Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi attended Count Samo’s New Year networking banquet, where he renewed business discussions with Fuller Morgan and met merchants from Karma City. The two city lords opened the event, and Count Samo beckoned Xu Yi as the merchants began mingling.

• Moon Cruz explained that Bunta City and Karma City held annual New Year visits, and praised the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s standing.
• Xu Yi discussed the Amli Merchant Guild’s construction work and its close business ties with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Xu Yi greeted Fuller Morgan and offered to show him the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Small Magic-Powered Drilling Machine; Morgan agreed to examine it.
• Count Samo arrived with Count Anneris and merchants from Karma City, and the two city lords gave speeches opening the banquet.
• The merchants began mingling, and Count Samo beckoned Xu Yi.

Count Anneris invited Xu Yi to establish Xinfei Merchant Guild factories in Karma City, promising land and support. Xu Yi agreed to build production workshops and a service center there, and Count Samo explained that the investment would help Karma City by creating jobs.

• Count Samo introduced Xu Yi to Count Anneris, who protested that Karma City's merchants had not been able to buy Magic Machine Tools on the same terms as Sartan City's Fasak Merchant Guild.
• Count Anneris invited Xinfei Merchant Guild to build a factory in Karma City and promised land, assistance, and easier paperwork.
• With Count Samo's support, Xu Yi agreed on behalf of Xinfei Merchant Guild to invest in Karma City.
• Xu Yi and Count Anneris made a preliminary agreement for workshops producing household and farmland magic machinery, along with an after-sales service center.
• After Count Anneris left, Count Samo told Xu Yi that Karma City needed the guild because its factories could provide jobs and steady incomes for local families.

Xu Yi entrusted Heinz with establishing the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s factory in Karma City, while planning to address the guild’s shortage of managers. Servini visited the factory, saw the new machine tools producing farmland machinery, and offered Xu Yi good news about leasing land as payment for an explanation.

• Xu Yi told Heinz that the guild had arranged to lease land in Karma City but lacked someone to manage the new factory, and Heinz volunteered to take charge.
• Heinz recommended Ankato to succeed him as deputy supervisor of the Domestic Magic Machinery Production Workshop, and Xu Yi approved the plan.
• Xu Yi gave Heinz responsibility for investing in and building the Karma City factory, then added managerial positions to the guild’s recruitment drive.
• The dwarves’ new Magic Power Forging Machine Tool production line helped them complete five hundred Small Magic Harvesters in one week.
• Servini visited the factory, praised the machine tools’ speed and precision, and asked Xu Yi to explain their benefits.
• Xu Yi joked that Servini would need to pay tuition, and she offered good news about leasing land in return.

Xu Yi demonstrated the Small Magic-Powered Drilling Machine to President Morgan and negotiated a large order for the Falkor Merchant Guild. After securing the deal, Xu Yi went to the Bunta City carriage service to meet a group of special guests.

• His Majesty the King gave preliminary approval to Xu Yi's request to lease land, contingent on a detailed proposal and the Xinfei Merchant Guild meeting its Farmland Magic Machinery deadline.
• Xu Yi continued developing magic machinery and demonstrated the Small Magic-Powered Drilling Machine, which quickly broke apart a massive piece of siderite ore.
• President Morgan recognized the machine's value for mining and asked Xu Yi to sell it to the Falkor Merchant Guild.
• Xu Yi and President Morgan haggled until they agreed on a price of seventy-eight gold coins per machine, with Morgan ordering one hundred.
• Xu Yi left for the carriage service in Bunta City to welcome a group of special guests.

Xu Yi welcomed Akali, Avita, and five of their classmates to Bunta City and showed them the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s operations. After Xiuqi dismissed the guild as small and hopeless, Xu Yi presented its profits, expansion plans, and employee pay, leaving the students reconsidering whether to join.

• Xu Yi greeted Akali and Avita’s five classmates and took them on a tour of Bunta City, the guild’s repair center, and its factory.
• Xiuqi criticized the guild’s small factory and questioned Akali and Avita’s claims about its prospects, prompting Akali to defend the guild and their earnings.
• Xiuqi threatened to leave and bragged that major merchant guilds had invited him, but Xu Yi challenged him to hear the facts before judging the guild.
• Xu Yi told the students that the guild had earned over 203,000 gold coins in revenue and more than 140,000 in net profit during its first six months.
• Xu Yi described planned factory expansions and the salaries and development bonuses available to researchers, while Avita and Akali shared their earnings.
• The five classmates, including Xiuqi, became interested in the guild’s opportunities as Xu Yi watched their opinions shift.

