#176 - Do you know who you are facing? (Seeking monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

"So what price do you think is appropriate?" Anduin asked, staring into Yulia's eyes.

Yulia panted, glaring back at him with a disgruntled expression, "I can authorize a maximum of 2,000 Galleons for you, that's the highest price."

"Heh." Anduin curled his lip, "I didn't expect a vault of blackmail material to be worth so little to you. Are you treating me like a beggar? There are 1,000 Galleons in the safe alone."

Seeing that Anduin had directly revealed the secrets of the vault, Yulia no longer held any illusions and could only continue to quibble.

"Since you discovered the safe, you should have also found the unsigned land deeds inside. 2,000 Galleons, plus the 1,000 Galleons in the safe and the land deeds, isn't that enough?"

"Those Galleons and land deeds are spoils I obtained at the risk of my life. You should know that I almost died at Torgil's hands, and you dare to haggle with my spoils, it's ridiculous!" Anduin sneered.

Speaking of which, Anduin really did risk his life. He stayed up all night, exhausted, doing experiments, interrogating, and having to put on an act for the Aurors. He did all this at the risk of a one in a billion chance of sudden death. For Anduin, who valued his routine so much, staying up late was equivalent to suicide.

However, Yulia stubbornly tried to argue, "Do you know who you're dealing with? The Travers family is one of the oldest Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families. If you accept this condition, you'll be a friend of the Travers family. Otherwise, you'll be an enemy of the Travers family, a provocation to the Sacred Twenty-Eight."

Oh? You want to play the shifting-the-goalposts game with me? This kind of soft and hard tactic might fool little kids, but you're trying to use it on me?

"Then do you know who you're facing now?"

Anduin, with a look of tyrannical rage, approached Yulia step by step, his invasive eyes staring at her like knives.

Yulia felt a stinging pain from the eyes that met hers, and as the figure got closer, she couldn't help but retreat. But behind her was the chair, so she staggered and fell onto the sofa, looking at Anduin who was looking down at her.

"Let me formally introduce myself, my name is Anduin Wilson, and I just turned 14 this year. Originally, I didn't like to argue with people, because that would only bring me two things: trouble and enemies. But if trouble and enemies appear, and I have to take action, I won't lose to anyone. Moreover, I will clean them up before they open their mouths, without giving them any chance."

"You should know that standing in front of you is an underage wizard who single-handedly dealt with five Death Eaters. Do you think he would be afraid of your broken family? I'm not relying on holding your family's little secrets to negotiate with you, but relying on the strength to turn your proud Sacred Twenty-Eight family into a Twenty-Seven family!"

Listening to Anduin's words, each word containing killing intent, Yulia felt a chill down her spine, and when she came back to her senses, she realized that her whole body was covered in cold sweat.

"Are you trying to scare me?" Yulia bit her lip, gathering her last bit of stubbornness, and looked at him.

"No, I'm just stating a fact, warning you, and threatening you!" Anduin leaned down, maliciously close to Yulia, and said slowly in an extremely cold tone.

Under Anduin's step-by-step coercion and pressure, Yulia was now like a sheep surrounded by a pack of wolves in the corner, feeling lonely and helpless. Although she reminded herself to stay calm in her heart, she couldn't stop trembling.

"But we can't come up with 100,000 Galleons, you're asking the impossible." Yulia said, her voice suddenly softening.

When she said this, she knew it was over. All the initiative had been completely taken over by the young man in front of her, and all she could do now was to minimize the losses as much as possible.

"I know." Anduin stood up again and sat back in his seat, "If you don't have money, you can use other things to offset it, like materials, potions, and... knowledge!"

"What do you mean?" A bad feeling suddenly rose in Yulia's heart, and she looked at Anduin blankly.

"You know what I'm referring to. Aren't there many good things in the Travers family vault? Like Slytherin's manuscripts, refined Mithril, and 'that'!" Anduin didn't actually know what 'that' was, but in his previous groundwork, he had completely convinced Yulia that he had cracked Torgil's mental protection curse.

"Are you trying to dig out all our assets, completely leaving us with no way out?" Yulia was now both angry and terrified. How much had Torgil, that good-for-nothing, revealed about the secrets of the Travers family?

"Don't make it so difficult, I only believe in one sentence, as long as people are alive, there is hope, isn't there? Compared to accompanying Torgil to retire in Azkaban, those are just dead objects." Anduin's tone suddenly became gentle again, coaxing her.

For a time, Yulia was entangled. The Travers vault collected the wealth and precious materials accumulated by the entire family over several generations or even dozens of generations, which was already her bottom line, but now Anduin said it was like a pile of waste paper.

Seeing that Yulia was still undecided, Anduin didn't force her too much, but took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time.

"Heh, make a decision as soon as possible, Yulia, you don't have much time left. The reporter from 'The Daily Prophet' that I booked is probably already on the way." Anduin reminded her with a chuckle.

As if to cooperate with Anduin, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

After his permission, an Auror walked in. Anduin saw that it was actually an acquaintance.

"Vanessa, it's been a while." Anduin took the lead in greeting.

"Anduin, long time no see." Vanessa saw that there were still guests inside, so she didn't reminisce too much, but said as a routine: "There's a female reporter named Rita Skeeter outside, saying you booked her. The captain asked me to ask about the situation, should we send her away?"

"No need, I did book her, but I may have to make her wait a while, I still have things to do." Anduin replied with a smile.

"Then you better hurry up, that woman is annoying me to death, grabbing someone and asking questions." Vanessa complained to Anduin.