Brand

Xu Yi studied the Magic Fan on the table. It looked almost identical to theirs. After examining it closely for some time, he reached out and pressed the switch.

The Magic Fan sat still for a few seconds. Then its blades slowly picked up speed, and before long, it was blowing a steady stream of cool air.

Xu Yi stood in front of the fan and felt the breeze. He nodded slightly. "Mm. Not bad. It's quite cool."

Heinz immediately grew anxious. He reached over and switched off the Magic Fan. "At a time like this, you're still in the mood to praise it? Think of something! I've had someone look into it. This isn't the only one. There aren't many in Bunta City yet, but there are plenty of these imitations outside the city!"

"Did they find out where the imitations are being made?"

"No." Heinz deflated.

"No need to keep looking." Xu Yi waved a hand. "Even if we found them, it wouldn't help."

"How could it not help? We could sue..." Heinz stopped short.

He had suddenly remembered that neither the Lampari Kingdom nor the entire Sains Continent had laws protecting manufactured goods from imitation. Even if he found out who was copying the Magic Fan, he could not use the kingdom's laws to punish them. The kingdom's judges might even scold him for making a fuss.

"You see the problem now?" From Heinz's expression, Xu Yi knew he understood. "I actually thought of this back when I was designing the Magic Fan."

Xu Yi was not saying that just to placate Heinz. While designing the Magic Fan, he had read up on the subject and confirmed that the Sains Continent was exactly as he had expected: it had no such thing as patents, let alone patent protection.

He had known from early on that counterfeit Magic Fans would appear. The device was not especially advanced, and copying it would not be difficult.

"If you saw this coming, didn't you think of a way to prevent it? Are we supposed to stand by while those despicable people copy it as they please? Xu Yi, you know as well as I do that every imitation they make is one less fan we sell. That's one shiny gold coin less for us!"

"All right, don't get so worked up." Xu Yi pressed a hand downward, urging Heinz to calm down. "Don't worry. Since I saw this coming, I prepared a way to deal with it. Here, look."

Xu Yi picked up one of the Magic Fans he had designed and produced, then pointed to its base.

"See this mark?" Xu Yi tapped the circular symbol above the switch. "That's the brand logo I designed for our Magic Fans."

Heinz frowned at the symbol, a half-wing enclosed in a circle. "What's it for? And what do you mean by 'brand logo'?"

"Well... think of it as an emblem, one unique to the Magic Fans we produce. I registered it with the Kingdom Noble Council some time ago. Anyone who uses it without my permission will face severe punishment from the council," Xu Yi explained.

"You registered an emblem with the Kingdom Noble Council?" Heinz stared at Xu Yi, visibly alarmed. "My heavens! You went to the council over one tiny emblem? You... wait. What level did you register it at?"

Xu Yi smiled and held up three fingers.

Smack! Heinz slapped his forehead and groaned. "The Noble Council may not be as strict about emblem registration these days, but a Third-Level Emblem... doesn't that cost three hundred gold coins a year in council fees?"

"Yes, that's right. If you ask me, the Noble Council still isn't flexible enough. They insist I pay the fees for a certain number of years before I can upgrade the emblem. Otherwise, I'd have applied for a top-tier Platinum Emblem straightaway."

"A Platinum Emblem?" Heinz's voice shot up. "That costs a thousand Gold Coins a year! You must be mad!"

"No, I know exactly what I'm doing." Xu Yi guided Heinz into a seat and handed him a cup of tea. "This emblem is the only thing I can think of right now that will protect our interests. We can engrave it on every Magic Fan we produce. Others may be able to copy the fan, but they won't dare put the same emblem on theirs for fear of violating the Noble Council's rules."

Heinz took a sip of tea and shook his head. "I still don't understand. Even if ours have an emblem and theirs don't, what good does that do?"

"A great deal!" Xu Yi said firmly. "The emblem lets people tell our Magic Fans apart from the imitations. That distinction is our brand!"

Heinz still looked bewildered. "And what good is a brand? Can you eat it?"

Xu Yi shook his head. Explaining the value of a brand to someone in this world is getting ahead of things.

Besides, it was hard to make someone truly understand it through explanation alone. It would be easier once they saw it demonstrated.

With that thought, Xu Yi beckoned to Heinz.

"Hey, Heinz, is there anything in Bunta City... uh... like a newspaper?"

Afalia's Father was furious.

For an old hunter who made his living in the mountains, two Gold Coins represented half a month's earnings. He would never normally spend so much at once.

If his beloved little grandson had not fainted from the heat two days earlier, he would never have decided to buy an expensive Magic Fan.

