As soon as Kael finished speaking, everyone in the compartment looked at Cedric with a strange expression.
Fred, sitting next to him, immediately distanced himself, sarcastically saying, "Who would have thought you'd be such a guy with those thick eyebrows and big eyes."
Even though Fred felt the same way as Cedric, it didn't stop him from kicking him while he was down.
On long journeys, you need to find some amusement to keep things from getting too dull.
Of course, the key is that this amusement must be at someone else's expense.
"I'm not, I didn't, don't say such things."
Cedric was so unnerved by the stares that he immediately explained, "I'm just speaking the truth, you're all probably thinking the same thing."
"Oh~~" Kael drew out his response, "Fred, George, are you two thinking the same?"
"Of course not!" Fred was the first to say.
George put on a serious face, "I'm an honest businessman, I wouldn't do something as shady as this."
"Conna, how about you?" Kael asked again.
"Not me either." Conna shook her head repeatedly, even shaking off the hairpin from her head.
"Cho?"
"No..."
...
"See, everyone else isn't." Kael raised an eyebrow and said, "It's just you, deceitful Cedric."
Cedric's face instantly turned red, looking at everyone in disbelief.
No, that's not how it is at all.
In that moment, Cedric felt betrayed, completely out of sorts.
"Give it up, shifty merchant; we would never do such a thing."
Kael handed the stack of maps to Fred and continued, "When the train arrives, dispose of them in front of everyone."
"Leave it to me." Fred solemnly took the maps, looking very serious, as if he was accepting a letter of appointment from the Minister of Magic.
"Oh, right." Kael reminded, "You must act before Hagrid arrives, so the first-year students can see too."
Fred instinctively agreed, but suddenly felt something was off.
From Kael's serious demeanor, he didn't seem to be joking at all.
Merlin, could he really be intending to...
Fred felt a bit dizzy, licked his lips, and instinctively asked.
"Kael, we were just joking with Cedric, you see, his face is all red."
Kael shook his head and said, "No, I'm not joking. These things must be destroyed; not a single one can remain."
Seeing Kael's serious demeanor, Fred and the others immediately stopped laughing.
George muttered, "But... these are all Galleons."
"I know, but there's no choice." Kael spread his hands, "I've already said it; if we don't want trouble from someone, we have to do this."
"But it's no big deal, I have plenty of unicorn hair, and those gems were knocked off during fire crabs' fights. They aren't worth much. Counting the parchment itself, the cost isn't even two Galleons."
For some reason, Fred and George felt a strong urge to punch Kael upon hearing his tone.
Not even two Galleons, just 'only'?
Is this even human speech?
"Can't we think of another way?"
Cho also felt a bit distressed, thought for a moment, and said, "Like using a Transfiguration Spell to turn ordinary parchment..."
But before she could finish, Kael denied it.
"No, we need to leave enough traces."
Seeing the conflicted faces of the others, Kael smiled and said, "You don't think that just a few words will make everyone believe what I said, right?
Only by doing this will more people willingly buy those twenty Galleon maps, we won't lose out."
"I get the logic..." Fred said, looking conflicted at the maps in his hand, "But destroying something worth over ten Galleons outright, isn't that a bit too wasteful?"
Fred's current feeling was like hearing someone tell him to throw Galleons into the water for fun.
After living through years of hard times, he simply couldn't accept such a wasteful decision.
At this moment, Cedric, who had not said anything, suddenly leaned over, staring intently at the maps in Fred's hand and said, "It's okay, if you can't do it, you can give it to me."
Fred immediately hugged the maps tightly. "No, I'll do it myself."
Even though he couldn't accept it, if he had to throw Galleons away, he didn't want to let anyone else take this rare 'opportunity.'
...
In just a few minutes, the atmosphere in the compartment completely changed.
The others sat there disinterested, occasionally sighing, occasionally feeling melancholy, lamenting the unnecessary waste of over ten Galleons.
Only Cedric seemed like he had drunk a Joyful Potion, giggling at them.
The sky gradually darkened, and the villages and wheat fields outside the window turned into rolling hills and forests.
The train was about to arrive.
After changing into their robes, Fred became more and more nervous as he opened his trunk, searching for something inside.
At this time, two new students suddenly knocked on their compartment door.
It was Hermione, whom they had met on the platform earlier, and behind her was a very nervous Neville.
After hearing their request, Kael asked, "So, you want me to help find a toad?"
"Yes." Hermione said, "We've searched everywhere on the train but couldn't find it. Do you have any idea?"
"That's not hard." Kael thought for a moment and said, "If you didn't leave it on the platform, you can find it with a simple spell."
Saying that, he took out his wand.
"Trevor, come!"
Suddenly, a croak sounded from a luggage rack in another compartment, and a toad flew straight over.
"Trevor!" Neville shouted with delight, reaching out to catch the toad hovering in mid-air.
"Neville, I think you could try to learn the Summoning Charm." Kael said with a smile, "Once you learn it, you won't have to worry about losing keys, textbooks, or pets again."
"Yes, you're right." Neville sniffled, "But I'm not sure if I can learn it, I'm so clumsy and always mess things up."
"Have a little faith in yourself, Neville." Kael said with a smile, "You'll never know if you can unless you try, and I can teach you."
"And me too," Hermione said, "Learning charms isn't that hard; I've already mastered several over the summer."
"Th-thanks," Neville mumbled, his face a bit pale.
By this time, the train was gradually coming to a stop.
Fred took a deep breath, stepped past Hermione and Neville at the door, and said heavily, "I'm going then."
"Don't dawdle," Kael reminded, "You must do it before Hagrid takes the first-years away."
...