Recaps

Xu Yi recruited a separate, multiracial force of personal guards while focusing on the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s long-running Fire-Type Mana Engine project. The engine’s success promised extreme speeds for magic locomotives and airships, and Heinz began to suspect Xu Yi had ambitions reaching far beyond the Lampari Kingdom.

• Hart and Heinz oversaw Xu Yi’s strict personal-guard recruitment, which sought human, elven, and dwarven guards, with orcs also likely to be recruited.
• Heinz questioned Xu Yi about forming a separate guard force, but Xu Yi dismissed his concerns and directed his attention to a device at the research center.
• Xu Yi revealed that the device was the newly developed Fire-Type Mana Engine, and Canby confirmed its theoretical potential for machinery to exceed a thousand kilometers per hour.
• Xu Yi said the engine could let magic locomotives reach at least four hundred kilometers per hour and argued that travel across the larger empires would require greater ambition.
• Heinz recalled the multiracial guard recruitment and suspected Xu Yi’s plans were far more ambitious than he had imagined.

Xu Yi and Queen Servini enjoyed a summer visit to his private beach, where he flew her down from the cliff at her request. Servini then revealed she wanted to buy a hundred Mana Airships and proposed spreading the payment over time, leaving Xu Yi to consider installment payments.

• Servini questioned Xu Yi about opening his fief to visitors, and they teased each other about her vacation and their appearances.
• Servini asked Xu Yi to carry her down from the cliff, and he flew them to the beach while she delighted in the experience.
• Xu Yi recommended the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Magic Airship so Servini could fly whenever she wanted.
• Servini said she intended to order a hundred Mana Airships, then explained that the Lampari Kingdom could not pay thirty million gold coins at once.
• Servini proposed stretching the purchase over time and asked Xu Yi about the installment plan used by the Amli Merchant Guild.

Xu Yi and Servini negotiated installment payments for a hundred Mana Airships, and Servini offered Xinfei command over the West-Garrison Army in exchange for funding its operations. Xu Yi accepted after she expanded the army’s scope to matters involving the Stantin Duchy.

• Xu Yi considered Servini’s installment proposal and concluded the Lampari Kingdom could likely afford payments as its magic machinery industry generated growing revenues.
• Servini proposed paying for the hundred Mana Airships over twenty years, with smaller payments initially and larger ones as the kingdom’s finances improved.
• Xu Yi questioned what Xinfei would gain, and Servini offered to fund and supply the West-Garrison Army to secure the Black Rice Wasteland while Xinfei provided the money.
• Servini offered Xinfei full command of a portion of the West-Garrison Army for matters concerning the Black Rice Wasteland.
• Xu Yi refused to cover the army’s expenses without meaningful authority, so Servini added that the army could take his orders in matters involving the Stantin Duchy.
• Xu Yi agreed to Servini’s terms.

After Servini returned to the Lampari Kingdom, the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s booming profits enabled Xu Yi to equip the West-Garrison Army and support construction of reinforced-concrete fortifications along the Black Rice Wasteland’s border with the Sark Kingdom. The defenses secured the wasteland and benefited Lampari, but Xu Yi was more concerned about another place that remained unstable.

• Xu Yi entertained Servini in the Stantin Duchy, and she decided to buy a Mana Airship with her own money before returning to Lampari.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild earned more than five million gold coins in June, while Xu Yi considered offering installment payments for Mana Sedans and supplying Military Magic Machinery to the West-Garrison Army.
• The West-Garrison Army entered the Black Rice Wasteland and was welcomed by the orcs, who had come to accept the Xinfei Merchant Guild and other human businesses.
• The West-Garrison Army, the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and the Amli Merchant Guild built over thirty kilometers of reinforced-concrete fortifications along the Sark Kingdom border in one month.
• Xu Yi accepted the three-million-gold-coin cost of the fortifications to secure Lampari’s approval and stabilize the wasteland, while another place remained dangerously unstable.

