Recaps

Xu Yi gave Alex another chance by appointing him to lead the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s new office in Wimbledon City, then opened the guild’s year-end review meeting. The meeting ended with Xu Yi setting a target of one hundred million gold coins in profit for the next year.

• Xu Yi summoned Alex and offered him the chance to head the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s office in Wimbledon City, which Alex eagerly accepted.
• Xu Yi told Twisti that he was giving Alex another chance partly for Heinz’s sake, while Twisti warned that Alex gave her a bad feeling.
• Xu Yi and Twisti joined Kennard and the guild’s managers for the year-end review meeting.
• Kennard announced that the guild’s annual profit had exceeded fifty million gold coins, prompting thunderous applause.
• Xu Yi declared a profit target of one hundred million gold coins for the next year, leaving the meeting room silent.

Hogan and Dicardo waited at Stansome Harbor for the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s delayed First Fleet, which was due to arrive after a long voyage through the northern seas. A Mana Airship brought Captain Ian with word that the fleet was close, and the chapter left Hogan preparing to receive it while Dicardo learned about the airship’s stabilizer.

• Hogan and Dicardo discussed the fleet’s delay and the difficulty of receiving and transporting its cargo in Stansome’s bitter winter cold.
• Hogan and Dicardo reflected on the harbor’s ice and their growing sense that the Malo Empire lagged behind the Lampari Kingdom and Stantin Duchy.
• A Mana Airship landed at Stansome Harbor, and Captain Ian told Hogan that the fleet would arrive within an hour.
• Hogan organized the preparations while Dicardo asked Captain Ian about the fleet’s needs and the planned unloading and sales.
• Captain Ian explained that the Mana Airship used an Aerodynamic Stabilizer to counter strong winds, though he did not know how it worked.

Nevall’s fleet reached Stansome Port after selling all its cargo in five countries along the way, prompting Hogan to arrange replacement goods for Count Jossius. News of the northern shipment triggered a massive mobilization of household magic machinery, while a separate report about the foreign representatives slowly traveled toward the Malo Empire’s capital.

• Nevall arrived at Stansome Port with all thirteen ships and explained that he had sold their cargo in five countries while establishing contact with them.
• Hogan arranged for replacement household magic machinery and asked Nevall to accompany him to explain the shortage to Count Jossius.
• Hogan brought Nevall and the foreign representatives to Stansome City, where Count Jossius hosted them and accepted the guild’s promise to replace the goods.
• News of the fleet’s arrival reached Marquis Southgate’s fief, the Lampari Kingdom, and Xinfei Merchant Guild headquarters, prompting factories and convoys to ship machinery north.
• Within five days, more than a hundred thousand units of household magic machinery had been dispatched to the Malo Empire, while Count Jossius’s report continued toward Angelo City.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s factories and aid revived the Rulson Kingdom, though King Trutz worried about the guild’s growing influence and mineral demands. Xu Yi then offered technology and help building two farmland magic machinery factories, leaving Trutz grateful but uncertain about the guild’s intentions.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild opened twenty-three factories in the Rulson Kingdom, employing over seventy thousand workers and helping revive the kingdom’s industries.
• King Trutz felt grateful for the aid but feared the guild’s growing influence and its demands for the kingdom’s mineral resources.
• Xu Yi offered to help the Rulson Kingdom establish a complete magic industry system and signed an agreement transferring farmland machinery technology.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild delivered the technical documents within half a month and planned to help build two farmland magic machinery factories.
• King Trutz recognized that the Rulson Kingdom depended on the Xinfei Merchant Guild, whose transport fleet alone could use the kingdom’s remaining open sea route.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Second Fleet delivered ships to the Candel Empire Navy while carrying supplies and workers for the Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom. Tom Markens relayed Xu Yi’s demand that the empire clarify its stance before the guild pursued further cooperation, and General Osborne recognized the conflict within the empire over how to treat Xinfei.

• The Second Fleet sailed toward the Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom with goods, construction materials, and 340 Amli Merchant Guild workers for planned projects.
• The fleet reached a Xinfei Merchant Guild island where Candel Empire Navy ships were waiting to receive Guard Frigates.
• Tom Markens greeted Reno Osborne and arranged for Candel officers to inspect the ships and take them over.
• Markens told Osborne that Xu Yi conditionally agreed to jointly develop waters south of the Candel Empire but wanted the empire to show sincerity and end its ambiguous stance toward Xinfei.
• Osborne understood that the empire was divided between those who opposed Xinfei and those who favored cooperation, while the emperor’s recent actions suggested a subtle shift toward the guild.

