“Clara dear, the people here to discuss the collaboration have arrived.”
Fland’s greeting broke Clara’s train of thought.
“Oh! They’re here!”
Back to reality, Clara noticed the rough sketches on the table were being manipulated by Nyx’s tentacles—already finished.
Although she had only roughly sketched a few careless lines, in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a beautifully polished final draft, all in her own art style, even the troublesome screentone paper was neatly applied.
Compared to before, Nyx’s drawing efficiency had improved once again.
This was bad. If things continued like this, she’d become utterly dependent on Nyx—a useless person who couldn’t even rely on her own drawing skills anymore.
Clara shook her head and asked again, “Has President Chesya arrived? Since this is about cooperation, she should be here too. At least introduce me to them, right?”
“The president said she’ll come later and wants you to meet them first. There are two people—one of them seems to know you, so it shouldn’t be a problem… Fland and Lucía won’t be coming; they’re hiding out in the research room. Good luck~”
Shifting all the trouble onto Clara, Fland and Lucía were avoiding the situation.
“…”
Clara sighed helplessly. But it wouldn’t do to keep the guests waiting too long. After tidying herself up a bit, she hurried along in small steps toward the meeting room.
The so-called meeting room was nothing more than a narrow skybridge, with pillars wrapped in trellises. Around it lay a garden filled with birdsong and blooming flowers—a stunning scene, hard to imagine it was underground…
Of course, the birdsong was just a looped audio track.
Seated inside the skybridge were two people waiting—a man and a woman—with tea on the table, likely brought over by Fland just moments ago.
Taking a closer look, Clara recognized the woman.
“Ah! Miss Damo?”
“Miss Clara, long time no see… Here’s a gift.”
The sharp, purple pixie-cut woman with glasses nodded and lifted an exquisite bag with both hands…
Oh! It was a gift box filled with perfectly chosen snacks, right in Clara’s sweet spot!
“Has your injury healed completely?”
“Oh, you’re too kind!”
Clara smiled brightly as she accepted the gift and set it aside, then answered, “I’m completely fine now!”
She lifted her skirt to show the previously injured spot—the deep, bone-searing scar the size of a knuckle had completely healed, leaving no trace on her smooth thigh.
But she immediately realized this was inappropriate and hastily dropped her hand, patting her skirt and quickly changing the subject, “H-How’s Sista doing?”
For some unknown reason, upon hearing Clara say that, the man’s expression suddenly shifted, his face tightening with tension.
“Uh, what’s wrong?”
Ogata Damo hurried to explain, “Sista is fine too and will be back in action in the next few days… This is Mr. S, the producer of Sigma Heroes.”
“Hm? A codename? The producer also uses a stage name?”
The gentleman wearing a vertically striped suit, a hat, and a small goatee removed his hat and held it respectfully against his chest, bowing slightly as he introduced himself: “My name is S (Ace), and I presume you must be the magical girl who’s been the talk of the town today, Miss Clara.”
Though sporting a small goatee, the producer looked young—probably around Clara’s age, under 40.
“Mr. S, nice to meet you. I’m Clara.”
Clara behaved politely like a well-mannered child. S smiled with narrowed eyes and then asked:
“Then you’re already familiar with the collaboration details for today, right?”
“Uh, no.”
Clara answered honestly, explaining, “My boss only said someone wanted to cooperate with us but didn’t tell me the specifics of the project or the content… And she’s not even in the office right now. If you don’t mind, could you two explain what exactly this cooperation will involve?”
S looked surprised—he clearly hadn’t expected such an unreliable company.
“I want you to collaborate with our ‘Sigma series.’ Simply put, I want to leverage your recent popularity to further boost the fame of Sigma Heroes.”
Because Producer S was an expert at riding trends and creating buzz, Sigma Heroes had gained huge popularity and a solid fanbase.
And Clara was, aside from Alice, the biggest recent sensation. She also happened to have had some contact with Ogata Damo. These factors culminated in this cooperation opportunity.
“This is an opportunity for you too. Partnering with us will guarantee your popularity doesn’t fade quickly and create a new growth point in your fanbase…”
S stroked his goatee thoughtfully and lowered his voice:
“Miss Clara, you don’t want to be the kind of hero who shines brightly once and then disappears, do you?”
Ephemeral heroes like that were common in Central City, where competition was fierce. People’s attention shifted quickly, and many worse heroes never even got their ‘moment.’
By Clara’s personal standards, she didn’t like this kind of hype—her ideal hero wasn’t like that…
But from the company’s perspective, collaborating with the ‘Sigma series,’ which maintained steady popularity after debut, was a smart business move.
No wonder the president accepted eagerly…
“So when you say collaboration, what exactly does that involve?”
S nodded and replied, “Besides appearing together on outdoor variety shows, naturally we’d respond to incidents together.”
“Participating in variety shows I understand… but responding together? Do I get notified when there’s a call to action and then meet up on-site? Wouldn’t that affect efficiency?”
“Hmm, that’s not ideal, so our proposal is that during the collaboration period, you and the Sigma series heroes will live together in a training camp. This is the variety show…”
“Huh? A training camp? A variety show?”
Clara’s eyes widened as she blurted out. Ogata Damo explained: “Don’t worry, there’s a dedicated dormitory for girls. You won’t be living with the guys… Fans wouldn’t accept that.”
“Speaking of which, the Sigma series is targeted at female fans, right? If I collaborate with them, won’t their fans attack me?”
Those female fans were far from rational. Clara had a terrible impression of a woman named Psycho—just because she’d been carried bridal-style by White Storm Princess, Clara had nearly been torn apart.
Seeing Clara’s hesitation, Ogata Damo reassured her: “Don’t worry, we’ve considered that possibility. So your role will be the ‘little sister’ of the Sigma series.”
“…Little sister?”
“A temporary youngest sister? You can think of it as the group’s pet.”
“Would fans accept such a role?”
S explained, “We’ll guide fan behavior. As long as you’re genuine and don’t have obvious flirtations with any group members, fans won’t attack you. If you perform well enough, they’ll even protect you…
Those fans are actually pretty dumb and easy to manipulate.”
Is that really how the producer views the fans?!
“Is everyone here? Sorry I’m late!”
A red-haired loli wearing a suit and tie ran over from a distance. Chesya sat down and asked:
“How did your discussion go?”
Clara replied, “Just now, Mr. S and Miss Damo explained the collaboration details to me.”
Chesya crossed her arms, raised her chin with eyes closed, and snorted at S:
“Good timing~ Mr. S, I want to add one more condition, and you have no right to refuse~”
Though small in stature, she spoke arrogantly.
S raised an eyebrow but didn’t get angry, simply responding, “Go ahead…”
“You can handle the variety show arrangements, but I want to decide the location for the training camp myself!”