As Count Wellen and Angklu expanded with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s support, Xu Yi took a break from his work to play with Freya and release the butterflies she found trapped. The Grand Duke of Stantin then offered Xu Yi a larger title and a fief carved from Count Wellen’s territory, and Xu Yi accepted the offer despite recognizing the trap.

• Count Wellen crushed several southern lords, while Angklu aggressively expanded his territory with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s support.
• Xu Yi made a butterfly net and took Freya to the grove, where she asked him to release the butterflies he had caught.
• Liss told Xu Yi that Kennard had brought envoys from the Grand Duke of Stantin.
• The envoys announced that the grand duke had raised Xu Yi from viscount to count and offered him a new fief.
• Xu Yi recognized that the fief lay in territory Count Wellen had occupied, but he accepted the offer.

Xu Yi accepted the Grand Duke of Stantin’s grants of Count Wellen’s territory, while Count Wellen withdrew peacefully and expanded his holdings by conquering neighboring lords. As the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s influence over the duchy became clear, Xu Yi and Stille discussed Servini’s feelings and the kingdom’s succession.

• Xu Yi accepted the Grand Duke of Stantin’s grant, and Count Wellen withdrew his troops and administrators without protest as the Xinfei Merchant Guild took control.
• Count Wellen conquered neighboring lords after each grant, while the Grand Duke granted Xu Yi more land; Count Wellen even cleared the territory between Xu Yi’s holdings, joining them into one stretch.
• Count Wellen expanded his territory to nearly twenty thousand square kilometers and raised his army to more than fifty thousand soldiers, leading people to see the Xinfei Merchant Guild—and Xu Yi—as the real power shaping the duchy’s future.
• Xu Yi and Stille walked along the lively beach, where Stille said Anvilmar City seemed backward compared with Bunta City.
• Stille told Xu Yi that she believed Servini had feelings for him, and Xu Yi insisted they could never be together.
• Stille mentioned newspaper discussions about the Lampari Kingdom’s heir to the throne, prompting Xu Yi to consider the succession.

As the Lampari Kingdom debated Queen Servini’s need to marry and secure an heir, Xu Yi and Stille were ambushed by the powerful Great Mage Ashura. Ashura emerged from a spatial rift and declared that he intended to kill Xu Yi.

• People in the Lampari Kingdom urged Queen Servini to marry and have a child who could inherit the throne.
• Xu Yi recalled Servini’s frustration about pressure to find a prince consort, then joked with Stille about her and the elves.
• A sudden waterspout struck Xu Yi and Stille, and Xu Yi shielded them while trying to find their unseen attacker.
• Two more torrents attacked, and Xu Yi realized that a powerful mage was remotely controlling them.
• Ashura appeared through a spatial rift, mocked Xu Yi for choosing business over magic, and prepared to kill him as Stille’s Magic Communication Box lit up.

Xu Yi and Stille were ambushed by Rena, a Great Mage hired by the Grand Duke of Stantin, but survived his attacks with Elder Elusia’s Azure Guardians. Great Mage Camilla arrived and overwhelmed Rena; Xu Yi stopped her from killing him so he could serve as a live combat-testing target.

• Rena trapped Xu Yi and Stille inside a Spatial Isolation Array and attacked them with fire magic.
• Xu Yi and Stille pretended to give up, then used their Azure Guardians to withstand Rena’s Deepflame Fireballs.
• Rena revealed that the Grand Duke of Stantin had hired him for five hundred thousand gold coins to assassinate Xu Yi.
• Great Mage Camilla struck Rena with Ragnarok's Judgment and revealed that she had gained an understanding of spatial laws.
• Xu Yi persuaded Great Mage Camilla to spare Rena temporarily as a live target for combat testing.

Xu Yi offered Rena a chance to go free if he survived ten minutes of attacks from the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps. The Guard Corps’ magic weapons rapidly drained Rena’s mana, and he was left horrified with less than a third of it after fewer than five minutes.

