Michael didn’t want to pull this move, but he had to do it if he wanted to get his parents off his back.
"Mom...please don’t embarrass in front of Claudia."
Bart and Lylia looked at each other and then sneaked a peak at the famous Claudia Montgory.
"Oh right, your aunt-in-law. I see, I see. Then, it’s better for you to look more mature and independent," his mother said, winking at him.
"Shall we go talk to her and introduce ourselves?" Bart asked.
"That’s a great idea!" Lylia approved.
Michael had a bad feeling about this, so he pulled out another move to distract them from embarrassing him.
"Mom, dad. Did you know we had relatives here?"
Once he ntioned that, Bart turned serious and nodded. "Yes, we do Michael. The Vanderbilt branch in tropolis was given to my older brother, Max."
"Were you two close?"
"We’re more like acquaintances rather than friends. I am the last child of your grandfather, while Max is the fifth child. He was born much earlier than , and given more responsibilities and inheritances.
I rember looking out onto my window and watching him and my other older siblings sparring in our courtyard. I always thought they were cool. But I’m pretty sure he doesn’t rember . I don’t even know if he knows ."
"With your father having a hundred siblings, it’s not weird for most of them to not even interact with each other," Lylia added.
Michael thought it was pretty sad for siblings to not even know each other. But it made sense. If Max was the fifth child of Yze, then he was probably given a lot of responsibilities and duties while he was still a child. He probably had no ti interacting with other people.
"Did you et with them here?" Bart asked.
"No, I just heard sothing about them from Jimmy."
Bart got curious and asked. "What was it?"
"They said that the Vanderbilt business here is struggling. They’re buried in debt and are slowly losing their assets in tropolis."
"That’s awful," Lylia gasped.
Bart sighed and nodded. "That’s the way of life. Sotis, we lose, sotis we win. This is a different era now, one where the youth are slowly rising and overthrowing the current hierarchy. I experienced it myself, when you shut down my business."
Bart knocked at Michael’s head jokingly.
But it was true. The Vanderbilt business in the Kings region was completely destroyed once the Reborn company took over.
"Dad, do you want to help them?" Michael asked sincerely. He wasn’t planning to, but if his dad asked him a favor, then he would probably acquiesce.
But Bart refused. "No, son. Us Vanderbilts are prideful. We don’t accept charity even when we are struggling. This is a lesson imparted to us by your grandfather ever since we were young."
"Then should we at least visit them?"
"I think that’s a great idea, honey!" Lylia claid, tapping her husband’s arm.
Bart eventually relented. "I guess we should."
It was only common courtesy to et with relatives. Although, Michael would be lying if he said he didn’t have an ulterior motive for doing so.
According to Jimmy, the Vanderbilts were so buried in debt that they had to resort to selling off their lands just to pay it off.
That was a complete waste.
Instead of selling it to other people, they could instead sell it to him! Since they were relatives, he would even give them a high price to buy their remaining land in tropolis. It was a win-win for both parties!
...
...
...
While everyone settled into their new base of operations, Michael and his parents left their headquarters and headed out to the supposed Vanderbilt estate in tropolis.
Jimmy already did so investigating and found their mansion fairly easily. And thankfully, it wasn’t that far off from Main Street. They just had to travel about ten minutes using a horse-drawn carriage.
Once they reached their destination, Michael looked out the window and saw a fairly large mansion.
The design looked old and a bit out of fashion compared to the modern architecture of the rest of tropolis. By ChatJK4’s estimation, it looked like the mansion was almost a hundred years old. This ant that they hadn’t done any redecorating or renovating in all the years they were here.
The mansion would have looked good as a vintage relic from the past, but the obvious degradation made it look dingy and abandoned. The paint on the walls were chipped, the tal railings were rusted, and there were even so holes on the roof that would surely leak water inside during the rainy season.
This place looked like the kind of setting that a horror movie would take place in.
"This place...looks awful," Bart muttered.
"Dear! That’s rude. What if soone hears you."
That didn’t seem possible, given that Michael didn’t see any sign of movent in and out of the house. And even when he used his Supre Skill, he barely saw any Light mana signature from inside the house. Usually, a mansion like this would need a hundred employees to keep the place running. But now, there were barely ten of them left.
Michael walked over to the gate and knocked three tis. There wasn’t any answer.
He had to resort to magic. A magic circle appeared in front of his mouth as he cast a sound amplification spell.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
It was only then that the people inside turned to look at the entrance. But strangely enough, they just ignored him.
Michael saw them physically turn their heads when he shouted to them. Yet they chose to purposefully cover their ears.
Curious, he looked at his shadow and asked for his trusty ninja sli to do so investigating.
"Fudge, can you see what’s going on inside? Why aren’t they answering?"
The violet sli popped out of his shadow and imdiately jumped into Lylia’s arms.
"Master, the head butler thinks that we are debt collectors, that’s why they aren’t answering your calls," Fudge said, snuggling comfortably in Lylia’s chest.
"That was awfully fast."
Fudge was a good ninja, but not that good.
"Oh, I already spread my clones when we arrived. Teehee!"
He shouldn’t have expected less from Fudge, the nosy nelly.
He was about to reprimand the sli, when the front door of the mansion swung wide open and a man in a professional business suit stord towards the gate.
"Excuse , but my master has yet to decide whether he’s going to sell this place," the butler respectfully apologized. They already had a couple of offers for the house, but they hoped their situation would get better so that they wouldn’t have to sell it.
"We’re not here for that," Michael said.
"Oh, you’re not...might I ask who you are and why have you knocked on our doorstep?"
Bart stepped forward and took out sothing from his jacket pocket.
It was a golden emblem of the Vanderbilt family crest, sothing that all Vanderbilts were given during birth.
The butler moved closer and inspected the dallion. He looked at not just the authenticity of the emblem, but also the family status of its holder.
His eyes widened when he realized that Bart was a direct descendant of Yze!
"I deeply apologize for my actions! I wasn’t aware that a Vanderbilt would visit our premises."
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