"Mr. President..."
Sebas handed Xu Yi the Xinfei Merchant Guild's financial report for the previous month, wearing a peculiar expression.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Xu Yi asked, puzzled, as he took it.
"Nothing's wrong. It's just... our guild's profits last month actually... actually went up!"
Seeing Sebas's incredulous expression, Xu Yi laughed and flipped through the financial report. Sure enough, it was just as Sebas had said.
According to the figures, after deducting all costs, the Xinfei Merchant Guild's net profits last month had actually exceeded one million gold coins!
This was not only a substantial increase over the previous few months, but also a considerable improvement over the same period last year.
No wonder Sebas looked so bewildered. Their original projections had suggested that the Magic Industry Administration's ban would cause the Xinfei Merchant Guild's overall performance to plummet and its profits to fall sharply.
Yet reality had turned out quite differently from what most people had expected.
Although both the Xinfei Merchant Guild's sales and total profits had dropped severely in the first month after the Magic Industry Administration issued its ban, that decline had stopped completely in the second month. The figures had continued climbing ever since, and last month they had even surpassed those of the same period last year.
"There's really nothing strange about it," Kennard, the guild's Chief Executive Officer, said with a smile. "Although the administration's ban prevents us from manufacturing magic machinery in the Lampari Kingdom, the Commerce Office has never prohibited us from continuing to sell magic machinery within the kingdom. In practice, there isn't much difference."
"Yes. Relocating all our factories and workshops affected production, but enough time has passed now that our guild has resumed normal operations. Things really aren't much different from before. If we had