Book 7: Chapter 129: Financial loss

When the Lampuri Kingdom destroyed the Marlow Empire’s defense lines and marched into the Marlow Empire with a momentum that countless people feared, there was a different scene in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base in the Stantine Duchy.

Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was one of the protagonists among the two camps, the worries of the outside world and the war that made the entire continent tense didn’t really have an effect on the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base.

Because it was the new year, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had the usual week off before the end of the year. The main base wasn’t as busy as normal because of this and even the sounds of the production magic machines in the factories were much more silent.

But that didn’t mean the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wasn’t affected at all.

As a leader in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp, as well as providing the various countries with military magic machines to defend against the attacks of the two empires. They also helped the Lampuri Kingdom fight back and were the main reason that they could invade the Marlow Empire. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce was without a doubt a main part of the war that swept over the continent this time.

Not mentioning anything else, just to provide ammunition and other military magic machines to the Lampuri Kingdom, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had to build a new production base just for military magic machines.

The new base had been finished at the start of last year and as the situation on the Sines Continent became worse, finally evolving into all out war, this new production base had gone full power in the second half of last year, making military magic machines without rest.

It was because of Xu Yi’s strong foresight that allowed the Lampuri Kingdom, the Rudson Kingdom, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom, and the other allies to have enough military magic machines. This allowed them to demonstrate their powerful might in the battles against the two empires.

Through Xu Yi luring in Arch Magus Laduca and Arch Magus Ofalian, successfully testing the newly developed anti magic domain developed to counter magicians, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had solved the most serious problem for those allies, the threat of the Arch Magi.

This was demonstrated in the battle between the Lampuri Kingdom and the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army.

The Marlow Empire lost an Arch Magus in the Gregory Hughes Mountain Range and then they lost another two Arch Magi at the border. This was equal to telling everyone that Arch Magi were no longer invincible like everyone had thought and could no longer decide the results of battle.

This meant that through the Lampuri Kingdom killing three Arch Magi from the Marlow Empire, everyone understood that only the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines could decide the fate of battle.

Normal magicians couldn’t do this and even the most powerful Arch Magi couldn’t do this!

In order to firmly make everyone recognize this, although the other departments of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce were let off for the New Years, the military magic machine department unexpectedly was forced to work overtime during the New Years for the first time.

Of course, because it was special overtime, workers were paid three times their usual wages, so the workers that were kept for the overtime were all very happy about it.

Then again, there was war all over the continent right now. Instead of going out to face danger, it was better to stay in the safest Frestech Chamber of Commerce main base instead.

Even the staff of the other departments weren’t willing to leave during their vacation and many chose to stay.

There were also many staff that brought their family over to the Stantine Duchy using this chance, deciding to settle down here.

Of course Xu Yi welcomed this very much.

The one thing he was most discontent with was the lack of food on the Sines Continent, causing the population to be scarce even compared to just China on earth. It made it forever difficult for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to recruit enough manpower to develop with.

If the Stantine Duchy could have more people, he could create talents that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needed the most right by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

In the long run, this was beneficial no matter how he looked at it.

He even wished that he could kidnap a bunch of people to work in the military magic machine production base, going all out to supply the Lampuri Kingdom and the other kingdoms with military magic machines.

However, this wasn’t practical.

The military magic machines were powerful, but they had a high requirement to make.

Especially the anti magic domain equipment that was needed the most to counter magicians, there couldn’t be a single mistake. It required a deep understanding of many magic fields and only those that had a deep understanding of Magic Arrays could work on it.

These talents couldn’t be trained in the short term.

Xu Yi couldn’t even keep up by bringing in new batches of graduates one by one, training them as they worked, so how could he find enough talented people in a short period of time?

Every time he thought of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help giving a sigh.

Although the proportion of magicians on the Sines Continent was low, if one had to put a number on it, it was still over a hundred thousand and wasn’t considered that low.

If he could even get half of those hundred thousand magicians……No, even if he could get a third, a fourth, or even a fifth of those magicians to work for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he wouldn’t have to worry about talented people all the time.

Among these magicians, what Xu Yi regretted the most were the three Arch Magi who had fallen fighting the Lampuri Kingdom army.

