Tineya had thought that Micah was ambitious when he wanted to take over Vanitapolis. But that was barely the tip of the iceberg that was Micah’s actual ambition. She couldn’t help but grow excited as soon as she picked up her jaw from the floor.
Rego was the same, except he was slightly less surprised and incredibly happy about his choice to follow Micah from the beginning. As long as he stayed on Micah’s good side and did his best to help Micah, he would be able to share in the glory that would come.
Unlike Rego and Tineya, who were happy and excited, Kairon was shocked and astonished. But he wasn’t alone in that. Dennis and Chris, who followed Artholomew up to the booth, were in the same boat. They couldn’t quite believe what they heard as soon as they stepped into the room.
“You’re done?”
Micah ignored everyone’s reactions and looked at Art.
“Yes, sir. People seemed a little disappointed at the end, but it shouldn’t matter. I don’t think anyone is reluctant to return. If anything, it seemed like they couldn’t wait until the next time we open.”
Artholomew walked toward Micah as he spoke in order to hand over the sack of coins he carried.
“Is this with the prize pool?”
“No, sir. I left the prize money-”
Artholomew caught himself before he revealed the location of the prize pool. He looked at Kairon with slight wariness.
“Is he going to join us, sir?”
“Not at the moment.”
Micah looked at Kairon with a gaze that could either mean he wanted Kairon to leave the room or that he was waiting for Kairon to speak up and refute what he had just said. Kairon, deep in thought, simply said a quick goodbye before carefully leaving the booth and the Cube.
“Should I also leave?”
Chris hesitantly spoke up after the door closed behind Kairon. He had agreed to fight in the ring because it was better than getting killed until he lost all his accumulated strength. But he obviously wasn’t on the same level as the others. He felt that he was, at most, on the same level as Ernest and the two bodyguards. He probably wasn’t lower than the office clerks. And he knew that it was only because of his strength.
Micah looked at the conflicted Chris.
“That depends. Do you want to be Cube’s champion until someone comes along and whoops your ass? Or do you want to be the champion until you prove your worth and rise through the ranks?”
Chris thought for a few moments. From an outside point of view, the second option was clearly the better choice. Chris also felt inclined to choose it. But there was a lack of trust between Micah and Chris, so Chris was a little hesitant.
However, simply fighting as the champion of Cube’s battle arena wasn’t a very exciting gig in the long term. It was pretty fresh to get to beat up so many weaklings for the first time in a while, but it would quickly get boring, even if people eventually got stronger. Fighting day in and day out until someone beat him didn’t sound very enticing.
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“If you will have me, I am happy to do my best to prove my worth.”
Chris’ previously stubborn and resistant attitude from when Micah beat him up was gone like ice cream in a household with several children. At that time, Chris had been indignant and let his anger control him. But after suffering in chains for a day and then learning what Micah had accomplished in that short time, Chris realized that it would be foolish to try and resist Micah. That was one of the reasons he had so easily accepted becoming the champion.
“Good. Then you won’t have a need for the prize pool.”
Chris was shocked and upset at Micah’s decision. But he didn’t voice his dissatisfaction since he had to prove his worth.
“Right. I put it inside the vault below the ring, sir.”
Artholomew sighed after finally getting to tell Micah what he did with the prize money now that Kairon had left and Chris had made his decision.
Micah nodded and hummed in response as he began looking through the pouch of coins Art brought him. It was a little less than he had expected, but it was whatever.
Micah began retrieving coins from the pouch. As expected, there was a lot of bronze, but there were also several silver coins. Micah started handing out bronze coins to the subordinates in the room. Rego, Art, and Tineya naturally got more than Dennis and Chris did.
“Congratulations on your first salary as Wither’s first and second-rank employees, everyone. Here, make sure the others also get their share.”
After congratulating everyone in the booth, Micah handed another pile of coins to Rego to give to Ernest, Bunt, Bruder, and the four office clerks, who had gone above and beyond their initial assignment during the night.
Everyone in the room was happy. The amount wasn’t extraordinary, just a few bronze coins. But it was still the first time they had gotten pol from their superior since they ended up in Hell. And a few of them had gotten it without doing anything.
“Oh, right. Tineya, hand your share over to Art.”
“Wha-”
“If you protest, you won’t get any tomorrow, either.”
“Alright….”
Tineya handed over her too-easily-earned pol to Artholomew with tears forming in her eyes.
“Now then. If you don’t have anything better to do, help the clerks finish up here before going through the documents in HQ.”
“‘Yes, boss.’”
Micah stood up and led the way out of the booth after giving his orders to his subordinates. Micah left the Cube while everyone else stuck around to help the clerks clean the blood from the ring and the floor, as well as make sure that all the passed-out or killed challengers recovered. Though, the ones who merely lost consciousness got tossed out on the lawn, while the ones who lost their lives got five bronze coins in addition to getting tossed out.
Although Micah’s subordinates were happy about their salary, they didn’t get complacent, and they didn’t get greedy. The pouch of coins still in Micah’s hands kept them humble, and they didn’t even consider taking the pol that the killed challengers needed for restoration. If they someday wanted that much for themselves, they had to stay in line and obediently follow Micah.
However, some of them weren’t completely loyal, and the thought of trying to overthrow Micah passed through a couple of minds. But that wouldn’t work for several reasons. No one knew what deal Micah had made with Ystris, the demon representative of Vanitapolis, and if they could continue that deal if Micah were out of the picture. And more importantly, no one was confident they could achieve as much as Micah already had or would in the future, even if they got their hands on the pol in Micah’s hands and the information of that deal.
Even if it would be more satisfying and glorious to be the one at the top, it would be more fruitful and giving to follow Micah instead of trying to overthrow him. Besides, taking it from an attempt to success would be quite difficult. Micah hadn’t unified the town purely through luck, after all.
And if he left with the pouch of coins to absorb it all in peace, no one would be a match for him purely in terms of physical prowess and much less in terms of combat ability.
Conspiring against Micah would be a futile endeavor, whether he absorbed the pol or if he used it for something else. But sometimes, there’s no stopping greed.