"Oh? Are you saying that you think goblins are far from extinction..."

Ellina twirled a strand of hair around her finger, looking at the goblin who had once invested in "the monster from Corsica" with a playful expression.

From the moment she saw Ryleos' resume, she knew that this goblin, one of the thirteen elders of the Goblin Council, could never be a servant wholeheartedly loyal to someone—Ryleos' loyalty was only to one thing: the purest profit, or rather, goblin principles.

Undoubtedly, he was a true goblin.

"Whether or not extinction occurs in the short term depends entirely on your will."

Facing Ellina's gaze, Ryleos shook his head calmly.

"Goblins cannot forever control the coinage of the magical world. I agree with your statement."

"This is not a power that modern goblins should hold. A long time ago, we old fellows saw the disaster hidden in coinage, and we understood the wizards' apprehension. Although human wizards seem foolish and slow, their greedy eyes have never left gold, and they may launch a war at any time. But there's no way around it; wealth is a sin, and it cannot be eliminated."

The elderly goblin paused for a few seconds, looked at Ellina with his cloudy eyes, and sighed softly.

"So, when I saw your plan and helped Douglas escape Gringotts, I was very apprehensive..."

"This is not a coincidence; it is a sign of the coming of the 'Final Chapter' for Gringotts goblins. For Gringotts goblins, without the strength to defeat wizards, and without the ability to control their own wealth, they are like livestock kept in captivity. The law of the jungle is the truth of the world..."

"Are you a beast?" Ellina's voice suddenly interrupted him.

Ryleos didn't react for a moment. "What?"

"The law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, this is the Darwinian principle that only applies to natural and barbaric evolution."

"If the allocation of all resources and wealth depends entirely on the level of individual strength, then there is not much difference between the wizards and goblins of civilized society and the beasts in the jungle who drink blood," Ellina shook her head, "The true essence of capital and wealth is not gold; it is a more powerful, more fascinating, and invisible hand that manipulates the flow of the world—you just haven't found the hand that truly belongs to goblins..."

Ryleos frowned. "I... don't quite understand. If you don't have the ability to protect your personal property, then what's the point of handling so much wealth? For example, the global accounting rights you wrote in your future plan, can it earn the revenue that coinage can bring?"

"You will soon understand that 'making money' is not the complete evaluation standard for capital, and it is not even the most important one."

Ellina chuckled, a hint of enjoyable cruelty flashing in her eyes, and she raised her finger and said softly.

"The Magical Congress of the United States has paid the first deposit. They announced that they would not interfere with 'goblin internal audits and personnel transfers.' The last piece of the Gringotts puzzle is in place. After today's meeting, you can lead the audit team and the internal affairs team to the United States for work handover."

"The handover of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank of the Americas?"

Ryleos was stunned for half a second, then frowned heavily. "Even without wizard support, the goblin forces there..."

"The subject of our agreement with the International Wizarding Federation to hand over 'coinage rights' is 'Gringotts Wizarding Bank'. If some goblin clerks are inconsistent with 'Gringotts Wizarding Bank' in terms of social value and economic value, then they are very likely to be suspected of corruption, anti-social behavior, and splitting goblin society - since some gentlemen from the sCp Foundation are receiving double pay, then they should do something."

"Coinage rights belong to the common power of wizards. We are one of the regulators and maintainers, and... the investors of the security force."

Ellina said casually, looking around at the senior goblin managers in the underground council hall.

"This is just the beginning. Global accounting rights mean that a series of incomes such as auditing, taxation, and savings are transferred to the magical communities of various countries. If the Gringotts US Magical Community Tax Bureau finds that a wizarding family is evading taxes, do you think... who will come to collect the tax and communicate? Goblin specialists? Goblin security forces? Gringotts wizarding employees? Or—all those whose wealth has been 'stolen' on the books?"

"However, there is a fatal problem in this: unless individual goblins do not hold assets, otherwise..."

Ryleos shook his head and pointed out the flaw in Ellina's blueprint.

"So—"

Ellina smiled, a playful expression appearing on her face.

"Why do goblins need Galleons? Is there really any wealth that goblins can lose?"

"Gringotts Wizarding Bank is still a physical place for storing, measuring, and circulating currency in the magical world. We are just recording those accounts that should have been liabilities on the heads of the magical governments of various countries and the International Wizarding Federation - those things that were never goblins' from the beginning."

"If you want to know what we will lose and what we can gain, then I can only tell you..."

Boom!

A ball of fire burst from Ellina's fingertips.

In an instant, it devoured the parchment document in her hand.

"Goblins will only lose their shackles, and what we gain will be the whole world—"

Ryleos suddenly recalled the "front and back" sCp Foundation structure that Ellina had deliberately divided before.

Of course, in addition to that, there was also the "Internal Revenue Service" business that was being coordinated with the British Ministry of Magic one-on-one, as well as the welfare plan for the Ministry of Magic's increasingly large civil service system, and the pilot program for taxes on the booming magical market...

As the dust from the burned-out flames fell, a terrifying world that had never been imagined unfolded rapidly before Ryleos' eyes.

As one of the few high-level consultants of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Ryleos was well aware of the progress of magical industry.

Centuries ago, due to the emergence of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, the British magical community did not enter the capitalist world with the First Industrial Revolution in the British non-magical community, and the Goblin Queen obviously intended to turn goblins into shackles and make up for the regrets of those gentlemen.

"Then, I have one last question..."

Ryleos pondered for a moment, his dry, wrinkled hands stroking his cane, his voice very, very soft.

"If... I mean if... the wizards also want to break free from the shackles one day and step into that new world?"

"The standard answer is: then the goblins will lose another shackle—"

Ellina replied without thinking, and then a meaningful smile appeared.

"However, what you should ask is—"

"If one day, the wizards decide to break free from the shackles, who will initiate it..."

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Yay! Chapter Two!