To Xu Yi, Arch Magi represented the deepest understanding of magic on the Sines Continent and were the strongest magicians. As long as they could be trained a bit, they could greatly help the magic machine industry.

Three Arch Magi falling was equal to losing three top talents for Xu Yi.

When he received this news, although Xu Yi didn’t say it, his heart was filled with pain.

If these three Arch Magi didn’t fall in this war that Xu Yi considered meaningless and worked for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they definitely would have helped the magic machine industry develop faster and could help Xu Yi get a step closer to his ideal.

So although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards could have killed Arch Magus Laduca and Arch Magus Ofalian outside of Mero City, Xu Yi took the risk of letting them go.

This was just to protect the top talent of Arch Magi.

However……the contradiction was that Xu Yi had to let the side that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce represented demonstrate the powerful ability to eliminate Arch Magi, only then would other people understand.

So in the end, the Arch Magi still fell and three of them fell at once.

Xu Yi was very hurt by this, but there was no other choice.

“Ai, how good it would be if everyone could develop with one heart, but it’s a pity…..” Thinking of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help giving a sigh and shaking his head with a bitter smile.

“Sir chairman, what is it? Did we do something wrong?” The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machine department manager Lawns saw the strange expression on Xu Yi’s face and quickly asked this.

“No, I was just thinking that these military magic machines are being sent to the various armies to be used to take countless people’s lives, so I couldn’t help feeling a bit emotional.” Xu Yi shook his head as he said this.

This time it was Lawns’ turn to reveal a strange expression.

Why was sir chairman feeling emotional now?

Could it be that sir chairman was actually a very sensitive person?

How could that be possible……

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Lawns, who wasn’t affected, said with a smile, “Sir chairman, there’s no other way. We never had any thoughts of conquering anyone, but those fellows from the two empires aren’t willing to accept this. If we don’t teach them a proper lesson, we will have to live with endless trouble in the future.”

Xu Yi smiled as he understood Lawns’ misunderstanding, but he was too lazy to explain it to him. He waved his hand and said, “It was just a bit of emotion, it won’t affect my decision. Alright, the inspection is done here, you’ve done very well. Keep up this efficiency and don’t make any mistakes. This year will very likely be the most important year for our company and the entire Sines Continent. What will decide the final outcome will be your department, so……”

Xu Yi gave a strong pat on Lawns’ shoulder and looked at with a sincere look as he said, “Your responsibility is very serious, are you confident in doing it?”

Lawns immediately replied in a fearless voice, “Sir chairman, please be assured! I guarantee that there won’t be any mistakes here!”

“Very good.” Xu Yi patted Lawns’ shoulder again before having him go back to work. The other high level members of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce who came to inspect the military magic machine production base with him all left together.

The group returned to the conference room in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main office building. After taking their seats, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s financial manager Sebas took out a document for Xu Yi.

“Sir chairman, this is our company’s preliminary financial budget for this year. Based on the estimates…..it doesn’t look good.” Sebas had a very serious look on his face.

This expression was quite rare for him.

Because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s financial situation had always been good since it had been established, so Sebas’ expression had always been quite relaxed.

However, his expression looked very serious. Xu Yi couldn’t help sitting up a straight when he heard these words and picked up the document.

This was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s budget for this year. Sebas had listed all the funds that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would use and then drew a final estimate.

This estimate could make Sebas show this kind of serious expression because this estimate, with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s various planned investments for the year, if there wasn’t any changes or any sudden income, it would mean that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be suffering a serious deficit for the first time in history this year.

The deficit was as high as twenty to forty million gold coins!

As for last year’s financial report, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s close to two hundred million gold coins yearly profit had dropped to a trivial fifty million gold coins. This difference wasn’t small.

And this year Sebas even estimated that there would be a deficit!

This was the first time this happened in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s twenty years of operation and the first deficit wasn’t a small number.

It was no wonder Sebas had such a serious look. After all, as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s financial manager, he was the person that was most closely related to these numbers.

Moreover, he was clear on what the reason for this deficit was.

“Sir chairman, with all due respect.” Seeing that Xu Yi had finished reading the report and looked up again, Sebas seriously looked at him and said, “We should immediately stop providing free aid to the Lampuri Kingdom and the other countries. Otherwise if we continue like this, in less than two years, our company will face serious financial burdens and might even go out of business!”

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