Brother... The Chained God—no, the Spirit Angel Tolzna now—clearly valued the bond that came with that identity...
Was this how she preserved her humanity?
At least Emlyn could breathe easier. Now that Tolzna had a gift from her "brother," she seemed to have lost interest in his collection.
Abner had just reached that thought when the puppet before him added, "If I use them in battle, though, they'll get damaged. I'll still have to buy more..."
"..." Abner fell silent. While mourning Emlyn's fate, he began considering a plan to open a puppet workshop.
After all, as the Film Company grew, its related businesses would have to follow, or someone else would seize those markets...
Right. Dolls, cards, soundtracks, costumes from the shows... We need to get all of those started.
For dolls, we could open a factory and mass-produce them for the lower- and middle-end markets.
At the same time, we could offer custom commissions, hire master craftsmen, and go upscale—get customers like Emlyn to spend their money...
Abner quickly put together a whole plan. He intended to discuss it with Fanny, Helene, and the others when he hosted them at tomorrow night's banquet.
He no longer cared much about money himself, but the people around him needed it, and developing his future territory would take a great deal of funding. He could hardly rely on his Beyonder abilities to counterfeit currency...
A bill or two would be one thing, but producing them at scale would inevitably draw an investigation from the Loen Kingdom's financial institutions. If anyone discovered that a demigod was doing such a thing, he would never live it down.
While Abner was lost in thought, Tolzna had already taken her seat and begun sampling the dishes on the table.
Only her puppet body had come,