Five new mages joined the Xinfei Merchant Guild, strengthening its Magic Research Institute as Xu Yi funded Avita and Akali’s magical development. Stille agreed to Xu Yi’s teasing proposal that he give himself to her, leaving their relationship at a turning point.

• Five young mages signed contracts to become first-grade researchers at the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Magic Research Institute.
• Xu Yi allocated five hundred gold coins each month to support Avita and Akali’s magic research, which had helped both improve their abilities.
• Stille asked Xu Yi whether she should advertise jewelry for the Salank Merchant Guild, which offered her a thousand gold coins.
• Xu Yi offered to give himself to Stille instead of paying her nine hundred and ninety-nine gold coins, and Stille accepted.
• Xu Yi softly agreed as he and Stille held each other’s gaze.

Xu Yi agreed to develop magic machinery based on the Salank Merchant Guild’s drawings and invited its researchers to consult him directly. He then took Stille’s hand and left with her, while their awkward feelings for each other remained unresolved.

• President Lanke praised Stille’s appearance in the Salank Merchant Guild’s jewelry advertisement and thanked Xu Yi for persuading her to participate.
• President Lanke showed Xu Yi drawings of machines made by the guild’s mages and craftsmen and asked Xinfei Merchant Guild to develop machinery to meet their requirements.
• Xu Yi recognized that the drawings reflected genuine magic machinery research and offered to teach their creators what he knew.
• After Stille finished modeling, Xu Yi took her hand and told President Lanke that they were leaving together.
• President Lanke watched Xu Yi lead Stille out of the guild.

Xu Yi learned that the Mages' Guild was debating whether to require mages to share their research and whether to protect it with patent rights, while the Lampari Kingdom's parliament rejected his Patent Rights Bill. Servini warned him that powerful nobles and merchant guilds were targeting Xinfei, and Xu Yi prepared to face the competition.

• Great Mage Camilla questioned Xu Yi about when he would marry Stille, then showed him a Guild Journal debating whether magic research should be shared or protected.
• Xu Yi read Great Mage Eisenka's argument for exclusive rights to magic research and learned that the Mages' Guild was considering a proposal similar to patents.
• Great Mage Camilla said most Great Mages opposed compulsory sharing and that Eisenka had proposed a resolution protecting mages' research rights.
• Servini told Xu Yi that parliament had rejected the Patent Rights Bill because powerful nobles behind major merchant guilds wanted to enter the magic machinery industry without patent restrictions.
• Servini warned Xu Yi that Xinfei was vulnerable to being swallowed by larger guilds, but Xu Yi vowed to meet the competition and insisted they could not catch his guild.

Xu Yi expanded the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s plans around its newly leased land, including roads, a dwarf settlement, and management of the Sandy River. After Heinz left to oversee the Karma City factory, Stille arrived with a special guest, Gordon Eisenka.

• Xu Yi reviewed the guild’s ten-square-kilometer lease and the plans for a dwarf settlement and Sandy River project near the Falling Rain Forest.
• Xu Yi planned roads linking Bunta City, the leased production base, the dwarf settlement, Sartan City, Karma City, and the Falling Rain Forest.
• Xu Yi encouraged Heinz to manage the Karma City factory, then sent him off as production began.
• Stille arrived, greeted Xu Yi affectionately, and introduced her guest, Gordon Eisenka.

Gordon Eisenka visited Xu Yi and toured the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s factory before proposing a partnership to research magic machinery. Xu Yi recognized that Eisenka wanted access to his unique expertise, but he agreed to the partnership anyway.

• Xu Yi was surprised to learn that the simply dressed visitor was Gordon Eisenka, the kingdom’s richest mage, and welcomed him to the factory.
• After touring the factory, Gordon Eisenka praised Xu Yi’s practical magic work and discussed how wealth could support magical research.
• Gordon Eisenka proposed that he provide connections among mages while Xu Yi contributed the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s experience, with their research results jointly owned.
• Gordon Eisenka showed Xu Yi a drawing of a rival magic fan and said a proposed Mages’ Guild rule could protect their research from competitors.
• Xu Yi concluded that Gordon Eisenka’s offer was an attempt to acquire his unique knowledge, but he agreed to the partnership.

Xu Yi agreed to cooperate with Great Mage Eisenka on magic-array research while protecting Xinfei’s mechanical designs, then used a rival Bull Brand rice cooker to explain why competition would help spread magic machinery. At Xinfei’s product launch, Xu Yi and Stille appeared hand in hand, giving reporters a sensational story beyond the new product itself.

