Chapter 177 The elves also want to open a factory
The two humans and two dwarves were stunned when they looked in the direction of the voice. They saw space distort as several figures slowly appeared.
Xu Yi looked closer and was shocked.
“Elder Illusia, why are you…..” Xu Yi looked around, “Why did you leave the Falling Rain Forest?”
Elder Illusia revealed a faint smile, “Chairman Xu, could it be that you thought that I spent my entire long life in the Falling Rain Forest?”
Xu Yi revealed an awkward smile, “Of course not. But since I first met you two years ago, I have never seen or heard of you leaving the Falling Rain Forest, so I’m not used to it when the first time comes.”
After saying this, his eyes fell onto the elves that came with elder Illusia. He revealed a smile to Agnes standing by elder Illusia before looking at the three girls from the Moon Shadow Tribe, as he asked them, “Three beautiful ladies, have you finished your inspection of the Night Song Tribe?”
The female elf in the middle who was slightly taller said with a nod, “Yes, we already understand how the Night Song Tribe cooperates with you humans. Now we’ve asked elder Illusia to bring us along so we can discuss with chairman Xu on how to experience living together with you humans officially.”
“That’s very simple.” Xu Yi said in a relaxed voice, “There are many Night Song Tribe elves who are working in our company, they are currently learning and experiencing how to live with humans while working at our company. If you’re willing, we also welcome you to join our company. I will do my best to help you.”
“No, we aren’t planning to join your Frestech Chamber of Commerce.” This female elf whose name Xu Yi remembered to be Stasia shook her head, “Our Moon Shadow Tribe is different from the Night Song Tribe. We have had contact with humans normally in the Stantine Duchy, so we don’t need to adapt to this. According to the instructions of the elder, we need to experience officially living together with you humans.”
“Oh? Then what do you have in mind or what do you have to propose?” Xu Yi asked in a curious voice.
The three Moon Shadow Tribe girls looked at each other before Stasis replied, “According to what Agnes said, there are five elves from the Night Song Tribe who are working for the Armani Chamber of Commerce in Banta City. We want to be like them, we want to experience working for a human company other than your Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Chairman Xu, can you help us with this?”
“You want to enter other companies?” Xu Yi looked over the three elven girls. Seeing their expectant looks and the trace of excitement in their eyes, he couldn’t help wanting to laugh.
These three elven girls, it can’t be that they were like human girls who treated this thing as an adventure, right?
“Right.” Stasia nodded.
“Alright, you can talk to Still first and have her act as an agent for you, helping you take care of all the basic procedures.”
The three Moon Shadow Tribe girls were brought to Still be Agnes and Xu Yi had the time to ask elder Illusia, “Elder Illusia, did you intentionally keep them in your tribe for so long?”
“I thought that your first question was about how to increase your lifespan.” Elder Illusia said with a faint smile, “Chairman Xu, aren’t you curious about what I just said?”
Xu Yi laughed, “Of course I’m curious. Although I talked about it so easily you chief Siluka, of course I’m afraid of death as a human. Not to mention that it will take a long time to achieve my dream and it is hard to see this dream achieved with the lifespan of a human, so I want a method that can increase my lifespan. But the lifespan of a race is limited, so I can’t just increase it, right?”
“No, it isn’t that you can’t increase it.” Elder Illusia shook her head.
Xu Yi doubtfully looked at elder Illusia, not understanding why she insisted on this question. Thinking about it, she asked, “It can’t be that you’re hoping that I’ll become a Great Magician, right? Although becoming a Great Magician can increase lifespan normally, it is only an estimate and there’s no accurate number to how much it increases it by. The Great Magicians in the history of the Sines Continent generally lived to be over a hundred, but most of the Great Magicians only lived for ten more years.”
“The lifespan of a Great Magician naturally isn’t long, but the lifespan of an Arch Magus is different.” Elder Illusia said, “The recorded lifespan of human Arch Magus on the Sines Continent is over two hundred years. Other than that, the lifespan of human Grand Magus even surpasses the average lifespan of us elves.”
Xu Yi’s mouth twitched as he waved his hand, “I don’t even dare think about becoming an Arch Magus, not to mention a Grand Magus. I remember that since humans learned magic from the elves, it has been more than five thousand years and there are less than a total of twenty Grand Magi? Do you think that I could become one of those legends? If you said that I would become a legendary merchant, that would be more credible.”
