After I finished talking with Eta and Theta, I made my way around the room to thank the others for their hard work. I had shared a brief moment with Anima during the fireworks, but I hadn't had a chance to speak with Caraway yet, so I decided to approach her first.
"Caraway, thanks for everything. I feel like I dumped almost all the MC duties on you today. Was it too much to handle?"
"Not at all, Kaito-sama. I actually had quite a bit of fun with it."
Caraway gave me a cheerful smile as she spoke. Her tail had curled into the shape of a heart, making it obvious that she was in high spirits—or rather, genuinely happy. Seeing that was a relief.
Me, Anima, Caraway, Eta, Theta, and Illness-san... these were the core members of my household who had hosted the event. Well, technically Illness-san was a maid at Lilia-san’s mansion, but she spent so much time at my place that I tended to forget that fact.
Even while handling several times the workload of any other maid at the Albert mansion, she still managed to take care of most of the chores at my house. On top of that, she still found the energy to enjoy her hobbies with Nebula. Her competence was truly staggering.
In any case, out of everyone on the hosting team, Caraway was the best suited for public speaking, so I had ended up leaving the stage management entirely to her. Nebula might have been good at it as well, but since she couldn't stray far from the World Tree, she hadn't been able to attend. Consequently, Caraway had handled the role essentially by herself. Alice had subbed in for her at one point, but otherwise, Caraway had been stationed by the stage nearly the entire time.
"You really looked the part. You were a natural up there."
"Hmm, I wasn't really conscious of it, but perhaps it just suits my personality. If we ever have another opportunity like this, please, feel free to leave it to me again."
"Ahaha, I will. I haven't thought that far ahead yet, but if we ever do a second one, I'll definitely be calling on you, Caraway."
"I'll be ready! Though, it doesn't necessarily have to be a party next time. We could plan some other kind of event instead."
"An event, huh..."
Now that she mentioned it, while I’d hoped to host another party someday, it didn't strictly have to be a party.
"You're right. We could plan something different if we wanted to."
"Yes. After all, the budget is more than sufficient, and Nifty's sales have been incredible. Besides hosting events ourselves, it might be nice to run something like a Reward Campaign."
"A campaign like that sounds interesting. But if we're going to do something on that scale, wouldn't it be better to have a physical storefront?"
"I agree. As you say, Kaito-sama, a shop would certainly open up more possibilities. However, opening one is quite difficult. If we're to be considerate of the diplomatic balance between nations, a simultaneous opening across all three countries would be ideal. But regardless of the construction costs... we simply don't have anyone to put in charge of the locations."
"Ah, that’s a fair point... If we had to go out and hire a whole staff, it would turn into a massive undertaking. Finding people we can actually trust is the hard part."
She was right. Finding a trustworthy manager to oversee a shop wasn't something we could do overnight. For example, Lilia-san had Mary-san to run her dragon service, but I didn't have anyone I could entrust with Nifty's operations. If I dumped that responsibility on Anima or Caraway, their workload—on top of everything else they did—would become far too heavy. It was a difficult hurdle to clear.
Currently, the work was split between Anima and Caraway, with Illness-san and Nebula helping out and Eta and Theta providing support. If only there were one person I could entrust with the overall management. But I suppose it wouldn't be that easy.
"Well, we can figure that out as we go. For now, let's just enjoy the Maid Olympia After-party."
"Yes! Oh, Kaito-sama, let me pour you a drink."
"Thank you."
For the time being, I put aside thoughts of stores and campaigns. I decided to spend the rest of the night relaxing at the after-party, enjoying my conversation with Caraway.