"Oh, my master! Phil has been worrying every day for such a long time. The master will definitely be fine, but Phil is not!"
As soon as Kain arrived at the house in Diagon Alley, two house-elves, Phil and Isaac, rushed to him, tears streaming down their faces.
If Kain hadn't forbidden self-punishment, they would have undoubtedly begun hitting their heads against the walls or pillars.
"This has nothing to do with you both. Phil, go make me a cup of coffee with extra milk," Kain said with a sigh, feeling helpless about the elves' overly servile nature.
Despite his attempts to train them otherwise, their behavior remained ingrained. The best he could do was assign them tasks to distract them.
"I will go right away, my merciful master!" Phil declared, disappearing instantly with a pop. Though the kitchen was only a few steps away, it was apparently too far for Kain to wait.
Isaac glanced around nervously. Not spotting any luggage, he wrung his hands and asked, "Master, your clothes?"
"Help me hang them up."
"Of course! Isaac will clean them thoroughly as well!"
Kain left them to their tasks and headed to his study. It had been almost a year since he was last here, and he needed to catch up on any major events that had occurred in the wizarding world during his absence.
However, Kain hadn't neglected the non-magical world either. He created three Shadow Clones to handle his affairs there—primarily finances and various industries.
Before his departure, he had appointed a manager, and Phil had taken Polyjuice Potion several times over the year to impersonate Kain and collect the quarterly financial reports.
Hopefully, this arrangement had been sufficient to keep the managers in line. If not, Kain had no shortage of magical experiments he was eager to try on particularly greedy individuals.
At this stage, Kain recognized that the wizarding world could bring him more value. His primary goal for this visit was to obtain more materials from magical creatures—particularly dragon flesh, blood, and, if possible, a dragon egg.
Orochimaru, in particular, had expressed a strong interest in acquiring a dragon egg.
The last time Kain returned, he had only brought back a small selection of magical creatures. Most were classified as one or two stars in terms of danger. Only a handful, such as dragons and phoenixes, ranked three stars or higher.
Many highly dangerous magical creatures were banned from breeding by Newt Scamander's guidelines, as even ordinary wizards risked death by handling them recklessly.
Beyond magical creatures, Kain also sought knowledge of advanced spells and dark magic, areas in which he was still lacking. He would need to find someone to teach him.
"Master, your coffee."
"Master, these are all the Daily Prophet issues since you left."
Phil and Isaac returned promptly. One handed him a steaming cup of coffee, while the other brought a stack of Daily Prophet newspapers, carefully arranged. They then stood by, awaiting further instructions.
Kain waved them off. "Leave me now," he said.
The elves bowed and left the study.
Kain turned his attention to the Daily Prophet. Most of its pages were filled with trivial gossip and irrelevant content, offering little of real value. He had to sift through numerous issues before finding any meaningful news.
This was one of the reasons why the British wizarding community remained stagnant. With such a small population, approximately 40% of the paper's content consisted of propaganda from the Ministry of Magic, touting its supposed achievements.
The only thing that left a deep impression on Kain was the ongoing discussions between the British and European magical communities about the potion market. It seemed that specific policies might soon be introduced, allowing European potions to enter the British market.
Behind this news, in the "debate section," Kain noticed that many wizards supported the idea. The British magical world had far too few skilled potion masters. On the surface, the most notable were Horace Slughorn and Severus Snape.
There was also the chief pharmacist at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, who was particularly famous for expertise in wound-healing potions and remedies for dark magic injuries.
However, their skills were limited to those specific fields.
The rest of the potion-makers were mostly wizards who had passed their N.E.W.T.s in potions. While they could be called magical pharmacists, they were far from being true potion masters.
"I should have Guy keep an eye on this. If we can secure the exclusive rights to import potions from one or two European countries, we'll make a fortune," Kain mused, making a note to follow up on the matter.
He turned to the latest issue of the Daily Prophet but found no concrete announcements yet.
By the time he finished reading, it was well past lunchtime. He had only snacked on a few pieces of chocolate cake, much to Phil's despair. The elf had prepared a large table of delicious food, but his master barely touched it.
….
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