「I heard about it! This shop is going to be hosting a big event in this city, aren’t you!?」

With a dramatic flourish, Aroma burst into the shop.

It was a busy weekend afternoon, and a large number of customers were present, drawing many gazes to Aroma at once.

Undeterred, Aroma strode straight toward me through the crowd.

「And on top of that! I heard you’ll be using Exchange Suits! I feel such a strong sense of kinship!」

「Ah, well… it’s not like it’s officially decided yet.」

「My apologies. But once I heard about it, I simply couldn’t sit still!」

If she went out of her way to come directly to the shop, then she must have been genuinely curious.

Aroma isn’t a resident of this city.

Normally, she only comes by about twice a month, usually to participate in shop tournaments.

For her to rush over with this much momentum meant exactly what it looked like.

「An event! Oh, what a wonderful word it is! I’ve always loved events by nature!」

「You’re an event junkie, then?」

「Woohoo—festival time!」

Apparently, because she had been frail as a child, once she became healthier, she developed a habit of enthusiastically throwing herself into anything resembling an event.

That said, until recently, Aroma had been averse to fighting.

Because of that, she had only been able to help behind the scenes.

But now, that was no longer the case.

This event was planned around fighters in monster costumes battling participants.

In that sense, Aroma—who owned an Exchange Suit and had proven her ability as a fighter—was clearly well-suited to serve as event staff.

「I, too, own an Exchange Suit.」

「Yes, you do.」

「And I believe… gathering enough Exchange Suits for this event will be quite difficult, won’t it be?」

「You’re exactly right.」

Why?

Because they’re expensive.

Buying just one costs about as much as a rare card.

…Actually, thinking about it that way, that’s not entirely out of reach, is it?

Ahem.

In the first place, Exchange Suits are still very much a work in progress.

Functionally, they’re nearly complete, but in terms of cost, mass-market distribution is still a long way off.

「I can help!」

「My my, what a smooth sales pitch.」

At this point, it almost felt rude not to accept her help.

In truth, Aroma had grown into a capable fighter.

I would have liked to ask her to help on our side anyway.

More importantly, for someone aiming to go pro eventually, experience like this would surely be valuable.

That said—

「Well, first things first, the event itself hasn’t even been finalized yet.」

「Is that so?」

「Yeah. To put it simply, we’re stuck at the planning stage.」

As I said that, I headed toward the back area of the shop.

Gesturing for Aroma to follow, I opened the door, and inside was—

「This is incredible! I’ve already completed an entire proposal draft! I’m such an amazing planner!」

Elea was shouting with a dangerously intense smile on her face.

It seemed the planning was not going well.

She was using an Ignis Board to project cute, animal-themed monsters unrelated to the Empire deck, apparently just playing around.

Card games that use solid-vision–like projection technology often allow monsters to be projected even without an actual fight.

Thinking that, something about Elea’s lines felt familiar.

「To give people hope, and then snatch it away! That moment is when humans show their most beautiful expressions!」

I’ve definitely heard that line before!

「That is my fan service! Ahahahahaha!」

IV!? Is that you!?

Yu-Gi-Oh doesn’t exist in this world, so where did she even pick that line up!?

At the same time, the cute animal monsters transformed.

They became grotesque, horror-like animal monsters.

Is this like how Fluffals turn into Frightfurs?

IV and Sora—two classic examples of troublesome villains—are about to show up, Aroma!

Translator’s note: Apparently, IV was from Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal, and Sora (Sora Perse) is from Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. Also, Fluffals are an archetype EARTH fairy monsters used by Sora Perse. It’s closely related to the “Edge Imp” and “Frightfur” archetypes.

「My proposal was wonderful! But despite that—despite that—it’s nowhere near ready to show to others!!」

And then Elea collapsed.

Ah, I see.

She must have thought she had something good, only to realize upon calming down that it was unusable.

Seeing this, Aroma covered her mouth with a hand.

「Elea, how’s the progress? Same as always?」

「It’s no good! Aaaah! I never thought the line I always wanted to say would become something I hated this much!」

At present, Elea was completely stuck on the planning.

Honestly, the event's timing wasn’t urgent.

We could finalize the concept first and schedule it later without issue.

In fact, it might even be better to let the idea sit and mature.

After all, technological innovation could dramatically reduce the cost of Exchange Suits.

「In my case, I might’ve worked better with an actual deadline. Knowing it doesn’t have to be done right now is pulling me toward laziness…」

「Well, if you’re hitting a wall, it might be better not to push yourself too hard right now. Some things won’t move forward until that person’s schedule is settled anyway.」

When I entrusted Elea with the planning, I told her we’d help however we could.

But in truth, none of us had really been able to help.

After all, we were all amateurs.

If anything, Elea—with her experience in video streaming—was the most experienced among us.

If even she were stuck, we’d need advice from a professional at this point.

「By the way… what was that just now?」

「That line? It was something you said in your sleep, Manager.」

「No, I meant what you’re stuck on—wait, my sleep talking!?」

No way.

Was I doing fan service in my sleep!?

Honestly, my memories of my past life are over twenty years old at this point.

I only remember the broad strokes of stories.

There’s no way I could perfectly reproduce IV’s fan-service scene!

Well, what’s done is done.

That wasn’t the main issue anyway, so I decided to set it aside.

Whether it should be set aside or not is another matter.

「Originally, the concept was staff dressing up as monsters and fighting, right?」

「Yeah.」

「But the number of monsters that can actually be recreated with Exchange Suits is surprisingly small…」

Apparently, Exchange Suits are primarily for changing outfits.

They can’t fully transform someone into a monster.

Which means the monsters that can be portrayed are limited to humanoid types.

Essentially, only cards like ＜Imperial Vanguard Eclairreur＞ qualify.

That really could undermine the entire foundation of the event.

「Ehh, um… Lady Elea.」

「Oh, why hello there, Aroma. What is it?」

「I had a thought…」

There was, however, one solution to this problem.

I had thought of it myself while listening, and it seemed Aroma had reached the same conclusion.

「…Could you combine it with the Ignis Board’s projection function?」

In other words, monster-type visuals could be handled via projection.

That would slightly diverge from the concept of town revitalization through Exchange Suits.

However, the core of the plan was that the shop would host the event.

Using Exchange Suits was not the ultimate goal.

Most likely, Elea had—

「Ah.」

—forgotten that fundamental premise.

「For now… pushing yourself too hard won’t help. Why don’t we take a break?」

「…Yes.」

With that, I headed upstairs to the second-floor living room to get her a drink.

Naturally, I didn’t forget one for Aroma as well.