Household Magic Machinery Production Workshop

"Hey, Canby, weren't you complaining a while ago that you had nothing to do? Good news: you've got work now, and lots of it!" Xu Yi grinned and gave Canby a hard slap on the shoulder, only to hurt his own hand against the Dwarf's tough hide.

"What kind of work? Magic Harvesters?" Canby's eyes lit up.

Xu Yi waved a stack of orders. "That's right. Seventeen Magic Harvesters, all due within a week. What do you think?"

Canby's delighted expression instantly collapsed when he heard the number.

"Seventeen? In one week?" Canby shook his head miserably. "That's ridiculous. Even working flat out, we can't make one a day right now."

"Hey, that's not my problem. I've accepted the orders. If you can't finish them, don't blame me for docking your pay next month." Putting on the face of a ruthless capitalist, Xu Yi stuffed the orders into Canby's arms and left the Magic Machine Tool Workshop humming a tune.

Of course he was in a good mood.

Seventeen whole Magic Harvesters!

At seventy Gold Coins apiece, that came to a full 1,190 Gold Coins!

And according to Sebas's cost calculations, each Magic Harvester cost less than ten Gold Coins to make.

In other words, the Xinfei Merchant Guild earned a full sixty Gold Coins on every Magic Harvester it sold!

That was a profit of roughly six hundred percent! Even calling it a fortune would be an understatement!

Xu Yi had initially planned to set the price at the fifty Gold Coins Viscount Leslie had suggested. Later, however, the Viscount advised him to raise it further, assuring him the machines would still sell.

The facts proved Viscount Leslie right.

After witnessing the Magic Harvester firsthand, more than twenty nobles had expressed interest in buying one on the spot.

Even when Xu Yi quoted the steep price of seventy Gold Coins each, they agreed without batting an eye.

It made Xu Yi wonder if he had still priced them too low.

He had ended up taking only seventeen orders because he knew the Magic Machine Tool Workshop lacked the capacity for more, so he had politely turned several nobles down.

Those nobles had been quite displeased, believing Xu Yi was looking down on them.

Fortunately, Viscount Leslie stepped in and offered to lend them his own Magic Harvester, settling the matter.

The Magic Machine Tool Workshop still doesn't have enough capacity. I need to speed up research into forging machinery. If orders keep growing and we can't fill them, we'll have to watch all that money slip through our fingers. Xu Yi felt a pang of frustration.

As for Canby's complaint that they could not fulfill the orders, Xu Yi paid it no mind.

They had only been making less than one a day because the Magic Harvester had still been in development.

Now that development was complete and formal production had begun, they naturally would not remain that inefficient.

Seventeen machines in one week was a figure Xu Yi had calculated carefully. With Canby and the other Dwarves' abilities, they could certainly manage it.

Of course, it would be a tiring week.

But Canby had been the one to claim that Dwarves were the hardest workers around and complain that Xu Yi gave them too little to do.

Pondering how to increase the Magic Machine Tool Workshop's capacity, Xu Yi strolled over to the Magic Fan production workshop.

Since late August had arrived, the workshop had grown noticeably quieter.

Before that, it had run at full capacity almost constantly, with the slaves working overtime for days on end.

Once it finished Karma City's largest order of three thousand Magic Fans, however, the workshop's workload eased at once.

Just as Xu Yi had predicted, with summer nearing its end, far fewer households wanted to buy Magic Fans. Demand had fallen sharply, and orders no longer poured in as they once had.

Xu Yi scanned the much quieter workshop and spotted Heinz crouching in a corner, looking forlorn and lost in thought.

Heinz did not notice him until Xu Yi walked over and crouched beside him.

"Huh? Xu Yi, when did you get here?"

"Just now." Xu Yi smiled. "What's on your mind? You look worried."

"How could I not be?" Heinz gave a bitter smile and gestured at the workshop. "Look at it. Magic Fan orders have dropped so much, and next month we might not sell a single one. How could I not worry? At this rate, we may have to shut the workshop down next month."

"Didn't we see this coming?" Xu Yi said unconcernedly.

Heinz turned and studied him. "Xu Yi, tell me honestly. Are you planning to give up on the Magic Fan workshop?"

