The chapter not being contributory to story-development isn't precisely correct though, after all character development actually does occur here. We have Natsumi, with regards to her feelings about Kotaro, there's also Ku Fei's thoughts on Negi, there's Makie learning about Ako and the rest of the maid trio's trials and also Ako x "Nagi" love story and her reflections with regards to how this affects her in some way, then there's Sayo and Chachamaru's thoughts about Negi (though it's mostly Chachamaru who's really thinking about Negi in a romantic way, ne. Plus of course the girls finding out from Asakura how pactios are really done, ne (a little too late for Akira, but ne, we see how selfless she can be (yet again), especially for her close friends ne)...plus of course we see how Haruna's skills have yet again improved (or well, we see more evidence of what level her pactio usage skills are now at)....sure, the story development for the "tension" on the other side: Negi and Godel or Setsuna's post-pactio revelation (about what her artifact could possibly be) aren't expounded on, but ne, this is a good cliffhanger chapter too, considering that this occurs while the incidents concerning Negi and Setsuna's side of things happens at pretty much the same time, ne. This will probably have an important bearing on what happens in the next chapter, after the break.