did that kid go—”
But just as she was about to complain, the ‘brick’ suddenly started vibrating, startling her out of her chair.
“My goodness!” she screamed out, prompting 001 to appear in front of her in a defensive stance.
RING RING!
001 approached the phone, looking at the words written on the screen.
{Video call coming from 003. Please press any button to accept.}
He carefully picked up the phone and showed it to the Duchess. They both trusted Michael enough to know that this strange item wasn’t going to hurt them in any way shape or form.
“Should… should we press one of the buttons?” she asked him.
001 nodded and pushed his thumb on the keyboard, pressing multiple buttons at the same time.
As soon as he did, a satisfying chime echoed from the phone as the signal connected.
{Hello? Duchess, are you there?}
Of course, Duchess Regina would recognize that voice anywhere. “Michael? Where are you?”
Just then, she saw 001’s eyes grow wide as he looked at the screen. She had never seen him so surprised at anything.
“Duchess…,” he said, turning the phone to face her.
Finally, she saw the image displayed on the screen. It was Michael, waving at her with an endless desert horizon in the background.
“Michael… is that you? Why are you there in the box? Are you trapped?!”
She immediately urged 001 to break the metallic brick and save Michael from his imprisonment.
{Wait, wait, wait! Don’t do that. You have to see this first. Duchess, take the phone.}
She nervously took the phone from 001, trying to peek behind the screen to see if he was hidden somewhere behind it.
“What?”
{Look,} he said, as he pointed the camera towards a large structure in the distance.
She saw a creature with a menacing aura, multiple tentacles coming out of its mouth, its height piercing through the skies.
And on the speakers, she heard the sounds of screams coming from people whose rides were just about to enter into Cthulhu’s mouth.
“That’s…!”
Before she could even process this information, the whole image suddenly turned black.
{Hey, she can’t see you if you’re so close to the screen.}
{Oh, sorry bro Michael. Is this enough}
{Forgive my brother. He’s an idiot}
{No, you’re an idiot!}
Finally, the image lightened as the light finally hit the screen.
The Duchess pulled the phone closer to her face, her eyes began watering as she saw the familiar faces of her grandchildren waving and saying hi to her.
“My babies…,” she muttered, hand covering her mouth.
{Gramma! I can see you!}
{How you doing gramma?! Look, we’re about to go on a rollercoaster again!}
{Gramma are you sad? Why are you crying?}
Duchess Regina began to laugh, wiping away the tears in her face. “Hahaha, it’s nothing my dear. I just missed you all.”
Her four grandchildren gave her a big smile. {We miss you too gramma!}
Then, one of the two boys approached the phone and hogged the screen. She could see his ruffled hair unbefitting of a royal in high definition.
{Don’t worry gramma. Bro Mike said that we can talk to you, and see you, and chat with you, and laugh with you whenever we want with this phone!}
{Yep! You don’t have to miss us, gramma!}
{We can talk to each other every night and I can tell you all about baseball!}
Duchess Regina chuckled. “I sure will, my dear.”
Just then, they heard the sounds of metal clanking as the rollercoaster finally came to a stop. They were now boarding the new passengers.
{Ah, we’re going to be late!}
{We’ll go now gramma!}
{Nixie, come say bye to gramma!}
A shy mermaid girl appeared on the bottom of the screen, meekly waving her hands.
“Now boys, don’t put Nixie in too much trouble,” the Duchess reprimanded them. “She’s still recovering.”
{She can do just fine, can’t you Nixie?}
Nixie nodded, before the two girls took her hands and began running in the direction of the rollercoaster. The boys quickly tried to catch up to them, and the last thing that the Duchess saw was them waving goodbye in the distance.
The Duchess took a deep breath and held her chest. Her eyes were red with tears, but her mouth was widened into a smile.
“Michael…,” she called out.
{Have you finally changed your mind?} he asked her, putting the phone in his face.
“What is this thing you’ve made?”
Michael dropped the call for a second and teleported back into the Duchess’ quarters.
“This is called a phone. As you saw earlier, it can video call, text, and message anyone with another phone regardless of distance. It doesn’t require magic or power. It’s self-sustaining.”
The Duchess took the phone in her hands and slotted it in her pockets. “You’ve made something incredible again,” she said as she walked towards her cabinets.
“That, I did. Now, this solves your problem, right? You can now continue your work as the Duchess of Metropolis and still be able to see your grandchildren any time you want.”
She stopped walking to look at him. “Is this what you wanted to ask for advice about?”
“Yes. I’m planning on selling this for 10,000 Sand Dollars each. That’s a good price, right?”
The Duchess stopped, her eyes deep in thought. “Can you make a lot of them?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I am planning to make a factory once I’m able. So for now, I can’t announce it publicly because I can’t keep up with the demand.”
She nodded before kneeling down and opening the drawer. After ruffling through the piles of gems and golden jewelries inside, she finally retrieved a big pouch.
And with this bag in her hands, she walked towards Michael and dropped it in front of him.
“That’s 400,000 Sand Dollars. I want 20 phones,” she said.
Michael peeked through the opening in the pouch and saw the Sand Dollars brimming to the top, shining with a gleam.
In such a short amount of time, he amassed such a large sum of Sand Dollars. It was unbelievable!
“Wait… 20 phones for 400,000?”
She nodded. “Yup. I’m paying you 20,000 Sand Dollars for each phone because I want you to prioritize its creation. I want me and my family to be the very first people who have phones in their pockets.”
Michael wasn’t going to say no to that. He always needed more Sand Dollars.
And just as he was about to say thank you to her, the Duchess suddenly took him into her embrace.
Then, she whispered, “Thank you.”
The magnitude of what he did could not be calculated through monetary value. However, it was the least she could do.
A few seconds later, she released her embrace and wiped a tear from her eyes.
Michael, feeling awkward for a moment, asked, “So, you’re not retiring anymore, right?”
The Duchess smiled. “I’m still retiring.”