Recaps

Stille supervised the New Moon Merchant Guild’s screening of the third episode of Sains in Laiwuka City and dealt with Madam Wolucci’s request for a private showing. Watching a family in the crowd left Stille thinking about how little time she and Xu Yi spent together.

• Thousands of Laiwuka City residents gathered to watch the third episode of Sains: A Tale of Feuds and Vengeance.
• Stille checked the preparations and ordered her staff to begin the screening on schedule.
• Madam Wolucci asked Stille to arrange a separate screening venue, then decided to buy a home-use Mana Illusion Projector and Illusion Storage Boxes.
• Stille explained that the stored episode would not be available before the public screening, angering Madam Wolucci, who still demanded prompt delivery of the projector.
• Stille reflected on the difficulties of running the guild and, after seeing a young couple and their child, considered how little time she and Xu Yi spent together.

After Akali was captured by Count Duoer while working on the Mana Communication Network, Xu Yi and Avita mobilized a large rescue force and flew south to the Stantin Duchy. Xu Yi suspected Count Duoer had powerful backing and vowed to make him regret the kidnapping.

• Avita learned that Akali had been captured and urged Xu Yi to tell her what had happened.
• Xu Yi agreed to bring Avita along, and Hart led five hundred guards aboard ten Mana Airships toward the south.
• Xu Yi explained that Count Duoer’s Private Guard had arrested Akali and the entire Xinfei Merchant Guild work team at their construction site.
• Avita and Xu Yi wondered how Count Duoer had captured a Level Seven Mage without resistance and concluded he must have strong backing.
• Xu Yi vowed to make Count Duoer regret taking Akali and the workers hostage.

Xu Yi confronted Count Duoer over the captured Xinfei Merchant Guild employees, but Duchess Windsor’s arrival led him to withdraw without a fight. Duchess Windsor and Count Duoer mistook his retreat for fear and planned to exploit his airships and other technology.

• Xu Yi arrived at Count Duoer’s manor with ten Mana Airships and demanded the release of the guild’s personnel.
• Count Duoer denied holding the employees until Duchess Windsor exposed that he had captured them and ordered Xu Yi to leave.
• Count Duoer identified his aunt as Duchess Windsor, a powerful noble of the Candel Empire’s Southern Province.
• Xu Yi bowed to Duchess Windsor and returned to his Mana Airship, leaving with Avita, Hart, and the guards.
• Duchess Windsor warned Count Duoer to be cautious of Xu Yi, but they concluded he had been frightened and discussed obtaining his technology.

Xu Yi went to Count Duoer’s manor to negotiate the release of Akali and the captured Xinfei Merchant Guild employees. When Duoer demanded the return of his private fief, Xu Yi immediately refused.

• Xu Yi sent Avita back with a sealed letter for Archmage Camilla and instructions for Kennard while he stayed behind to prepare a response.
• The next morning, Xu Yi arrived alone at Count Duoer’s manor and was invited inside after waiting at the gate.
• Xu Yi entered the manor’s central hall and asked whether Count Duoer had the authority to negotiate without the duchess.
• Xu Yi asked what it would take to free the captives, and Count Duoer demanded the return of his private fief.
• Xu Yi cut Count Duoer off and declared the demand impossible.

Xu Yi rejected Count Duoer’s demand to restore the nobles’ private fiefs and left without securing his subordinates’ release. He then gathered information from Akali’s covert messages and his guards’ survey, preparing to rescue the captives once reinforcements arrived.

• Xu Yi refused Count Duoer’s first condition, ended the negotiations, and left despite Count Duoer asking whether he would abandon his subordinates.
• The Duchess of Windsor ordered Count Duoer to hold firm and use sympathetic newspapers to pressure Xu Yi, while warning him to guard against a rescue attempt.
• Xu Yi used Teleportation Magic to reach a grove where Captain Hart and fifty Xinfei Merchant Guild guards were waiting.
• Xu Yi learned from Akali’s intermittent messages that the captives were unharmed and being held in a cellar inside Count Duoer’s manor.
• Hart showed Xu Yi a detailed map locating the likely cellar entrance and reported that fewer than fifty guards were visible nearby.
• Xu Yi ordered the rescue operation to begin once reinforcements arrived.

Great Mage Randy guarded the Xinfei Merchant Guild prisoners while dismissing Akali’s faint mana signals and enjoying a magic air conditioner. A blue-robed Great Mage attacked and entered the dungeon as Steel Beasts appeared around Randy, leaving him surrounded by a second, powerful assault.

