Royal Capital, Central Street of Peace Square
Early December.
The weather was growing colder by the day, especially up north in the Royal Capital. Just a few days ago, a light snowfall had blanketed the city.
Betty, daughter of Viscount Carl, was sitting in a carriage with a few noble friends on their way to the popular Hotpot and BBQ restaurant on Central Street.
Laughter filled the air inside the carriage, and Betty glanced out the window to see how far they still had to go. That's when she spotted something displayed outside a shop that caught her eye—
A neat stack of Elemental Cards.
But unlike the elegant, lavish noble version Elemental Cards that were gifted by the hotpot shop the other day, these were plainly packaged and displayed right at the storefront.
They weren't flashy—but being set front and center on the display shelf, they were hard to miss.
Even harder to miss was the other item placed right beside them: a beautifully packaged box of noble edition Elemental Cards, with a glaring price tag—
"1 Gold Coin."
And right next to it, the regular version price: "10 Copper Coins."
Just in case anyone somehow missed the price difference, the shopkeeper had helpfully written in bold under the gold coin tag:
"= 10,000 Copper Coins."
Like they were afraid customers wouldn't be shocked enough.
"Stop the carriage!" Betty shouted.
The carriage slowed to a halt at the roadside.
"What's the matter, Betty?" one of the noble girls asked, puzzled.
"Sorry, I saw something I want to buy. You guys go on ahead to the restaurant—I'll join you after."
"It's fine, we're early anyway," one said.
"Yeah, we can all go take a look! What did you see?"
"No need to rush to the restaurant—we already made a reservation the other day."
So the four noble ladies descended gracefully from the carriage, arms linked, walking toward the small store.
Their elegant figures attracted a few glances, but since this was the Royal Capital, most passersby just glanced politely before moving on.
Betty walked up and picked up a regular version Elemental Card deck, turning it over in her hands. Without asking anything more, she just paid for it.
"Isn't that the same Elemental Cards we got from the hotpot place?" one of her friends asked. "Didn't you already get a noble version? Why buy a cheaper one?"
"Umm…" Betty stuck out her tongue sheepishly and grinned. "I like collecting things. If I don't have all the versions, it just feels wrong."
Her friends sighed, exasperated but unsurprised.
Of course… it was Betty, the girl who had to buy every color and pattern of the same dress if she liked it.
The store clerk, meanwhile, was stunned.
Noble ladies… buying a 10 copper coin deck?
He had been hoping someone would finally go for the noble edition. But Betty didn't even glance at it.
He silently took the coins, disappointed.
Then, another customer approached, picking up a deck curiously. "What's this?"
The shopkeeper instantly switched into sales mode, smiling brightly and delivering a full-on promotional pitch—word-for-word what the Gemstone Trade Alliance had taught him to say about Elemental Cards.
The customer was impressed… but not that impressed.
In the end, he also only bought the 10-copper version.
The shopkeeper accepted the payment with a smile, then sighed again after the customer left.
"Seriously… whose bright idea at the Gemstone Trade Alliance was it to insist we sell both editions side by side?"
At this rate, who's going to buy the noble edition?
Even a clueless rich person wouldn't want to feel like they were getting scammed by paying 100x the price.
Chaos City, outskirts.
Ron, accompanied by Guy and Sylvie, paid a visit to the Prayer hall to give thanks to the hardworking nuns.
After some greetings, Sylvie stayed behind to further encourage the sisters, while Ron and Guy gathered the team leaders from each nun group and headed to the Chameleon Radish fields.
There, Ron found the special plot where noble version Elemental Cards were grown. He located four specific cards: Earth 3, Water 5, Wind 8, and Fire K.
He harvested those four cards and replaced them with a new batch of Chameleon Radishes—still the same types and values, but with different spell patterns on the cards.
These changes were purely aesthetic—the stats stayed the same, but the magic sigils were altered.
"I'm not changing anything about your work," Ron explained to the nun group leaders. "Just swapping out a few card images. Let everyone know so they don't think it's a mistake."
The ten team leaders all nodded in understanding.
After they left, Ron turned to Guy and instructed:
"Hold back 30,000 noble edition decks from the next batch at the workshop. The rest can be delivered to the Gemstone Trade Alliance."
"As for all future noble editions," Ron continued, "switch them to the new design. I'll write a letter for Kiel explaining the update."
Guy hesitated, then asked, "Your Highness Ron… is there a specific goal behind this? Changing just four cards—will that really make a difference in sales?"
Ron just smiled, showing that gentle merchant grin.
He replied calmly:
"I'm not sure what exactly will happen… but I do know one thing—
'Scarcity breeds value.'"
Guy nodded slowly, beginning to understand.
Back at the Prayer hall, Sylvie quickly finished her official speech and allowed everyone to rest.
The best-performing groups and the individual top workers were already gathered around the four War of the Gods tables, preparing for another round of heated matches.
Sylvie silently walked up behind one nun who was deep in the game.
At first, the players didn't notice. But then someone caught her expression and began to sweat nervously.
The nun playing suddenly shivered, sensing something behind her.
She turned—and froze.
"Sister Sylvie…"
Before she could offer her seat, Sylvie placed a hand gently on her shoulder and said,
"I'm just watching. Please, continue."
The poor nun had no choice but to sit back down, desperately hoping Sylvie would move to another table soon.