Chapter Summaries

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.

Xu Yi challenged Great Mage Camilla’s prejudice against commerce and argued that magic should improve ordinary people’s lives rather than serve mainly for warfare. He proposed a partnership to fund her Magic Tower and revealed a new invention, the Magic Soil Loosener, as a way to address her concerns.

• Xu Yi argued that merchants helped society by producing and circulating goods, while mages had long pursued powerful magic for war.
• Great Mage Camilla was shaken by Xu Yi’s criticism but admitted that some of his arguments had merit.
• Xu Yi offered to provide gold for the Magic Tower through a business partnership, but Camilla initially refused.
• Xu Yi identified Camilla’s concerns about business interfering with research and exploiting ordinary people, then claimed his proposal would avoid both problems.
• Xu Yi showed Camilla a drawing of a Magic Soil Loosener and began explaining how it would solve problems for people who needed it.

Xu Yi secured Great Mage Camilla’s cooperation and realized that magic machinery should combine magic’s unique abilities with his mechanical knowledge. As he headed to the factory to develop a better Magic Soil Loosener, he found a dense crowd gathered outside.

• Xu Yi told Stille that Great Mage Camilla had agreed to work with him, and Stille went to visit her.
• Xu Yi reflected that his partnership with Great Mage Camilla would help him overcome his inability to create the high-level array his original Magic Soil Loosener design required.
• Great Mage Camilla suggested using an earth element array, and Xu Yi realized a second-level Earth-Rending Array could power the machine more effectively than a sixth-level wind element array.
• Xu Yi recognized that combining magic with mechanical design could create machinery suited to the Sains Continent rather than merely reproduce machines from Earth.
• Xu Yi headed to the factory to begin developing the revised Magic Soil Loosener with Canby’s dwarves, but found the grounds crowded with people.

Xu Yi returned to the Xinfei factory during recruitment and learned that applicants were being tested on the assembly line. After reflecting on the applicants’ limited education, he let Heinz continue hiring in his own way and gave him discretion over ten of the hundred positions.

• Xu Yi found the factory crowded with applicants and entered with Alex’s help.
• Xu Yi told Heinz that the Magic Rice Cooker’s development was complete and trial production would begin the next day.
• Heinz explained that many applicants struggled to learn basic work and some had injured themselves operating machinery.
• Xu Yi recognized that ordinary people on the Sains Continent had far less education than workers on Earth and agreed to Heinz’s practical assessment.
• Heinz admitted that acquaintances had asked him to hire their recommended candidates, so Xu Yi let him choose ten workers while requiring all hires to perform their jobs properly.

Xu Yi visited the busy Magic Machine Tool Workshop, where President Fasak showed him a Second-Generation Variable-Speed Magic Fan bearing the Leo Merchant Guild’s emblem. Xu Yi realized the Leo Merchant Guild had made a nearly identical fan without obtaining a production line from Xinfei, and began wondering how it had copied the design.

• Xu Yi arrived at the Magic Machine Tool Workshop and found Canby explaining the Small Magic Harvester to President Fasak.
• Xu Yi and President Fasak exchanged pleasantries about their business relationship and the profits Fasak had earned from producing Second-Generation Magic Fans.
• President Fasak said he had come to ask Xu Yi for an important favor and showed him a Second-Generation Magic Fan.
• Xu Yi noticed the fan bore the Leo Merchant Guild’s lion emblem rather than Fasak’s eagle emblem.
• President Fasak identified the Leo Merchant Guild as Sartan City’s largest merchant guild, and Xu Yi wondered how it had produced a fan so similar to Xinfei’s without receiving a production line from him.

Xu Yi investigated the inferior Magic Fans made by the Fasak Merchant Guild and explained that their problems came from poor materials and workers, not merely the production process. He left President Fasak facing the need to improve both.

• President Fasak confronted Xu Yi about the Leo Merchant Guild using Magic Machine Tools to make Magic Fans, and Xu Yi said the tools had likely been copied.
• Xu Yi examined the Leo Merchant Guild's Magic Fan and identified it as a knockoff of a Xinfei Magic Fan.
• Xu Yi compared a Fasak Magic Fan with a Xinfei Magic Fan and showed President Fasak that the Fasak model started slowly, ran unevenly, and made loud noises.
• President Fasak admitted he would choose the Xinfei Magic Fan, and Xu Yi blamed the quality gap on raw materials and workers.
• Xu Yi questioned whether Fasak had ensured his subordinates treated the Xinfei technicians properly, then began explaining that iron came in different grades.