“Humans are a race filled with miracles and possibility. Chairman Xu, although your talent for magic isn’t outstanding, Grand Magi aren’t people who all had outstanding talent for magic. Based on my understanding towards seven human Grand Magi, they were able to become Grand Magi because of opportunity more so than talent.” Elder Illusia said with a serious look.
Xu Yi looked at elder Illusia with a confused look and he finally couldn’t help asking the question in his heart.
“Elder Illusia, why do you care that my lifespan is so short?”
Elder Illusia looked at chief Siluka and chief Monto on the side before saying with a faint smile, “I think the two chiefs understand why I care this much.”
Seeing Xu Yi look over, chief Siluka paused for a bit before saying, “Chairman, you are a rare person who can honestly cooperate with us dwarves and improve the lives of us dwarves. Just like you said earlier, if you’re no longer here, it will greatly affect us. If possible, I hope that you can increase your lifespan so that we dwarves can cooperate with you for a long time, allowing our clansmen to keep this good life. I think…..that elder Illusia should have these thoughts.”
Elder Illusia gave a slight nod, “Right. Chairman Xu, you are a rare human trusted by us elves. Based on your performance and my observations, you have won my complete trust. This is a very rare matter, so whether it is for our Night Song Tribe or for me personally, I really hope that you can live a long life. To be honest, the current you is very important to our Night Song Tribe. If you’re not here, I can’t guarantee that we could keep cooperating with humans.”
Xu Yi looked at the serious chief Siluka and chief Monto before looking at the calm looking elder Illusia who didn’t seem to be joking at all. He couldn’t help rubbing his nose in embarrassment as he said, “You place such importance on me, I really feel quite a bit of pressure. Let’s talk about these distant things in the future. Elder Illusia, let’s discuss business. I think that for you to leave the Falling Rain Forest and to come here to see me, you should have something important to discuss with me. If there’s anything that I can do for you, I would be happy to do so.”
Elder Illusia revealed a faint smile, “Alright, chairman Xu. This time, I came out of the Falling Rain Forest to see the atmosphere of this Falling Rain Valley. I’ve heard Agnes say that this is the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production base?”
“Yes, our company’s main production base is here. It could be considered the core of our company.” Xu Yi replied.
“Then are factories that don’t belong to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce allowed to be established here?” Elder Illusia asked.
Xu Yi was surprised, “Why are you asking this?”
“It’s because I want to ask chairman Xu, if our Night Song Tribe were to open a factory in the Falling Rain Valley, are we allowed to do so?” Elder Illusia asked.
Not only Xu Yi, chief Siluka and chief Monto on the side were also stunned.
Xu Yi looked at elder Illusia in a daze for a while. After a long time, he swallowed his saliva and with great difficulty, he said in a voice of disbelief, “Elder Illusia, you…..you’re saying that your Night Song Tribe is planning to open their own factory? Did I hear wrong!”
“No, you didn’t hear wrong. Our Night Song Tribe indeed wants to open our own factory.” Elder Illusia looked at Xu Yi and was confused, “Why is chairman Xu so surprised? Could it be that it is so unbelievable that our Night Song Tribe would open a factory?”
“This…..It is indeed difficult for me to link elves with opening a factory…..” Xu Yi honestly admitted, “This is because in my memories, elves are noble existences and something like opening a factory is something that a crude human merchant like me would do. It really is too hard for me to link the two together.”
“This is your human misconception of our elf race.” Elder Illusia said, “Actually we elves also need to live normal lives, just like humans. We elves also need food, sleep, to excrete, and even copulate. Many things that humans do, we elves do the same. Why is it strange for us to open a factory like the humans?”
Xu Yi shook his head. Although elder Illusia’s words were reasonable, it was still too shocking.
If a human had to think about it, they would never associate elves with opening a factory.
Xu Yi had to sort the intense emotions in his heart with great difficulty. He shook his head and said, “Alright. The Falling Rain Valley is big enough, so if the Night Song Tribe is willing to open a factory, I can represent the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to welcome and support you. But elder Illusia, what kind of factory are you planning to open?”
