March 15th was undoubtedly a great day for Ron André.
Mimic Grass had been developed, solving the problem of holographic projections.
The opening of the Gold tier in the magic battle arena sparked another wave of excitement among players.
A new batch of Element Cards was released, further enriching the card pool and gradually perfecting the game's ecosystem.
The private laboratory was now fully operational, and after more than a month, Harper's Mana–Element Reaction experiments had officially begun.
On top of that, Kiel also brought good news.
Thanks to his strong performance and his connection to Ron André, his father decided to hand over an entire merchant caravan to him.
Previously, although Kiel had people under him, he relied on borrowing transport capacity from one of his father's caravans.
He had mainly used those routes within the empire to distribute Element Cards for Ron.
Now, as Ron's influence continued to grow and the Magic Duel tournament became widely known throughout the Royal Capital—
Even the eastern and southern regions had begun discussing it, though mostly as casual talk.
After all, when most people heard about prize pools worth tens of thousands of gold coins, their first reaction was disbelief.
But Kiel's father knew the truth.
As a member of the Gemstone Trade Alliance, he controlled several caravans and maintained good relations with a territorial count within the Human Empire.
Among the goblins in the alliance, he was already considered upper—tier, though still on the lower end of that level.
So when he learned that Kiel had formed a stable connection with Ron André, he made a decisive move and handed over a full caravan.
Perhaps influenced by goblin migration culture—where they frequently intermingled with other races and even had mixed offspring—
They had little concern for bloodlines. Profit was all that mattered.
Thus, after gaining control of an entire caravan, Kiel informed Ron that he could now expand Element Cards across the entire empire.
Ron immediately instructed him to begin preparing for nationwide expansion—so long as it didn't interfere with the Magic Duel tournament's promotion. There was no need to rush.
His current main quest was to successfully host a Magic Duel tournament. Whether future tasks would involve large-scale expansion—like the hot pot restaurants—remained uncertain.
Of course, even without system tasks, expanding Element Cards was inevitable.
A game system built on "magic" had the potential to grow into a massive entertainment industry.
Even though Ron already felt he had more money than he could spend, no one would turn down the opportunity to earn more.
And since he didn't need to manage it personally, he was perfectly happy being a hands-off boss.
Putting Kiel aside, Mia and Eileen had also returned from the northern region.
Upon hearing that the magic battle arena had opened Silver and Gold tiers, they rushed over to check it out.
Only to find that, as stubborn Bronze players, they weren't even allowed onto the fourth or fifth floors.
"Big Brother Ron!" Mia called out as she finished her final match in the second-floor promotion zone and earned her advancement to Silver. She spotted Ron just as he was heading upstairs.
"You're back?" Ron said, slightly surprised. He had expected the northern hot pot business to take at least until the end of the month.
"It's not fully done yet, but the overall situation is settled," Mia said proudly, patting her chest.
"Most of the copycat hot pot restaurants have already shut down. Only the one in Winter City—under the Northern Duke—is still holding on. The rest are done for!"
"I heard about the Magic Duel tournament, so I rushed back to sign up!"
"How could I miss out on magic duels?"
Ron chuckled and ruffled her light golden hair. "You're really planning to compete? What if you get eliminated in the preliminaries? That'd be awkward."
Mia puffed her cheeks and slapped his hand away, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm Silver now! Got it in just one afternoon!"
"Don't underestimate me!"
With that, she waved at Eileen and dashed off toward the fourth floor, tossing behind her:
"I'll reach Gold before the tournament starts!"
And just like that, she left poor Eileen—the true Bronze player—behind.
Brushing back her wine-red hair, Eileen looked around before turning to Ron with a wry smile.
"Your Highness Ron, you always come up with such interesting ideas. Just this ranking system alone has hooked so many noble youths."
"But it's really unfriendly for people without skills."
"I played over a dozen matches… winning and losing like that feels terrible."
"Ahem… you could just play in the casual area. No need to stress over rank," Ron said, gesturing for her to sit.
Mia clearly had talent for card games. While it was uncertain whether she could reach Gold quickly, her Silver-level skill was solid.
Among the current thousands of players, she likely ranked within the top 500.
But Eileen…
Ron already knew from back when she and Mia visited the City of Chaos for the ritual—
Her card skills were… terrible.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have ended up with her face covered in little pig drawings by Mia.
Unfortunately, magic duels were one-on-one.
It wasn't like some games where others could "carry" you.
Otherwise, with Eileen's looks, plenty of people would gladly do the heavy lifting for her.
"How's the situation with the hot pot restaurants in the north?" Ron asked, ordering two glasses of juice and changing the subject.
Eileen accepted the drink with thanks and replied:
"The person managing the copycat restaurants is just a minor figure, without much backing. He only managed to open them due to some connections with the Northern Duke's estate and the Grain and Medicine Trade Alliance."
"He probably didn't expect that once our restaurants stabilized in the Royal Capital, we'd immediately expand into the northern market."
"If the copycats had established themselves first, we might have had to pay a much higher price to compete."
"But now the situation is completely stable. At least 80% of customers have shifted to us."
"With the seasonings you provided, Your Highness, they simply can't compete in flavor."
"Combined with promotions and public opinion campaigns, the fact they've lasted this long is already impressive."
Ron nodded in satisfaction. "So next is the southern and western regions?"
"Yes," Eileen smiled. "After the north stabilized, Mr. Lyle already headed south a few days ago to begin preparations. He's probably overseeing renovations now."
"By the end of this month, hot pot barbecue restaurants in the south will start opening."
"And in April, Mr. Lyle will move on to the west—aiming to have our restaurants blooming across the entire Human Empire by mid-April."