Xu Yi's conversation with Marquis Yose lasted a full half hour before it ended.
With so many people milling about the banquet hall, the two naturally could not discuss anything in depth. Still, through their conversation, Xu Yi made his position quite clear to Marquis Yose.
The Xinfei Merchant Guild had no intention of opposing the Falkor Merchant Guild. Strictly speaking, their lines of business did not conflict at all; instead, there were many areas where they could cooperate.
In Bunta City, for example, the Xinfei Merchant Guild had initially wrested an iron mine from the Falkor Merchant Guild, causing relations between President Morgan and Xu Yi to hit rock bottom for a time. But after a series of subsequent collaborations, although President Morgan and Xu Yi had not exactly turned from enemies into friends, their relationship had more or less returned to normal.
For someone as important as Marquis Yose, Xu Yi, the president of a small merchant guild, hardly qualified as someone with whom he had a personal dispute. His foremost concern was the overall interests of the Falkor Merchant Guild-or, rather, the entire Joseph Family.
By explaining the enormous profits to be made from mining nonferrous metal deposits during this conversation, Xu Yi had effectively pointed the Falkor Merchant Guild toward an entirely new path.
The Joseph Family had controlled the kingdom's iron mines ever since the founding of the Lampari Kingdom. Although these had always brought them substantial, steady profits, they had remained confined to that business without making any greater breakthroughs.
One day, the kingdom's iron mines would be exhausted. What would the Joseph Family do then?
Now Xu Yi had expressed his willingness to work with the Falkor Merchant Guild to mine the kingdom's nonferrous metal deposits, and had confirmed that he would purchase