Unlike Chaos City, the Imperial City was still being lashed by torrential rain at night.
With the first day of the elimination rounds over, spectators and contestants streamed out of the competition venue. They accepted free umbrellas from the staff, thanked them, and stepped onto the stone-paved Moonview Street.
"Guess how many of these umbrellas we'll get back?" Ron stood by the viewing window of the fourth-floor control room, watching the dense crowds on the rain-soaked street below as he asked with a smile.
Nora leaned against Ron's chest and pursed her lips sheepishly.
Sending the staff out to buy umbrellas had been Nora's idea.
The rain had come suddenly that afternoon, and many spectators and contestants had not brought umbrellas. Seeing no sign of the downpour letting up, Nora had instructed the staff to purchase a large batch.
One umbrella cost only a dozen or so copper coins. Nearly a thousand of them would probably not even cost ten gold coins.
To Ron, that was merely pocket change.
So he did not particularly care about it.
What made him sigh a little was seeing Nora willing to spend such a large sum thinking of the customers.
"You silly little thing." Seeing the faint self-reproach on Nora's little face, Ron could not help pressing a hand to her head and rubbing it twice. "I never said you did anything wrong."
"Even if not a single umbrella comes back, as long as one-tenth of those people feel grateful and become die-hard fans of the Magic Battle Hall, we won't be losing out."
"And even if the money goes down the drain, we can just treat it as serving our customers while doing our part to build up the Imperial City's umbrella industry."
Nora's unease turned to delight. She happily pressed her