Men Get Jealous Too

It was just past noon when Xu Yi left Viscount Leslie's estate. He looked up at the blazing sun and decided against braving the heat to return to the factory, so he had the coachman Butler Wenlai had sent take him straight back to Bunta City.

Despite the heat, Bunta City was nearly as still as ever. Looking around from the carriage, Xu Yi spotted Magic Fans spinning in many homes and shops, and he could not help smiling.

In less than a month, Magic Fans had become popular throughout Bunta City and beyond. Unless a family was wealthy enough to install a Large Frost Array, they could hardly hold their heads up among the neighbors without a Magic Fan or two.

According to Heinz's figures, the Xinfei Merchant Guild had sold 2,371 Xinfei Magic Fans so far.

After all costs, the net profit came to more than 2,200 gold coins.

Even after Heinz's share and the dividends Viscount Leslie received for his ten-percent stake, Xu Yi's income came to over 1,500 gold coins!

And that was net income from a single month.

The average person in Bunta City earned only a little over ten gold coins a month, or less than two hundred a year.

Rem's salary of thirty gold coins a month at Camilla's Magic Tower put him among the city's high earners.

Compared with Xu Yi now, though, he was nowhere close.

No wonder Heinz kept urging Xu Yi to quit his job at the Magic Tower and devote himself to running the guild.

The decisive reason Magic Fan production could not increase was that Xu Yi had only so much time and energy.

His work at the Magic Tower was not especially demanding, but it still took up a good deal of both.

To Heinz, that was a terrible waste.

Yet Xu Yi firmly refused his suggestion every time.

He could not afford to be as shortsighted as Heinz.

After getting off the carriage, Xu Yi gave the coachman a gold coin, gathered his packages, and went into the Magic Tower.

He passed quite a few colleagues on the way, and each greeted him with a smile.

The Magic Fans Xu Yi had designed and produced had been selling briskly in Bunta City. Even the mages in the tower, indifferent as they were to worldly affairs, had heard something about it. That was how they had come to know the black-haired young man who had once been a complete stranger to them.

To many of the tower's mages, however, Xu Yi's pursuits were a distraction from his proper work.

He was a mage. Instead of diligently studying magic, he had gone off to make some absurd thing called a Magic Fan. What a disgrace to mages!

Xu Yi ignored the odd looks mixed in with their smiles. Keeping his own smile in place, he went straight back to the research room.

The moment Xu Yi entered, several young colleagues cheered and rushed over. Without ceremony, they snatched a few packages from his hands and quickly opened them.

"Mung bean drinks again? Come on, Xu Yi, don't you have anything new?" one colleague complained.

Xu Yi laughed. "Tired of them? All right, I'll bring something different next time."

"Don't listen to him. He's lucky to get anything." Another colleague, a woman, pushed the complainer aside. "Xu Yi, you bring us so many things every time. You're making us feel bad."

"It's nothing. Just a few cheap treats. I'm always taking time off, so you've had to shoulder more of the research room's work. Consider it an apology."

"Heh, you're too kind..."

"Hmph! So you do know." A cold snort abruptly broke the friendly mood. "Xu Yi, don't think making a little money from Magic Fans gives you the right to show off here. Don't forget, you're still a mage. What matters among mages is magical ability. The Mages' Guild's Qualification Certification Examination is next month, and I hear you haven't even passed the lowest level. If you still can't pass next month, you'll be a laughingstock!"

Xu Yi looked up. The speaker was Qimiro, who ranked second in magical ability in the research room.

Ever since Xu Yi had joined the room, Qimiro had found fault with everything he did.

At first Xu Yi had not known why. Later, he had learned from other colleagues that Qimiro was interested in Stille. When Qimiro found out Xu Yi had entered the Magic Tower through Stille's connections, he assumed there was something special between them. Naturally, he had disliked Xu Yi ever since.

Xu Yi knew the more attention he gave someone like that, the more worked up the man would get. So he had played it down and acted as though Qimiro did not exist.

After a while, Qimiro had apparently tired of making a fuss on his own. And since Xu Yi had shown no sign of having a special relationship with Stille, he had gradually quieted down.

Xu Yi had not expected him to start up again today.

"Hey, Qimiro, that's going too far!" The woman who had spoken up for Xu Yi frowned. "Xu Yi may not have passed the Qualification Certification Examination yet, but we've worked with him long enough to know what he can do. I'm sure he'll pass next month!"

