Chapter 296

Murphy came to Knockturn Alley, where Locke was anxiously waiting for him at Siren's Song.

This professional manager of Murphy's was exhausted at the moment, and seemed to have not slept well for several days. As soon as he saw Murphy, he bowed to the ground. "Lord Murphy, I have failed your trust."

Murphy helped him up. "What's going on? I heard people say that Gringotts has banned gold exchange?"

Now he was preparing to build several more laboratories in the UK, and wizards, potions, magical creatures, and potion materials all needed to be equipped, and these all required Galleons, not to mention the wages of those wizards he promised the Queen.

His few shops in the wizarding world, except for the potion shop which had some decent profits, the other shops basically had other purposes, not only not making money, but even needing him to keep subsidizing them.

Once gold exchange was banned, he really wouldn't have any source of Galleons.

The goblin Locke was full of bitterness. He stood up, but still didn't sit in his seat, but hung his head like a subordinate who had made a mistake. "It's not a complete ban, but they have increased the exchange commission, lowered the exchange rate, and taken your exchange business away from me. They no longer allow department managers to handle large client business alone."

Originally, Murphy's gold exchange business, as well as the cargo payment settlement and fund payment of various shops under his name, were all handled by the goblin Locke. Locke was equivalent to Murphy's fund manager.

"Lowered the gold exchange rate, lowered by how much?" Murphy asked.

"One ounce of gold exchanges for 20 Galleons, plus a 5 Galleon handling fee," Locke said.

At the current gold price, one ounce of gold is worth nearly 175 pounds. Before Locke was responsible for managing Murphy's exchange business, one ounce of gold could exchange for 32 Galleons, and no handling fee was required, which was basically close to the ideal exchange ratio.

Now the exchange rate has dropped by half directly. No wonder Locke said it was a ban on gold exchange. Exchanging like this is too much of a loss, and no one would do it.

"Why was the gold exchange rate suddenly lowered?" Murphy asked.

"Gringotts senior management has recently undergone a reshuffle. The young heir of the goblin's largest clan—the Brin family, Guleos Brin, has taken office as the new Gringotts general manager. It was he who issued the order himself."

Goblins are a huge group, and their population is not much less than that of wizards. Compared to wizards, goblins value the inheritance of bloodline more, which can be seen from their full names.

Every goblin, if all their full names were written out, would find that they contain the names of at least five generations of ancestors mentioned above.

To a certain extent, they are more conservative and stubborn than wizards.

"A new official takes office." Murphy understood a little. "We cannot accept this exchange rate, but Gringotts is not his own. Tell him I am willing to pay him some personal commission every year to maintain the original exchange rate."

Bribery is sometimes very useful. If the problem can be solved by bribery, Murphy doesn't mind paying this small price.

Locke nodded. "Okay, I'll try."

However, after only half a day, Locke came back with a bruised and swollen face.

"What's the situation?" Murphy was shocked. "How did it become like this?"

"Guleos said I was a traitor, a running dog of wizards, and beat me out. I was fired," Locke sighed. "And, he lowered the gold exchange rate again to fifteen Galleons per ounce."

Murphy frowned. "Is it for everyone?"

"No, it's only aimed at you," Locke said.

"Why?" Murphy didn't quite understand. "Have I offended this Brin family?"

"Baugorod's surname is Brin," Locke said. "Do you remember? He was once the president of Gringotts Bank, and later was arrested by the Ministry of Magic for 'attempting to embezzle wizard property.' Now he seems to have been exiled by the Goblin Council to mine in some mine."

"Guleos seems to be Baugorod's nephew," Locke said. "And, when I went to see him, I also saw a wizard in his office."

"A wizard?"

"Yes, Mundungus Fletcher, a thug, but I heard their conversation using goblin gold coins," Locke said. "They seem to have mentioned the Sorcerer's Stone... I think this matter is unusual, Lord Murphy. They seem to be coming for you."

Mundungus?

This guy seems to be in the Order of the Phoenix, right?

Sure enough, they are coming for him.

However, the Sorcerer's Stone?

"What did you hear?" Murphy asked. "Tell me carefully."

"Mundungus seems to be serving someone. That person promised Guleos that if he completes the plan to freeze your vault, he would give him the Sorcerer's Stone according to his promise."

Murphy was a little angry.

Damn it!

The Sorcerer's Stone!

You old man Dumbledore! You'd rather give the Sorcerer's Stone to goblins than to me?! Even though I am the legal heir of the Sorcerer's Stone?!

"Let's go, I'll go meet this Guleos myself!"

Gringotts.

Underground, General Manager's Office.

A young goblin was lying on the sofa. He was dressed quite differently from ordinary goblins. His attire was very casual and full of a nouveau riche feeling. A thick gold chain around his neck, several gemstone rings on his hands, wearing a pair of shorts, but a pair of gold-inlaid leather shoes on his feet.

An older goblin was standing in front of him, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, looking quite shrewd.

"You shouldn't have agreed to that guy! Dumbledore is unreliable now. He is just an exiled wizard with no energy. Even, we don't know if the Sorcerer's Stone mentioned by that thug is true or false!"

The old goblin roared.

"I thought Baugorod was your son and you wanted to avenge him, Grandpa Padro," the lying goblin said disdainfully.

"Baugorod is an idiot, that's why he was brought down," the old goblin Padro said. "And you are even stupider than him, Guleos. Murphy Darkholm is now the most terrifying figure in the British wizarding world, and you actually want to offend him!"

"You are so afraid of wizards, that's why you are pressed down and can't lift your heads," Guleos sneered disdainfully. "Clearly we control the bank, but you are like beggars begging for their rewards!"

"This is the wizard's world! Guleos! Not our goblin world! Recognize this point, and we can survive."

"But you may have forgotten, Gringotts was taken back by us, it was the goblin revolution that took back Gringotts! Wagging tails and begging for pity can only make us slaves to wizards. Look at those house-elves, do you want to become like that?"

"But not now, Guleos, our preparations are not sufficient," Padro said. "If you insist on doing this, I will consider asking the council to remove you from your position!"

"No one will agree with you, Grandpa," Guleos suddenly laughed eerily. "We all saw it, we all heard it, but you haven't yet..."

"You have been blocked by fear, you can't hear those sounds."

"What?" Padro was puzzled. "What sound?"

"Drums, footsteps..." Guleos looked behind Padro, as if he really heard some sound. "They are coming soon..."

Just at this moment, with a "bang," the door of the manager's office was kicked open, and a wizard strode in.

"Your ears are quite good," Murphy looked at the bewildered goblin, "but why don't you have eyes?"

(End of chapter)