Osborne and Markens completed the Candel Empire Navy’s purchase of five Guard Frigates, disguising them as battle-captured ships to protect the deal from domestic criticism. The Candel fleet departed for home, while Markens led the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Second Fleet toward the Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom.

• Osborne asked whether the Xinfei Merchant Guild would sell its Mana Warships exclusively to the Candel Empire, but Markens replied that the guild was a merchant guild and would sell to other buyers.
• Osborne recognized that the Candel Empire could neither invade the Stantin Duchy by land nor defeat the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s fleet at sea, making cooperation more practical than war.
• Osborne and Markens inspected five Guard Frigates that had been scorched and battered to look as though the Candel Empire Navy had captured them in battle.
• Osborne confirmed with his subordinate officers that the five ships’ interiors were intact, accepted them, and thanked Markens for the transaction.
• The Candel Empire Navy departed for home, and Markens led the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Second Fleet toward the Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom the next morning.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild began planning a Magic Industrial Base around Stansome Port, where rich mineral deposits and a new sea route offered strong advantages. Hogan found Franklin Sosgate a capable partner, and Franklin identified the base’s main obstacle as a shortage of manpower.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild's First Fleet returned to the Stantin Duchy with ore after establishing a sea route to Stansome Port, and supplies began flowing north for the planned industrial base.
• Hogan explained to Seymour Macalose and Franklin Sosgate that Stansome had valuable mineral deposits and that the guild planned to use geothermal heat and a Magic Machinery Heating System to keep the base warm.
• Seymour dismissed the plans and left to nap, while Franklin offered to help Hogan manage the project on behalf of their families.
• Hogan described the base’s advantages and hinted at a serious problem, and Franklin correctly guessed that it lacked enough manpower.

Hogan and Franklin discussed the shortage of workers for the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s planned industrial base near Stansome City, where the local population was far too small. Franklin proposed capturing nearby orcs to make up the labor shortage, and Hogan said he needed to consult the President.

• Hogan told Franklin that the planned factories needed more than two hundred thousand workers, while Stansome City had only about fifty thousand residents.
• Franklin and Hogan considered recruiting workers from elsewhere in the empire, but Hogan said the region’s harsh climate and workers’ reluctance to leave home made that difficult.
• Franklin suggested buying slaves, but he explained that the empire had too few slaves to meet the factories’ needs.
• Franklin proposed capturing orcs instead, noting that more than a million lived in the empire’s north, including tribes near Stansome City.
• Hogan considered the proposal but said he would consult the President before deciding.

Xu Yi considered how to respond to a proposal to attack orc tribes in the northern Malo Empire, then visited the Azshara Tribe with his family. Elder Windini rejected expanding the elven-themed town broadly but proposed investing in one in the Stantin Duchy in exchange for valuable elven goods and secrets.

• Xu Yi doubted Franklin's motives for proposing an attack on northern orc tribes and decided to consult the Magic Industrial Base's investors and Marquis Southgate before sending Hogan his decision.
• Xu Yi traveled with his family to the Azshara Tribe, where he reunited with Stille and met Elder Windini.
• Xu Yi and Elder Windini discussed the decline in visitors to the elven town and his idea of creating a chain of elven-themed parks.
• Elder Windini said the tribe lacked funds and feared human instability, but she would consider a park in the Stantin Duchy because the Xinfei Merchant Guild controlled the area.
• Elder Windini gave Xu Yi her investment proposal and offered to exchange special elven possessions and secrets for funding.

Xu Yi examined the unusual items he had bought from Elder Windini and read the Azshara Tribe Elder Notes, which offered an elven account of the continent’s history. He found a warning that the elves might one day flee to another continent and live alongside the Demon Race.

• Xu Yi explained to Stille that he had bought a mana-rich Magic Crystal and other uncertain research materials from Elder Windini for a total of eight hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
• Xu Yi and Stille discussed Elder Windini’s conditions for sharing illusion magic, and Stille agreed that involving the elves in the New Moon Merchant Guild could benefit both sides.
• After Stille fell asleep, Xu Yi read the Azshara Tribe Elder Notes and compared the elves’ account of the Race War with human histories.
• Xu Yi read an elder’s explanation that the elves declined because they lacked ambition while humans continually sought to grow stronger.
• Xu Yi focused on a warning that the elves might flee to another continent and live alongside the Demon Race.