Xu Yi blinked. "Who told you that?"

"Then where's the new product you talked about?" Heinz held out a hand. "Don't think I haven't noticed. You helped Canby's Magic Machine Tool Workshop develop that Magic Harvester, and it seems to be selling well. Between that and the Machine Tools they were already making, they're swamped every day. Meanwhile, our Magic Fan workshop has less and less to do. We might end up closing for good. How is that not playing favorites?"

Xu Yi did not know whether to laugh or sigh.

"Heinz, what have you been imagining over here? Both the Magic Fan workshop and the Magic Machine Tool Workshop are vital to our guild. Why would I look after one and abandon the other? Yes, the Magic Machine Tool Workshop has plenty of work right now, but if you think I'm giving up on this one, you couldn't be more wrong. In fact, as of today, this workshop needs a new name. It shouldn't be called the Magic Fan workshop anymore. It should be the Household Magic Machinery Workshop."

"The Household Magic Machinery Workshop?" Heinz stared at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means this workshop won't just make Magic Fans. It'll make all kinds of Magic Machinery for the home. Didn't I have you produce thirty Magic Air Conditioners a while ago? Have you forgotten?"

"Of course not. But Xu Yi, those Magic Air Conditioners weren't nearly as popular as you said they'd be. After the first thirty sold, no new orders came in."

Xu Yi could not help rolling his eyes. "Of course not. A Magic Air Conditioner costs twenty Gold Coins. Did you think it would be easy to sell? Besides, summer was already more than half over. How many people would buy a luxury like that so late in the season? But don't worry. Unlike a Magic Fan, a Magic Air Conditioner can be used in winter too."

"In winter? You're joking, right?" Heinz's eyes widened. "The air it blows is so cool. Wouldn't it freeze people to death in winter?"

"Heinz, why are you so fixated on that?" Xu Yi sighed in exasperation. "Who said a Magic Air Conditioner could only blow cold air? An air conditioner conditions the air. If it can cool the air, it can warm it too. When the weather turns cold, we'll start selling Magic Air Conditioners that provide heat. I'm certain they'll sell like hotcakes."

Heinz's eyes lit up. "Really? You can actually warm the air with one?"

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"That's great! We'll make another fortune!" Heinz sprang to his feet.

Xu Yi sighed helplessly. No matter how hard he tried to share his approach to business with Heinz, the man remained focused on immediate gains. It seemed he was suited to being a Factory Manager, but not much more.

There was no helping it. A person's outlook came from his experiences and surroundings. Before meeting Xu Yi, Heinz had been the owner of a small general store. How could he have developed a broader vision?

After a moment of excitement, Heinz suddenly remembered something and slumped again.

"But Xu Yi, summer's ending, and winter's still months away. What are we supposed to do until then?"

Xu Yi glanced at him. "Have you forgotten what I told you last time? Here's some good news: Stille and the others have almost finished developing the core Magic Array. Once I spend some time fitting it into the machine's design and run a few tests, we can put the new product into production. If we move quickly, it'll take less than twenty days."

"Really? That's wonderful!" Relieved that the workshop would not truly stop operating, Heinz finally relaxed.

Seeing Heinz swing between hope and worry, Xu Yi sighed helplessly again.

This time, though, he was not sighing over Heinz. He was sighing over the Sains Continent's backward industrial system.

Back in his original world, electric fan manufacturers did not have to stop working the moment summer ended.

If nobody was buying, they could simply make fans, store them, and sell them the following summer.

Switching production was easy, too. The powerful industrial system of his original world allowed those manufacturers to make other products with only minor changes to their production lines. They certainly would not be stuck relying on electric fans alone.

On the Sains Continent, however, the materials meant that Magic Fans left in storage for a year would likely include a great many defective units by the following summer.

Moreover, every Machine Tool and worker in the current Magic Fan workshop was tailored specifically to Magic Fan production. Switching products would require redesigning the Machine Tools and retraining the workers.

In other words, Xu Yi would have to keep busy for the next twenty days.

"Building a complete industrial system sounds simple, but doing it is harder than climbing to the heavens." Xu Yi gave a wry smile. "Then again, in a world full of mages, climbing to the heavens might not be that hard..."