President Fasak left Bunta City satisfied after reaching a profitable cooperation agreement with Xu Yi, who refused to grant him exclusive rights to Magic Machine Tools. Examining the Leo Merchant Guild’s shoddy Magic Fan, Xu Yi saw hope that others were beginning to enter magical industry and suspected Vena, Rem, and Camiro had joined the guild in Sartan City.

• Xu Yi shared information about the Small Magic Harvester with President Fasak but refused to help the Fasak Merchant Guild establish a production line, agreeing instead to give it exclusive distribution rights in Sartan City.
• Xu Yi firmly rejected President Fasak’s request for exclusive purchasing rights to Magic Machine Tools, and the two merchant guilds reached a cooperation agreement after two days of negotiations.
• After President Fasak left, Xu Yi watched the poorly made Leo Merchant Guild Magic Fan shake and rattle on his desk.
• Xu Yi realized the Leo Merchant Guild’s Magic Fan showed that others were beginning to recognize the potential of magical industry, though he judged their imitation work no threat to Xinfei.
• Xu Yi suspected Vena had made the fan after joining the Leo Merchant Guild with Rem and Camiro, and the fan’s protective grille fell off onto his desk.

Freeman hauled his wheat to Bunta City to earn more than he would selling it in his village, where a new Xinfei Merchant Guild billboard advertised a Magic Rice Cooker. After learning about the guild’s free Big Eater Contest, he headed there for a meal.

• Freeman noticed that a new billboard showed three girls with a Magic Rice Cooker, and a passerby explained that it cooked rice without firewood or smoke.
• Freeman sold his wheat to the Maddy Merchant Guild for two gold coins, thirty-seven silver coins, and seventy-six copper coins.
• Freeman overheard people discussing the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Big Eater Contest, where the winner would receive a Magic Rice Cooker and a membership card.
• Freeman packed away his flatbread and set off for the contest so he could eat rice for free.

Freeman joined the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s big eater contest, won a round and then the grand final by eating thirteen bowls of rice. Xu Yi met him afterward and began asking him to choose between two special rewards, starting with fifty gold coins.

• Freeman watched a round of the contest and learned that each round’s winner received a Magic Rice Cooker.
• Freeman entered the next round, quickly ate his first bowl, and won after the other contestants gave up.
• Freeman worked for the afternoon, returned at six, and won the grand final by eating thirteen bowls of rice.
• Alex brought Freeman to meet Xu Yi, who confirmed that Freeman was from Ireland Village.
• Xu Yi told Freeman he could choose between two special rewards and began by offering fifty gold coins.

Xu Yi offered Freeman a choice between fifty gold coins and an opportunity involving Xinfei’s farm machinery, then explained to Viscount Leslie that lending equipment to farmers was part of a plan to extend mechanized farming beyond noble-owned fields. The chapter ended with Xu Yi asking whether Leslie had heard of “liberating the productive forces.”

• Freeman learned he could choose fifty gold coins or an opportunity tied to Xinfei’s Small Magic Harvester and Small Magic Soil Loosener.
• Xu Yi showed Freeman a picture of the Small Magic Harvester and explained that Xinfei had mechanized wheat harvesting near Bunta City.
• Viscount Leslie questioned why Xu Yi would lend valuable machines to Freeman without charge, and Xu Yi said it supported his Farmer Support Plan.
• Xu Yi explained that nobles owned about thirty percent of Bunta City’s farmland, while farmers controlled most of the rest, and argued that farmers should also benefit from quick harvesting.
• Xu Yi assured Viscount Leslie that the plan would eventually profit Xinfei and asked whether he had heard of “liberating the productive forces.”

Xu Yi and Viscount Leslie secured noble support for the Farmer Support Plan, and the Xinfei Merchant Guild demonstrated its new small Magic Soil Loosener. The nobles rushed to claim the machine, while Sebas approached the farmers and introduced the support plan.

• Viscount Leslie accepted Xu Yi's argument that workers created more value under better conditions and pledged to support the Farmer Support Plan.
• Three days later, Viscount Leslie hosted nobles and farmers at a demonstration of the completed small Magic Soil Loosener.
• Baron Haines identified the machine’s Earthsplitter arrays and praised the skill behind their design.
• The machine’s cylinders cracked the hard ground, and its Iron Harrow churned the clods into fine, loose soil in under ten minutes.
• The nobles crowded around Xu Yi to demand their orders, while the farmers assumed they would never be able to obtain a machine.
• Sebas stopped the farmers from leaving and began telling them about the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Farmer Support Plan.