Recaps

Xu Yi visited Master Ranu’s Dwarf tribe and persuaded Chief Shluka to consider letting its craftspeople work for him by offering to build a research facility and fund the tribe. Shluka agreed in principle, though they still needed to settle the details.

• Xu Yi arrived at the Dwarf tribe, was welcomed with a feast, and woke the next morning after drinking heavily with the Dwarves.
• Canby told Xu Yi that Master Ranu was meeting Chief Shluka, then led Xu Yi to the chief after he ate.
• Xu Yi learned the tribe had just over five hundred members and asked Shluka to let him hire its craftspeople.
• Shluka raised concerns about the tribe’s welfare and whether its members would be treated fairly in Bunta City.
• Xu Yi proposed setting up a local research facility and paying the tribe five hundred gold coins a month, with extra rewards for results.
• Shluka agreed in principle to Xu Yi’s proposal and recruitment plans, while leaving the details for later discussion.

Xu Yi learned why Chief Shluka accepted his offer to hire Dwarven workers, then found Stille waiting outside his house in distress after her trip to Anvilmar City. Stille called herself a foolish child for falling in love with a scumbag.

• Master Ranu explained that poverty and a shrinking population had left the Dwarven tribe with little choice but to accept Xu Yi's offer.
• Xu Yi promised Master Ranu he would treat the Dwarven workers fairly, and Master Ranu demanded to know where their houses would be built.
• After returning to Bunta City, Xu Yi found a pale, exhausted Stille sitting outside his house and brought her inside.
• Stille asked Xu Yi whether he thought she was a child, then cursed herself for falling for a scumbag.

Stille told Xu Yi how a former classmate she admired had deceived her despite being engaged, and Xu Yi helped her regain her composure. After destroying the Piano Model she had made for him, Stille decided to stay at Xu Yi’s house for the night.

• Xu Yi asked Stille what had upset her, and she made him promise not to tell her grandfather before explaining what happened.
• Stille recounted how she had traveled to Anvilmar City to give her admired classmate a Piano Model, learned he was engaged, and then secretly met him after he claimed to like her.
• Stille told Xu Yi that the man had pressured her to sleep with him and that she later learned he had deceived other female classmates as well.
• Xu Yi congratulated Stille for recognizing the man’s character and standing her ground, and she destroyed the Piano Model with a fire spell.
• Stille announced that she would stay at Xu Yi’s house, and Vivian brought her clothes to borrow before she went to bathe.

Xu Yi planned to expand Magic Fan production but lacked workers and machinery, so he asked Viscount Leslie to sell him a hundred slaves. Leslie challenged Xu Yi to explain how he would put them to better use.

• Xu Yi took Vivian shopping and to lunch, then reviewed the factory’s production limits and the need for standardized parts and heavy industry.
• Xu Yi planned housing and two workshops for the hundred Dwarves expected to arrive in three days, but worried there would not be enough workers to build them.
• Xu Yi visited Viscount Leslie and asked to buy a hundred slaves to expand factory production.
• Xu Yi defended Vivian when Leslie referred to her as a slave and argued that slaves could be productive workers if given the chance.
• Viscount Leslie asked Xu Yi how he would use the slaves if he handed them over.

Xu Yi put Viscount Leslie’s hundred borrowed slaves to work at the factory and appointed Heinz and Alex as factory manager and assistant factory manager. After arranging housing for the slaves and incoming dwarf craftsmen, he considered how to find a stable workforce and simplify the Magic Arrays needed for future products, then decided to discuss the air conditioner’s test results with Great Mage Camilla.

• Butler Wenlai delivered a hundred slaves on loan from Viscount Leslie and reminded Xu Yi to honor his promise.
• Xu Yi appointed Heinz factory manager at thirty gold coins a month and Alex assistant factory manager at ten gold coins a month.
• Xu Yi told Heinz to settle the slaves and arrange more houses for the dwarf craftsmen expected to arrive in a few days.
• Xu Yi reflected on the factory’s worker shortage and considered recruiting more mages or reducing the skill needed to draw Magic Arrays.
• Xu Yi noticed the Magic Air Conditioner Prototype was still running and decided to speak with Great Mage Camilla about its performance tests.

