Unlike the City of Chaos, the Royal Capital was still drenched in heavy rain at night.
As the first day of the elimination rounds ended, spectators and contestants poured out of the venue. They accepted free umbrellas from staff, thanked them, and stepped onto the rain-soaked stone streets of Moonview Street.
"How many of those umbrellas do you think we'll actually get back?" Ron asked with a faint smile, standing by the window of the fourth-floor control room as he watched the flowing crowd below.
Nora leaned against his chest, lips pursed slightly in embarrassment.
Buying the umbrellas had been her idea.
The rain had started suddenly that afternoon, and many people hadn't brought any. Seeing no sign of it letting up, Nora had instructed the staff to purchase a large batch.
Each umbrella costs only a dozen or so copper coins.
Even a thousand of them wouldn't exceed ten gold coins.
For Ron, that was pocket change.
What surprised him more was Nora's willingness to spend money for the sake of customers.
"You silly girl." Ron rubbed her head gently when he noticed her self-conscious expression.
"I never said you did anything wrong."
"Even if we never get a single umbrella back, as long as even one-tenth of those people feel grateful and become loyal fans of the Magic Duel arena, we've already made a profit."
"And even if the money's gone, we can just treat it as customer service—and a contribution to the Royal Capital's umbrella industry."
Nora's unease melted into quiet happiness. Her lips curved into a soft crescent smile as her eyes blinked lightly.
Seeing that, Ron couldn't resist leaning down and stealing a kiss.
"Mmm… Boss…" Nora murmured, clutching the sides of his clothes as she tilted her head back slightly to meet him.
After finally pulling away, she was slightly out of breath, cheeks flushed.
"It's getting late… let's go back," she whispered.
Leaving the venue, Ron cast a second-tier Water Control Spell, parting the rain around them as they boarded their carriage.
Back at Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop, Nora and Yuna went to bathe together, hand in hand.
Meanwhile, Ron entered the study, pulled out a notebook from his [Backpack], and began writing while thinking.
On the first page—
It was a regional map centered on Tansen City, covering much of the Empire's central region.
He had it copied from the local administrative office.
West: Forest of Freyst
East: Royal Capital region
North & South: routes leading to the northern and southern territories
A few solid lines marked the active official roads.
Numerous dotted lines represented abandoned routes.
Tansen City had once been prosperous.
Its transportation network used to be extensive.
But as the economy declined, many roads fell into disrepair and were eventually abandoned.
If Ron wanted to build factories and produce goods there—
He would first need to restore transportation routes.
As for using spatial transmission?
That was out of the question.
His current ability to freely travel between the Royal Capital, City of Chaos, and Tansen City was already eye-catching enough.
If he also revealed large-scale logistics through spatial transfer—
Even Emperor André III might not sit still.
Worse—
Granting others access would mean giving them partial control over that system.
So far, only four people had that privilege:
Nora
Yuna
Sylvie
Guy
Without long-term trust, Ron would never grant access lightly.
Not until he had the strength to withstand even a legendary-level assault and protect those around him.
After sorting out his thoughts, Ron flipped to a blank page and wrote:
Transportation
Then added:
Highways
Cargo trucks
Railways
Trains
He tapped his pen against the desk thoughtfully.
Then—
✔ Marked Cargo trucks
— Underlined Railways and Trains (pending)
"One step at a time," he muttered.
Even if trains were useful—
Manufacturing:
Carriages
Magic arrays
It would be a massive undertaking.
If Illya handled everything alone, it would take far too long.
Not worth it—yet.
Thinking of this, Ron recalled his earlier concerns.
He added another line:
Magic Array Specialists — The more, the better
Even if ordinary people could operate magic tools—
The infrastructure still depended on experts like Illya.
If commoners were like construction workers—
Then, the magic array specialists were the engineers building the machines.
Even a magic-array assembly line—
It would still require high-level mages to create it in the first place.
After circling "the more, the better," Ron added:
Royal Capital Magic Academy
Chaos City Magic Academy
"Our future magic engineers… I'll be counting on you two," he muttered with a grin.
"History will remember your contributions."
He flipped to the second page.
Another map.
Smaller.
More detailed.
Centered on Tansen City, it showed nearby towns, part of the Forest of Freyst, and the edge of the Royal Capital region.
Color-coded regions filled the map:
🔴 Red — towns
🟢 Green — farmland
🟡 Yellow — uncultivated land
⚫ Gray — mining areas
These four dominated the region.
Other sectors—like livestock (orange)—were negligible.
Ron then pulled out a report Guy had compiled on Tansen City's recent economic conditions.
Comparing it with the map—
He couldn't help but sigh.
Tansen City…
Had potential.
But right now—
It was a mess waiting to be rebuilt.