Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was already late April.
Emperor André III still hadn't appeared in public. He had only resumed court sessions, with a curtain drawn over the throne, isolating himself from everyone else.
During this time, Ron received permission to enter the palace to visit his "cheap" father.
Mia and Soren accompanied him.
The moment they saw Emperor André III, all three were visibly shocked.
Compared to his usual dignified, middle-aged appearance, the current Emperor André III—his hair completely white and his eye sockets sunken—looked like a man at the end of his life.
Ron asked a few concerned questions about what had happened, but Emperor André III was unwilling to say much. His gaze toward the three of them was deep and unreadable.
After staring intently at Ron's forehead for a long moment, he waved his hand and had the guards escort them out.
This left Ron full of doubts.
It didn't feel like his father had simply been assassinated—it felt more like his body itself had developed serious problems.
Or perhaps he had been poisoned during the assassination attempt, or suffered some kind of lingering aftereffect, which led to his current state?
He looked like he could pass away at any moment…
Given Emperor André III's condition, even if he avoided public appearances, all kinds of speculation would inevitably spread.
The other three princes, who hadn't reacted strongly at first to their father's assassination, began to grow restless upon hearing that his condition hadn't improved.
Even Ron started to feel a sense of crisis, keenly noticing a strange atmosphere within the Royal Capital lately.
He had little interest in that throne, but that didn't stop others from being wary of him.
To deal with potential threats, Ron could only find ways to strengthen his own defenses.
Especially now that he had his own territory, he needed to ensure its safety and development.
So after Illya established the assembly line for Element Guns, Ron immediately invested manpower and resources, pouring in large sums of money to rapidly mass-produce Element Guns to arm his private troops.
Soon after, he received new good news from the private experimental zone.
"Devouring Bamboo… can be used as a magic material?"
The life-sized Ron puppet, who had been staying in the private experimental area, asked in surprise.
Illya nodded vigorously.
"After grinding Your Highness Ron's Devouring Bamboo into powder, it can be used for inscribing magic arrays, and its compatibility with various elements reaches an excellent baseline."
"Although its effect isn't as strong as materials specifically formulated for certain magic arrays, its adaptability is extremely broad."
"So far, almost all magic array patterns can be inscribed using it, and it doesn't require any particularly expensive auxiliary materials."
"This is practically the most universally applicable magic material—bar none!"
Ron's mouth hung slightly open. He hadn't expected Devouring Bamboo to have such a use.
According to Illya, although Devouring Bamboo powder wasn't as effective as some expensive, specialized magic materials, it still met an excellent baseline.
More importantly, its versatility was unmatched. Unlike powerful materials that could only be used for specific attributes—or even a single type of magic array—it worked almost everywhere.
That meant if he could supply large amounts of Devouring Bamboo powder, the production costs of several magic array assembly lines Illya had developed could be drastically reduced.
Although the final products might not be as effective as those made with expensive materials, for mass production, that drawback was negligible.
So Ron immediately exchanged for more cultivation space, expanding the scale of Devouring Bamboo planting.
Originally, a single bus cost over a hundred gold coins to produce. After removing the cost of magic materials, the price dropped to just over a dozen gold coins.
Most of the expenses now went into the materials that carried the magic arrays, while the need for costly inscription materials was greatly reduced.
Not to mention staffs engraved with the Plant Manipulation Spell and Element Guns—their costs also dropped significantly.
With this, even large-scale production no longer posed any financial burden for Ron. He could now run multiple projects simultaneously without issue.
Magic Battle Arenas began to appear all across the Empire, and Element Cards were gradually becoming a nationwide form of entertainment.
Especially with ranked tiers progressing from Bronze and Silver up to the newly unlocked Diamond rank, the layered sense of progression made it hard for players to stop.
Under the Card Development Institute, new types of cards were continuously released, further enriching the entire magic battle system.
Combined with the sale of various designs and skins, the Element Card industry was in a sustained growth phase.
And after the release of the Elemental God Elementia card figure, another wave of popularity exploded.
Aside from the Magic Battle Arenas, hot pot restaurants—spread across major cities—had captured the public's appetite and began expanding into smaller cities and towns.
Lyle took time to inspect the restaurants across regions and offered ideas for deeper expansion, allowing the hot pot chain to smoothly enter its next phase.
Hot pot gradually became a mainstream dining choice across the Empire, with each region developing its own unique ingredients.
Some even introduced individual hot pot styles, greatly enriching the variety of food.
But this wasn't Ron's main concern.
The construction of Tansen City was what he cared about most right now.
By the end of April, two main streets in Tansen City had been expanded, separating pedestrian walkways from carriage lanes.
The related promotional materials had already been turned into city construction films by Kiel. Using Mimic Grass and recording magic arrays, they were played on loop in the city square.
Although the public was confused about why pedestrians were restricted to walking along the sides of the road, they didn't cause trouble, largely because of the jobs Ron had created by opening factories.
So, at the beginning of May, the "Liya" and "Disi" buses officially made their debut on the streets.
Their exteriors were painted in cute pink and orange designs, and under trained drivers, the buses appeared on the roads.
At the newly built bus stops, crowds gathered to watch.
They had already seen the buses and their functions in the promotional films.
Seeing the real thing still amazed them, but it no longer caused panic.
A single ride costs just One Coin.
Many people with decent incomes were eager to try riding this steel beast.
The integration of buses into Tansen City went smoothly without issues.