Xu Yi proposed moving the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s distribution hub beyond Xinfei City to keep pace with the guild’s expansion across the continent. As he began outlining a new distribution department, Sandiko arrived in a panic with news of a serious problem.

• Elder Windini brought Azshara Tribe elven Mages to Xinfei City to support the New Moon Merchant Guild’s planned entertainment center and Illusion Film broadcasts.
• Xu Yi met with distribution center officials and explained that Xinfei City’s remote location made it inefficient as the guild expanded into distant countries.
• Xu Yi proposed creating a specialized distribution department that would route goods according to customer needs and minimize time and costs.
• Sandiko burst into the meeting room, handed Xu Yi a crumpled sheet of paper, and said something had gone terribly wrong.

After the Sark Kingdom announced that it had developed Mana Cannons, Xu Yi reassured the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s worried managers and chief executive that the news was not a disaster. He then told Avita that the time had come and asked her to bring Teresa to the director’s office.

• Sandiko reported that the Sark Kingdom’s Magic Research Institute had developed Mana Cannons and planned to begin mass production.
• Xu Yi’s managers feared the announcement would break the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s dominance in Military Magic Machinery, but Xu Yi dismissed their concerns and assigned work on a new distribution center.
• Xu Yi advised Sandiko to coordinate with the New Moon Merchant Guild about plans for Xinfei City’s development.
• Kennard called Xu Yi to discuss the announcement, and Xu Yi said competition would help the Magic Industry and promised to handle the matter within two days.
• Xu Yi called Avita and asked her to bring Teresa to her director’s office, saying the time had come.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild rejected the Mages' Guild Headquarters' demand to stop creating the Magic Machinery Patent Protection Federation. A researcher challenged the basis of headquarters' authority by pointing out that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had introduced the concepts of patents and magic patents.

• The Sark Kingdom announced that it had developed Mana Cannons and planned a public exhibition of its Military Magic Machinery.
• Great Mage Ferguson arrived at the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Main Base to deliver headquarters' warning about the Magic Machinery Patent Protection Federation.
• Xu Yi told Great Mage Ferguson that the guild had decided to reject headquarters' demand.
• A Level Nine Mage researcher asked why headquarters had the right to stop the guild from establishing the federation.
• Great Mage Ferguson claimed that only headquarters could protect and use magic-related patents, and the researcher replied that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had introduced patents and magic patents to headquarters.

Xu Yi challenged the Mages' Guild Headquarters for failing to protect the Xinfei Merchant Guild's magic machinery patents while collecting large fees. After presenting evidence of widespread infringement, he defended the guild's right to establish its own patent protection federation, leaving Great Mage Ferguson furious and storming out.

• Great Mage Ferguson argued that the Mages' Guild had authority over magic patents, while Xu Yi said patent protection fees were voluntary and the Xinfei Merchant Guild could seek another way to protect its rights.
• A researcher and other witnesses presented magic machinery from unknown merchant guilds, which the researchers identified as infringing on Xinfei patents.
• The researchers said the Xinfei Merchant Guild had reported infringement to headquarters more than six months earlier but had received no effective protection.
• Xu Yi told Ferguson that the Mages' Guild took the guild's money without doing its work and had no reason to exist if it stripped mages of their rights.
• Ferguson warned Xu Yi not to regret rejecting headquarters' decision, then stormed out.

After Great Mage Ferguson left the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Main Base, Archmage Camilla explained to Archmage Arista why ordinary mages might not follow Mages' Guild orders. She showed him the guild's Mana Signal Tower and Communication Magic Array, then brought him to meet their designer, Akali, who refused to answer his questions.

• Archmage Camilla dismissed Archmage Arista's fears that Mages' Guild headquarters could cripple the Xinfei Merchant Guild by ordering its mages to leave.
• Archmage Camilla showed Arista a Mana Signal Tower and explained that the guild used the Magic Array Resonance Technique for long-distance communication.
• Arista examined the Communication Magic Array and asked Camilla to introduce him to its designer so he could seek guidance.
• Camilla took Arista to a Mana Signal Tower, where they found Akali and other Magic Research Institute staff carrying out maintenance.
• Arista complimented Akali's magic array and asked her questions, but Akali said she could not answer them.

