Count Rivell's guess was, on the whole, fairly close to the truth.
Although Bunta City held special significance for Xu Yi, that significance was purely personal. It made him give the city extra consideration in many of his decisions and offer it special treatment, but in practical terms, Bunta City was indeed no longer that important to him.
All of the Xinfei Merchant Guild's businesses had now moved out of Bunta City, and most of its partnerships targeted entire neighboring countries. By comparison, although Bunta City remained the most important magic industry city in the Lampari Kingdom, it could no longer keep pace with the Xinfei Merchant Guild's current direction and had little influence on its overall development.
But to say that Xu Yi had deliberately canceled his trip and refused to attend the certificate presentation ceremony because Bunta City no longer mattered as much would have been a grave injustice to him.
The urgent matter he had encountered this time was indeed not particularly serious, but no one else could handle it. It involved the elves, and out of everyone in the Xinfei Merchant Guild, Xu Yi was the only human they trusted completely.
Thus, while Stille appeared at the certificate presentation ceremony at Bunta City's Magic Industry Skills Training Academy, Xu Yi appeared in the northwestern corner of the Black Rice Wasteland, barely a step away from the Sark Kingdom's border.
"President Xu, these humans refuse to honor the agreement we signed. They won't let us through." Donoyd, one of the Moon Shadow Tribe's Forest Guards primarily responsible for combat, pointed at a distant row of neatly uniformed Sark Kingdom soldiers and said angrily, "Both sides signed this agreement under the highest oath, yet they still refuse to abide by it. Are humans really so unwilling to keep