"Mr. Bonanno..." The child's mother hesitated, her body trembling as if she were shaking grain through a sieve.
Joseph Bonanno tilted his head slightly and looked at the child's mother. "Mrs. Appaloosa, remember what I once told you..."
"Here, you may speak freely, just as you once did..." He raised a hand. After all, he was the master of this estate now. "A Wizard's memory isn't that poor, is it?"
Joseph Bonanno's subordinate clearly did not think so. Ever since he had delivered the message earlier, he had remained in the sitting room.
The moment he heard Mrs. Appaloosa speak, he went on alert at once, one hand already resting on the grip of his handgun, ready to counterattack at any time.
After becoming familiar with things over this period, he had a rough idea of what magic Wizards could cast.
Although Mrs. Appaloosa had no Wand, he knew very well that Wizards had a technique for casting spells without a Wand. As Joseph Bonanno's subordinate, he had to take precautions.
"Mr. Bonanno!" Mrs. Appaloosa swallowed, stiffening her neck as if she had mustered all her courage. "You must be careful of that Hogwarts student! My husband..."
"Oh?" Joseph Bonanno cut her off rudely. "What happened to your husband, Mr. Appaloosa? Because of his own shortsightedness, he had no choice but to accept the Magical Congress's death sentence?"
"When I first heard the news, I still felt sympathy for him." He sighed and shook his head, looking utterly regretful. "If only I had known him then..."
"As long as lawyers worked it properly, it could have been changed to life imprisonment. He could even have served his sentence by treating this place as a prison. What a pity..."
"But now it seems..." His tone shifted, and a cold, sharp glint