Xu Yi angered Great Mage Camilla by offering to pay her for research, then learned Stille's reasons for her grandmother's hostility toward business. As Xu Yi explained his plans for product endorsements, Stille offered to become his merchant association's spokesperson.

• Xu Yi left Great Mage Camilla's research room after she angrily rejected his offer to pay her for research advice.
• Stille explained that Great Mage Camilla resented merchant associations because two promising apprentices had abandoned Magic Research for lucrative guard jobs.
• Xu Yi told Stille he had hoped to make Great Mage Camilla Chief Researcher and have her endorse the association's products, offering a thousand Gold Coins a year.
• Stille asked Xu Yi for work, and he offered her a place researching Magic Arrays for the association's new research room.
• Stille proposed that Xu Yi make her the merchant association's spokesperson.

Xu Yi trained Viscount Leslie’s slaves to operate Magic Machinery and assemble Second-Edition Variable-Speed Magic Fans. Realizing Magic Crystals gave the Sains Continent a clean, efficient energy advantage, he ordered Heinz to buy as many Magic Crystal Mines as they could afford and keep the purchases quiet.

• Xu Yi taught the slaves to operate machines that made fan components, warning them to follow safety procedures.
• Xu Yi divided the slaves into assembly groups, and the workshop began producing Magic Fans along an assembly line.
• Xu Yi reflected that Magic Crystals powered Magic Machinery efficiently and without pollution, and that they were plentiful near Bunta City.
• Xu Yi told Heinz to buy as many Magic Crystal Mines as they could afford and to act quickly and discreetly.

Xu Yi defended the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s heavy research spending to Sebas, arguing that investment beyond Magic Fans was necessary despite its cost. As he explained the fans’ success and the limits of protecting their design, he revealed that a rival factory was already selling copies in Sartan City.

• Sebas reported that the guild had only 361 Gold Coins available and warned Xu Yi that research consumed too much income to manage finances responsibly.
• Xu Yi said he considered the research budget too small and had no intention of cutting investment in research unrelated to Magic Fans.
• Sebas explained that Magic Fans succeeded because they were affordable, inexpensive to operate, and suited to families who could not afford a Large Frost Array.
• Xu Yi described how branding and exclusive retail had suppressed imitations in Bunta City, but admitted the guild had no patent protection.
• Xu Yi noted that a factory in Sartan City had begun making and selling Magic Fan copies.

Xu Yi prepared an advertisement for the Second-Generation Variable-Speed Magic Fan and discussed recruiting Stille’s classmates to the Magic Research Institute. The chapter left him noticing someone at the restaurant entrance as he and Stille discussed the researchers’ terms.

• Xu Yi told Sebas that research beyond Magic Fans could lead to new products and help the Xinfei Merchant Guild expand into other cities.
• Stille posed beside the Second-Generation Variable-Speed Magic Fan while Master Anlisos completed a painting for its advertisement.
• Xu Yi praised Master Anlisos’s painting and told Stille he expected the advertisement to make her famous.
• Xu Yi and Stille went to lunch, where Stille said three of her classmates wanted to join the Magic Research Institute.
• Xu Yi offered to cover the classmates’ travel expenses and proposed a one-month trial at ten Gold Coins, followed by fifteen Gold Coins monthly if they were hired.
• Xu Yi noticed someone entering the restaurant and drew his brows together.

Xu Yi met Guildmaster Fasak, who ignored Qimiro’s attempts to impress him and invited Xu Yi to discuss a partnership. Fasak proposed building a Xinfei Magic Fan factory in Sartan City, and Xu Yi questioned how it would compete with the local producer.

• Xu Yi and Stille encountered Qimiro, Reno, Vena, and Guildmaster Fasak at a restaurant, where Qimiro tried to belittle Xu Yi.
• Stille defended Xu Yi, but Fasak recognized him as the Guildmaster of the Xinfei Merchant Guild and invited him to talk about a partnership.
• Xu Yi left with Fasak, while Stille, Reno, and Vena departed separately and Qimiro was left alone.
• Fasak proposed establishing a factory in Sartan City to produce Xinfei Magic Fans rather than transporting them from Bunta City.
• Xu Yi questioned whether the factory could compete with Sartan City’s existing Magic Fan producer, and Fasak said Xinfei’s new-generation fans would stand apart.

