Recaps

Xu Yi expanded the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s trade and industrial ventures while negotiating military machinery and communications deals amid war between the Lampari and Sark Kingdoms. The arc ended with Great Mage Ferguson examining the guild’s unusually large workforce of mages and explaining why Headquarters valued its employment of low-rank mages.

• Xu Yi negotiated with the Candel Empire Navy and the Lavender Merchant Guild, securing maintenance contracts and plans for southern waters and deep-sea ventures.
• Xu Yi explored a large island with Leslie, traded with its wary inhabitants, and left Leslie to survey it as he returned to the Sains Continent.
• King Trutz agreed with Xu Yi to build a Rulson communications network and buy military magic machinery, while Xu Yi also arranged other industrial projects in the kingdom.
• Xu Yi met Servini in Anvilmar City, where she accused him of supporting the Sark Kingdom, and they later walked through the city as she spoke about her private life.
• After the Lampari and Sark Kingdoms agreed to a ceasefire, Xu Yi helped reopen the free trade zone at Taklin Town and signed a military machinery contract with Major General Tofka.
• Xu Yi and the Amli Merchant Guild launched plans for factories and road construction in Taklin Town, while Xu Yi proposed scholarships and jobs for students of magic-industry theory.
• Xu Yi invited Akali to consider directing a new research center, then met Princess Caroline, Seymour, Marquis Southgate, and Great Mage Ferguson in Anvilmar City.
• Ferguson questioned Xu Yi about the guild’s 2,736 mages and explained that Headquarters valued how Xinfei employed low-rank mages who otherwise struggled to support their research.

Xu Yi expanded the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s reach through industry, agriculture, communications, and investment while seeking new cooperation with the Mages’ Guild. The Candel Empire’s interest in acquiring Xinfei and its racing and military technologies left Xu Yi wary of its intentions.

• Great Mage Ferguson proposed cooperation between the Mages’ Guild and the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and Xu Yi suggested training low-rank mages for work in magic industry.
• Xu Yi secured agreements with Marquis Southgate to install utilities, develop factories and mines, and hire workers, while Freeman and President Cruz confronted damaged bridges and muddy roads that hindered expansion.
• Xu Yi promoted farmland machinery in the Malo Empire and approved Viscount Constantine’s plans to modernize agriculture in the Stantin Duchy.
• More than two thousand low-rank mages enrolled in the Xinfei Magic Industry College, but Ferguson warned that the Mages’ Guild Headquarters might obstruct the school without approving Xu Yi’s proposal.
• Xu Yi ordered work on the Stantin Duchy’s Magic Communication Network to continue despite nobles’ interference and authorized the Guards Corps to stop further obstruction without harming civilians.
• Xu Yi negotiated with Servini over joint investment in the Malo Empire, considered Mentis and Laien’s plans to expand there, and agreed to assess Freeman’s component standards for possible certification.
• Thoer Ottoff offered Xu Yi seventy-six million gold coins to acquire the Xinfei Merchant Guild, while Russell sought military magic machinery for Candel Empire ships, and Xu Yi refused the sale and the offered price.
• Xu Yi invested one million gold coins in Pompey Harbor and asked Billier to take Prince Frank a proposal for bringing Xinfei racing and locomotive technology to the Candel Empire, warning that he expected reasonable concessions.

Xu Yi rescued Akali and the Xinfei Merchant Guild workers, then confronted the Candel Empire’s growing pressure with the guild’s military magic machinery. The Candel Empire invaded the Rulson Kingdom, whose forces inflicted devastating losses and left the continent wondering how they had become so powerful.

• Xu Yi rescued Akali and the guild workers from Count Duoer, froze the count, and sent him to trial while Duchess Windsor withdrew.
• Xu Yi expanded the guild’s guard force and military production, while Duke Elman Windsor secretly sent troops into the Stantin Duchy and Shalong was captured after his force was routed.
• Xu Yi demonstrated the Guard Corps’ strength to Kennard and refused to stop supplying the Rulson Kingdom, while the guild’s machinery and fertilizer spread into foreign markets.
• The Rulson Kingdom’s armored vehicles destroyed General Forris’s force, and Xu Yi told the guild leaders that Rulson had suffered no casualties in the battle.
• Leslie’s frigates blocked Russell’s Candel Empire fleet from entering Rulson waters, forcing the fleet to withdraw rather than risk a confrontation.
• Xu Yi and Servini held their first long-distance call, and Xu Yi watched the Guard Corps test its military machinery against Archmage Camilla.
• Xu Yi explained that he wanted the Rulson war to test military magic machinery, and Camilla said powerful mages were barred from joining wars of invasion.
• The Candel Empire declared war and sent three legions against Rulson, but between September 27 and October 5 it suffered over twenty thousand casualties while Rulson lost fewer than two thousand.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s military machinery helped the Rulson Kingdom defeat the Candel Empire, drawing rival powers into a contest for Xinfei’s technology while the guild expanded its civilian business and defended its patents. The stretch leaves Xu Yi weighing the risks of serving both empires as the contrast between the Lampari Kingdom and Candel Empire comes into view.

• General McHale dismissed Russell’s warnings about Rulson’s military machinery, then suffered a crushing defeat as the Rulson Kingdom’s forces drove his Third Army Corps deep into Candel Empire territory.
• Xu Yi supplied the Rulson Kingdom with military machinery and technology while King Trutz recognized the quality of Xinfei-backed supplies, and Servini refused Candel’s demand to halt Lampari trade with Rulson.
• After Rulson’s victory, the Candel Empire and Malo Empire sought Xinfei technology, while Xu Yi kept the guild focused on civilian machinery and arranged mutual promotion with Stille’s New Moon Merchant Guild.
• Marquis Descartes failed to persuade Servini to hand over Lampari’s magic machinery technology, while Candel buyers acquired Lampari businesses and Ruff Dad sold the Ruff Merchant Guild after Doyel urged him to do so.
• Servini offered former guild owners another chance to enter business, and Xu Yi prepared technology transfers for Lampari and military supplies and training for Rulson while refusing Rulson’s request for technology.
• When the Mages’ Guild Headquarters demanded Xinfei’s patent documentation and threatened to invalidate its patents, Xu Yi sought Archmage Camilla’s help and proposed a committee to protect magic industry patent rights.
• Xu Yi showed Malo Empire representatives the guild’s experimental off-road cargo locomotives and discussed military machinery and Mana Airships, while Camilla warned him that supplying both the Malo and Candel Empires could endanger him.
• Leslie seized control of Paradise Island after shooting King Antor and forcing his soldiers and the islanders to obey, while Xu Yi dismissed threats from the rival Malo and Candel delegations and saw their competition as leverage.
• As Nethers and Hafra traveled through the Candel Empire, Nethers described its poor roads and living conditions, and Hafra contrasted its backwardness with the Lampari Kingdom’s progress.