• Rena watched Xu Yi and Great Mage Camilla, while Stille used a Magic Communication Box to summon the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps.
• Xu Yi promised to release Rena if he withstood the Guard Corps’ attacks for ten minutes, and Rena accepted, confident that ordinary soldiers could not harm him.
• The Guard Corps’ magic repeating crossbows forced Rena to change from shielding himself to burning the arrows with fire magic as his mana rapidly drained.
• The guards switched to Single-Soldier Magic Rocket Launchers, and their rockets exploded against Rena’s protective shield with the force of powerful spells.
• After fewer than five minutes of attacks, Rena had less than a third of his mana remaining and realized the soldiers’ weapons had cost him more than resisting Camilla’s forbidden spell.

Rena endured the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps’ increasingly powerful attacks until Xu Yi offered him a choice between death and working for the guild. Rena questioned whether he had any real choice, leaving his decision unresolved.

• Rena’s Magic Barrier blocked three powerful rockets from a sixteen-launcher salvo, but the explosions injured him and left him with less than a fifth of his mana.
• Xu Yi warned Rena that the final attack would be much stronger and asked whether he wanted to avoid death.
• Rena revealed that his employer had offered him five hundred thousand gold coins to assassinate Xu Yi.
• Xu Yi offered Rena a legitimate job paying at least ten thousand gold coins a year, with research materials provided.
• Camilla and Stille objected to hiring the man who had tried to kill them, but Xu Yi insisted and presented Rena with the choice of death or working for him.
• Rena bitterly asked Xu Yi whether he had any choice.

Count Wellen continued his war against the Grand Duke of Stantin with support from the Xinfei Merchant Guild, while Xu Yi secured control over half the population of every territory Wellen conquered. After Wellen left, Elder Lysania ordered Xu Yi to strip.

• Count Wellen's army captured more than a third of the Grand Duke of Stantin's territory in half a month, prompting the duchy's lords to rally behind him.
• Count Wellen submitted his battle plan and supply requests to Xu Yi, asking for Magic Rocket Launchers to overcome the grand duke's defenses.
• Xu Yi agreed to provide support but negotiated for half the population of every territory Count Wellen conquered, and Count Wellen signed the agreement.
• Count Wellen left Xu Yi's private manor after discussing future cooperation.
• Xu Yi returned to his bedroom, where Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania watched him, and Elder Lysania ordered him to strip.

Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania gave Xu Yi the Elf Race’s secret magic pattern augmentation to help him survive future danger, and he demonstrated exceptional control over space magic. The chapter ended when Elder Lysania unexpectedly asked Xu Yi to mate with her.

• Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania inscribed magic patterns on Xu Yi’s body, then had him test the augmentation by casting a Devouring Sphere.
• Xu Yi maintained the Devouring Sphere for over two minutes before carefully dismissing it, astonishing both elders with his magical control.
• Elder Lysania explained that the augmentation could reduce the mana cost of Spatial Teleportation, potentially letting Xu Yi escape at least a kilometer away.
• Elder Lysania frowned in thought, then asked Xu Yi whether he wanted to mate with her.

Xu Yi resisted Elder Lysania and Elder Elucia’s demand that he choose an elven girl to have children with, while Stille urged him to consider Anise and address Vivian’s feelings. He remained unsure, but began to reconsider choosing Anise before the elders’ deadline arrived.

• Elder Lysania asked Xu Yi to mate with her, but he refused and explained that he regarded her and Elder Elucia as respected elders.
• Elder Lysania told Xu Yi he had nearly a year to choose an elven girl before she and Elder Elucia chose for him.
• Stille suggested Anise as someone Xu Yi could choose without feeling like he was being treated as a stud.
• Xu Yi said he regarded Anise and Vivian as little sisters, and Stille told him that Vivian feared he no longer cared for her.
• Stille said Anise genuinely wanted to be with Xu Yi and supported his choice, while Xu Yi remained hesitant.

