Publicly transferring technologies other than those for household magic machinery was only the Xinfei Merchant Guild's first major move of the new year.
On April 1, a somewhat special date in another plane but a perfectly ordinary day on the Sains Continent, the continent's two largest mage organizations-the Sains Continent Mages' Guild and the Sains Continent Joint Association for Mage Livelihood and Employment Security-joined the Candel Empire, the Malo Empire, the Lampari Kingdom, the Mana Magical Kingdom, the Rulson Kingdom, the Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom, and other nations, eighty-three in total, in issuing a joint public statement.
The two major mage associations and more than four-fifths of the countries on the Sains Continent, including the Two Great Empires, had signed a "Mage Peace Pact," establishing entirely new standards and rules for the continent's mages.
The text of this oddly named "Mage Peace Pact" was lengthy, but only one sentence truly caught people's attention.
From the date the pact was signed, all mages on the Sains Continent registered with either of the two major mage associations would be forbidden from directly participating in any war. Violators would be expelled by both associations and deemed enemies of all mages on the continent.
The Mages' Guild needed no introduction. After years of vigorous growth with the Xinfei Merchant Guild's support, the Joint Association for Mage Livelihood and Employment Security had long since become another major mage organization, no weaker than the guild and perhaps even slightly stronger.
If both organizations announced restrictions on the continent's mages, that essentially meant the rule they endorsed would become an ironclad law for the vast majority of mages.
In other words, from that day onward, any mage who wanted to continue making a living on the Sains Continent could no longer take to the battlefield and fight