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In London's Diagon Alley, Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

Leos hurried through the crowded bank hall, clutching his wand, and quickly headed towards the entrance leading to the depths below.

A moment later, his figure appeared in a magnificent underground structure.

Countless goblins were busily calculating in this space, each goblin's face etched with fatigue and anxiety.

Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Risk Investment Department.

This is the brain and heart of Gringotts, where over ninety percent of Gringotts' decisions are discussed, calculated, and ultimately executed. It holds the goblins' most core financial wisdom.

"Elder Leos, you're back. What was the result?"

Seeing the elderly goblin elder's figure appear at the entrance, the apprentice goblin assistant standing by the door respectfully lowered his head and asked in an expectant tone—all the goblins knew what Leos' mission was today.

"Terrible, extremely terrible!"

Leos raised his head, glanced at the apprentice by the door, and tossed a pure gold goblin badge.

"Have everyone stop what they're doing, immediately! Then, call a meeting of all senior executives!"

A few minutes later, in the huge conference room.

Douglas, one of the directors of the Risk Investment Department, tapped his fingers on the table and squinted at Leos beside him.

"So, what exactly happened, Elder Leos? That requires you to use your elder authority to temporarily freeze all progress on Soviet-related business—you should know that, because of your decision, we are suffering losses every minute!"

"We were tricked by human wizards! This mortgage contract is meaningless!"

Goblin Leos took a deep breath and slammed the parchment scroll in his hand onto the table, his face twisted as he said.

"From the beginning, they didn't intend to return this loan! Slytherin's castle was rented to Hogwarts long ago for one knut, for an indefinite period... Sale does not break lease, ha, using the laws that humans themselves formulated to exploit this loophole in the contract!"

"Sale does not break lease? I don't understand, this is not a problem—as long as we have legal ownership of that land, we can get back the right to use it. Even paying ten times the penalty, it's only ten knuts."

Douglas raised his eyebrows, his face full of confusion and strangeness.

Although he was older and hadn't been involved in front-line business for a long time, as a member of the Gringotts goblin elder council, Elder Leos shouldn't have been unable to think of this most basic trading rule.

Unless…

Wait! Douglas's face changed, and the pipe in his hand trembled.

"Pay the penalty? Take back the right to use it? Don't forget about that law!"

The elderly goblin elder grinned, revealing sharp yellow teeth, his wrinkled face full of viciousness.

"Since the goblin wars hundreds of years ago, when we failed, human wizards forced the Gringotts goblins to sign those regulations—goblins must not own their own real estate except for Gringotts Wizarding Bank; goblins cannot engage in any trade other than banking; goblins must not seize the property and territory of wizards for any reason…"

Sure enough, the more powerful the wizards, the more skilled they are in using these regulations.

Because these unequal laws were signed with war by generations of powerful human wizards. As the guardian deity of the magical world today, Albus Dumbledore has no reason to forget those ancient war results.

"Undoubtedly, Hogwarts' mortgage behavior is an irrecoverable loss."

After a moment of silence, Douglas looked around at the goblins who were still denouncing the human wizards' breach of faith, tapped the table with the pipe in his hand, turned to Leos, and asked in a deep voice.

"So, besides that... Did Dumbledore say what kind of price we need to pay to persuade the magical world to offer assistance and avoid the second loss Gringotts suffered because of foolish Muggle leaders?"

"Of course…"

Leos sneered, a ferocious look appearing on his aged face.

"Arrogant and conceited human wizards actually proposed to obtain half of Gringotts' equity, as a reward for their interference in non-magical world internal affairs... and they don't even guarantee success. This is simply…"

"Just half the equity? I think it's acceptable."

Before the old goblin could finish speaking, Douglas nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps we can talk and slightly reduce the equity exchange ratio to around 30% by exchanging some other resources."

"Douglas, what do you mean by that?!"

Hearing the middle-aged director of the Risk Investment Department's words, Leos narrowed his eyes and asked in a sinister tone.

"Do you want to sell Gringotts' interests in exchange for the qualifications to be a dog under human wizards? Don't forget your own identity, or do you want to learn from those traitors in America and become a puppet of the magical world?!"

At the same time, the entire conference room instantly fell silent.

The goblins who were still arguing and scolding stopped talking and turned their heads to look at the investment department director sitting in the chief position of the conference room, their eyes flashing with incredible and angry light.

"Sorry, in my opinion, this is precisely for the future of Gringotts and the goblins."

Facing the hostility that permeated the entire conference room, Douglas shrugged and said unhurriedly.

"In the past few months, I have re-analyzed the information happening in the non-magical world and the magical world. Obviously, in my newly built model system, the possibility of the disintegration of the Soviet Union has risen from nearly zero to a non-negligible probability."

"Undoubtedly, those goblins in America are likely to have bet right! Once they have digested more than half of the capital from the non-magical world, they will expand at a speed we can hardly imagine, and eventually swallow Gringotts."

"In order not to let the goblins become the second house-elves, we must find a solution before that—we must not only contain that group of traitors who succumbed to the Magical Congress of the United States, but also find a way to resist the wizards…"

"Hmph! Let me guess…"

The corners of Leos's mouth twitched, and his eyes became more and more indifferent.

"The solution that our smart director has come up with is to surrender faster than those traitors?"

"It's not surrender, it's cooperation. We need allies!"

Douglas shook his head and replied firmly.

"The calculations and deductions of the past few months, as well as the information you brought today, have further strengthened my idea—only wizards can fight wizards. Simple goblins have no chance of winning against wizards."

After a slight pause, Douglas stood up and looked at Leos and the surrounding goblin executives.

"Since the wizards want equity, then give it to them! Only when their interests are fully linked to ours will they be motivated to pay the price to help us… I have analyzed it, once the Soviet Union disintegrates, then we are very likely…"

"Nonsense! Lock up this traitor!"

Leos slammed the table hard and interrupted Douglas with a loud roar.

"Douglas, from now on, you are suspended! And your advisory group, suspended together! During this period, the Gringotts Elder Council will take over your previous work—goblins will never compromise with human wizards and traitors. The war has already begun!"

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One chapter today~ Good night, gu~

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