Xu Yi showed President Fasak the Xinfei workshop and offered to sell him machinery and teach his workers to make Second-Generation Variable-Speed Magic Fans. After Fasak left, Xu Yi explained to Heinz that the Xinfei Merchant Guild aimed to lead by setting industry standards.

• Heinz worried that President Fasak would learn the Xinfei Guild’s production secrets, but Xu Yi said he did not intend to hide them.
• President Fasak operated the Magic Thread-Rolling Machine and admired the workshop’s efficient production of Magic Fans.
• Xu Yi offered to sell Fasak machinery, train his workers, and teach them the assembly process for Second-Generation Variable-Speed Magic Fans.
• Two days later, President Fasak left Bunta City after concluding the deal with Xu Yi.
• Heinz questioned whether the deal gave up too much of the Sartan City market, and Xu Yi explained his goals of building a brand and setting standards.

Xu Yi showed Viscount Leslie his new Magic Air Conditioner and explained that he planned to position it as a mid-to-high-end product for wealthy buyers. Leslie approved of its price and low operating cost, and Xu Yi asked him to help promote its sales.

• Xu Yi reflected on how selling Magic Machinery could help establish heavy industry across the Sains Continent while he continued developing new products.
• Xu Yi visited Viscount Leslie and installed a Magic Air Conditioner in the cabin by the pond.
• Xu Yi demonstrated the device, and Leslie recognized that it produced cool air unlike a Magic Fan.
• Xu Yi priced the Magic Air Conditioner at twenty Gold Coins and explained that a full day of use cost thirteen to fifteen Silver Coins in Magic Crystals.
• Leslie judged the Magic Air Conditioner likely to sell well, and Xu Yi began asking for his help.

At Viscount Leslie’s banquet, Xu Yi revealed that the cool reception hall was being served by the newly developed Magic Air Conditioners and began using the gathering to promote them. He left Viscount Zetaman curious about the product and ready to hear more.

• Xu Yi and Stille attended Viscount Leslie’s banquet, where Xu Yi explained that he had arranged to showcase the Magic Air Conditioner.
• Xu Yi approached Viscount Zetaman and reminded him that his son Olin worked at the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s factory.
• Viscount Zetaman and his wife praised Olin’s work and thanked Xu Yi for giving him a job he enjoyed.
• Xu Yi credited Olin with contributing to the Magic Fans and Magic Air Conditioners, prompting Viscount Zetaman to ask about the new product.
• Xu Yi began explaining that Magic Air Conditioners were installed in the reception hall.

After promoting the Magic Air Conditioner at Viscount Leslie’s banquet, Xu Yi discussed developing Agricultural Machinery to replace oxen and improve farming. He left determined to pursue the idea with help from the Dwarves.

• Viscount Leslie saw that the banquet had sparked wealthy guests’ interest in the Magic Air Conditioner, and Xu Yi revealed plans to sell it in Sartan City through the Fasak Merchant Guild.
• Xu Yi asked Viscount Leslie how much he would pay for a machine that could replace an ox, and the viscount offered fifty gold coins per machine.
• Viscount Leslie said such machines could help cultivate his fallow land and would attract buyers across the continent, while Xu Yi admitted he had only an idea so far.
• Xu Yi recalled that losing an ox had nearly gotten Vivian beaten to death and resolved to develop Agricultural Machinery with help from the hundred Dwarves.
• Xu Yi reflected on the continent’s low food production and past famine, and renewed his determination to improve people’s lives through machinery.

Akali and Avita traveled to the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s factory to meet Chairman Xu Yi, learning about the guild’s advertising and roadwork along the way. When they asked a dust-covered worker to tell Xu Yi that Stille had sent them, he revealed that he was Xu Yi himself.

• Akali and Avita spotted a sign advertising Xinfei Magic Fans with Stille’s picture as their carriage approached Bunta City.
• The coachman told the girls that Xu Yi had paid to rebuild the road near the guild’s factory and hoped to make it even smoother with cement.
• Akali and Avita left their carriage where road construction blocked the way and walked toward the busy factory grounds.
• Akali asked a dust-covered worker to tell Chairman Xu Yi that Stille had sent them.
• The worker recognized the girls as Stille’s classmates and revealed that he was Xu Yi.