Akali refused to reveal the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s communication magic array research to Archmage Arista because it was the guild’s confidential property, prompting Arista to recognize the researchers’ loyalty to the employer that funded them. At Camilla’s laboratory, Arista examined her High-Efficiency Power Output project, and Camilla invited him to join with the promise of abundant research materials and a fifty-thousand-gold-coin annual allowance.

• Akali explained that she and her research team could not discuss the communication magic array without the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s permission, and her colleagues said they would choose the guild over the Mages’ Guild.
• Arista acknowledged that the researchers had a point, praised their work, and left the Mana Signal Tower with Camilla.
• At Camilla’s laboratory, Arista studied her forbidden-spell magic array and learned that it was designed to release power gradually for the High-Efficiency Power Output project.
• Camilla invited Arista to join her research, offering access to expensive magical materials and an annual allowance of fifty thousand gold coins, and Arista was visibly tempted.

Xu Yi defended cooperating with outside mages to speed up research, while the Xinfei Merchant Guild ignored the Sark Kingdom’s claim that its military magic machinery monopoly had been broken. In the Malo Empire, Hogan prepared to recruit local workers for the planned Magic Industrial Base and went to visit the Wolverine Werewolf Tribe.

• Xu Yi told Archmage Camilla that research partnerships could accelerate development, and argued that other countries would still lack the industrial system needed to rival the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• The Sark Kingdom’s military magic machinery exhibition drew over one hundred thousand visitors and sold thirteen thousand Mana Cannons, prompting officials and newspapers to declare the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s monopoly broken.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild made no public response to the exhibition or the rumors that it feared the Sark Kingdom’s challenge.
• Hogan received approval from Xu Yi to recruit local workers of other races and five orc workers from different tribes to assist his negotiations.
• After preparing for half a month, Hogan officially visited the Wolverine Werewolf Tribe to discuss recruiting workers for the planned Magic Industrial Base.

Hogan led a Xinfei Merchant Guild convoy into the northern tundra to seek trade with the werewolves, but the Wolverine Werewolf Tribe rejected his offer. After setting up a comfortable night camp, Hogan learned that werewolves were approaching and prepared his guards for a possible attack.

• Hogan met the Wolverine Werewolf Tribe's leader and offered food, clothing, and household goods, but the leader threatened him and ordered him to leave.
• Hogan redirected the convoy west and used a Magic Communication Box to check in with Captain Auston, who watched the area from a Mana Airship.
• Hogan's workers built a heated camp from metal frames, leather coverings, and magic air conditioners, impressing Baron Franklin with the comforts of the Comfortable Travel Package.
• Captain Auston informed Hogan that werewolves had left their tribe and were rushing toward the camp.
• Hogan told a Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps guard to alert the others and prepare to engage the approaching werewolves.

Hogan’s caravan defeated a Wolverine Werewolf Tribe raid with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s military magic machinery, then negotiated a labor and supply agreement with the tribe. Over the next three months, Hogan secured agreements with twenty-three northern tundra tribes for ten thousand workers, allowing construction of the Stansome Magic Industrial Base to begin in earnest.

• Hogan’s guards used magic artillery to devastate the werewolves’ nighttime attack, and Hogan ordered Captain Auston not to pursue the retreating survivors.
• Baron Franklin watched the guards’ powerful machinery defeat the werewolves and considered what it might mean for the Malo Empire’s control of the northern tundra.
• Hogan’s caravan returned to the Wolverine Werewolf Tribe, where the chief agreed to provide one thousand workers in exchange for wages and monthly supplies.
• The Wolverine Werewolf Tribe agreed to help Hogan contact other beastman tribes, and Hogan signed labor agreements with twenty-two more tribes over the following three months.
• Large Cargo Magic Locomotives delivered supplies as spring arrived, and the Stansome Magic Industrial Base began full-scale construction.

The Candel Empire Navy opened its southern ports and partnered with the Xinfei Merchant Guild to establish safer, better-supported sea routes, accelerating trade between the Stantin Duchy and the empire. Goods from the Stantin Duchy transformed daily life across the Candel Empire, though the Southern Province remained an exception.

• The Candel Empire Navy acquired five more mana-powered guard frigates but lacked the funds to replace its traditional fleet entirely.
• With Count Russell mediating, the Candel Empire Navy and the Xinfei Merchant Guild opened three southern naval ports to all ships and introduced a protection fee.
• Merchant ships received Magic Communication Devices and began following routes along the guild's island bases, where they could seek help, resupply, and obtain repairs.
• Trade between the Stantin Duchy and the Candel Empire surged as ships carried everyday goods and other products along the new sea route.
• Candel Empire commoners embraced the affordable clothing, plastic goods, and other imports, but the Southern Province was the sole exception.