The Magic Fan had seemed excellent at first. As soon as it started spinning, it blew cool air and brought a smile to his grandson's face. But damn it! The cursed thing had stopped working after only two days!

Afalia's Father had even gone out and bought several Magic Crystals. No matter which one he put in, though, the Magic Fan would not budge.

Seeing his grandson's little face flushed from the heat, Old Afalia could bear it no longer. He picked up the Magic Fan in one hand and headed into Bunta City.

The man who had sold it to him had said he bought it from a shop in Bunta City called Heinz's General Store. Now that the Magic Fan had broken, and with that damned merchant nowhere to be found, going straight to Heinz's General Store seemed reasonable enough.

Afalia's Father seldom visited Bunta City. It took him quite a while to find Heinz's General Store after entering the city, but when he arrived, he stopped in his tracks.

The entrance to the store was packed with people. At a glance, there had to be more than a hundred of them.

What made Old Afalia even more curious was that nearly everyone was holding a Magic Fan.

"Hey, young man, what's going on? Why are there so many people here?" Afalia's Father asked, catching hold of a young man in the crowd.

The young man looked Old Afalia up and down. When he saw the Magic Fan in his hand, understanding dawned on his face.

"Sir, did your Magic Fan break too?"

"Yes. What, did the same thing happen to all these people?"

"That's right. That damned swindler!" The young man spat on the ground. "I finally decided to buy a Magic Fan, and it stopped spinning after just one night! I woke up drenched in sweat last night and couldn't sleep a wink after that!"

The young man had spoken loudly enough for several nearby people to hear, and they chimed in.

"Same thing happened to mine. It stopped after one night, and changing the Magic Crystal didn't help."

"Mine was a bit better than yours. It lasted two days, but when I took it out at noon today, it wouldn't work."

"Sounds like I had the worst luck. Mine didn't even last two hours. I was enjoying the breeze when it suddenly quit. Damn it, and I paid a full three Gold Coins for it!"

"Huh? You paid three Gold Coins? Isn't it only supposed to cost two?"

"Two? Why did that damned swindler charge me three?"

"You got cheated..."

Hearing the others complain, Old Afalia actually felt a little relieved.

If his family's Magic Fan had been the only one to break, the swindler might deny everything, making the problem hard to resolve.

But with so many people affected, that damned swindler would face the wrath of the crowd if he refused to make things right.

Just as Old Afalia thought this, the door of Heinz's General Store creaked open.

The crowd surged toward it.

"Hey, my Magic Fan broke! Are you going to fix it or not?"

"Mine broke too! I want a replacement right now!"

"That's right! Give us new ones!"

"Swindlers! I paid a full two Gold Coins for something that broke after one day! Watch out, or I'll report you to the Merchants' Association!"

The store door opened fully, and Heinz stepped out with an odd expression.

As he looked at the seething crowd, Heinz could not help feeling astonished.

How did Xu Yi know this would happen today?

His conversation with Xu Yi the day before flashed through his mind. Heinz raised a hand and pressed it downward, then called out, "Everyone, please calm down! Tell me what's wrong, one at a time! I'm Heinz, the owner of this store. If the problem lies with our store, we'll make sure it's properly resolved!"

"You'll resolve it? Good! I was told this Magic Fan came from your store, and it broke after just one day. What are you going to do about it?" a burly man shouted.

"What else can you do? Pay us back! Something that costs two Gold Coins shouldn't break so easily!" another man shouted in agreement.

"That's right! Pay us back!"

"If you won't pay, at least fix mine! The tigress I live with is at home complaining about the heat!"

"Everyone, quiet!" Heinz raised his voice again, drowning out the crowd. He looked around and pointed to the burly man who had shouted the loudest. "Let me see your Magic Fan."

The man shoved his Magic Fan into Heinz's hands. With so many people watching, he was not worried Heinz would try to brush him off.

But after examining the Magic Fan for a moment, Heinz shook his head. "I'm sorry. This Magic Fan wasn't sold by my store, so I can't help you with it."

"Huh? Are you kidding me?" The burly man flew into a rage at Heinz's outright denial. "I asked around. Your store is the only one in Bunta City that sells Magic Fans. If it didn't come from here, did it fall from the sky?"

"Exactly! There's nowhere else to buy one. How dare you deny it?"

"That bastard's trying to wriggle out of it!"

"Swindler! Beat him up!"

As the crowd grew more agitated, a flicker of fear passed through Heinz. He took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and shouted, "This Magic Fan really wasn't sold by our store, because it doesn't have our brand on it!"