• Great Mage Randy watched over the captured Xinfei Merchant Guild members and privately fixated on Akali, while Count Duoer’s men set up a Cabinet-Style Magic Air Conditioner beside him.
• Great Mage Randy sensed Akali emitting faint mana fluctuations but dismissed them as harmless.
• A blue-robed Great Mage attacked Randy with an Explosive Flame Ball, then swooped toward the dungeon entrance.
• Randy raised his Magic Barrier against another powerful explosion but could not stop the blue-robed mage from entering the dungeon.
• Randy turned to face the attacker behind the second blast and saw ten Steel Beasts surrounding him in the sky.

Hart commanded ten Mana Airships as they overwhelmed Great Mage Randy with coordinated attacks that anticipated his Spatial Teleportation. After exhausting much of his mana and failing to counterattack, Randy fled a kilometer from the battle.

• Hart ordered the Mana Airships to fire ten powerful spheres at Great Mage Randy, forcing him to expend mana on his Magic Barrier.
• Randy used Spatial Teleportation, but Hart's crew predicted where he would reappear and struck him with another coordinated volley, injuring him.
• Randy teleported again and evaded the next attack, while the Mana Airships switched tactics and launched a dense barrage of smaller spheres.
• Randy struggled to dodge and block the repeated attacks as his mana rapidly drained and he found no opening to fight back.
• Randy gathered his remaining mana and teleported a kilometer away from the battle to escape.

Xu Yi rescued Akali and the other Xinfei Merchant Guild employees from Count Duoer’s dungeon, then brought the guards out alive and headed for the manor hall. Duchess Windsor learned that the guild had multiple Great Mages just as Xu Yi arrived, and she prepared to face him.

• Xu Yi insisted on rescuing the dungeon guards as well as the captives, while Rena went outside to check on the battle.
• Akali led the rescued employees to a waiting Mana Airship, and Xu Yi used Life Detection Magic to confirm no one remained hidden in the dungeon.
• Xu Yi carried the unconscious guards outside and found that Hart’s forces and the Mana Airships had already departed after the battle with Great Mage Randy.
• Count Duoer begged Duchess Windsor to protect him, and she confronted him about concealing that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had multiple Great Mages.
• A guard announced that Xu Yi was approaching, and Duchess Windsor told him to show Xu Yi in.

Xu Yi confronted Duchess Windsor over the rescue of his subordinates and froze Count Duoer, declaring that the count would face trial for breaking the duchy's laws. He left Duchess Windsor and her guards facing eviction, while inviting the mage Nunosisi to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

• Xu Yi rejected Duchess Windsor's claim that he had acted recklessly and said the real culprit, Count Duoer, still needed punishment.
• Xu Yi froze Count Duoer with the Ice Coffin Spell and revealed that he was a Great Mage.
• Xu Yi immobilized Duchess Windsor's soldiers and sent Count Duoer away inside the ice block.
• Nunosisi attacked Xu Yi with Hurricane Ring, but Xu Yi's water-magic shield absorbed the spell and Xu Yi praised Nunosisi's skill.
• Xu Yi said Count Duoer would face trial and ordered Duchess Windsor and her subordinates to leave the property.
• Xu Yi invited Nunosisi to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild and then vanished.

After rescuing his employees, Xu Yi expanded the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s guard force and military production while pushing forward communications and political changes in the Stantin Duchy. The chapter ended with Candel Empire Prince Frank publicly welcoming the guild’s Mana Sedan Race, opening a promising path into the empire.

• Xu Yi sent Count Duoer to stand trial and convened the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s senior executives after arranging care for the rescued employees.
• The guild announced recruitment for a thousand new guards, drawing attention from adventurers and neighboring countries concerned about its growing military strength.
• Count Duoer was sentenced to life imprisonment, stripped of his noble status, and had his property confiscated, after which opposition to Congress’s policies subsided.
• The first phase of the Stantin Duchy’s magic communication network was completed, while the guild quietly began building a large military magic machinery production base in the Black Rice Wasteland.
• Prince Frank de Boer publicly welcomed the Xinfei Merchant Guild to bring its Mana Sedan Race to the Candel Empire, prompting widespread excitement about the guild’s prospects there.

Southern Province Governor Duke Elman Windsor learned that the Stantin Duchy’s defiance was backed by the Xinfei Merchant Guild and decided to seize the guild for himself. He assigned Shalong to lead the operation, while dismissing warnings about the guild’s military strength.

