Chapter Summaries

Candel and Malo Empire commanders prepared to attack the encircled Rulson-Xinfei Allied Forces, believing their combined army of 450,000 offered their best chance to defeat the Xinfei Merchant Guild. The chapter ended with both empires treating the coming battle as decisive for their survival.

• Borogor questioned why the Xinfei Merchant Guild had entered the encirclement, while Generals Soros and Talenmir offered competing explanations.
• Marshal Sudiman warned Candel's generals that losing the battle could doom their empire and ordered the Malo forces to attack according to plan.
• Sudiman worried that Mana Tanks and the Xinfei Merchant Guild's anti-mage weapons could undermine the empires' plans and put their remaining Archmages at risk.
• Marshal Senli rallied the Malo Empire's commanders, insisting they commit themselves fully to winning the battle.
• Senli reflected that the battle might be the two empires' only chance to defeat the Xinfei Merchant Guild and secure their futures.

Count Darcy and Captain Hart prepared the Rulson-Xinfei Allied Forces to fight while surrounded by the Candel and Malo Empires, and the allied armies launched a cavalry assault. The chapter ended as the Mana Cannon Battalion’s barrage shattered Baron Ramos’s charge and devastated the First Cavalry Regiment.

• Count Darcy asked Captain Hart about the Mana Airship Battalion, and Hart explained that it would focus on suppressing the enemy Archmages.
• Count Darcy assessed the enemy armies and proposed sending Mana Tanks to disrupt their formation, but the empires’ forces launched attacks from every direction.
• Baron Ramos led the Candel Empire’s First Cavalry Regiment in a charge, driven by hatred over his brother’s death.
• Captain Hart ordered the Mana Cannon Battalion to fire, and explosions tore through the charging cavalry, breaking its formation.

The Rulson-Xinfei Allied Forces devastated the Candel and Malo Empires’ cavalry with Mana Cannon fire as the empires launched their attack. The battle continued with Marshal Sudiman ordering the surviving Light Cavalry to charge, despite their catastrophic losses.

• Mana Cannon Shells tore through the two empires’ Heavy Cavalry, leaving fewer than thirty percent of the twenty thousand riders still mounted and advancing.
• Marshal Sudiman accepted that traditional soldiers could no longer dominate the battlefield and ordered two new corps into battle without holding back.
• Captain Hart told Count Darcy that Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Military Magic Machinery was even stronger on defense, then ordered the Mana Cannon Battalion to fire at full strength.
• The Allied Forces’ bombardment annihilated the remaining Heavy Cavalry and inflicted more than fifty percent casualties on nearly forty thousand Light Cavalry in less than two minutes.
• Marshal Sudiman refused to withdraw the Light Cavalry and ordered them to keep charging, threatening to behead anyone who fled.

The Candel and Malo Empires tried to exhaust the Rulson-Xinfei Allied Forces’ Mana Cannon ammunition with repeated attacks, forcing Commander Hart to send out Mana War Chariots and Mana Tanks. The Malo Empire’s counterattack slowed the vehicles, but the allied forces destroyed its light cavalry and prepared to continue the battle.

• The Candel and Malo Empire armies pressed their attack despite the destruction of their cavalry, while Count Darcy warned Commander Hart that allied ammunition would last only half an hour.
• Commander Hart sent the Rulson Kingdom’s five hundred Mana War Chariots and the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s two hundred Mana Tanks against the Malo Empire’s southwest formation, while allied cannons concentrated fire on the Candel troops.
• Marshal Senli sent Malo light cavalry to harass the advancing vehicles and ordered the empire’s Mana Cannons to bombard the ground, creating craters that slowed the tanks and chariots.
• Commander Hart ordered the two hundred Mana Tanks to form a line and fire on the charging Malo light cavalry, killing most of the first ten thousand riders in two volleys.
• Rulson soldiers emerged from the Mana War Chariots and fired on the surviving Malo cavalry, completing the destruction of the thirty thousand light cavalry sent by the Malo Empire.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild's Mana Airship Battalion crushed the Two Great Empires' forces, while its blue light rendered even the Archmages' magic useless. Xu Yi gathered the seven enemy Archmages and asked what magic was, leaving the fate of the battle—and the continent—poised for a new discussion.

• The Mana Airship Battalion's overwhelming arrival ended the Two Great Empires' hope of victory and left their armies unable to fight back or flee.
• Count Darcy questioned why Xu Yi had made the Rulson-Xinfei Allied Forces fight so long, and Captain Hart explained that Xu Yi wanted to destroy the empires' will to resist.
• The four Archmages and sixteen Great Mages failed to affect the Mana Airships with spells, Forbidden Spells, or Magic Domains.
• Xu Yi appeared before the enemy Mages, repelled their combined attack with blue light, and explained that his High-Frequency Magic Particle Stabilizer neutralized their magic.
• Xu Yi invited the Archmages from the Candel Empire and the Malo Empire to join him, gathering all seven before asking them what magic was.