After Grand Duke Wellen took control of the Stantin Duchy with Xu Yi’s support, Xu Yi explained that he backed both Wellen and Viscount Angklu to prevent further war and protect the population. Angklu agreed to work with Xu Yi to improve the duchy, while Wellen suggested that Xu Yi should become a king.

• Count Wellen defeated the Grand Duke of Stantin, who died in the burning ducal residence, and became Grand Duke Wellen.
• Grand Duke Wellen demanded that the duchy’s lords disarm, attacking those who refused except for Viscount Angklu, whom Xu Yi also supported.
• Xu Yi told Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen that he needed them to cooperate because further warfare would harm the duchy and cost workers.
• Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen argued over their armies until Xu Yi ordered them to sit down and talk.
• Xu Yi urged Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen to work with the Xinfei Merchant Guild to make the duchy’s cities prosper like Bunta City.
• Grand Duke Wellen said Xu Yi should become a king rather than take the title of Grand Duke of Stantin.

Xu Yi chose Anise as his elven companion after she freely agreed to enter into a union with him, then visited her in the Falling Rain Forest. He found Anise and his daughter Freya happily living among the elves, but remained uneasy about Anise’s innocence and unfamiliarity with human customs.

• Xu Yi rejected the idea of becoming king, agreed with Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen on plans for stability in the Stantin Duchy, and inspected the Black Rice City and northern defenses.
• Xu Yi drove into the Lampari Kingdom and flew to the Falling Rain Forest, where Anise greeted him with a kiss.
• Xu Yi recalled that Anise had willingly agreed to become his companion and that Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania had accepted his choice.
• Anise told Xu Yi that Freya enjoyed exploring the forest and had played on a big black bear, while Xu Yi was reassured that Anise kept her safe.
• At the Night Song Tribe’s illusion array, Anise asked when they would mate, and Xu Yi told her to learn about human customs from Vivian or Stille.

Xu Yi negotiated with Elder Elusia to expand the Night Song Tribe’s tempered-plastic production, pushing for performance-based pay and offering guild managers to reform the factory. After their talks, Elder Elusia gave him an illustrated book about unions between elves and humans, leaving him startled.

• Xu Yi and Anise persuaded Freya to leave the Falling Rain Forest after promising to bring her back often.
• Xu Yi discussed the Night Song Tribe’s tempered-plastic order with Elder Elusia and urged changes to the factory’s management and pay system.
• Elder Elusia agreed to try reforming the factory within six months, then accepted Xu Yi’s offer to send guild managers to help.
• Xu Yi proposed new machinery, outside recruitment, and joint investment to increase the factory’s capacity, and Elder Elusia said she would consider the options.
• After dinner, Elder Elusia gave Xu Yi an illustrated elven book about unions between elves and humans, which shocked him.

Xu Yi returned to Bunta City for its internationalizing circuit bicycle race and met with local bicycle guild presidents to propose a professional competition. The presidents began to grasp that the event would showcase the best riders and bicycles, setting up a direct contest with the Xinfei Cycling Team.

• Xu Yi arrived in Bunta City and met Mayor Count Rivell, who welcomed him and discussed the city’s development.
• Xu Yi explained that the autumn circuit race had drawn international entrants and would allow team entries for the first time.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild announced that its cycling team’s results would not count this year and challenged other teams to catch up before next autumn.
• Count Rivell brought Xu Yi together with presidents of Bunta City’s bicycle merchant guilds to discuss closer cooperation.
• Xu Yi proposed a professional bicycle competition in which teams would race under their guild names using bicycles made by their own guilds, and the presidents recognized its potential.

Xu Yi organized a professional bicycle race to promote the industry and help Bunta City’s bicycle makers build their brands. After learning that a Drake Duchy delegation had arrived, he went to the Amuli Grand Hotel and met Princess Caroline, who secretly asked him to help her duchy.

