Hogan's report reached Xu Yi five days later without incident.
Xu Yi read the report carefully but did not reply immediately.
The Magic Industrial Base in Stansome City was not funded solely by the Xinfei Merchant Guild. Several merchant guilds from the Lampari Kingdom that had gone there with them also held shares. With Marquis Southgate and some Malo Empire nobles he had introduced involved as well, Xu Yi could not make any decisions entirely on his own.
Moreover, this matter involved the Orc Tribe. Most humans would clearly have had no reservations about going to war with them, but Xu Yi had always maintained a policy of cooperating with other races wherever possible.
The Xinfei Merchant Guild already enjoyed a very harmonious working relationship with the Orc Tribe in the Black Rice Wasteland, and its members played important roles in various departments within the guild. Naturally, Xu Yi held no prejudice against them.
Xu Yi did not particularly approve of Franklin's proposal to attack the orc tribes in the northern Malo Empire outright and capture the beastmen as slaves.
His experience dealing with the Orc Tribe in the Black Rice Wasteland showed that they could be swayed by benefits just like any other race. They were not so different from humans.
If they made more contact with the orc tribes in the northern Malo Empire, it might well be possible to recruit them through normal channels, just as they had done with those in the Black Rice Wasteland, and have them work for the Magic Industrial Base under construction.
What concerned Xu Yi most in this report, however, was that Franklin himself had proposed attacking those orc tribes and even capturing their members as slaves.
Xu Yi was deeply suspicious of Franklin's motives for volunteering this suggestion.
He suspected