"If you have something to say, say it. If you..." Xu Yi paused, swallowing the words "have a fart to let out, let it out."
"Well... um... Mr. President, could you have the Magic Research Institute grant us access to more household magic machinery technology?" Ankato asked.
"What's this? Feeling threatened?" Xu Yi looked at him with a smile.
Ankato gave a light cough, looking somewhat embarrassed.
After a pause, he sighed and nodded honestly. "Yes. Mr. President, in all these years, the Xinfei Merchant Guild has never fallen behind any other merchant guild in technology. But look at us now. Our household magic machinery division has only just become independent, and three merchant guilds have already surpassed us technologically, all at once. I... I can't accept that..."
"So you want to reclaim your standing on the technological front?"
"Yes!" Now that he had said it, Ankato stopped being coy and nodded firmly. "Mr. President, those three merchant guilds only made a few innovations in some very minor technical details, but now they spend all day boasting as though they could crush the Xinfei Merchant Guild technologically in one fell swoop. It really annoys me. And from a practical standpoint, this has also had some impact on our guild's household magic machinery sales."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
Ankato had clearly come prepared. He took a document from inside his clothes and placed it before Xu Yi.
"Mr. President, look. These are the current orders for our household magic machinery guild. Compared with last year, orders have increased by seventeen percent overall, so we've certainly seen further growth. But if you look closely, you'll notice that the increase is clearly smaller than in previous years. Here's a comparison of the figures for the same period last year and the year