That evening, Kiel, who had been responsible for promoting the sale of Element Card, came to the flower shop as a guest.
After enjoying a delicious meal cooked by Nora, Kiel patted his stomach and praised the food several times before following Ron André into the meeting room.
Nora prepared a pot of pine-needle tea for the two of them, then quietly left the room to wash the dishes.
"Your Highness Ron's lifestyle is really enviable," Kiel said after taking a sip of the tea. Feeling the warmth spreading through his body—especially his kidneys—he leaned comfortably against the sofa.
"You're welcome to visit whenever you have free time. I can afford a cup of tea and a meal," Ron said with a light smile. "How are the Element Card doing lately?"
With the conversation turning serious, Kiel straightened his posture.
"Recently, Element Card have spread quite well within noble circles."
"Especially among noble ladies who usually have plenty of free time, and elderly nobles who don't handle affairs anymore. They love gathering together to play cards when they're bored."
"In the past, when they met up, they mostly just drank tea and chatted. There weren't many entertainment options."
"Younger nobles can go hunting or traveling outside the city, but because of health reasons, those older nobles usually stay inside the city. Element Card have become a perfect way for them to pass the time."
The more Kiel spoke, the more excited he became, feeling that the future of Element Card was incredibly promising.
"And it's not just those noble ladies and elderly nobles. What I didn't expect was that Element Card would also spread wildly among younger noble heirs."
"Those people usually have tons of entertainment options, so I originally thought Element Card wouldn't interest them."
"But while they're not that interested in the standard Element Card gameplay, the Magic Duel mode has become extremely popular!"
"The strategic combinations between different spells seem to suit their tastes perfectly."
"Nowadays, when those noble heirs gather at clubs, instead of rolling dice and drinking with courtesans like before, Magic Duel has basically replaced those activities."
"Your decision to integrate Magic Duel into Element Card was truly visionary!"
Ron had been listening with great interest at first, but he nearly spat out his drink at that last sentence.
Your flattery is a bit strange…
Weren't you the one who originally suggested adding Magic Duel to Element Card?
And weren't the spell combinations inside the game also collected and organized by you from Chaos City Magic Academy?
So how did all the credit suddenly become mine?
Looking at Kiel's face filled with admiration, Ron honestly didn't know what to say.
"Ahem… Since the noble version is doing well, what about the commoner version?" Ron asked.
"The sales volume of the commoner version is much higher than the noble version, but proportionally it's still not as strong," Kiel answered after thinking for a moment.
"After all, commoners have very little leisure time and rarely pay attention to entertainment activities like this."
"Aside from those who heard that Element Card are popular among nobles and bought them out of curiosity, very few people are willing to spend money on entertainment goods."
"As for commoner children—who actually have the most free time—they usually don't control any money. Even though a commoner deck only costs 10 copper coins, they're still reluctant to buy it."
"Of course, as Element Card become more influential over time, this situation will definitely improve. So we don't need to rush."
Ron stroked his chin and fell into thought.
In his previous world, playing cards had spread all over the globe, but Ron had absolutely no idea about their early development history, so he had no promotional strategies to reference.
At the moment, Element Card had already entered a stable sales stage. Other than increasing promotion, there didn't seem to be any particularly effective methods.
Judging by the current situation, completing the main quest [Sell Element Card] was practically guaranteed—it was only a matter of time.
"What about piracy?" Ron suddenly thought of something. "Have counterfeit versions appeared? Element Card should be pretty easy to imitate."
"Hm… that's not much of a problem right now," Kiel replied after thinking.
"Nobles aren't short on 1 gold coin, so they wouldn't bother making counterfeit versions just to save money."
"There are some counterfeit versions of the commoner deck, but they're mostly crude handmade copies. The numbers are tiny, and they pose no real threat."
"As for building factories to mass-produce counterfeit versions, it's simply not feasible."
"Our official commoner deck only costs 10 copper coins. It's almost impossible for counterfeit producers to cut costs and sell cheaper than that."
"Plus, our Element Card are extremely high quality. No matter how much you bend them, they won't leave creases and will automatically return to their original shape."
"With all those factors combined, there's basically no room for piracy to survive."
"To be honest, I still don't understand how Your Highness manages to produce Element Card at such a low cost."
Ron simply smiled without answering.
For him, the production cost of Element Card was almost negligible.
Especially after introducing Heartvine into the workshop, the entire production and packaging process had saved a massive amount of labor.
Meanwhile, the Chameleon Radish produced the cards themselves, and the harvesting was handled by nuns.
Aside from building the convent of Stan City and covering the nuns' food and lodging, there were practically no additional costs.
And all of it was voluntary.
Because of the War of the Gods, the nuns were actually enthusiastic about the work.
Ron had never forced them in the slightest.
Kiel didn't insist on probing further into production secrets. Instead, he smiled and changed the topic.
"Your Highness Ron, have you considered releasing a new version of the noble Element Card with different spell illustrations?"
"Even though Magic Duel is interesting and has plenty of strategic depth, people will eventually get tired of it."
"If possible, once they enter that fatigue period, we could release a new version to maintain their enthusiasm."
"There are countless spells across all elements—even seventh-tier legendary spells. We could definitely make use of them!"
Ron gave him a knowing look.
"Don't worry. I've already started producing them."
"The second edition of the noble Element Card has already begun mass production. After some time, we'll find the right opportunity to release them to the market."
Kiel's face lit up with a look that said, 'As expected of Your Highness Ron.'
"Your Highness, I guarantee the second edition will sell extremely well!"
The two crafty businessmen exchanged knowing smiles and discussed some additional details before Ron escorted Kiel downstairs.
What Kiel didn't know was this:
He assumed Ron had replaced all 54 cards in the noble deck with entirely new spell illustrations.
But in reality…
Ron had only replaced four cards.
After all, coming from another world, Ron understood far better than anyone how to guide customers into spending the maximum amount of money.
Scratching the back of his head, Ron watched Kiel leave and sighed inwardly.
"I've really been corrupted by this system…"
"I wasn't like this before."