• Duke Elman Windsor angrily read the Stantin Duchy’s refusal of his demands and learned it had offered no further explanation.
• Shalong explained that the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s influence over the Stantin Duchy was behind its defiance, pointing out that the guild’s magic machinery was already used in Windsor’s home.
• Shalong showed Windsor a newspaper connecting Prince Frank to the Xinfei Merchant Guild and proposed exploiting the conflict to undermine Prince Frank and benefit Prince Narian.
• Windsor decided to change his plans and swallow up the Xinfei Merchant Guild, rejecting Shalong’s warning that its military magic machinery could make it dangerous.
• Windsor declined to involve Prince Narian directly and gave Shalong full responsibility for the operation.

Marquis Southgate watched the Cantona Chamber of Commerce use Xinfei Magic Harvesters for the Malo Empire’s first mechanized harvest. The machines worked successfully, and Southgate resolved to press ahead with developing roads and magic industry on his fief.

• Marquis Southgate observed ten Magic Harvesters begin harvesting his ripe wheat fields, while President Cantona assured him the work would go smoothly.
• A Magic Harvester stopped when its chain jammed, but its young driver quickly repaired it and restarted the machine.
• The harvesters filled their grain tanks with processed wheat kernels, astonishing the watching farmers with how quickly they had cut, threshed, and cleaned the crop.
• An old farmer noticed the machines had shredded the wheat stalks, and Cantona explained they could still be dried and burned for fuel.
• Cantona promoted Magic-Powered Stoves, prompting Southgate to consider their cost, the wages factory workers could earn, and the need to develop magic industry on his fief.

Marquis Southgate’s successful mechanized harvest led him to sign a five-year cooperation agreement with the Cantona Chamber of Commerce, while orders for Xinfei farmland machinery surged across the Malo Empire. Xu Yi dismissed Kennard’s concerns about his revised plan for the arrogant Candel Empire, but an urgent letter brought Kennard alarming news.

• Marquis Southgate saw the Cantona Chamber of Commerce harvest more than five hundred hectares in a week and signed a five-year agreement to develop his farmland and train machinery operators.
• Nobles who witnessed the harvest sought help from President Cantona, and orders from the Malo Empire brought the Xinfei Merchant Guild requests for seven hundred Magic Harvesters.
• Kennard suggested using Farmland Magic Machinery to expand into the Candel Empire, but Xu Yi said its arrogant attitude obstructed cooperation and pointed to the Guards Corps as key to his revised plan.
• After Xu Yi left to inspect the Guards Corps, an intelligence director rushed into Kennard’s office with an urgent letter, and Kennard read news that shocked and unnerved him.

Shalong brought three thousand of Duke Windsor’s elite troops into the Stantin Duchy, dismissing warnings about the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps. His force was ambushed by a much smaller group armed with magic repeating crossbows, and Shalong and Count Andre were knocked unconscious when a blast shattered their cover.

• Shalong questioned Count Andre about the Stantin Duchy Congress reclaiming the nobles’ fiefs and heard his warning about the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps.
• Shalong landed with three thousand elite troops and planned to occupy Count Duoer’s former manor before negotiating with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• A force of about three hundred men confronted Shalong’s troops, and he ordered them killed after learning they were not the Guild’s Guard Corps.
• The attackers’ armor turned aside the troops’ arrows, then their magic repeating crossbows cut down hundreds of Duke Windsor’s guards and forced the survivors into cover.
• Shalong refused Count Andre’s advice to retreat, and an explosion shattered the boulder behind them, knocking both men unconscious.

Xu Yi visited the injured Duke Windsor’s troops after they invaded the Stantin Duchy and ordered them disarmed. He told Shalong that Congress had ruled the invasion illegal and that the men would remain imprisoned while the duke’s response determined their fate.

• Kennard proposed arresting Baron Prado and his men and handing them over to Duke Windsor, but Xu Yi questioned why the duke had sent soldiers into the duchy in secret.
• Xu Yi and Kennard visited the hospital holding Duke Windsor’s injured troops, where Xu Yi used a fireball to silence a shouting soldier and ordered the guards to strip the prisoners of their weapons and equipment.
• Xu Yi met Shalong, who recognized him as the Xinfei Merchant Guild president and questioned whether the guild’s military magic machinery had contributed to Baron Prado’s victory.
• Xu Yi informed Shalong that Congress had classified the soldiers’ unauthorized entry as an illegal armed invasion and would imprison them pending a final verdict.
• Shalong offered to persuade the duke to cooperate if Xu Yi released him, but Xu Yi questioned whether Shalong mattered enough to the duke and left him uncertain.

Xu Yi took Kennard to the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s military base to show him the Guard Corps challenging Great Mage Rena with five Mana Airships. He explained that the guild had the strength to defend its interests against Duke Windsor and intended to make clear that the Stantin Duchy was its territory, though Kennard remained wary of the Candel Empire.