Marshal Senli and the Malo Empire prepared to face the advancing Rulson-Xinfei forces, but the arrival of the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s enormous Mana Airship fleet overwhelmed both the Malo and Candel armies. The Archmages’ magic proved useless against the ships, leaving the empires’ forces in chaos and despair.

• Marshal Senli asked four Malo Empire Archmages to take responsibility for the coming fight as the Rulson-Xinfei forces advanced.
• More than a hundred Xinfei Merchant Guild Mana Airships appeared, prompting Archmages and Great Mages from the Malo and Candel Empires to attack them.
• The Archmages’ spells vanished against the airships’ blue light, and the ships spread across the battlefield.
• The Mana Airships fired beams that passed through the empires’ Magic Shields and struck their soldiers, plunging both formations into chaos.
• A Candel Empire Archmage recalled Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka’s warning that Archmages were no longer decisive in war.

Xu Yi challenged seven Archmages to reconsider what magic was, explaining that the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s strength came from studying magic scientifically rather than treating it only as a tool for powerful spells. When the Archmages struggled to grasp his ideas, Xu Yi decided to demonstrate them with an experiment.

• Xu Yi asked the seven Archmages what magic was, provoking the Malo Empire Archmages, then argued that their limited understanding explained why the Xinfei Merchant Guild could defeat them without deploying Mages.
• An Archmage from the Candel Empire defined magic as Mages using mana to control magic elements and give them different forms, and the others agreed.
• Xu Yi questioned how mana and magic elements worked in measurable detail, but the Archmages did not understand his terms and admitted they had not read the Xinfei Magic Industry Weekly.
• Xu Yi introduced the foundations of magical science and explained that the Xinfei Merchant Guild studied both how magic worked and why, including magic elements themselves.
• Seeing that the Archmages could not grasp his scientific perspective through explanation alone, Xu Yi decided to conduct a small experiment.

Xu Yi demonstrated to seven Archmages that magic could take many forms and explained his theory that mana and magic elements had no inherent elemental attributes. He left them confronting a scientific view of magic that challenged the continent’s traditional understanding.

• Xu Yi asked seven Archmages to cast Fireball Spells and pointed out how their fireballs differed in size, color, and brightness.
• Xu Yi challenged the Archmages to explain why their spells behaved as they did, then described how years of research had helped him investigate the nature of magic.
• Xu Yi expanded and shrank a fireball with precise control, then transformed it directly into water, wind, and earth forms.
• Xu Yi explained that magic elements had no inherent attributes and that mental vibrations could shape them into different forms.
• Xu Yi compared a Mage’s ability to control magic elements with magic arrays and said the Xinfei Merchant Guild studied arrays more precisely and scientifically.

Xu Yi demonstrated the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s new Magic Particle Wave-Splitting Beam Cannon to Marshal Sudiman and the armies, showing that its power surpassed even a Forbidden Spell. The blast split the Tanggula Mountain Ranges, leaving Sudiman and the assembled Mages stunned.

• Xu Yi told the seven Archmages that traditional magical thinking could not stop the Xinfei Merchant Guild and urged them to explore magic through scientific research.
• Marshal Sudiman refused to surrender the Candel Empire’s army and challenged Xu Yi to let his fists do the talking.
• Xu Yi contacted Rokel and ordered a test firing of the Magic Particle Wave-Splitting Beam Cannon.
• Ten Mana Airships converged their beams into a sphere of magic that grew more powerful than a Forbidden Spell.
• The sphere fired into the Tanggula Mountain Ranges and blasted a vast gap through them, after which Xu Yi asked Sudiman if his fist was big enough.

A series of ceasefires ended the year-and-a-half war, while the defeated powers lost territory and influence to the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s allies. With the other countries’ postwar outcomes established, the chapter left the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s own next move unanswered.

• The Candel Empire signed a ceasefire with the Xinfei Merchant Guild and the Rulson Kingdom after its defeat, while unrest and provincial independence continued to threaten the empire.
• The Malo Empire, the Lampari Kingdom, and the Drake Duchy signed a ceasefire, and the Frank and Sark Kingdoms disappeared as Lampari and Drake divided their territories.
• Grand Duchess Caroline declared the Drake Duchy a kingdom and became its first monarch, while the Lampari Kingdom began incorporating its expanded lands.
• The Wales Duchy captured Dero City with help from the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps, and King Wakeli died defending the palace as the Dero Kingdom fell.
• The Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom counterattacked with Xinfei military magic machinery, then secured unrestricted trading rights across the southeastern countries through the Southeastern Treaty.
• The Mana Magical Kingdom signed a ceasefire with the Xinfei Merchant Guild, ending the war, while the guild’s own postwar plans remained unknown.

