translating_wizard
patreon
Chapter 1257: Military Products
🕑 Added 2024-10-12 14:49:01 +0000 UTCThose who lacked understanding of the current situation might never believe that the overall spellcasting level of wizards was so low.
Incredible, unimaginable — many wizards were merely Muggles holding small sticks...
Especially in the field of combat magic, there were too many wizards who had never dueled in their entire lives, nor learned the relevant spells. They could not even use simple spells at the level of second or third-year Hogwarts students, such as the Impediment Jinx or the Shield Charm.
It sounded incredible, but it was the truth — people had gotten used to peace.
In the past few centuries, the combat level of wizards had degraded beyond imagination, becoming lower and lower.
"You know, Evan, we originally thought Shield Hats were a bit of laugh," Fred continued, "challenge your mate to jinx you while wearing it and watch his face when the jinx bounces off. George and I thought it was a fun prank idea, but we never expected that after the Ministry of Magic found out about our product, it bought five hundred hats for all its support staff! And even now, we’re still getting massive orders!"
"Really incredible," said Evan. "This involves the field of combat magic items. It should be very profitable, right?"
"We make three Galleons per hat; it's practically robbery, considering our cost is less than eight silver Sickles."
This was simply huge profit, much more profitable than joke products.
"After the success of the hat, we’ve expanded into a range of Shield Cloaks, Shield Gloves, and Shield Boots, and cast simple defensive magic on them," said Fred excitedly. "I mean, they wouldn’t help much against the Unforgivable Curses, but for minor to moderate hexes or jinxes...."
Just then, George walked in and heard these words.
"Fred, you’ve already told Evan? After the success of the defense series of products, we thought we’d get into the whole area of Defense Against the Dark Arts, because it’s such a money spinner," he immediately interrupted. "In addition to the clothing series of protective spells, we’ve also made Instant Darkness Powder; we’re importing it from Peru. Handy if you want to make a quick escape — no need to ignite them, just smash one on the ground."
"And our Decoy Detonators are just walking off the shelves, look," said Fred, pointing at a number of weird-looking black horn-type objects that were indeed attempting to scurry out of sight. "You just drop one surreptitiously and it’ll run off and make a nice loud noise out of sight, giving you a diversion if you need one."
It was indeed very impressive. In Muggle terms, these were military products.
If handled properly, military products could yield enormous profits.
The Wizarding World hadn’t grasped this concept yet, but Evan knew very well — it was not just the Ministry of Magic. For those wizards already panicking over Voldemort's return, there would be little hesitation upon encountering these products. They would just buy, buy, buy…
No matter how much money it cost, even if the defensive effect was not so ideal, there would be people interested.
Because, compared to a few Galleons, preserving one’s life was, of course, far more important.
At the very least, these products were fundamentally different from the deceptive things sold by street vendors, and they did work.
Evan had to admire Fred and George's brains. Their grades in regular classes were low, but when it came to inventing things, they had a real talent. Not only with prank products, but these newly developed Dark Arts defense items also fully proved their creativity.
And their business acumen was just as impressive...
"Well, Evan?" Fred asked. "Do you have any good ideas?"
"The person in charge of purchasing at the Ministry of Magic told us that as long as we have new products that interest them, the Ministry will place direct orders. They’ll even pay a fifty percent deposit upfront for us to start production," said George excitedly. "Each order is for at least a hundred items, and we’re talking deals worth tens of thousands of Galleons."
"It's so easy to make money," Fred sighed. "Come on, Evan; use that brilliant brain of yours..."
"Well, I just happen to have a few ideas you can try," said Evan, planning to talk to them about Alchemy.
"What are you waiting for? Let's talk in my office," said George, leading Evan to his office at the back of the warehouse.
In the office, a young witch with short blonde hair was sitting at a large table doing accounts.
"Ah, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley," Seeing them come in, the witch stood up hurriedly.
Fred and George were called "Mr. Weasley", which was really odd, but they took it in their stride.
Looking at this beautiful and energetic witch, Evan sniffed hard. He keenly felt that things were not that simple. This office belonged to George, and George had just told Evan that he often lived in the office because of his busy business.
So, this office was a very private space, a room belonging exclusively to George.
And then, less than a minute after that conversation, Evan saw a pretty witch in here...
A single man and a beautiful single woman, habitually spending time together in a private room — what kind of relationship could they possibly have?
It was impossible for there to be nothing going on between them.
"Evan, this is Verity, our only human employee. She helps us with accounting and store management. House-elves are not very good at that," George introduced. "Verity, this is Evan Mason, one of the owners of our store."
"Hello, Mr. Mason," said Verity, smiling cutely.
"Hello," said Evan.
"Alright, Verity, you go watch the shop for now," said George. "We have some things to discuss with Evan."
While George was asking Verity to leave, Fred leaned over to Evan's ear with a sly smile and said, "It was George who insisted that Verity stay. He likes her..."
Fred didn't deliberately lower his voice, and Verity must have heard it. She couldn't help but quicken her pace and walk out of the room.
"That's enough, Fred, you already have Angelina. Can't I find a girlfriend?" said George, sounding a little annoyed.
"Of course you can, but you're too slow, brother," said Fred with a smile, "This is not in line with our style. Angelina and I confirmed our relationship in just one night. When it comes to dating, you shouldn’t take cues from Evan... "
“I’m not as slow as Evan! I could step things up with her whenever I feel like it,” George argued.
Well, this conversation was definitely heading into inappropriate territory!
Evan had the urge to say that he, too, could step things up with Hermione. In fact, the two had already "stepped it up" quite a few times; though mostly in Animagus form... under his sheets, under hers, in Hagrid's cauldron, and even on top of a pyramid...