• Kennard questioned whether Xu Yi’s defiant stance would anger Duke Windsor, and Xu Yi decided to show him the Guard Corps’ strength.
• Xu Yi drove Kennard to the military base, where they watched five Mana Airships conduct a live-fire exercise against Great Mage Rena.
• Kennard recognized that the exercise demonstrated the guild could stand against Duke Windsor, but he warned that it could not withstand the entire Candel Empire.
• Xu Yi said he wanted the incident to show that anyone who threatened the Stantin Duchy would make an enemy of the Xinfei Merchant Guild, including the Candel Empire.
• Kennard called Xu Yi overconfident, while Xu Yi expected time and further demonstrations to weaken Kennard’s fear of the empire.

After the autumn harvest, demand for fertilizer surged across the Sains Continent, and the Moon Shadow Merchant Guild struggled to supply the crowds gathered at its warehouse. Astasha explained fertilizer to a curious visitor from the Candel Empire and began introducing it to him.

• The Sark Kingdom and the Falk Kingdom ordered millions of gold coins' worth of farm machinery from the Xinfei Merchant Guild but were told delivery would take at least two years.
• Merchants from across the continent crowded the Moon Shadow Merchant Guild's warehouse to buy fertilizer, and Astasha made them form a line.
• The Moon Shadow Merchant Guild distributed fertilizer to waiting merchants as its prepared stock rapidly dwindled.
• A middle-aged man asked Astasha what fertilizer did, drawing impatient complaints from the merchants behind him.
• The man told Astasha he had come from the Candel Empire to see Xinfei magic machinery and had encountered fertilizer for the first time.
• Astasha began introducing fertilizer to the man as a revolutionary product.

Old Wofford bought fertilizer in the Stantin Duchy and traveled east with Willis, who planned to smuggle goods into the Candel Empire. At the border, Rulson Kingdom guards attacked their convoy and the Candel Empire patrol, leaving Willis and Old Wofford stunned.

• Old Wofford bought twenty bags of fertilizer after Willis explained how fertilizer and farmland magic machinery improved crop yields.
• Willis said the Candel Empire barred imports of farmland magic machinery, so the two men loaded the fertilizer onto his cargo magic locomotives and headed east.
• Willis took Old Wofford across the Rulson Kingdom toward the Candel Empire by a rough route to evade import restrictions.
• Rulson Kingdom border guards pursued the cargo locomotives as they neared the border, and Willis urged the driver to reach an imperial patrol.
• A fireball struck near the cargo locomotive, then another hit the Candel Empire patrol, throwing several soldiers into the air.

Xu Yi weighed the Rulson Kingdom’s generous offer for military magic machinery and, after consulting Servini, agreed to sell it a new batch. He also offered the Lampari Kingdom five mana airships, then presented Servini with another proposal that caught her interest.

• Xu Yi asked Servini whether the Rulson Kingdom’s sudden military buildup signaled plans to attack the Lampari Kingdom, and she said it was likely trying to match its neighbor’s strength.
• Servini said she did not oppose the sale because the Rulson Kingdom would still receive less advanced machinery, and Xu Yi accepted its terms.
• Xu Yi gave Servini a document confirming that mana airships had entered mass production, but explained that the Lampari Kingdom could receive only five that year.
• Servini signed the airship agreement and asked Xu Yi to sell the Lampari Kingdom more advanced weapons, but he refused.
• Xu Yi handed Servini another document, and her eyes lit up as she read it.

General Forris led the Candel Empire’s Fourth Border Defense Regiment into Rulson Kingdom territory to retaliate for a border patrol attack. His troops’ arrows failed against Rulson’s armored vehicles, which unleashed an explosive counterattack that killed Forris.

• General Forris marched three thousand soldiers across the border, intending to attack the Rulson Kingdom’s Third Army Corps.
• Scouts reported strange vehicles ahead, and dozens of Magic Locomotives appeared across the grassland.
• Forris’s soldiers fired ordinary and flaming arrows at the vehicles, but neither attack damaged them.
• Icaro ordered the Mana Armored Transport Vehicles to retreat, then turn and prepare to counterattack.
• The vehicles fired a barrage that caused violent explosions, and Forris was struck by arrows and killed.

After the Candel Empire and the Rulson Kingdom publicly confirmed a border battle, Xinfei Merchant Guild leaders assumed the Rulson Kingdom would lose an impending war and urged Xu Yi to cut its support. Xu Yi revealed that the Rulson Kingdom had suffered no casualties in the battle, but the others remained unconvinced, leaving the decision on hold.

