Chapter 101
Fairy Tail’s magazine was officially released.
The first issue of New Era Weekly didn’t sell spectacularly, but its performance was far from poor.
In fact, the numbers exceeded Marshall’s expectations.
He had assumed most of the sales would come from Magnolia and the surrounding region, yet many Mage guilds placed bulk orders to resell the magazine in their own towns.
Several guilds in western Fiore even joined together and ordered a huge shipment at once.
Makarov was delighted.
New Era Weekly was packed with content.
It featured professional literary reviews, educational columns, and articles covering all sorts of useful knowledge.
A significant portion was also Marshall shamelessly pushing his own ideas.
He published several articles under titles such as:
On Productive Forces and Social Relations
How Magical Technology Will Transform Our Lives
An Interview with Magnolia’s Textile Factory—The Dawn of a New Age of Magical Industry
The textile factory hadn’t even begun construction yet, but that didn’t stop Marshall from promoting it in advance.
Why wait until the cow existed before bragging about how much milk it would produce?
The final section of the magazine was dedicated to advertisements for Fairy Tail’s upcoming products.
The last technical obstacle preventing the production of a simplified magical communication terminal had already been solved, and plans for a magical-device factory were officially underway.
Mystogan had broken down the terminal’s core array into several smaller and simpler magic circles.
A group of Mage apprentices could sit along a production line, each responsible for repeatedly drawing one basic array.
Once all the components were finished and assembled, the terminal could be mass-produced.
The main difference between manufacturing a modern phone and producing one of these magical terminals was that phones required advanced machinery to fabricate their internal components, while the terminals relied on workers manually inscribing magic circles.
It was undeniably primitive.
Still, almost any Mage in Magnolia could learn the work.
Even someone with very little talent could become a qualified production-line worker after one or two weeks of training, as long as they were willing to practice.
After all, while not everyone in Fiore possessed enough power to become a professional Mage, nearly every person was born with at least a small amount of magic.
Marshall could have ordered his Gugas to assemble a production line immediately.
They couldn’t cast proper magic, and their internal reserves were tiny, but they were still capable of drawing simplified magic circles.
Unfortunately, every bit of energy they consumed ultimately came from Marshall.
There was no chance he would waste his valuable assistants on mindless factory work.
It would be much more sensible to hire ordinary magical workers.
In any case, Marshall flooded his own magazine with advertisements for the terminals even though they weren’t officially on sale yet.
MASTER-DESIGNED! FAIRY TAIL’S NEW COMMUNICATION TERMINAL ARRIVES SOON!
A REVOLUTIONARY INVENTION! COMMUNICATION LACRIMA MAY SOON BECOME OBSOLETE!
THE ULTRA-CONVENIENT MAGICAL COMMUNICATOR EVEN ORDINARY PEOPLE CAN USE!
Nearly every issue contained at least one advertisement.
Marshall intended to build as much anticipation as possible before launch. He was also preparing to purchase advertising space in other newspapers and magazines.
Whether the entire "Fairy Tail Group" soared into the sky or crashed face-first into the ground would depend heavily on this product.
Naturally, Marshall hadn’t forgotten to provide benefits for his family.
Every member of Fairy Tail would receive one of the first trial-production terminals for free.
Once the product officially launched, however, the blackhearted Marshall intended to sell each unit for two hundred thousand Jewels.
After all, the terminal didn’t merely support communication.
It could also connect wirelessly to a magical network and download additional content, including games.
In other words, it doubled as a handheld game console.
With the communication terminal nearing release, Fairy Tail’s reputation as a commercial brand began to spread.
Over the following months, the guild launched a massive redevelopment of Magnolia.
Marshall posted numerous construction jobs on Fairy Tail’s request board, tricking his beloved guildmates into becoming cheap labor.
Projects sprang up everywhere, and the entire town became a roaring construction site.
Magnolia gradually transformed into one of Fiore’s most talked-about destinations.
Thanks to the magazine’s relentless promotion, more and more people discovered the town’s unique attractions.
It had one of the strongest Mage guilds in the kingdom.
It had a wildly popular theme park.
It had a textile factory hiring workers.
It had numerous new companies opening positions.
Young people and ambitious merchants poured into the energetic town in search of opportunity.
Compared with several years earlier, Magnolia’s population had more than tripled, while the town itself had expanded considerably.
Previously quiet districts now bustled with activity.
Marshall even ordered the roads built for "Gildarts Mode" demolished.
There was no chance he would allow that much land and infrastructure to be wasted for the convenience of one scruffy old man.
If Gildarts smashed through the town again after returning...
He could pay for the damage himself!
As Magnolia developed, Fairy Tail’s magazine became increasingly popular.
It eventually turned into a sought-after publication even in several neighboring kingdoms.
Fairy Tail hadn’t received permission from the Magic Councils of those nations, yet it freely spread its own ideas and values across their towns anyway.
Marshall truly was a prodigy when it came to causing trouble.
In short, "Magnolia Town" would soon become a name of the past.
A genuine city was about to rise in its place!
...
During this period, nearly two months after the previous appearance, the Gugas detected another fluctuation resembling Anima.
It seemed Edolas still refused to give up.
They were clinging to the hope that the last disaster had merely been bad luck.
In that case, there was nothing left to discuss.
Time to bury them in shit!
Marshall and Mystogan traveled to the new Anima site, bringing two months’ worth of collected waste with them.
Marshall first examined the spatial passage and discovered that the other side had become slightly smarter.
They had moved Anima’s exit away from the summoning array and redirected it toward an isolated area outside the royal capital.
Marshall nearly laughed.
He had personally left a spatial mark inside the royal palace during his visit.
Did they seriously believe they could redirect his delivery elsewhere?
Nice try.
His Majesty would receive every last drop of this gift.
Marshall locked onto the palace and released the "essence."
The rotten seafood from the previous attack had taken more than a month to lose its smell.
This time, what descended from the sky was far more devastating.
The people of Edolas had never imagined that one day their world would experience a rainstorm made entirely of excrement.
Every yellow and brown lump landed inside the royal palace with impossible precision.
Not a single piece fell anywhere else.
Before long, the waste had accumulated into a mountain.
Technically, the civilians hadn’t been hit.
But they could certainly smell it.
The royal capital became completely uninhabitable.
Some of the more furious citizens even began openly demanding that King Faust end the Anima experiments.
They no longer wanted magic power from another world.
They wanted air they could breathe.
Following Marshall’s Operation Shitstorm, Anima didn’t appear again for almost half a year.
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