"What?!"

"Well, I would call it a semi-retirement," the Duchess corrected.

"Why?! I thought I already solved your problem with the phone!" he said, exasperated.

She shook her head. "I already told you; I want to spend my days with my grandchildren. I don't want to just see them, I want to hold them, I want to ruffle their hair, I want to receive their cute little kisses."

Then, she took out the phone from her pockets and admired the simplicity of its design.

"This phone made me realize that I could still do my job and be with my grandchildren at the same time. Instead of me being away from them, I'll be away from my work instead. I can just call my attendants with this phone and handle our business that way."

Michael didn't even think about that. She did the exact opposite of what he wanted her to do.

Somehow, she was able to come up with the idea of a work-from-home set up after only becoming familiar with a phone for a few minutes!

"But what about Metropolis? What about New Sparta?" he asked, a little bit dejected.

"I've realized that they don't need me any longer. They have you."

Michae looked at her, confused. "What?"

"You have created something truly incredible. This phone is revolutionary. It is world changing. But this isn't even the first invention that you created that could make reverberations throughout the entire planet. It's just one of many.

The ship of Metropolis doesn't need to be steered by me. You are already pushing it with your ingenuity. It's only a matter of time until others see it as well."

Michael slumped on the chair, trying to process the words she said.

"But don't worry. I'll still support Metropolis here and there. If I'm needed for a meeting, then I'll go there myself. I'll also be helping you spread the word about this phone. If others see me using it, then they'll want it for themselves as well."

Basically, the Duchess' semi-retirement meant that she would stay on the sidelines for most of the time, and simply let Michael and the other companies steer it wherever they wanted. She would only come out during special occasions when her presence was truly needed.

That was why she bought twenty phones. She wanted to give most of them to her attendants so that she could manage them and Metropolis from a distance.

"I should have expected this," he muttered.

This was not the first time that a royal suddenly retired because they wanted to live in the Nation of Reborn. But he thought that the Duchess was too important to Metropolis that there was no way she was going to put down her crown.

"You should be happy about this," she said, slapping his back.

"Should I?"

"Yes! You'll be able to continue your expansion to Metropolis, make it a part of your Golden Road. You'll be able to make the highway, the railroads, the plumbing, the electrical grid… everything."

He leered at her. "That's just more work for me!"

"Hahaha, well that's what happens if you want to expand your Golden Road. If you are able to capitalize on this opportunity and turn Metropolis into your territory, then you are well on your way to advancing to the upper echelons of the Queens region."

"The upper echelons?" he asked, curious.

"Well, further up north Metropolis, you'll find the territories of the conglomerates. They're your real competition. That's where your endgame is."

Michael had been so caught up in his emotions that he completely forgot to look at the bigger picture.

He was doing all of this because he wanted to spread the ideas of the Nation of Reborn to the entire world. And the only way to do that was if he completed the Golden Road.

He came to Metropolis in the hopes of it becoming the next territory in his expansion.

But he didn't think that it would happen so fast. The Duchess was now basically handing him the reins to Metropolis.

At first, he thought that she was just pawning off all the hard work to him so that she could relax, but upon second thought, she was actually nudging him to take her place. It wasn't even a subtle push. It was a shove!

"That's why it's even more important for you to perform well in New Sparta. What good would ruling over a territory that had already lost their top spot?"

If Metropolis retained their top spot in New Sparta, and Michael consolidated it as his conquered territory, then he would have a lot more respectable credentials once he entered the 'upper echelon' of the Royal Continent.

The conglomerates would have to look at him and treat him as their peer.

"So do you get it now, Michael?"

Michael nodded, his eyes still having a thousand-yard stare.

"I… I think so."

"Good!" the Duchess exclaimed. "Now, go and make me those phones. I want to talk to all of my grandchildren as soon as possible."

Michael nodded. He turned to leave, but she stopped him and asked a favor.

"Would you be a dear and teleport me back to the Nation of Reborn?"

He stared at her, jaws wide open. He couldn't believe the audacity after just putting that heavy responsibility on him without any warning.

But what was he going to do? Refuse her? She just gave him Metropolis!

With a single snap, a shadow enveloped the Duchess and teleported her into the Nation of Reborn within a second. Before she left, she just gave him a wink and a flying kiss, which he ignored.

This left Michael alone to deal with this empty castle.

Should I live inside this place now?

It felt like a waste if such a big place became desolate. The Duchess certainly won't be returning her any time soon.

I don't want to think about it.

He put his mind away from all of this territory stuff and focused on the cold hard facts.

The shadow of his feet lengthened, before enveloping the big bag of Sand Dollars in front of him.

After tallying it up, he found himself 600,000 Sand Dollars richer than he was last week. 661,523 to be exact.

He teleported back into his own home and laid down on his bed thinking about that number.

Should I buy 66 mini drones with this?

The thought intrigued him, but there were certainly better ways to spend all of his Sand Dollars.

But then, another thought occurred to him. Why worry about what to buy if he could just earn more Sand Dollars and buy everything he needed?

I earned that much after selling the equivalent of 40 phones. If I were to sell a thousand phones, then that would be…

He immediately shook his head. There was no use in thinking about that stuff when he hadn't even figured out how to properly manufacture it. He hadn't even made the 20 phones he owed the Duchess.

For the time being, he could make it himself and sell it that way. But that wasn't sustainable.

He needed a factory.

But to do that, he needed to answer two questions. First, how was he going to get that much Mithril for production. And second, how was he going to produce Unity Power Sources?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.