Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 294 Why can't they have eyes?

Murphy arrived at Knockturn Alley, where Locke was anxiously waiting for him at Sirensong.

The professional manager, Murphy, looked haggard, as if he hadn't slept well for several days. Upon seeing Murphy, he bowed to the ground and said, "Mr. Murphy, I have failed your trust."

Murphy helped him up. "What happened? I heard that Gringotts has banned the exchange of gold?"

He now plans to build several more laboratories in Britain, equipped with wizards, potions, magical creatures, and potion ingredients, all of which require Galleons, not to mention the salaries he promised the Queen for the wizards.

Of his several shops in the wizarding world, apart from the potion shop which was somewhat profitable, the others were mostly for other purposes. Not only did they not make money, but he even had to keep putting money into them.

Once the gold exchange is banned, he really won't have any source of Gallon.

The fairy Locke looked distressed. He stood up but did not sit back down. Instead, he lowered his head like a subordinate who had made a mistake and said, "It's not a complete ban. They just increased the exchange commission, lowered the exchange rate, and took your exchange business away from me. They no longer allow department managers to handle the business of major clients on their own."

Originally, Murphy's gold exchange business, as well as the payment settlement and fund redemption of various shops under his name, were all handled by the fairy Locke, who was essentially Murphy's financial manager.

"The gold exchange rate has been lowered, by how much?" Murphy asked.

"One ounce of gold is worth 20 Galleons, plus a 5 Galleons handling fee," Locke said.

At present, one ounce of gold is worth nearly £175. When Locke was in charge of managing Murphy's exchange business, one ounce of gold could be exchanged for 32 Galleons without any handling fees, which was close to the ideal exchange rate.

The exchange rate has now dropped by half. No wonder Locke said that gold exchange was prohibited; the losses from such an exchange were too great, and no one would do that.

"Why did the exchange rate for gold suddenly drop?" Murphy asked.

"Gringotts recently underwent a reshuffle at the top, with Greos Brin, the young heir of House Brin, the largest goblin clan, becoming the new General Manager of Gringotts. It was he who personally issued the order."

Fairies are a large race, and their population is not much smaller than that of wizards. Compared to wizards, fairies value the inheritance of bloodlines more, which can be seen from their full names.

If you were to write down the full name of each fairy, you would find that it contains the names of at least five generations of ancestors mentioned above.

To some extent, they are more conservative and stubborn than wizards.

"A new broom sweeps clean," Murphy said, somewhat understanding. "We can't accept this exchange rate, but Gringotts isn't his own company. Tell him I'm willing to pay him a personal commission every year to keep the original exchange rate."

Bribery can be very useful sometimes, and if it can solve a problem, Murphy doesn't mind paying that small price.

Locke nodded. "Okay, I'll give it a try."

However, Locke returned with a bruised and swollen face in less than half a day.

"What happened?" Murphy exclaimed in surprise. "How did it get like this?"

"Guleus called me a traitor, a lackey of the wizards, and kicked me out. I was dismissed," Locke sighed. "And he lowered the gold exchange rate again to fifteen gallons per ounce."

Murphy frowned. "Does it apply to everyone?"

"No, it's only for you," Locke said.

"Why?" Murphy was a little confused. "Have I offended the Brin family?"

“Bogorod’s surname is Brin,” Locke said. “Do you remember? He was the president of Gringotts Bank, but was arrested by the Ministry of Magic for ‘attempting to embezzle wizarding property,’ and now he seems to have been banished by the Goblin Council to work in some mine.”

"Greus seems to be Bogorod's nephew," Locke said. "And when I went to see him, I also saw a wizard in his office."

"wizard?"

“Yes, Mundungus Fletcher, a scoundrel, but I overheard their conversation with the fairy coins,” Locke said. “They seemed to be mentioning the Philosopher’s Stone… I find this unusual, Lord Murphy; they seem to be after you.”

Mundungus?

This guy seems to be a member of the Order of the Phoenix, right?

It was definitely coming for me.

But the Philosopher's Stone?

"What did you hear?" Murphy asked. "Tell me in detail."

"Mundungus seems to be working for someone who promised Guleus that if he completed his plan to freeze your vault, he would give him the Philosopher's Stone as promised."

Murphy was quite angry.

Damn it!

The magic stone!

You old geezer Dumbledore! You'd rather give the Philosopher's Stone to a goblin than give it to me?! And I'm even the rightful heir to the Philosopher's Stone?!

"Let's go, I'll go and meet this Guleus myself!"

……

Gringotts.

The basement, the general manager's office.

A young fairy lay on the sofa, dressed quite differently from ordinary fairies. His attire was very casual and exuded a nouveau riche vibe. He wore a thick gold chain around his neck, several gemstone rings on his fingers, shorts, and gold-plated leather shoes.

Standing in front of him was an even older fairy, dressed in a suit and tie, who looked quite shrewd.

"You shouldn't have agreed to that guy's offer! Dumbledore is unreliable now; he's just an exiled wizard with little power. We don't even know if that scoundrel's talk of a Philosopher's Stone is real or fake!"

The old fairy roared.

"I thought Bogorod was your son, and you wanted to avenge him, Grandpa Padlow," the lying fairy said disdainfully.

"Bogorod was a fool, that's why he got taken down," said the old goblin Padlow. "And you're even more foolish, Guleus. Murphy Darkholm is now the most fearsome figure in the British wizarding world, and you actually dared to offend him!"

"You're so afraid of wizards that you're constantly being oppressed and can't even lift your heads," Guleus sneered disdainfully. "We control the banks, yet you beg for their bounty like beggars!"

"This is the world of wizards! Guleus! Not the world of us fairies! Only by recognizing this can we survive."

"But you may have forgotten that we fought our way back to Gringotts; it was the goblin revolution that reclaimed Gringotts! Wagging your tail and begging will only get you slaves to wizards. Look at those house-elves, do you want to be like them?"

“But not now, Guleus. We are not adequately prepared,” Padlow said. “If you insist on doing this, I will consider asking the council to remove you from your post!”

"No one will agree with you, Grandpa." Guleus suddenly laughed eerily. "We've all seen it, we've all heard it, but you haven't..."

"Your ears are blocked by fear, and you can't hear those voices."

"What?" Padlow asked, bewildered. "What was that sound?"

"Drumbeats, footsteps..." Guleus stared behind Padlow, as if he had truly heard something. "They're almost here..."

Just then, with a "bang," the door to the manager's office was kicked open, and a wizard strode in.

"Your ears are pretty good," Murphy said, looking at the bewildered fairy, "but why can't you see?"

(End of this chapter)