"Mr. Delacour, if there are no issues, please sign the contract as we discussed earlier," Kain said.
"Of course not. I wish us good business, Mr. Pent," replied Mr. Delacour.
Kain shook hands with the middle-aged man. The smiles on both their faces appeared sincere, though sincerity in business often depends on who profits in the end.
The contract's liquidated damages were set extremely high. Breaking the contract would be akin to making the other party a millionaire in the wizarding world. If someone refused to honor the agreement or pay the penalty, they would have to forfeit their life and family reputation instead.
The stakes were too high. No one with a respectable family or business would dare breach it—only a desperate, isolated dark wizard might consider it.
The Delacour family owned a magic herb plantation in France, alongside two other businesses related to dragon materials. They had approached Kain to exchange their potion ingredients for dragon materials produced by his company.
But Kain had seen through their intentions. He had discreetly instructed a Shadow Clone to hire a London law firm to draft two contracts riddled with carefully crafted traps.
"Boss, I feel like Mr. Delacour is a bit..." Guy paused, struggling to articulate his unease. Something about Mr. Delacour felt off, but he couldn't pinpoint it.
Kain replied indifferently, "Who cares what they're up to? As long as there's money to be made. Guy, let someone else manage the store for now. Your task is to negotiate with other families dealing in magical materials and secure their business—before word of any breaches spreads."
If the Delacour family conducted their business honestly, they could earn some decent money. But if they had ulterior motives, they were likely to lose their entire family fortune to Kain.
"I understand, boss," Guy said with a grin. He felt joining Kain had been the right decision. Thanks to their exclusive fire dragon material contracts, anyone in need of those resources had no choice but to visit Kain's magic material store.
However, the store's policies required wizards buying fire dragon materials to also purchase one or two sets of potion ingredients. While potion material prices hadn't increased yet, once their stock ran out, other potion merchants would find themselves unable to compete.
The British wizarding market had its limits. Many wizards didn't need potion ingredients immediately, but those overseeing such operations were understandably nervous.
For instance, the Slugg & Ziggs Apothecary, located next to Kain's store, had already handed over their potion material business to Kain and decided to focus exclusively on selling potions.
After a few months, Kain planned to open a potion shop for Guy in Diagon Alley. One could only imagine if Slugg & Ziggs would turn into dark wizards and try to blow up the shop out of frustration.
Kain urged once more, "I'll leave the rest to you. I still need to get back to Hogwarts."
"Okay, boss," Guy replied. He knew Kain was currently working as a professor at Hogwarts but couldn't quite understand how he managed to spend so much time in Diagon Alley every day.
After leaving the potion materials shop, Kain didn't actually return to Hogwarts. The figure in Diagon Alley was merely a Shadow Clone, while his main body was deep in the Forbidden Forest, searching for unicorns.
In addition to securing cooperation contracts with the Delacour family and other business partners, Kain needed to visit Knockturn Alley. He hadn't been back since his last purchase at Borgin and Burkes. This time, he intended to ask if they had access to goblin craftsmanship.
When the Shadow Clone was dismissed at his Diagon Alley residence, the chakra and its memories returned to Kain's mind.
At that moment, Kain was flying above the forest, searching for unicorns. He had found faint traces of one two days prior but was interrupted by a group of centaurs who fired arrows at him.
Angered, Kain had taught the centaurs a lesson. Though he didn't kill any of them, they all retreated with bruises and injuries. If not for Hogwarts' rules, Kain wouldn't have let his attackers off so easily.
"The goblins' craftsmanship is truly well-guarded. Even dark wizards don't dare dabble in such business," Kain muttered to himself.
He carefully reviewed his findings and concluded that Borgin and Burkes hadn't lied to him. To protect their trade secrets, goblins would rather destroy their craftsmanship than allow it to fall into human hands.
In light of this, Kain resigned himself to using wizard-crafted items for his current projects. While there wasn't much difference between the two for the ninja world, Kain had a preference for goblin quality.
"There's no sign of unicorns in this area either. Could the centaurs have tipped them off?" he wondered, marking the searched zones on his map.
Suspicion crept into his mind that the centaurs, bitter from their earlier encounter, might have warned the unicorns about him. If he caught them conspiring, he wouldn't hesitate to deal with them again.
After finishing his search, Kain used the Flying Charm to head directly back to Hogwarts.
Recently, Professor Sprout had been busy expanding the greenhouse, causing her Herbology classes to be rescheduled. She spent most of her time carefully relocating her beloved potion plants.
Now that the greenhouse expansion was complete, Professor Sprout's classes needed to be made up. Meanwhile, other professors had lighter schedules—especially Kain.
Once the busiest professor at Hogwarts, he had become the most idle one in recent weeks.
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