• Xu Yi explained that he wanted the bicycle race to promote bicycles and support Bunta City’s manufacturers, and the merchant guild presidents agreed to back it.
• City Lord Rivell asked Xu Yi whether he could help other magic industries grow, but Xu Yi said their products were not yet ready to compete with Xinfei machinery.
• Xu Yi learned from Rivell that a team representing a Drake Duchy merchant guild had arrived and was staying at the Amuli Grand Hotel.
• Xu Yi drove to the New District with Freya, Anise, Liss, and Linda and met Princess Caroline in a room on the hotel’s top floor.
• Princess Caroline told Xu Yi that she had come secretly to ask for his help, warning that the Drake Duchy faced a hopeless situation if he refused.

Princess Caroline asked Xu Yi to help the Drake Duchy recover from defective magic machinery that could cost it more than five million gold coins. Xu Yi agreed in exchange for renewed cooperation, then rejected Caroline’s offer of herself and told her that a woman’s soul could not be bought for money.

• Xu Yi blamed Princess Caroline and the Drake Duchy for ignoring his warnings and breaking their agreement with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Princess Caroline explained that design flaws in the Drake Duchy’s magic fans and refrigerators had caused accidents, leaving the duchy facing compensation and factory repairs costing over five million gold coins.
• Caroline tried to persuade Xu Yi with flirtation and offered herself as compensation, but Xu Yi refused.
• Xu Yi agreed to help if the Drake Duchy cooperated earnestly with the Xinfei Merchant Guild from then on.
• When Caroline again suggested that she could be part of the deal, Xu Yi said no woman’s body was worth five million gold coins, then told her no woman’s soul could be bought for that sum.

At Bunta City’s bicycle race, Xu Yi explained how the event promoted the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s brand and warned Princess Caroline that the Drake Duchy would need to rebuild its damaged reputation. He agreed to help, while Caroline’s questions about Xu Yi’s new elf wife Anise revealed her jealousy.

• More than sixty thousand people entered Bunta City’s bicycle race, whose unusually large prizes drew crowds from across the region.
• Xu Yi told Mayor Rivell that the race’s publicity and positive image made it worthwhile advertising for the Xinfei Merchant Guild despite its high cost.
• Xu Yi warned Princess Caroline that the previous incident had damaged the Drake Duchy’s brand image, and he agreed to help restore it.
• Princess Caroline clung to Xu Yi’s arm and teased him about making up for his losses, while Xu Yi complained about the duchy’s breach of their agreement.
• After Mayor Rivell left to oversee the opening ceremony, Princess Caroline asked about the elf girl she had seen in Xu Yi’s room, and Xu Yi introduced Anise as his newly married elf wife.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild announced a professional bicycle racing series with a potential annual champion’s prize exceeding fifty thousand gold coins, prompting Great Mage Camilla and Great Mage Truchi to question why a cyclist could earn more than they did. Xu Yi explained the prize’s advertising purpose and his guild’s limited contribution, then turned the discussion to their Fire-Type Mana Engine research in Falling Rain Valley.

• The Xinfei Cycling Team swept the first five places in the Bunta City Road Bicycle Race, and the Xinfei Merchant Guild announced that it would launch a professional bicycle series next year.
• The announcement promised the series’ Annual Overall Champion Cyclist potentially more than fifty thousand gold coins, startling readers and provoking Great Mage Camilla and Great Mage Truchi.
• Xu Yi explained that the prize would be funded by several merchant guilds and served as advertising, with the Xinfei Merchant Guild contributing less than eight thousand gold coins at most.
• Xu Yi told Great Mage Camilla that he planned a larger Mana Sedan racing competition, and she eagerly said she would enter.
• At the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Falling Rain Valley research institute, Xu Yi and the two Great Mages prepared to continue research on the Fire-Type Mana Engine, whose main goal under Great Mage Truchi was increasing power output.