At the same time, Ron relocated the magic array assembly lines to Tansen City, building factories and recruiting workers.
With the help of Heartvine and assembly lines, workers could produce large quantities of staff and Element Guns with minimal effort.
This not only solved the city's unemployment problem but also attracted young laborers from other regions.
Since losing its status as a resource-rich city, Tansen City had suffered severe labor loss.
But with the generous treatment offered by Ron's factories, many young workers returned.
The entire city was thriving.
The recruitment of private troops had also concluded. Once the Element Guns were produced, they were quickly distributed, and training began.
After testing the weapons, Yuna developed a beginner-friendly training program.
Her real body stayed in Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop, playing War of the Gods with Ron and Sylvie, while her mature-version puppet remained in Tansen City, fully responsible for training the troops.
Summer was approaching.
Every year during this period, small-scale beast tides would attack farmland, causing heavy agricultural losses.
While Yuna could easily repel a few waves herself, that would be overkill.
The most reliable approach was to properly train the troops and let those beasts experience the "dimensionality reduction strike" of Element Guns.
"You're not very good at this."
In the Phantom World, Yuna stood behind the virtual shooting range, shaking her head at Ron's results.
"Tch…" Ron clicked his tongue and continued firing forward with the Element Gun in hand.
This was a training ground Ron had specifically designed to practice shooting.
The environment fully simulated the real world.
Honestly, it was pretty fun.
Aside from Ron and Yuna, Nora was also nearby, seriously practicing with a gun.
With Yuna around, Ron's plan to personally teach Nora how to shoot completely fell apart.
Instead, he could only practice on his own while watching Yuna stand behind Nora with a teasing smile—pressing close and guiding her hands in a "teacher game."
"Hmph!" Ron rolled his eyes at Yuna's smug expression and instantly teleported into the sky above the Phantom World.
Below him was the battlefield for "Battle of the Royal City," where Mia and Eileen were playing a two-player invincible mode.
No matter how much magic they blasted at each other, they wouldn't be eliminated.
Even getting hit caused no pain—it was basically a brainless mode.
Mainly because there weren't enough players.
Given the scale of the Royal Capital map, it needed at least forty to fifty players to be enjoyable.
Otherwise, like Mia and Eileen, if they didn't use invincible mode, they'd either spend dozens of minutes never encountering each other—just looting endlessly until they were ridiculously geared—
Only to meet in the final circle and end the match instantly.
Or they'd run into each other right at the start and end the game just as quickly.
In short, there was no real challenge.
They might as well just play Element Card battles in the Phantom World.
This was also related to Ron's caution.
Over the past few days, he had already had Guy purchase many shops in cities between the City of Chaos and the Royal Capital, modifying them through the system.
By transplanting Phantom Willow into these shops—along with puppet versions—the Phantom World had already achieved full integration between the Royal Capital, Tansen City, and the City of Chaos.
However, aside from his close circle and employees, Ron hadn't widely distributed the Phantom Willow puppets yet.
The situation was too unstable.
Since Emperor André III's assassination attempt, the atmosphere in the Royal Capital had grown tense.
Ordinary people might not notice, but most high-ranking nobles had clearly begun making moves behind the scenes.
So Ron chose not to promote the Phantom World yet, planning to wait until the situation stabilized—at least until Emperor André III's condition improved.
For now, it would remain for internal use, while he continued refining its various modified features.
After all, something as powerful as the Phantom World could cause unpredictable consequences if released at the wrong time.
And just as May began, another major event occurred in the Royal Capital.
The Sixth Prince, Soren, was assassinated and severely injured and is now bedridden.
It was said that he had been meeting a noble lady in secret when the attack occurred.
The details were unclear, but at least he survived.
Upon hearing the news, Ron immediately controlled his puppet and took a carriage to Soren's villa to visit him.
After arriving, he was led by a maid into the courtyard and then to Soren's room.
There, he found Soren lounging leisurely on a recliner. On either side, two maids attended him—one holding a fruit tray, the other peeling grapes and feeding them to him.
Although Soren was wrapped in bandages, something felt off.
"Severely injured… and you can still sit there with your legs crossed, shaking them?" Ron said speechlessly.
"Ahem…" Soren sat up and waved for the maids to leave.
Once they exited, he moved to the tea table and looked meaningfully at Ron.
"For the public, you've got to make it sound worse."
"Since you've seen through it, I might as well be honest with you. Want to talk about something deeper?"
Ron sat across from him, full of questions.
"Do you know who the assassin was?"
"The aura of a beastfolk was way too obvious," Soren said with a curl of his lips, adjusting his tight bandages. "It's like they were trying to tell me the beastfolk are the problem."
"So it wasn't actually them?" Ron asked. "Could it be the same group that attacked… Father?"
"How would I know?" Soren shrugged. "All I know is they didn't intend to kill me—they just wanted to muddy the waters."
"In fact, I only got a scratch. They faked an attack and then left."
Ron scratched his head, reluctant to dig deeper.
Everything had happened too suddenly, and he didn't have enough information.
From Emperor André III's assassination attempt to Soren's, it all seemed straightforward—but from Soren's words, it clearly wasn't.
With so little information, it was hard to draw any conclusions.
The only option was to prioritize their own safety.
After learning more from Soren, Ron finally began taking the situation seriously, shifting some of his focus away from Tansen City and the Phantom World.
At this time, the Fourth Prince in the south could no longer sit still and set out in a carriage, heading back to the Royal Capital.