• Great Mage Eisenka agreed to cooperate with Xu Yi on magic-array research after Xu Yi refused to share Xinfei’s existing mechanical technologies.
• Xu Yi showed Stille a high-quality Bull Brand magic rice cooker and said competition would help magic machinery spread across the continent.
• Xu Yi asked Stille to help him with another advertisement, and crowds gathered for Xinfei’s product launch on April first.
• Reporters from the Sartan Morning Post and Karma Daily arrived to cover the launch, while Rhine led the Karma Daily team through the crowd.
• Xu Yi and Stille emerged holding hands, prompting Rhine to realize their relationship could be even bigger news than the product launch.

Xu Yi introduced the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Automatic Magic Rice Cooker, demonstrating its silverleaf steel construction, durability, and cooking indicator to a crowd of skeptical onlookers. As the cooker began preparing rice, Rhine asked Xu Yi whether he and Stille were a couple.

• Xu Yi announced the Automatic Magic Rice Cooker and explained that it switched itself off once the rice was cooked.
• Xu Yi introduced the cooker’s rust-resistant silverleaf steel casing, and a customer confirmed that it was much lighter than the old model.
• Xu Yi dropped the cooker down the steps to demonstrate its strength, and the crowd found it nearly undamaged.
• Xu Yi added rice and water to the cooker and pressed the switch, causing its red cooking light to turn on.
• Rhine asked Xu Yi what his relationship with Stille was, and the crowd fell silent.

Xu Yi confirmed his relationship with Stille at the Xinfei Merchant Guild product launch, then defended the guild’s approach to competition and revealed the Automatic Magic Rice Cooker’s finished rice. Elsewhere, Camiro urged the discouraged Rem to fight for Vena and hinted that he had a way to help.

• Xu Yi and Stille announced that they were lovers, and the crowd voiced support for them.
• Xu Yi told reporters that he welcomed other guilds entering the magic machinery industry but would not give away the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s latest research.
• Xu Yi said three Karma City guilds had begun operating production lines for Magic Fans and Magic Rice Cookers.
• The Automatic Magic Rice Cooker finished cooking, and Xu Yi opened it to reveal a pot of cooked rice.
• Camiro complained about Xu Yi’s success, while Rem said he had little hope of winning Vena back.
• Camiro told Rem that there might be a way to change things if Rem was willing.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild faced a surge in Automatic Magic Rice Cooker orders while Xu Yi struggled to expand production of Magic Machine Tools. Freeman and farmers from Ireland Village proposed contract-manufacturing Magic Harvester components, and Xu Yi enthusiastically agreed.

• Orders for the new-generation Automatic Magic Rice Cooker approached thirty thousand units, including a thousand-unit order from Victor’s Anvilmar City store.
• Xu Yi worried that the Magic Machine Tool Workshop lacked capacity to fulfill the Agriculture Bureau’s order because the guild could not yet hire more dwarves.
• Freeman visited Xu Yi with farmers from Ireland Village after learning to repair his Magic Harvester and realizing its parts could be made locally.
• Freeman explained that the farmers wanted to manufacture Magic Harvester components for the Xinfei Merchant Guild under contract.
• Xu Yi asked whether the idea belonged to all of them, learned that Kowach had suggested it, and agreed to the proposal.

Xu Yi encouraged Freeman and other farmers to manufacture screws with Magic Thread-Rolling Machines, explaining to Sebas why he wanted to help develop a wider magic industry. Viscount Leslie returned to Bunta City with Baron Haines, then told Xu Yi he might leave after spring plowing and never come back.

• Freeman and the other farmers bought five Magic Thread-Rolling Machines on deferred payment to begin producing screws.
• Sebas questioned Xu Yi's decision to support small manufacturers, and Xu Yi explained that he wanted to expand the magic industry rather than monopolize it.
• Baron Haines returned with Viscount Leslie and learned that the Bunta Daily's sales had grown to nearly ten thousand copies a day.
• Haines hinted that he was connected to the Anvilmar Daily and the Lampari Weekly, while Xu Yi chose not to press him for details.
• Viscount Leslie told Xu Yi that he might leave Bunta City after spring plowing and never return.

At Viscount Leslie's estate, a successful harvest with Xinfei Merchant Guild's Farmland Magic Machinery impressed nobles, farmers, and Princess Royal Servini. Xu Yi discussed production priorities with Servini, learned she was the Princess Royal, and hinted that Viscount Leslie could not protect his land from powerful interests.