Xu Yi interviewed Akali and Avita for work at the Xinfei Merchant Guild by asking them to assess plans for modifying Magic Arrays. While they worked, Xu Yi left the office and saw the busy Magic Machine Tool workshop, where the dwarves were developing a Magic Harvester for a promised bonus.

• Xu Yi welcomed Akali and Avita to his office, where Avita judged him attentive and considerate.
• Akali joked that they would stay for thirty gold coins a month, but Avita explained they had come to inspect the work before deciding.
• Xu Yi gave them Magic Array plans with modification requirements, and Akali and Avita began analyzing them as an assessment.
• Xu Yi stepped out of the office while the two women studied the plans.
• Xu Yi reflected on the profitable sale of five Magic Machine Tools to President Fasak and the dwarves' enthusiasm for developing a Magic Harvester in exchange for one gold coin each.

Xu Yi inspected the Small Agricultural Harvester and found that its bearings failed under heavy use because the continent lacked suitable materials. After reviewing Akali and Avita’s magic-array work, he offered them positions at the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Magic Research Institute.

• Xu Yi visited the workshop and learned the Magic Harvester ran poorly after operating at high speed because its bearings could not withstand the friction.
• Xu Yi told Canby to add an iron ball roller to the bearings, then planned to revise the magic array to compensate for the reduced power.
• Xu Yi returned to the office and found Akali and Avita working on difficult magic-array blueprints he had given them.
• Xu Yi assessed their different but promising approaches and concluded that both women were qualified to join the research team.
• Xu Yi asked Akali and Avita whether they were willing to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild held its first formal payday, and Xu Yi arranged wages or benefits for everyone at the factory. After granting the workers the afternoon off, Xu Yi told Heinz to begin recruiting.

• Sebas presented the previous month's financial report, which Heinz carefully checked with him.
• Canby, Alex, the other dwarves, and the students collected their monthly wages, and they reacted happily to their earnings.
• Xu Yi and Heinz gave the hundred slaves fans, tailoring vouchers, food, and necessities instead of cash wages.
• After Sebas distributed the benefits, Xu Yi announced an afternoon holiday, and the dwarves and students hurried off to celebrate.
• Xu Yi drew Heinz aside and told him to start recruiting.

Xu Yi addressed workshop repairs and production rules before warning that the guild might stop making Magic Fans as summer ended. He presented a drawing of a new, season-independent product, leaving Heinz eager to see what it was.

• Xu Yi told Heinz to arrange repairs to the workshop roof to protect the guild's precision machines from rain.
• Canby reported that the Dwarves had too little work, and Xu Yi announced strict fines for drinking during working hours alongside wine rewards for good performance.
• Xu Yi told Heinz that the Magic Fan workshop needed to consider what it would produce next, since summer was nearly over.
• Heinz panicked at the prospect of stopping Magic Fan production, and Xu Yi revealed a drawing for a product unaffected by the seasons.

Xu Yi visited the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Magic Research Institute and assigned Akali and Avita a new, simple Magic Array to research alongside the Magic Harvester. After they agreed to meet his production deadline, he began explaining the mechanical principles behind Magic Machinery to help guide their work.

• Xu Yi visited the institute and found Akali's living room cluttered with research drawings and belongings.
• Xu Yi reviewed Akali and Avita's Magic Harvester designs and judged that they were nearing completion of its core Magic Array.
• Xu Yi showed Akali and Avita drawings for a new research assignment and explained that he wanted the product ready for production at the beginning of next month.
• Akali and Avita agreed they could complete the Magic Harvester array and the new assignment in time.
• Xu Yi began explaining how Magic Machinery combined magic-powered Magic Arrays with mechanical systems, starting with the Magic Fan.

Viscount Leslie demonstrated a Magic Harvester that transformed standing wheat into grain, astonishing the nobles of Bunta City. The nobles rushed to buy or borrow machines, and Leslie directed them to Xu Yi, who had supplied the harvester.

