"Mr. Minister," Audrey smiled faintly, "are you issuing this notice to me on behalf of the Ministry of Magic?"
Fudge froze for a moment, then immediately understood the implication behind Audrey's words.
"I am merely representing myself to express my concern regarding the harm Miss Astley's actions are about to cause to the wizarding world."
Fudge took off his 'kindly' mask and began to stand tit-for-tat against Audrey. "My actions today are purely personal and have nothing to do with the Ministry of Magic."
He threatened, "However, I feel the Ministry of Magic should strengthen its efforts in investigating wizards' assets of unknown origins!"
Audrey smiled, like azaleas blooming all over the mountains in April, or like a charming yet not seductive lotus in July. "I also think the Ministry should properly investigate wizards' assets. The accounts of certain civil servants really cannot withstand scrutiny—for example, three thousand Galleons, or perhaps five thousand Galleons."
With her Legilimency constitution active, Audrey easily knew the price Gringotts had given Fudge—last time, to force her to explore the ruins, it was three thousand; this time, to force her to repay the money early, it was five thousand.
Fudge's face changed instantly. His eyes widened in terror, as if his heart were being tightly gripped in the palm of this seemingly harmless little girl before him.
"Mr. Minister!"
Moristor's voice rang out. This Gringotts Elder had been hiding nearby to eavesdrop from the beginning. Seeing Fudge being manipulated by Audrey at this moment, he hurriedly revealed himself.
"I believe Miss Astley's behavior threatens the entire wizarding world. This is a serious disruption of our existing order; specifically, her borrowing behavior carries a clear nature of fraud!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Fudge wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and echoed loudly, "You are disrupting the order of the wizarding world; you are a fraudster!"
However, the Minister, who had been seen through completely by Audrey, had absolutely no deterrent power. She asked back with a smile, "Order? Even if Gringotts goes bankrupt, would the wizarding world have no currency? Could it be that apart from Gringotts, the wizarding world cannot have other banks?"
Audrey added, "Also, you say I committed fraud, so please produce the evidence. Without evidence, I will sue you for slander." She looked at Fudge. "Even if it is the Minister, I will sue all the same!"
She looked up in the direction of London. "Perhaps Ms. Amelia Bones, after receiving substantial financial support, might be interested in the position of Minister for Magic! If the current Minister is exposed for having character flaws, accepting bribes, and slandering a sixteen-year-old witch, I think she would have a high probability of ascending to the position!"
This last sentence was like a heavy uppercut, smashing Fudge's head until it buzzed, rendering him completely silent.
Moristor looked at the disappointing Fudge, ground his old teeth, and said fiercely, "Miss Astley, I still hope you can return our Gringotts loan as soon as possible. You have already earned quite a lot; quit while you're ahead! Our Gringotts has never offended you; is it necessary to fight to the bitter end like this?"
Audrey tilted her head. "I remember Gringotts gave Mr. Fudge three thousand Galleons," she said, pointing at Fudge, "just to have him threaten me to break the curse on the ruins for Gringotts. Elder, do you still remember?"
Moristor was stunned. He had heard of this matter but didn't take it seriously. It was just a normal hiring; it wasn't as if they wouldn't pay Audrey her wages.
The means might have been a bit despicable, but wasn't that a win-win situation?
Moristor couldn't understand Audrey's way of thinking, so he simply didn't try to understand.
Moristor directly ignored Audrey's question and threatened instead, "If Miss Astley insists on having her own way, then our Gringotts will sanction you across the entire scope of Europe and the Americas. Believe me, by then, no one will dare to sell you anything, and no one will buy your products!"
"Right, right, right," Fudge provided an assist in time. "Our Ministry of Magic will also pay close attention to your industries in Britain!"
Audrey laughed out of anger. "I still haven't figured it out. I acted according to the contract; how did I become guilty of heinous crimes?"
"Because there was a problem with that contract itself! You deceived us!"
"Deceived?"
Audrey strode up to Moristor, looking down at him. "What did I deceive you about? Settling in Coupons was the result of our joint discussion! You are certainly tasting the bitter fruit of the Coupon's devaluation now, but was I not also bearing the risk of Coupons appreciating?"
"If the Coupon were to skyrocket now and I requested early repayment to terminate the contract, would your Gringotts agree?"
Obviously not.
However, it was clearly impossible to convince Moristor with mere words.
Because a greedy goblin would not reason with you.
But the superficial work still had to be done, so Moristor naturally wouldn't admit it.
"Yes, of course we would agree. You are our major client. We would satisfy requests within a reasonable range. After all, we goblins have been able to operate Gringotts in the wizarding world for so many years by relying on fairness, integrity, and mercy!"
"We are so merciful; of course, we wouldn't watch Miss Astley go bankrupt!"
'We will only add fuel to the fire behind the scenes and then swallow all of Astley's property. Hahaha!'
Moristor's inner voice was heard clearly and distinctly by Audrey.
Sure enough, today's conversation was a waste of time.
Audrey had planned to wait until the summer holidays to use early repayment as a bargaining chip to cancel her agreement to break the curse on the ruins.
But now, Gringotts' actions made her feel disgusted.
So she didn't want to do that anymore.
Originally, Gringotts would at least have a three-year buffer period and might have been able to linger on, but their attitude now annoyed Audrey greatly—
Then, let such an unreasonable existence as Gringotts just perish.
"Miss Astley, do you want to repay early or not?"
Moristor had also lost his patience. No one had ever been able to defy Gringotts' will, never!
But what he hadn't thought of was that Gringotts' voice in the past was built upon Galleons.
It wasn't so much that no one defied Gringotts' will, but rather that no one defied the will of Galleons.
But now, your Galleons are all in this grand-aunt's pocket. Jumping around like this is a bit suicidal.
The oblivious Moristor continued, "If you repay early, we are still good friends. But if you don't, then we are enemies to the bitter end."
Feeling his momentum wasn't strong enough, he added, "No one wants to become Gringotts' enemy, and Gringotts will have no enemies!"
Enemies were either dead or had become slaves.
Audrey smiled. "Since Mr. Moristor has put it this way, I can't not give you face."
She rested her chin on her hand as if in deep thought. Both Moristor and Fudge stared tightly at her red lips, nervously awaiting her next words.
"But I don't have that much cash right now. Allow me to sell off some industries to raise a thing or two. Hmm... it will probably take just over a month. I wonder if Gringotts can wait?"
Moristor thought his threat had worked and that this sixteen-year-old girl had chickened out after all. He shouted triumphantly, "Not just the principal, you also need to repay three years of interest!"
In his view, although the Coupon had shrunk by 30% now, if they collected a total of 240% interest for three years, then Gringotts wouldn't lose too much.
"Okay, no problem," Audrey said indifferently. "Then how about setting the repayment for May 15th?"
Moristor left triumphantly. Fudge left satisfied.
Because they felt they had won.
But Audrey didn't think so.
A month and a bit was enough for Gringotts to perish.
Since Gringotts would be gone, the matter of excavating the ancient Nordic ruins would naturally come to nothing.
Sigh, oh goblins, why be so short-sighted?
I really don't want to be a banker!
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]