Chapter 136: You've Expanded Your Business Too Much (Patreon)

After the Life Potion became wildly popular, multiple factions rushed to buy it.

All 1,000 vials sold out in less than seven days, a speed that even left Elavin stunned.

Among the buyers, besides the healers from St Mungo's, the largest group came from the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

They were already among the wealthiest and most business-minded wizards in Britain, and they immediately recognized the value behind the Life Potion. So they acted without hesitation, buying up huge quantities.

There were two advantages to doing this.

First, it allowed them to establish a secondary monopoly. As long as they bought up all the Life Potions first, anyone else who wanted one would have no choice but to buy it from them.

At that point, whether they charged 888 Galleons or even more per vial would be entirely up to them.

Even if they chose not to sell them, they could still give them to wizards in need in exchange for favors, or present them to other wizarding families as gifts to strengthen alliances. Either way, it was a worthwhile investment.

Of course, doing so would inevitably have some negative impact on their family's reputation.

Fortunately, there was a second advantage: they could try to reverse-engineer the Life Potion's formula.

Cracking a potion recipe couldn't be done with just one or two vials. It would inevitably require a large number of experiments.

Naturally, the early stages would require a considerable investment, but once the formula was cracked, the returns would be far greater!

Anyone with half a brain could figure out that much.

Under normal circumstances, this strategy would have been highly effective.

Unfortunately, they were dealing with Elavin.

Reverse-engineering the Life Potion was out of the question.

Without enhanced herbs, it was simply impossible.

As for establishing a secondary monopoly, that was equally impossible.

Elavin brewed potions at a speed far beyond anyone's imagination.

The day after the shop announced that the Life Potion was sold out, Elavin could restock another 1,000 vials.

In less than a month, nearly 5,000 vials of the Life Potion had been sold.

Elavin earned a staggering 4.4 million Galleons!

The noble wizarding families that tried to buy up all the stock discovered they had already emptied nearly half of their family vaults, while Elavin's supply still seemed completely bottomless.

They had no choice but to stop for the time being.

Otherwise, their families would go bankrupt before they managed to buy up all the Life Potions.

This series of business developments, through the reporting of a well-known Daily Prophet editor, was laid before every witch and wizard in the magical world.

From all this, Elavin got a clear look at the wizarding world's level of commercial warfare.

You couldn't exactly say it was negative. It was just infinitely close to zero!

At first, Elavin found it rather surprising. After all, these were the nobles of the wizarding world. Their business acumen shouldn't have been this poor.

But after giving it some thought, it all seemed perfectly normal.

The world itself was little more than a makeshift operation, and this backward society made up of wizards was undoubtedly even more so.

If wizards truly possessed decent business sense, how could the magical world have ended up in such a chaotic state?

…

Headmaster's Office.

Elavin and Dumbledore sat facing each other on the sofas.

On the coffee table between them lay two money pouches enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm.

One belonged to Elavin and contained the earnings from the recent Life Potion sales. Dumbledore had retrieved it from the shop on his behalf.

The other belonged to Dumbledore, or rather, to Hogwarts. It contained Hogwarts' share as the distributor.

At that moment, Elavin was completely absorbed in counting the mountain of Galleons inside his pouch.

"Brewing potions really is profitable!"

Dumbledore leisurely enjoyed a new dessert the house-elves had recently learned to make.

"It certainly is. If I'd known, I wouldn't have charged you only a 5% agency fee. I should've charged you 10% like everyone else..."

The corner of Elavin's mouth twitched.

"Be satisfied. You didn't do a thing. You just lay around in your office and still made 200,000 Galleons."

Dumbledore simply smiled without responding.

"The reason I asked you to come today, aside from giving you the money from the Life Potion sales, is that there are two other matters."

"What are they?"

"First, a reporter from the Daily Prophet wants to interview you," Dumbledore said. "They actually submitted the request back when you launched the Potent Potion, but I rejected it."

An interview?

What's there to talk about over something so trivial?

Elavin immediately lost interest and lowered his head to continue counting his money.

"Why?"

"I didn't want you becoming famous too early. It could have affected your character and development."

"But now..."

"I don't think that's something we need to worry about anymore."

This kid had managed to catch Voldemort in his very first year. What more was there to ask for in terms of character or growth?

He might as well be sent out into the world to stir things up instead of staying at school and causing trouble for the young wizards.

Why call it causing trouble?

Even though the end-of-year exams were just around the corner, the young wizards remained completely distracted.

The younger students, in particular, were far too relaxed.

Every day they were either playing sports, figuring out how to cook, discussing superhero comics, or making up gossip about certain professors.

And the source of all of it was none other than the boy sitting right in front of him.

"If you're willing to accept the interview, I'll arrange it."

"Hmm... I'll pass."

Elavin refused without the slightest hesitation.

It wasn't because he was worried about that female reporter who loved writing sensational stories to attract attention. The real reason was simple: accepting an interview offered him absolutely no benefit.

Why bother doing something that brought him no benefit?

Dumbledore nodded, unsurprised by the answer.

"And the second matter?"

"The second matter..."

Dumbledore paused for a moment.

"I'm here to remind you to pay your taxes."

Elavin's counting suddenly stopped.

He slowly raised his head, his eyes filled with pure confusion.

"Taxes?"

Did I really just hear that correctly?

Since when did the words 'wizard' and 'taxes' belong in the same sentence?!

"Do you understand what taxes are?"

"...Kind of."

Dumbledore immediately knew from Elavin's reaction that he didn't.

"Even though you're selling your potions through shops owned by Hogwarts, the money you ultimately earn is still subject to taxes."

Elavin was stunned.

"Why didn't I know about this before?!"

Dumbledore patiently explained.

"Your situation is protected to a certain extent under the Underage Wizard Business Law and the Hogwarts Student Entrepreneurship Act."

"Previously, the money you earned each month from selling the Potent Potion didn't reach the taxable threshold, so I never brought it up."

"But things are different now."

"Simply put, you've expanded your business too much!"