Nearly every eye on the Sains Continent was fixed on Xu Yi, who had been away for a year. Countless people wondered whether the Xinfei Merchant Guild would undergo any changes, and countless more hoped his return would lead the guild to intervene in the war between the Candel Empire and the Mana Magical Kingdom. Many others watched eagerly, waiting for the Xinfei Merchant Guild to once again bring out the astonishing military magic machinery that had cowed the entire continent...
Yet... Xu Yi disappointed them all.
Returning to the Sains Continent from the Demoncloud Continent after a year away, Xu Yi made no deliberate attempt to conceal his movements. His Mana Airship landed quite ordinarily on the landing pad at the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Main Base. He appeared before everyone just as ordinarily, announcing his return without any fanfare.
While countless people waited for him to make some startling decision, Xu Yi did nothing out of the ordinary. Just as he had before leaving the Sains Continent a year earlier, he took part in the Xinfei Merchant Guild's various affairs as usual, as though his year-long absence had changed nothing.
Well, saying nothing had changed at all was not quite right.
After returning, Xu Yi seemed to have little interest in involving himself in the Xinfei Merchant Guild's day-to-day affairs.
He turned down countless events and tasks that should originally have required his presence, leaving them all to Glerus, the Xinfei Merchant Guild's current Chief Executive Officer.
He rarely appeared even at the guild's regular internal meetings.
Had people not frequently spotted him at the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Main Base, they might have thought he had merely returned for a brief visit before leaving again.
And what had changed within the Xinfei Merchant Guild?
Just as in previous years,