More than a month had passed since New Year in the year 3782 of the continental calendar. The people of the Sains Continent had long since left the New Year revelry behind and returned to their everyday lives.
For the people of Bunta City, however, the start of this year seemed to have brought yet another round of changes.
After taking office as City Lord last year, Earl Stark had vigorously pursued his commerce-suppression and agriculture-promotion policy and targeted the Xinfei Merchant Guild at every turn, bringing virtually all commercial activity in Bunta City to a standstill.
Yet as soon as this year began, the Xinfei Merchant Guild held a press conference in Bunta City, announcing that it would continue investing heavily in developing new kinds of magic machinery and working to improve the lives of the city's people.
Everyone had assumed that Earl Stark would take action in response to the Xinfei Merchant Guild's high-profile activities in Bunta City. To their surprise, however, he not only refrained from suppressing the guild again, but publicly stated in the Bunta Daily that Bunta City's agricultural development depended on the farmland magic machinery produced by the Xinfei Merchant Guild. He expressed his hope that the guild would devote more effort to developing new farmland magic machinery to further advance agriculture in Bunta City.
That issue of the Bunta Daily sold out immediately upon publication. Everyone was utterly stunned by the news.
Judging by what had happened last year, Earl Stark had clearly become bitter enemies with Xu Yi and the Xinfei Merchant Guild. There should have been no room for reconciliation whatsoever.
But didn't Earl Stark's statement now suggest that the two had put their differences behind them and were about to cooperate instead?
The series of events that followed seemed to