“The only technology our Night Song Tribe has right now is the production of plastic, so we can only open a plastic processing factory.” Elder Illusia replied, “Other than that, Agnes has told me that rubber processing is similar to plastic processing, so I also want to work in rubber processing.”
Xu Yi looked into the distance where Still was talking to the three elf girls from the Moon Shadow Tribe. Other than Agnes who had revealed a part of this, these three fellows couldn’t escape responsibility.
After thinking about it, Xu Yi nodded to elder Illusia with a smile, “Since elder Illusia has these thoughts, I welcome it very much. Compared to working in our human company, participating in trade with humans will make it easier to deepen the elves’ understanding of humans, also making it easier to live with us humans.”
Elder Illusia gave a slight nod, “This is also the main reason why I’m considering this.”
Chapter 178 Significance of setting up a factory
Since the race wars thousands of years ago and humans took control of the continent from the elves, the humans kept taking the space of the other races, not leaving much room for them to survive.
Elder Illusia chose to work with Xu Yi and kept supporting Xu Yi because she hoped that through cooperating with Xu Yi, she could find some way for elves to obtain a place to live.
Cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gradually allowed elder Illusia to see the changes to the Night Song Tribe elves that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, or more accurately, Xu Yi had brought. Moreover, she was very happy and willing to see these changes, it made her see the possibility of elves living together with humans.
Elder Illusia was an elven elder with courage and foresight. Since she saw this possibility from Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, she wanted to increase this possibility.
To be specific, she wanted to deepen the cooperation with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, while allowing elves to truly become a part of human society.
Business was what elder Illusia considered the most complicated matter in human society, there were countless things that needed to be considered. The elves always felt it was troublesome and even disdained building relations with humans, so elder Illusia decided to let her clansmen engage in trading this time.
Setting up the plastic processing factory was a very good choice.
Through cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Night Song Tribe had grasped the basics of processing plastic. After being taught by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the clansmen were no longer as relaxed when working as they were before. Their current work efficiency could even reach that of human workers, so elder Illusia was confident enough to open this plastic processing factory.
For elder Illusia, this was the Night Song Tribe’s first step into human society.
If this plastic processing plant could exist in human society and it could develop steadily, it meant that the elves have the ability to live with humans.
And if humans were willing to accept elves opening a factory, treating them like normal humans, it would achieve elder Illusia’s goal.
Of course, elder Illusia was very clear that the Night Song Tribe currently wasn’t prepared to step into human society, not having the strength and environment to open a factory. So, she chose to open this plastic processing factory in the Falling Rain Valley, wanting to depend on the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to take this first step.
If Xu Yi was a normal human company chairman, he would definitely reject this proposal because the Night Song Tribe was only a small contractor when they were working for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
For the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it was clear that it was easier to control this contractor without any authority, making it easier for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to squeeze value out of the elves.
But Xu Yi was not a normal human merchant.
Compared to just making money, he cared more about realizing his dreams.
To establish a magic machine industrial system that was led by magic on the Sines Continent, he couldn’t lack the elves.
Human magic was learned from elves to begin with. Although afterwards, with human innovation, the elven magic became more complicated and power magic in the hands of the humans, elves were the source of magic. There were some unique aspects of magic that humans couldn’t understand.
So Xu Yi always wanted the elves to participate in researching magic machines. Just like the dwarves, if the special knowledge and skills of their race was used to study magic machines, it would further advance and develop the magic machine industry.
Xu Yi never understood elder Illusia’s thoughts before, so he was waiting until they had better relations before slowly giving elder Illusia his ideas.
But unexpectedly to Xu Yi, elder Illusia took the initiative to open a factory and invest in the magic machine industry, so naturally Xu Yi welcomed it.
Of course, he understood this matter better than elder Illusia.
With how the elves don’t understand how to communicate with humans and adding in the fact they didn’t really understand human society, if they were to rely on themselves to create their own company, they would be beaten back by human society that was several times more complicated than the elf tribe and there was no chance of success.
In order to maintain elder Illusia’s curiosity and hope, even if she didn’t mention it, Xu Yi would have offered his help to elder Illusia to open the plastic processing factory.
