#338 - Revenge (asking for monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

After Aselia checked out and left, Anduin returned to Hogg's side and sat down again.

Hogg, who was next to him, looked at Anduin with a strange expression. "Master, that woman clearly has a problem. Why didn't you expose her?"

"Even you could tell?" Anduin revealed a teasing expression. "Her psychological resilience is honestly quite average. I'm curious why 'Silver Spear' would recruit someone like that. Is it just because her background is clean and she can easily infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, or is there another reason?"

"What do you plan to do next? Just quietly observe her from the sidelines?" Hogg seemed to know Anduin's plans very well. "She already came to steal something, so she's practically half an enemy. Why not just arrest her directly? If you want to know something, just use 'Legilimency' or Veritaserum to interrogate her."

Anduin shook his head upon hearing Hogg's suggestion. "No, we can't act rashly yet, or we'll easily expose our strength. Right now, in their eyes, we're just ordinary merchants."

"Besides, I still know very little about the details of the organization behind her. Although this woman's level is not bad, she's clearly not the mastermind. What if she knows very little herself? What if they have some means of preventing leaks? As far as I know, there are many ways to protect memories from being probed."

"So, without knowing their methods, it's better to hide in the dark first. Escalating the conflict will only bring more variables."

Hogg nodded in sudden understanding after hearing Anduin's words. "What if their actions bypass this Aselia? She doesn't seem very smart. Maybe she's just a minor figure in that organization."

"Indeed." Anduin nodded in agreement. "Following her before didn't yield much, but now that they've stolen those jammers, it's different. I believe they went to a lot of trouble to steal them for a reason, not just out of curiosity. As long as they use them, I'll be able to catch them."

"I see." Hogg then scratched his neck with his hind paw thoughtfully. "But I think that woman had something she wanted to say to you. Did she have something to say?"

"Not bad," Anduin glanced at Hogg with some surprise. "You even noticed that. This is also something I find puzzling. Logically speaking, she should prioritize the interests of her organization, but I sensed some unusual emotions from her. Perhaps her connection with 'Silver Spear' is more complicated. That's why I didn't act rashly against her."

"So you want to use her as a breakthrough? What should we do after we dig up their details? Should we eliminate them all? Those smugglers are all bad news, and they're likely in league with that werewolf." At this point, Hogg's expression became unusually serious, and his eyes revealed deep-seated hatred.

"Elimination is definitely necessary. I can't stand having people with ulterior motives playing tricks next to where I sleep."

Anduin narrowed his eyes, as if pondering something. "However, I always like to seek the greatest benefit in everything I do, and I must prioritize my own safety. It would be best if I could rely on the Ministry of Magic to deal with them without exposing myself."

"As for Griffin, the werewolf," Anduin's eyes also flashed with a hint of killing intent at this moment. "He's too good at running away. I can't even figure out where he's hiding now. It would be great if I could find him through 'Silver Spear'."

"Understood, Master." Hogg now understood Anduin's plan. Then, he bared his sharp wolf teeth. At this time, there was no trace of the silly husky temperament on him. "Kiki and I will take turns monitoring them. I must avenge myself."

"Mm." Anduin nodded indifferently.

Then, they saw another customer enter the store. At this time, the one person and one dog fully demonstrated what true acting was. Anduin immediately transformed into a smiling shop owner, and Hogg immediately returned to his silly husky expression.

...

In the following time, Anduin spent most of his time in the company, except for going back to Hogwarts once or twice a week to supervise the academy. He was either minding the store and doing business, or hiding away to research new products.

As Christmas approached, the store was specially decorated, creating a very festive atmosphere, and several new products were launched to cater to the holiday.

In addition, the alchemical items he now sold were quite exquisite and were favored by many wizards, becoming the first choice for purchasing Christmas gifts at this stage.

Even because the products were so popular, they attracted reports from several newspapers and wizarding radio stations. However, Anduin did not accept interviews, but took the opportunity to purchase advertisements in 'The Daily Prophet', 'The Quibbler', and Wizarding Wireless Network, which in turn triggered a wave of shopping frenzy.

Among them, the most popular were various decorative lamps and gramophones. After all, in the eyes of many customers, their prices could no longer be described as cost-effective; they were simply ridiculously cheap.

Of course, this was actually an effect deliberately created by Anduin through 'anchoring'. It was like how some ridiculously expensive products were always displayed in some Starbucks coffee shops.

Those low-cost-performance products were not meant to be bought at all, but to highlight the value of the store's products, allowing people to anchor a first impression in their minds, that is, the products here are very high-end, and the lower-priced ones must be very cost-effective.

What Anduin displayed in the window were basically various gorgeous jewelry and a row of exaggeratedly priced humanoid targets.

Customers who entered the store, after being anchored by the first impression of the prices they saw beforehand, would naturally feel tempted when they encountered products that were not much less gorgeous but only cost a few Galleons. They would think that these were good, inexpensive products, and even have the mentality of finding a bargain.

Therefore, during this period, various civilian products sold extremely well, and the company made hundreds of Galleons a day from these.

And Anduin was happy to see this.

After all, every time a lamp or gramophone was sold, these customers were actually tied to Anduin. Basically, they had to come to Anduin's store every once in a while, either to choose new records or to replenish the energy storage components on the magic lamps.

However, although the business in the store was quite good, Anduin did not relax his surveillance of Aselia in the slightest.