"Xu Yi, what on earth is going on in that head of yours?" Stille unceremoniously took Xu Yi's head in her hands and turned it from side to side, looking utterly baffled. "Vena admitted she stole the Magic Machine Tool technology from you, and you still want to hire her at the research institute? Aren't you afraid she'll steal even more important technology later?"
"If I'm going to be afraid of everything, I might as well give up on developing technology altogether. Anyone could steal it, couldn't they? Avita and Akali, for instance. Even you." Xu Yi pointed at Stille.
"Nonsense!" Stille slapped his hand away. "How are the three of us anything like Vena? You barely knew her before this. At least the three of us count as your good friends now."
"Good friends?" Xu Yi smiled. With enough profit at stake, it wouldn't be surprising for even relatives or spouses to betray each other, let alone good friends.
Still, Stille's words reminded Xu Yi that he had never put any confidentiality measures or clauses in place. If Avita and Akali ever sold the technology they currently possessed for some reason, he would have no means of protecting himself.
At this stage, the magic machinery they were researching was still fairly basic and involved no particularly advanced technology, so it did not matter too much. But once they had worked here longer and mastered more and more core technologies, something like that would deal a major blow to the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
Even setting aside everyone else, the major merchant guilds in Bunta City were surely desperate to acquire those core technologies already.
If they learned about Avita and Akali and discovered that these two young women had already mastered many of the Xinfei Merchant Guild's important technologies, they