"Hmph! Luti, has Xu Yi bought you off with those little treats he brings? You're sure he'll pass? So what if he does? At best, he's only a Junior Mage. Do you think a Junior Mage is all that impressive?"

"You..."

Xu Yi raised a hand to stop Luti from arguing further. He glanced at Qimiro and smiled. "Senior Qimiro, my magical ability is nowhere near yours. I don't think there's any need to debate that."

Qimiro had not expected Xu Yi to admit in front of everyone that he was inferior. Taken aback, he could hardly keep pressing the point. He gave a muffled snort and sat down again, though whether he was actually focusing on his work was anyone's guess.

"What a piece of work!" Luti shot Qimiro a disdainful glance and huffed softly. Then she turned back to Xu Yi with a frown. "Why did you say you're not as good as him? You're just feeding his arrogance."

"Because I'm not as good as him." Xu Yi smiled, looking wholly unbothered. "Luti, I'm an engineer. The first rule is to stick to the facts. I can't pretend otherwise."

Luti gave Xu Yi an exasperated look. "You really know how to keep your cool."

Xu Yi smiled faintly and looked around, but saw neither Rem nor Vena.

"They both took the day off. I bet they're on a date," Luti said with a grin. "I guess Rem isn't completely hopeless after all. He finally thought to ask Vena out."

"I see... That's a shame. I needed to talk to Vena about something today," Xu Yi said helplessly.

"You need to talk to Vena again?" Luti eyed him suspiciously, then leaned in with a secretive air and whispered, "Hey, Xu Yi, don't say I didn't warn you. You'd better stop seeking Vena out alone. Rem hasn't said anything outright, but I can tell he isn't happy about it."

Xu Yi froze. "I only talk to Vena about work."

"That doesn't matter," Luti said firmly. "Men get jealous too. Be careful."

Xu Yi did not know whether to laugh or sigh. After a moment, he shook his head with a rueful smile. "All right. I'll keep that in mind."

With Vena absent, Xu Yi had lost his reason for coming to the research room. He returned to his seat and quickly cleared the work that had piled up. By then, it was almost time to leave.

After a moment's hesitation, Xu Yi left the research room and stepped onto the Magic Lift.

The top floor of the Magic Tower was as cool as ever. Xu Yi gave his name, and the door to Great Mage Camilla's research room slid open, revealing the room beyond.

"Xu Yi, you actually didn't take the day off?" Great Mage Camilla seemed to have just finished a piece of Magic Research and was taking a short break. When she saw him, she was even in the mood to make a little joke.

Xu Yi smiled awkwardly. He knew he had taken so much time off lately that even Great Mage Camilla had heard about it.

"Well, what brings you here?" Great Mage Camilla asked.

"Two things. First, I came specifically to thank you."

"Thank me for what?" Great Mage Camilla frowned.

"For giving me the recommendation to take the Mages' Guild's Qualification Certification Examination."

"Giving it to you?" A trace of doubt crossed Great Mage Camilla's face. Then she seemed to remember something and nodded. "It's nothing. You have a good talent for magic, so recommending you made sense. The recommendation doesn't do much anyway. It only makes things a little easier for you. You didn't need to come all this way to thank me. What's the other matter?"

"I still wanted to thank you." Xu Yi bowed respectfully to Great Mage Camilla, then took a sheet of drawings from inside his coat and handed it to her. "I also have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

"Another Magic Array?" Great Mage Camilla took the drawings and glanced at them. "Oh? This looks like a Frost Chill Array."

"As expected of a Great Mage. You recognized it at a glance," Xu Yi said, promptly flattering her. "That's right. More precisely, it's a modified Frost Chill Array."

"I can see that. But why modify a Frost Chill Array?" Great Mage Camilla pointed at the drawings. "Your changes look rather like the ones you made to that Wind Spiral Array."

Xu Yi was impressed. "You really are incredible. You spotted the most important part at once. Yes, I modified the Frost Chill Array for the same reason I modified the Wind Spiral Array: I want it to provide a steady, lasting output. What do you think of it?"

"Hmm... Overall, the changes are quite good, but there may be a few minor problems here..." Great Mage Camilla suddenly looked up sharply. "Xu Yi, you're not planning to make something with this Frost Chill Array too, are you? Like that Magic Fan?"

Xu Yi smiled and nodded. "That's right. I'm going to make a Magic Air Conditioner."