The Falling Rain Valley covered over ten square kilometers, so a plastic processing factory that didn’t even take a thousand square meters naturally wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Compared to the location, the most important thing was taking care of the procedures.
Elves, or even any other races that wanted to create a company or a factory in human society, there was no precedent.
Even though the laws of the Sines Continent wasn’t perfect, with laws that couldn’t compare to the laws of normal countries on earth, since elder Illusia wanted to use this plastic processing plant to let elves enter human society, it was best to follow the normal procedures.
It was a coincidence that Xu Yi and Still were at the Falling Rain Valley taking care of matters, helping other race workers obtain official status from the government. Now that elder Illusia had raised this matter, Xu Yi was planning on writing a report on this matter for Seveni.
With the king and the Royal Parliament’s current attitude towards other race workers, he believed that after this was examined, the other races would be allowed to open a factory in the Lampuri Kingdom.
It would take some time to receive a response, so before this, Xu Yi suggested to elder Illusia to prepare some things ahead of time.
For example, picking a location to build the factory, the flow of products through this factory, and most importantly, how they would sell the products.
Before the Night Song Tribe just needed to finish the plastic processing orders that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gave them, they didn’t need to consider these things.
Now that they wanted to take care of all these things, elder Illusia found that to run a factory like a normal human merchant, there really were many complicated things to consider.
Xu Yi didn’t plan on taking care of everything. In order for elder Illusia to gain understanding of human business, Xu Yi only offered instruction at critical moments and most of the time, he just had elder Illusia learn on her own.
Every time he saw elder Illusia listening to him with rapt attention and honestly learning, Xu Yi had a strange feeling in his heart.
Elder Illusia was over six hundred years old and was learning basic business from him like a grade schooler, this scene was a bit strange.
But elder Illusia didn’t find it strange at all. She was very focused when Xu Yi explained a question and she kept asking questions based on her own thoughts.
When he first met Agnes, Xu Yi found that although the elves didn’t seem that different from humans, there were many thoughts and personality traits that were different from humans.
For example, for a human merchant like Xu Yi, the most simple knowledge was limiting costs.
But for elder Illusia, if she really needed to make something, she first cared about whether that thing could be perfectly made and didn’t care about the cost at all.
After Xu Yi raised this point, elder Illusia nodded in understanding.
“As a company, the highest priority is making profits.” Xu Yi taught elder Illusia with a serious face, “Profit to put it bluntly is a simple matter, it’s whether after taking away all the costs, can the product earn money from being sold. It’s not a problem to chase after perfection, but as the leader of a factory, you have to place priority on profit. So you have to do everything you can to reduce the costs.”
Elder Illusia gave a slight nod, “Although I don’t like this kind of profit centered thought, setting up a company is to gain profits to begin with. Since I chose to open this factory, that means that I shouldn’t consider those meaningless problems.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. Elder Illusia should be considered the most enlightened one of the Night Song Tribe, she was actually choosing to go against the basic character of an elf and could accept profit centered evaluations.
This time, Xu Yi spent several days to teach elder Illusia the basic rules of the market.
As for the rest that wasn’t easy to teach, he would have to wait for elder Illusia to learn about it herself.
In these days, Still was gradually taking care of the procedures for the other race workers in the Falling Rain Valley.
Including the five elf workers at the Armani Chamber of Commerce, right now Still’s New Moon Chamber of Commerce was managing a total of one thousand two hundred and seventy six other race workers.
Now the New Moon Chamber of Commerce had to report the identities of the other race workers they collected and reissue their labour cards, then these other race workers could be treated the same as human workers, enjoying the protection of the Lampuri Kingdom’s laws.
Processing the information of all the other race workers was a big project. Although Still was very happy being this busy, Xu Yi still seriously recommended to Still that she should find some people with the same interests, so she could relax a bit.
Seeing Still rush back and forth all over the Falling Rain Valley collecting this information and being delegated authority by the other race workers, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling emotional.
Before Xu Yi was the one who was always busy and Still had plenty of free time, so it was always Xu Yi who didn’t have time to spend with Still.
But now that Xu Yi had free time, Still was the one who was busy. She didn’t even have time to take a sip of water, there was no need to mention her being able to take a stroll with Xu Yi like before.
Changing like this, it really was a change in karma.