• Count Sean Samo and other visitors watched Small Magic Harvesters rapidly reap the golden wheat on Viscount Leslie's renovated estate.
• Viscount Samuel told Xu Yi he wanted to buy harvesters and other machinery to renovate his own fields.
• Servini asked Xu Yi to prioritize the Agriculture Bureau's order for thirty thousand machines and pause other Magic Machine Tools, but accepted his objection.
• Xu Yi revealed that he had discovered Servini was the Princess Royal, and she confirmed her identity.
• Servini said the kingdom would not grant Xu Yi an estate, while he explained that royal land could provide security for his factories.
• Xu Yi hinted that Viscount Leslie could not control threats to his land, and Servini agreed that he lacked sufficient power.

The spring harvest on Viscount Leslie’s estate proved that Farmland Magic Machinery could dramatically increase grain production, encouraging Servini and Bunta City to expand its use. Viscount Leslie told Xu Yi that he would leave for the northern border and asked to withdraw his investment in the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

• Viscount Leslie’s estate harvested over fifty thousand kilograms of wheat after reclaiming farmland with Farmland Magic Machinery.
• Servini praised the machinery’s potential to bring idle land into cultivation and hoped it would end hunger in the Lampari Kingdom.
• Servini left Bunta City to persuade landed nobles to adopt the machinery, while the Xinfei Merchant Guild faced growing demand for it.
• Baron Haines returned to Bunta City and revived the Bunta Daily’s bold reporting on the farmland reclamation project.
• Viscount Leslie told Xu Yi he would return to Anvilmar City, join the army, and likely not come back to Bunta City.
• Viscount Leslie said goodbye to Xu Yi and asked to withdraw his investment.

Viscount Leslie warned Xu Yi that the Stark Family might seize the Xinfei Merchant Guild rather than support it, and urged him to focus on business and remain loyal to the king. Leslie withdrew his thirty-percent stake and left Bunta City, while Xu Yi wondered whether the king’s support was truly reliable.

• Xu Yi admitted that he had offered Leslie shares to gain the Stark Family’s support, and Leslie warned that the family would more likely take control of the guild.
• Leslie advised Xu Yi that great nobles were rivals, that he should not try to please both the king and the Stark Family, and that he should build the guild before entering politics.
• Leslie explained that keeping his shares would let the Stark Family claim them, so he arranged to sell his thirty-percent stake back to Xu Yi for three hundred thousand gold coins.
• A week later, Leslie and Baron Haines left for Anvilmar City after Haines got drunk and lamented leaving the Bunta Daily.
• As Leslie’s carriage disappeared, Xu Yi wondered whether the king’s support was useful and thought Servini seemed more trustworthy than the king.

Xu Yi asked Count Samo to approve a highway from Bunta City to Falling Rain Valley, arguing that improved transport would benefit the city and its businesses. Count Samo worried about the cost, but Xu Yi revealed that the Xinfei Merchant Guild would pay for the entire project.

• Count Samo rejected Xu Yi's highway proposal because Bunta City's finances could not cover the expense.
• Xu Yi argued that roads would help Bunta City prosper and let local products like magma fruit reach distant markets.
• Count Samo suspected Xu Yi mainly wanted the road to support the Xinfei Merchant Guild's expansion into Falling Rain Valley.
• Xu Yi explained that the guild had developed road-building magic machinery and supplied the cement used in the Amli Merchant Guild's paving.
• Count Samo praised cement-concrete roads but said their high cost made them unaffordable for the city.
• Xu Yi told Count Samo that the Xinfei Merchant Guild would pay for the highway and asked only for approval to build it.

Xu Yi arranged for the Amli Merchant Guild to build a road from Bunta City to Falling Rain Valley, paying with cement, then joined the Magic Research Institute staff for dinner. Vena returned with Rem, surprising Xu Yi as he wondered why she had gone out to meet him.

• Xu Yi agreed with President Cruz to pay for the road to Falling Rain Valley with cement and offered to discuss magic machinery research with the Amli Merchant Guild.
• Xu Yi visited the new Magic Research Institute compound and joined Avita, Akali, and the others for dinner.
• Xu Yi learned that Vena had gone out to meet someone, though Avita did not know when she would return.
• Xu Yi explained that Vivian and Stille were both away and joked with the group as they ate.
• Vena arrived with Rem, and Xu Yi asked why Rem had returned.