Chapter Summaries

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.

General McHale took command of the campaign against the Rulson Kingdom after General Cook was relieved, but dismissed warnings about the kingdom’s powerful army and the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s military magic machinery. Russell left convinced McHale’s Third Army Corps would suffer a setback that might finally force the Empire Military Department to take the threat seriously.

• General McHale berated General Cook, then informed him that the Military Department had relieved him of command.
• General Cook warned McHale that the Rulson Kingdom’s army was unusually powerful, but McHale rejected his warning and studied the battle reports with disbelief.
• A guard brought Russell to McHale, and Russell reported that the Imperial Navy had failed to enter Rulson waters or carry out its landing.
• Russell warned McHale that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had equipped Rulson’s army with formidable military magic machinery, but McHale dismissed the warning.
• After leaving McHale’s tent, Russell concluded that McHale’s disregard would likely lead to a defeat that could make the Empire Military Department take the threat seriously.

Xu Yi and King Trutz discussed the Rulson Kingdom’s wartime supplies and their joint investment in a Gear Processing Factory while a convoy delivered strategic goods to the front. Xu Yi affirmed the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s willingness to risk supporting Rulson and gave King Trutz plans and a mold, leaving their cooperation poised to deepen.

• A convoy of more than a hundred Large Cargo Magic Locomotives carried strategic supplies into the Rulson Kingdom for its war against the Candel Empire.
• King Trutz compared a standard Magic Repeating Crossbow bolt with a handmade one and recognized the superior quality and lower cost of the Spirit Fox Merchant Guild’s supply.
• Xu Yi told King Trutz that the first two thousand Magic Rockets were being loaded and should arrive in three days.
• King Trutz proposed that the Gear Processing Factory operate independently under the Rulson Kingdom, but Xu Yi argued that the Xinfei Merchant Guild should remain involved.
• Xu Yi explained that backing Rulson offered greater returns than backing the Candel Empire and said a merchant had to take risks.
• Xu Yi gave King Trutz plans and a metal mold that fit a standard Magic Repeating Crossbow bolt exactly.

Queen Servini rejected Candel Empire ambassador Klein Swidden’s demand that the Lampari Kingdom stop trading with the Rulson Kingdom, pointing out that the empire had failed to force other neighboring states to comply. The meeting ended with the Candel Empire’s authority in the Sains Continent at risk because it had been unable to defeat the Rulson Kingdom.

• Xu Yi supported King Trutz by arranging supplies and offering the Rulson Kingdom technology transfers for Magic Repeating Crossbows.
• Klein Swidden demanded that Servini halt all shipments from the Lampari Kingdom to the Rulson Kingdom.
• Servini argued that the shipments were private trade and challenged the Candel Empire’s right to punish Lampari merchant guilds.
• Servini noted that other countries had also ignored the empire’s warnings, while the Sark Kingdom had not responded and the Falk Kingdom had rejected the demand.
• Servini pointed out that the Candel Empire had not punished the Rulson Kingdom despite its defiance, leaving Swidden to realize his mission had failed and the empire’s authority was in crisis.

General McHale’s Candel Empire forces suffered a devastating defeat when the Rulson Kingdom’s crossbows, Magic Locomotives, and explosive weapons overwhelmed them. News of the Empire’s losses stunned the continent, and reports identified the Rulson Kingdom’s Military Magic Machinery as the key to its superior combat power.

• General McHale watched the Rulson Kingdom’s relentless crossbow fire inflict heavy casualties and block his troops’ advance.
• General McHale’s light cavalry failed to flank the enemy after detachments of Magic Locomotives routed them with powerful weapons.
• Explosive fireballs devastated General McHale’s position, and he ordered a retreat after nearly all his guards were killed.
• The Rulson Kingdom pursued General McHale’s Third Army Corps for a week, driving it three hundred kilometers into Candel Empire territory and leaving fewer than ten thousand survivors.
• Nations across the Sains Continent examined the defeats and concluded that the Rulson Kingdom’s Military Magic Machinery gave its army its overwhelming advantage.

After the Rulson Kingdom defeated the Candel Empire, President Cantona worked with Marquis Southgate’s fief on farmland improvements and factory preparations in the Malo Empire. Riley revealed that Southgate’s sudden warmth toward Cantona was connected to the Rulson Kingdom’s victory, leaving Cantona confused.

• The Rulson Kingdom withdrew after driving General McHale’s surviving forces back into Candel Empire territory, and both countries fell into an uneasy peace.
• President Cantona waited with Baron Franklin for Marquis Southgate to inspect the completed first phase of farmland improvements, and Franklin invited Cantona to stay longer.
• Cantona reflected on the chamber’s successful harvest work across thirteen nobles’ fiefs and its plans to expand farmland improvements in the Malo Empire.
• Cantona visited the developing Magic Industrial Base, where factories were preparing to open and recruit thousands of workers from nearby fiefs.
• Cantona asked Riley why Marquis Southgate’s attitude had changed, and Riley said it was because the Rulson Kingdom had defeated the Candel Empire.