Is This Your Relative?

"Ah?! Wasn't that old mage your choice? I only told you to find a powerful fanatic." Roger stared at the doll Betty in shock. How could she say something so utterly ridiculous with such a straight face?!

"But weren't you the one who made the final decision?"

"...I only knew there was a powerful old mage in the eastern mountains outside the royal capital. You said he was a fanatic, so I agreed! You can't exactly have some weakling handle this, can you? The more powerful the mage, the more convenient it is for us when they work for us."

Facing Betty's suspicious gaze, Roger shook his head helplessly. "But honestly, choosing him wasn't bad. He's pretty clever."

"Wasn't he extorting us just now?"

"How could that be called extortion? He understood our intentions. And didn't you notice? He doesn't have that so-called etiquette common among the nobles of this kingdom. That will be useful for our future expansion."

Roger began analyzing the matter seriously. "Forget that for now. From what I gathered, the president of the Royal Mage Association seemed to want to send the Magic Net Rings to the border. Try checking the other converts and see whether that's really the case. If it is, it'll save us a lot of trouble."

Sending things down to the mortal world was not easy.

It required fanatics as intermediaries and the construction of an altar.

If mortals handled the distribution, efficiency would definitely increase greatly.

"Are they planning to open... open beta?! That's the right term, isn't it?"

Betty looked at Roger with unusual seriousness. Even now, she could not understand why strange new words always came out of this guy's mouth.

"It can only be considered a test on a larger scale."

Roger shook his head. "Right now, we can only confirm that it works normally for one thousand people within the royal capital. Next, we need to verify whether it can operate normally for several thousand people across the entire Dawn Kingdom."

"If there are no issues, we'll start applying the Dawn Model in every duchy, kingdom, and empire, finding a fanatic in each region to serve as a base point... if we can find one."

The Magic Internet was of critical importance. They could not simply throw it out all at once. If something went wrong, the scope would be too large and difficult to remedy.

Roger remained quite cautious in this regard.

"She finally left! Lord Roger, you have no idea. That woman actually grasped a tiny trace of the power of rules. As long as she was nearby, no matter what I said, you couldn't hear it. This really was... really a case of the goddess being away and the doll declaring herself king! I'm telling you, as someone with the second-highest authority in the Divine Kingdom, you should keep her in check. Otherwise, sooner or later, she'll be walking all over you..."

"Did you finish the task I gave you?"

Roger's head was full of black lines. He desperately wanted Betty to properly restrain this guy. The moment there were no restrictions, he immediately became like this.

Even while working, he could chatter away at the same time... Roger had even discovered that this guy could work, nag him, and argue with the casters in Magic Space all at once...

Honestly, for a moment, Roger felt that the reason the new project had been so difficult to launch was because this guy spent all day chattering outside instead of concentrating. They were just some new terms. Were they really that hard to understand?

At last, under Roger's "command," the book fell silent again... for five seconds.

Then it went back to work while complaining.

With a helpless sigh, Roger shifted his attention to the Divinity within his body once more.

"It seems their internet addiction is pretty serious! So many people pray five or six times a day!"

Feeling the wisps of faith coming from the mortal world, Roger could not help but sigh. The general believers prayed even more often than the fanatics. Who could withstand that?

Whenever his blood pressure spiked, seeing that frenzied faith made him feel much better, and his blood pressure eased considerably.

The next day.

Royal Mage Association.

Hedy the Coffin Bearer carefully put ten thousand Gold Shields into her "box," then casually handed the packed one thousand Magic Net Rings to Wilton.

"Ten thousand Gold Shields—even some marquises couldn't come up with that much. Hedy, are you really not considering joining our Royal Mage Association?"

Wilton looked at her earnestly. "As long as you nod, no matter what you need or what magical experiments you wish to conduct, you'll receive the support of the entire kingdom. Besides, the previous association president was your teacher's teacher, while the current one is your martial uncle, me..."

"The fanatic really is my teacher. I'm only an ordinary convert." Hedy the Coffin Bearer's face was full of helplessness. "Even if I joined the association, I could only obtain Magic Net Rings from my teacher."

Sure enough, this Legendary figure was just as the old man had said... equally shameless.

Hedy could not help complaining inwardly, though she did not dare show it.

After half an hour passed in that awkward atmosphere, the old woman in the distance finally could not take it anymore. "Wilton! It's time to move! Or do you want to stay behind and conduct experiments with me?"

"Oh, I nearly forgot. I should be leaving! Hedy, my dear junior, I've already prepared a shop for you—Shop No. 8. I'll come find you when I return..."

Before his voice had fully faded, Wilton vanished from where he stood, leaving behind only Hedy and the others with blank expressions.

"Young lady, don't let Wilton fool you. He was already like this two hundred years ago... In short, that guy is very unreliable. Your teacher should have told you that. If you ask me, you'd be better off joining our Rune Society..."

"Ma'am, I really am not a fanatic of the goddess, and I haven't received any response from her!"

After an unknown amount of time, Hedy finally escaped from the hands of those legendary big shots and arrived at Shop No. 8...

It seemed even harder to make them understand that the fanatic really was her teacher than to make them take out ten thousand Gold Shields.

There were many mages in the royal capital.

There were even more Apprentices.

Grand opening promotion: participate in the event and receive one of five hundred Magic Net Rings. This was the good method Hedy had thought of for distributing the Magic Net Rings.

In fact, it really was a good method.

When she opened for business, nearly half the casters in the royal capital came to the little shop.

Unlucky Duru also joined the event, but unfortunately, he still failed to receive his own Magic Net Ring.

"What? It only costs one Gold Shield?"

The era of freebies had ended. Unlucky Duru took out his wallet, prepared to bleed heavily, but when he heard Hedy the Coffin Bearer's price, he froze.

He stood there completely dumbfounded.

Only one Gold Shield...

If only he had waited a little longer...

He could have obtained a Magic Net Ring with ease, yet he had ended up saddled with the name "Unlucky Duru."

He knew that the name had already taken shape, already spread through the royal capital's mage circles, and could no longer be taken back.

Before long, people would forget why he had been called "Unlucky Duru," but "Unlucky Duru" would remain with him like his Shadow, until a hundred years later...

Even after more than a hundred years, when his life came to an end, it would still remain on his tombstone...

People's feelings were not shared.

He was still in despair, but everyone around him was excited.

They had finally obtained the legendary Magic Net Rings.

Hedy's little shop was bustling, especially when, a few days later, people were astonished to discover that mages from cities along the kingdom's borders had also begun appearing in Magic Space...

The Magic Net Rings could actually transmit across such vast distances!

Some quick-witted people had already begun considering buying one to send to friends and relatives far away...

"Help! What kind of monster is this?! Waiting online, it's urgent!"

That day, after Roger finished a day of studying, he idly opened the Magic Web to pass the time and saw this post. Then he asked, "Doll, is this your relative?"