After the war, Xu Yi explained that restoring trade and the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s operations mattered more than seeking immediate rewards. Servini asked him to help integrate Lampari’s newly acquired territories, and Xu Yi considered transferring advanced magic-industry technology to the kingdom.

• Xu Yi told Servini that restoring normal trade would benefit the Xinfei Merchant Guild more than gaining territory or other rewards.
• Servini explained that Lampari struggled to meet new subjects’ demands for equal access to farming machines, fertilizer, household magic machinery, and repair services.
• Xu Yi argued that commoners cared little about national loyalty and that providing stable livelihoods would help integrate the new territories.
• Servini handed Xu Yi a document requesting extensive support, including technology for forging magic machine tools.
• Servini argued that Lampari’s industrial experience and cooperation with the Xinfei Merchant Guild made it a suitable first recipient of advanced technology, and Xu Yi recognized that the magic industry was entering a new era.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild sold a wide range of magic machinery technologies, prompting organizations across the continent to pursue different industrial strategies. Xu Yi refused the Candel and Malo Empires’ request for exclusive access while pressing them to accept his proposal concerning mages.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild announced technology transfers and signed 376 agreements worth 264 million gold coins, with bundled technologies proving especially popular.
• Xu Yi expected the sales to spur broad industrial growth, with powerful organizations seeking comprehensive systems and smaller ones specializing in fewer technologies.
• Marquis Descartes and Marquis Shawns asked Xu Yi to prioritize technical support and exclusive rights for the Candel and Malo Empires, but he rejected their reasoning.
• Xu Yi asked whether the empires had accepted his proposal concerning mages, and the two representatives admitted their governments had not decided.
• Xu Yi told them the Mages' Guild, the Association for Mage Livelihood and Employment Security, and the empires' archmages had agreed, leaving only the empires' approval.
• Marquis Descartes asked Xu Yi to reconsider the exclusivity request if the empires agreed, but Xu Yi refused to link the separate matters.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild helped establish the Mage Peace Pact, barring registered mages from fighting in wars and redirecting them toward the magic industry. The two empires then partnered with the guild to train and incentivize mages to research magic machinery.

• The Sains Continent Mages' Guild, the Joint Association for Mage Livelihood and Employment Security, and eighty-three countries signed the Mage Peace Pact at the Xinfei Merchant Guild's suggestion.
• The pact prohibited registered mages from directly participating in wars, while its signatory countries pledged not to recruit mages into their armies.
• Mages and the public recognized that the pact would push more than one hundred thousand mages toward the magic industry, where the Xinfei Merchant Guild offered well-paid, safer research work.
• The two empires announced plans to develop the magic industry and cooperate with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• The two empires and the Xinfei Merchant Guild established a New-Type Mage Academy in each empire and offered mages tuition waivers, tax benefits, and special privileges for qualifying as magic machinery engineers.

Xu Yi pursued a larger industrial workforce by expanding modern farming and establishing vocational academies, while the Xinfei Merchant Guild worked to stabilize the continent. After helping the Candel Empire reclaim the Southern Province, the guild secured an open economic zone there, while the status of the Tural Autonomous Territory remained unresolved.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild announced farmland machinery and modern farming assistance for twenty-six countries to increase grain production.
• The guild signed agreements to establish more than five hundred vocational training academies, often funding them in exchange for shares of local resources.
• Unable to suppress the Southern Province's rebellion, the Candel Empire asked the Xinfei Merchant Guild for help.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps' Mana Airship Battalion arrived over Doral City, and Duke Windsor surrendered, dissolving the Windsor Kingdom and returning the province to the Candel Empire.
• The Candel Empire kept Duke Windsor as governor and designated the Southern Province an open economic zone, while the Tural Autonomous Territory went unmentioned.

Xu Yi explained that he planned to develop the Tural Autonomous Territory as a major shipping hub without turning it into a kingdom, then asked President Cruz to help expand the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s road-building operations on the Demoncloud Continent. With the war on the Sains Continent ended and the guild’s position secure, Xu Yi intended to move more of its forces and resources abroad.