Duke Windsor learned that his ban on goods connected to the Xinfei Merchant Guild had driven merchants from the Southern Province and reduced commercial tax revenue. After reading Baron Domingo’s report on agricultural magic machinery, he reconsidered his position and ordered preparations to go out.

• Duke Windsor confronted two financial officials after the Southern Province’s commercial tax revenue fell and merchants moved their operations elsewhere.
• The officials explained that his ban on Xinfei Merchant Guild-related goods had pushed merchants toward other provinces.
• One official warned that the spring harvest could improve if Duke Windsor changed his mind and presented Baron Domingo’s agricultural report.
• Duke Windsor angrily rejected the report and ordered the officials to leave, insisting he would not allow Xinfei agricultural machinery into the province.
• Duke Windsor reread the report, reflected on changing times, and told his butler to prepare for him to go out.

Duke Windsor saw how the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s ban had driven young villagers to seek factory wages in Tural Province, leaving their fields understaffed. After hearing that imported grain and farmland machinery could ease the harvest, he ordered Riken to contact the Cantona Chamber of Commerce.

• Duke Windsor and Riken traveled through quiet Canberra City and saw many closed shops.
• Riken spoke with an old farmer and learned that the village’s young people had left to earn wages at factories in Saranier City.
• The old farmer explained that the workers earned far more than farming could provide and criticized the governor’s ban on Xinfei Merchant Guild investments.
• The old farmer said his family would struggle to harvest its fields, but cheap imported grain could cover their grain rent.
• Duke Windsor heard about farmland magic machinery and ordered Riken to contact the Cantona Chamber of Commerce about harvesting fields.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s shipments of affordable, high-quality goods sold out immediately in the Candel Empire, prompting a surge of investment by other guilds. As two vast industrial bases drew workers from across the empire, the Xinfei Merchant Guild remained absent from the factories, and its own activities were left unexplained.

• Commoners across the Candel Empire eagerly bought the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s goods, and merchants quickly purchased the first shipment of more than thirty thousand tons.
• Over seven months, the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s transport fleet made 113 voyages and delivered 589,000 tons of cargo, while demand continued to exceed supply.
• Xu Yi shifted the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s shipyard toward building cargo mana-powered ships, but it could produce only three a year.
• Xu Yi helped 37 merchant guilds from the Lampari Kingdom and the Stantin Duchy establish factories in the Candel Empire, though the Xinfei Merchant Guild could not openly invest there itself.
• Factories near Wimbledon City and in Tudor Province developed into two enormous industrial bases that attracted workers from across the empire.

Xu Yi reviewed the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s expanding markets and routes, then argued that poor infrastructure was the main obstacle to spreading magic industry across the continent. He left the guild’s long-term expansion dependent on building stronger transportation and communications networks.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s sales of farmland and household magic machinery in the Malo Empire had grown sharply, with projected earnings exceeding five million gold coins that year.
• Xu Yi planned to expand the guild’s reach through existing sea routes, Nevall’s upcoming voyage to Stansome Port, and a new overland passage through the Sark Kingdom.
• Xu Yi judged direct access to eastern and northeastern countries impractical because the route crossed the Candel Empire, while reaching them by sea would be too costly and slow.
• Xu Yi proposed establishing secondary bases in distant regions but recognized that the guild lacked the strength and connections to support them.
• Xu Yi credited road construction and mana sedans with transforming transportation and labor movement across southwestern countries, and identified communications as another essential foundation for continent-wide industrial growth.

Xu Yi reflected on the time and expense needed to expand the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s magic communication network, then eased his worries by taking a vacation with his children. When Freya said she wanted to become a president so she could command others, Xu Yi began teaching her what the role would require.

• Xu Yi considered the limitations and enormous costs of extending the magic communication network beyond the Stantin Duchy.
• Xu Yi realized that his plans would take time and decided to relax instead of constantly pushing himself.
• During a week at home with his children, Xu Yi asked Freya what she wanted to do when she grew up.
• Freya said she wanted to be a president so she could make other people obey her orders.
• Xu Yi began Freya’s first lesson on the path to becoming a president.