• After weeks of rain, the wheat fields outside Bunta City ripened, and Viscount Leslie invited local nobles to watch his harvest.
• A burly man drove the roaring Magic Harvester through the wheat, and it filled sacks with nearly husk-free grain.
• The nobles inspected the fresh grain and questioned Viscount Leslie about how the machine worked.
• Viscount Leslie explained that the device was a Magic Harvester and invited the nobles to judge its usefulness.
• The nobles eagerly asked to borrow or buy harvesters, and Viscount Leslie pointed them toward Xu Yi, the machine's seller.

Xu Yi secured seventeen Magic Harvester orders and reassured Heinz that the declining Magic Fan workshop would become the Household Magic Machinery Workshop. He revealed that a new product based on Stille and the others’ nearly completed Magic Array could enter production in less than twenty days.

• Xu Yi gave Canby orders for seventeen Magic Harvesters due within a week, despite Canby’s doubts about the workshop’s production capacity.
• Xu Yi considered the high demand and profit from Magic Harvesters and resolved to expand the Magic Machine Tool Workshop’s capacity.
• Xu Yi found Heinz worrying that falling Magic Fan sales would force the workshop to close.
• Xu Yi renamed the Magic Fan workshop the Household Magic Machinery Workshop and explained that Magic Air Conditioners could provide heat in winter.
• Xu Yi told Heinz that Stille and the others had nearly finished a core Magic Array for a new product, which Xu Yi expected to prepare for production in less than twenty days.

Xu Yi, Stille, Akali, and Avita successfully tested the Magic Rice Cooker, and Xu Yi explained how its Blazing Flame Magic Array cooked rice evenly. As they shared a meal, talk of Stille’s former crush Vincent brought up old hurt, and Xu Yi changed the subject by asking Akali and Avita to film an advertisement.

• Xu Yi stopped Akali from opening the steaming Magic Rice Cooker with her bare hand, then removed the lid safely.
• Stille, Xu Yi, Akali, and Avita tasted the rice and agreed the cooker worked successfully.
• Xu Yi explained that the cooker would be the Magic Fan workshop’s next household Magic Machinery product and described how its Blazing Flame Magic Array heated the pot.
• Avita served a meal, and Akali asked Stille about Vincent; Stille said he was engaged.
• Xu Yi interrupted Akali’s questions and asked whether she and Avita would be interested in filming an advertisement.

Xu Yi and Stille laughed together on their way to Camilla's Magic Tower, where Stille hinted that her grandfather faced trouble and might need Xu Yi's help. In the research room, Xu Yi learned that a Sartan City merchant guild had hired three of his colleagues and had approached the rest as well.

• Stille told Xu Yi she no longer cared for the man she had once liked, and the two laughed so loudly in the street that they fled from the attention of passersby.
• At Camilla's Magic Tower, Stille said she wanted to persuade her grandfather to change his mind and hinted that the tower might face trouble, asking Xu Yi for help in the future.
• Stille explained that she had first let Xu Yi into the Magic Tower because he had held the door for her.
• Xu Yi returned to the research room, where his colleagues welcomed him and asked whether his guild had more Magic Array work.
• Xu Yi learned that Camiro, Reno, and Vena had left to work for a merchant guild in Sartan City, which had offered Camiro a higher salary.
• Xu Yi realized the merchant guild had approached the rest of the research room as well, though his colleagues had not yet agreed to its terms.

Xu Yi learned that Great Mage Camilla’s funding had been cut in half, leaving her Magic Tower at risk of closing, and went to offer help. He urged her to reconsider combining magic with business, but the chapter ended before she answered.

• Xu Yi visited Great Mage Camilla and shifted from asking about magic to proposing a business deal.
• Xu Yi argued that money was a tool and asked what Camilla would do with enough gold; she said she would spend it all on Magic Research.
• Xu Yi recalled learning that researchers were leaving because the Magic Tower lacked materials and had delayed paying wages.
• Stille told Xu Yi that the Lampari Kingdom had reduced Camilla’s annual support from two thousand gold coins to one thousand.
• Xu Yi told Camilla directly that she had run out of money and asked her to reconsider mixing magic and business.