• President Cruz questioned why Xu Yi had taken control of the Tural Autonomous Territory without declaring it independent or making it part of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Xu Yi described his plans for the territory to become a major southern port and shipping hub, connecting the Sains Continent’s eastern and western regions and providing access to other continents.
• Xu Yi told President Cruz that the Amli Merchant Guild needed to build a complete road network in the Tural Autonomous Territory within three years.
• Xu Yi asked President Cruz to expand the Amli Merchant Guild’s Demoncloud Continent operations from two construction crews to twenty or more, and President Cruz agreed to try.
• President Cruz realized Xu Yi was planning full-scale development on the Demoncloud Continent because the Xinfei Merchant Guild no longer needed to keep its strongest forces on the Sains Continent after the war.

After the war, the Sains Continent stabilized and the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s business surged, even as its expanding operations and plans strained its resources. While the guild’s employees were overwhelmed with work, Xu Yi announced that he would hold a personal press conference.

• The Candel Empire suppressed its unrest, while the Malo Empire recovered quickly and deepened its cooperation with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Orders and sales at the Xinfei Merchant Guild soared, with heavy magic machinery sales reaching more than seventeen million gold coins in May.
• The guild’s senior management welcomed the profits but worried that postwar agreements and Xu Yi’s ambitious plan would demand enormous investment.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild expanded its Guard Corps, recruited thousands of soldiers and staff, and struggled to handle its growing workload.
• Xu Yi announced that he would hold a personal press conference, surprising the busy guild employees.

Xu Yi’s return to Bunta City for a personal press conference drew enormous crowds, forcing Mayor Count Belmo to ask him to calm the city. Xu Yi flew above the square to address them.

• Crowds packed Bunta City’s Old City on June 18 to see Xu Yi and attend his personal press conference.
• Count Belmo told Xu Yi that the congestion had disrupted the Old City and that his fame had made the crowds uncontrollable.
• Xu Yi asked Count Belmo to announce that only invited newspaper reporters could attend, but Belmo feared the crowd would turn on him.
• Xu Yi agreed to handle the situation himself and flew above Bunta City’s square.

Xu Yi used a live broadcast and a giveaway to calm the huge crowd gathered in Bunta City's Old City District, clearing the way for his press conference. He and Count Belmo then headed to City Square, where Xu Yi reunited with a tall figure from the crowd.

• Xu Yi appeared on Mana Illusion Projection Devices across Bunta City and asked the overcrowded crowd to leave the Old City District.
• When the crowd protested, Xu Yi promised live broadcasts and Xinfei Merchant Guild gifts at squares outside the district, prompting most people to leave.
• Count Belmo praised Xu Yi for resolving the crisis without force, and Xu Yi explained that the giveaway adapted a sales exhibition already planned for that day.
• By eleven in the morning, most of the Old City District had cleared, though nearly ten thousand people remained in City Square.
• Xu Yi and Count Belmo left the City Lord's Manor for City Square, where a tall figure approached Xu Yi and embraced him.

Xu Yi held his first personal press conference in Bunta City on the twenty-third anniversary of founding the Xinfei Merchant Guild, with co-founder Heinz beside him. As Xu Yi reminisced about the guild’s beginnings and future, reporters wondered whether it could thrive after he was gone.

• Xu Yi greeted Heinz, who joked that Rhea had kicked him out for the day, and the old friends walked to the city square’s platform.
• Xu Yi addressed the gathered reporters and commoners, saying he had intended to share some views and chat with them.
• Xu Yi explained that he had chosen June eighteenth and Bunta City to mark the day and place where he and Heinz founded the Xinfei Merchant Guild twenty-three years earlier.
• Xu Yi reflected that the guild was still young and might last a hundred, several hundred, or even a thousand years.
• As Xu Yi recounted the guild’s history, reporters focused on his central role and questioned whether the guild could keep growing after his death.

At his press conference, Xu Yi explained that mages should use magic to benefit people rather than wage war, drawing on the story of how frying eggs in his academy dormitory inspired his work on magic machinery. He began a second topic on what magic means and ordered reporters to publish his coming words to mages exactly, leaving them eager to hear his message.

• Xu Yi ended his reminiscences with Heinz and introduced the central idea of his press conference: what magic meant to him.
• Xu Yi demonstrated a forbidden fire spell, then used a small fireball to fry eggs and explained that the experience inspired the first magic fan and the founding of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Xu Yi argued that mages should use their talents to benefit others instead of focusing on destruction and war, and said magic machinery was currently the most effective way to do so.
• Xu Yi described mages as potential researchers and engineers whose value lay in understanding magic and finding practical uses for it.
• Xu Yi told reporters that his next topic, the nature of magic, was intended for mages across the continent and demanded that they publish his words without changes or omissions.