Great Mage Truchi and Great Mage Camilla tested a powerful but unstable Fire-Type Mana Engine, impressing Xu Yi with its speed and potential. At a joint-venture factory, Princess Caroline learned that developing new magic machinery required patient work and a solid industrial foundation.

• Great Mage Camilla tested Great Mage Truchi’s Fire-Type Mana Engine, crashed the experimental chassis, and flew back unharmed.
• Xu Yi estimated that the engine had accelerated Camilla to well over one hundred kilometers per hour and discussed its potential and shortcomings with Truchi.
• Xu Yi visited the joint-venture Magic Fan factory in Falling Rain Valley, where Princess Caroline was studying a Magic-Powered Lathe and a bearing bridge schematic.
• Princess Caroline admitted that her people had underestimated the difficulty of developing magic machinery after their own Bearing Bridge Section caused faulty fans.
• Xu Yi urged Princess Caroline to build a solid foundation and advance gradually, citing Manager Fiss’s long-running work on Automatic Start-Stop Technology.

After securing cooperation with the Drake Duchy, Xu Yi left Bunta City with Freya and the others for Anvilmar City to visit Stille. As they approached the congested city gates, Freya teased him about Princess Caroline, while Xu Yi worried about seeing Stille again with Anise at his side.

• Xu Yi finalized a preliminary agreement with Princess Caroline to bring the Drake Duchy's magic machinery factories under Xinfei Merchant Guild standards and sent her to the Stantin Duchy to address product quality problems.
• Princess Caroline kissed Xu Yi goodbye and told him she would be waiting for him.
• Xu Yi drove Liss, Linda, Freya, and Anise from Bunta City to Anvilmar City, where Freya said she missed her mom and asked whether Xu Yi missed her too.
• Freya suggested Xu Yi might not miss her mom because Princess Caroline was pretty, and Anise reassured her that Stille came first in Xu Yi's heart.
• Xu Yi grew uneasy about meeting Stille with Anise, then noticed heavy traffic at Anvilmar City's gates and considered proposing that Servini abolish entry taxes.

Xu Yi proposed ways for Servini to reform the city entry tax and improve poorer cities through targeted development. The chapter ended as Servini began reading his booklet on energy standardization in the magic industry.

• Xu Yi urged Servini to abolish the city entry tax, but she explained that many cities depended on its revenue and lacked Bunta City's advantages.
• Xu Yi suggested testing the tax reform in selected cities, then extending it and subsidizing places that could not afford the change.
• Xu Yi proposed developing Bateru City's hot springs into a tourism industry and using its geothermal resources.
• Xu Yi said improved engineering magic machinery could help build roads through the Northwestern Province, and Servini challenged him about delays in delivering her hundred mana airships.
• Xu Yi handed Servini a booklet titled "On the Important Role of Energy Standardization in the Magic Industry System."

Xu Yi explained to Servini how energy standardization would benefit the Xinfei Merchant Guild and urged her to establish a Royal House energy business to control standardized magic crystals. Servini agreed to consider the plan and Xu Yi proposed that the Lampari Kingdom and his guild jointly establish the continent’s first Magic Recharging Station.

• Servini questioned how energy standardization would benefit the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and Xu Yi explained that uniform magic crystals would reduce design and production costs.
• Xu Yi told Servini that requiring standardized crystals had caused the guild’s household magic machinery sales to fall thirteen percent because customers found the crystals inconvenient to obtain.
• Xu Yi admitted that he had deliberately tested whether his guild could promote energy standardization alone, and Servini agreed to consider supporting it.
• Xu Yi urged Servini to establish a Royal House-controlled energy guild, arguing that controlling energy would give the Lampari Kingdom lasting power.
• Xu Yi explained that refined, high-purity standardized magic crystals could be controlled despite raw magic crystals being widespread, then asked Servini to jointly establish the first Magic Recharging Station.