“Now that you mention it, you really can see traces of Morninglight.”

On the crowded streets, Aya and Tiran made their way through the throng, taking in the festival atmosphere.

When Aya was dragged into Minglin’s dream back then, she’d gone straight into fighting and resisting. Later, when the Dark Form crisis erupted, the entire country had been destroyed in a panic, so she’d never had the chance to experience what Morninglight was actually like. Getting a little compensation now wasn’t bad at all.

“Speaking of which… does this count as their traditional clothing? I think I saw something similar in the dream.”

Aya pointed at a shop assistant arranging goods in the store beside them. The assistant was wearing a patterned outfit resembling a bathrobe, with her tied-up bun held in place by a gold-adorned hairpin.

“A kimono. It is.” Tiran licked the candy apple she’d just bought.

To be honest, it tasted pretty average. Mostly, all she could taste was syrup. She’d already expected as much, really. She’d only bought it to make up for never having tried something that appeared so often in anime but that she’d never gotten the chance to eat.

“Hmm…” Aya pinched her chin, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn’t quite bring herself to.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was thinking… isn’t the design of this outfit way too simple? Once you take away the belt, wouldn’t it come undone pretty easily?”

“That?” Tiran gave an awkward little laugh, then suddenly leaned close to Aya’s ear. “Actually, the whole point of designing it this way was to make it easy to take off.”

“Easy to take off? Why—” Aya froze for a moment. Then she suddenly understood, and her cheeks turned blazing hot.

“Mhm~” Tiran blinked. “If you want to see, I can wear one for you next time. Along with a wedding dress.”

“Ahem… L-let’s look for those Dragon-Slaying Party people first.”

Aya awkwardly changed the subject and began looking around.

The reason the little Angel and Chirp weren’t with them was that festival’s so-called “Dragon-Slaying Party.”

The adventurer group’s full name was the Dragon Slayers Adventurer Party. Every member was an S-rank adventurer registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, and they were famous throughout the world for having slain a dragon.

Incidentally, they were also the same unlucky bunch who had tried to hunt Aya down before and had crossed paths with her once in the World Tree.

Considering the strange gaze they’d felt at the beach that morning, those people—who had already crossed paths with Tiran and Aya twice—looked extremely suspicious no matter how she viewed it.

“Could they still be plotting something against you, Aya? Did you steal something from them?”

“They were the ones who came after me! They kept yelling about slaying a dragon or something, even though I hadn’t done anything to provoke them.”

Aya looked completely innocent.

“They probably underestimated how important fame is to them.” Tiran took another bite of her candy apple. “After all, we aren’t even the same race. It’s hard to completely put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

“Compared to that…”

Aya suddenly stopped and looked left and right. “Haven’t we been walking around for quite a while? We haven’t seen them at all! If they’re famous, shouldn’t a crowd gather the moment they show up?”

The moment she finished speaking, the crowd around them suddenly grew denser, everyone pressing together and surging in the same direction.

“Thank you all for waiting! The meet-and-greet for the famous adventurer group, the Dragon Slayers, will be held on the festival’s main stage in the plaza in ten minutes! Anyone interested can make their way over now!”

The speakers set up along both sides of the street and the festival staff all began shouting energetically at the top of their lungs.

“I knew those people would be popular, but are they really this popular?!”

Carried forward and jostled along by the crowd, Aya looked a little dazed.

“I didn’t expect this either… Speaking of which, would it be even livelier if I were the one up there?”

Tiran pinched her chin and pondered that. But when she imagined herself standing onstage with a sea of people surrounding her, all wanting to shake her hand… Well, it was still kind of terrifying.

The festival itself only occupied one street and the plaza at its far end. With the crowd moving in a straight line, they soon entered the plaza where the meet-and-greet was being held.

“Hey, Aya. Look at that.” Tiran pointed toward the edge of the plaza, her expression turning rather complicated.

“What is it… Huh?”

Aya followed Tiran’s finger and couldn’t stop the corners of her eyes from twitching twice. “Hey, are you serious?”

Beside a temporary stall made from wooden frames and a cloth canopy at the edge of the plaza stood several life-sized standees. Their images were those of the unlucky members of the Dragon Slayers.

When they moved a little closer, they could even see stacks of flyers and artbooks piled on the stall, along with cheering signs and glow sticks for sale.

Aya casually picked up a flyer, and she and Tiran fell silent at the same time.

Could this be the legendary power of marketing? They even had support chants. Looking more closely, Aya saw that some fangirls in the crowd had actually raised illuminated cheering boards… In a way, it reminded her of the idols from her previous life.

“No, no, no. No matter how you look at it, this is way too exaggerated, isn’t it?”

Aya shook her head over and over. “The lancer, berserker, and assassin are one thing. Those three really are pretty handsome. But if I remember correctly, there’s also an old mage in the Dragon Slayers. Are you telling me that old grandpa is popular too? That’s not fair!”

“Uh, apparently so… I think I heard someone saying they liked the texture of his beard and the wrinkles on his face.” Tiran covered her face and sighed.

“…Seriously?”

At that moment, the lights on the central stage came on.

Pale blue Magic radiance outlined the shapes of four Magic circles on the stage floor. As the light flickered, all four members of the Dragon Slayers appeared, immediately setting off a wave of enthusiastic cheers and screams.

“It really is those four.”

“Dear audience members! Welcome to the Dragon Slayers Fan Meet-and-Greet at the End-of-Summer Festival!”

A female host wearing a kimono came up the stairs at the side of the stage. With a picture-perfect sweet smile, she waved to the audience, receiving an equally enthusiastic response.

After a long string of introductions and warm-up remarks, the autograph and handshake session began. The crowd quickly formed long lines and streamed onto the stage from both sides… Though judging from the expressions of the Dragon Slayers members Aya could see below, they didn’t seem very good at handling this sort of situation either.

“It’s time for a commercial announcement! For all your housing and construction-material needs, the Graim Merchant Guild awaits your patronage. Our address is…”

“The Iron Arrow Mercenary Corps—thirty years of trusted service! We undertake…”

“Eastern United Fruits—supplying fresh fruit! Whatever you want, we have it…”

“…”

“This meet-and-greet is specially sponsored by the Adventurer’s Guild.”

The two exchanged a glance, then silently flipped the flyer over. On the back, more than a dozen merchant guild logos of various sizes had been printed in crystal-clear detail, along with the Adventurer’s Guild emblem.

Holy crap, this whole capitalist operation is way too advanced for this world, isn’t it?!