• The Rulson Kingdom and the Candel Empire issued conflicting accounts of a battle in which the Candel Empire's Fourth Border Regiment was nearly destroyed, prompting fears that the empire planned to invade.
• Xu Yi questioned why everyone assumed the Candel Empire would defeat the Rulson Kingdom, while Heinz and the other guild leaders supported Kennard's proposal to stop supplying it with military magic machinery.
• Xu Yi told the meeting that the Rulson Kingdom had suffered zero casualties in the battle, shocking the guild leaders.
• Kennard argued that the Candel Empire's greater national strength would still ensure its eventual victory, and the other leaders agreed.
• Xu Yi postponed the discussion and told the leaders they would soon regret doubting the Rulson Kingdom.

King Trutz regained confidence after receiving Xu Yi’s letter and message, then ordered Newman to welcome a Lampari Kingdom merchant delegation. Meanwhile, Russell led the Candel Empire’s fleet into Rulson territorial waters to invade, but the appearance of more than a dozen ironclad ships left him uneasy.

• King Trutz heard Xu Yi’s message that the crisis offered an opportunity for both Rulson and the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and he became confident.
• King Trutz ordered Newman to receive an expected delegation of merchant guilds from the Lampari Kingdom.
• Russell’s fleet crossed into Rulson Kingdom territorial waters as part of the Candel Empire’s invasion plan.
• Russell spotted more than a dozen ironclad ships racing toward his fleet on the horizon.

Russell and Tom led the Candel Empire Navy toward Rulson Kingdom, but Leslie’s fleet blocked their passage under a coastal defense contract. Russell withdrew rather than fight, leaving the empire’s mission stalled and its navy facing the Xinfei-made ships’ overwhelming advantage.

• Russell recognized the approaching ships as Xinfei Merchant Guild guard frigates and ordered the Candel Empire fleet to stop.
• Leslie contacted Russell and refused to let the fleet pass, despite Tom warning that the obstruction could mean war.
• When the Candel Empire ships tried to advance, Leslie fired a mana cannon into the sea to warn them off.
• Leslie explained that his Leslie Merchant Guild had contracted with Rulson Kingdom to defend its territorial waters and claimed he had left the Xinfei Merchant Guild six months earlier.
• Russell decided to withdraw and report the standoff to the Military Department rather than risk fighting Leslie’s fleet.
• Tom ordered the Candel Empire Navy’s fleet of more than a hundred vessels to retreat.

Xu Yi spoke with Servini over the newly completed long-distance magic communication line, then advised Akali on how to make its network handle simultaneous calls. He later watched the Xinfei Merchant Guild guards attack Archmage Camilla and considered how to counter the Candel Empire’s powerful mages.

• Xu Yi and Servini held the first long-distance international call between the Stantin Duchy and the Lampari Kingdom, discussing the Rulson Kingdom’s war and heavy industry in Lampari.
• Xu Yi suggested that Akali use a central control system to route distinct mana signals, giving her a promising direction for enabling simultaneous calls.
• Xu Yi visited the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps training base and watched the guards bombard Archmage Camilla with military magic machinery.
• Xu Yi asked Camilla whether the guards could threaten an Archmage, and she explained that ordinary people could not simply defeat one with military machinery.
• Xu Yi wondered privately whether even the most powerful mages could withstand a nuclear bomb from Earth.

Xu Yi and Archmage Camilla discussed how Military Magic Machinery could challenge the Candel Empire, and Camilla explained that the Mages' Guild barred powerful mages from wars of invasion. The Rulson Kingdom then stunned the continent by inflicting far heavier losses on the Candel Empire in their opening battles, leaving everyone wondering what made its army so effective.

• Xu Yi admitted that Military Magic Machinery could threaten an Archmage but could not reliably suppress one without preparation, while Camilla urged him to focus on defense.
• Xu Yi revealed that he wanted the Rulson Kingdom's war against the Candel Empire to test Military Magic Machinery and prove the Empire was not unbeatable.
• Camilla explained that Great Mages and higher-ranked mages could not join wars of invasion without being expelled from the Mages' Guild, giving Xu Yi confidence in the Rulson Kingdom's chances.
• In autumn 3789, the Candel Empire declared war and sent three legions against the Rulson Kingdom, which mobilized twenty thousand soldiers to defend its border.
• Across three battles from September 27 to October 5, the Candel Empire suffered more than twenty thousand casualties while the Rulson Kingdom lost fewer than two thousand.
• The continent's people began following the war closely and wondered what had given the Rulson Kingdom's army such extraordinary strength.