Revolutionary

Lucius Malfoy was finally taken away.

And for taking private punitive action against a Gringotts employee, he was hit with another fine of a thousand Galleons and two months in prison.

Murphy expressed his deepest sympathy and hoped Lucius Malfoy would get along well with the Dementors in Azkaban and reform himself properly.

As for Lucius Malfoy's accusations against Murphy, they were all overturned due to insufficient evidence.

At the same time, Murphy's vault was restored to normal use, and no one would question the source of his funds again.

As repayment for Locke's defection in court, Murphy hired the Goblin as his full agent to manage his funds in the wizarding world.

Afterward, Murphy honorably delivered the promised donation to the Ministry of Magic and the Minister's "little" gift, earning widespread praise.

In the days following the Wizengamot trial, Murphy had practically become the most popular person in the Ministry of Magic.

Millicent personally arranged a VIP visitor permit for him. From then on, he could Apparate directly into the Ministry of Magic whenever he wished, without applying in advance.

Thinking back to how he had only been able to use a temporary entrance to get to work a few months ago, Murphy could not help finding it ironic.

I worked diligently, so I was wronged at every turn.

I threw caution to the wind, so now nothing stood in my way.

If that was how the world worked, could anyone blame me for becoming like this?

A few days later, the Supreme Potion Store in Knockturn Alley opened for business.

Renting the shop, decorating it, buying raw materials, and purchasing some potions to fill the shelves had cost Murphy less than a thousand Galleons in total.

Since it was so cheap, Murphy simply opened another branch in Diagon Alley.

He did not care about the little money he could make selling potions, but if he could disgust Draco Malfoy in the process, that was pretty good too.

On opening day, Supreme Potion held a massive sale. All potions were seventy percent off, while members who topped up their accounts could get them at ninety percent off.

And the promotion would continue until Slug & Jiggers Apothecary went bankrupt.

Wasn't it just burning money? He could afford to burn it.

With Umbrella Corporation's current profitability, it would be no problem to keep burning money for a year or two, or even indefinitely.

Using internet marketing tactics from more than thirty years in the future against a tiny wizarding apothecary made Murphy feel like he was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

But whatever. As long as it worked.

At the same time, Supreme Potion began recruiting, seeking a full thirty potion makers.

Of course, these employees were not being hired to watch the shops. They would be sent deep into the Beauty Potion production line and begin their careers as laborers.

For now, Murphy had yet to find a non-magical method of producing Beauty Potion, so he could only increase output this way.

Murphy was not worried about failing to find applicants.

Employment pressure in the wizarding world was simply too great. Even if he cut the offered wages in half, applicants would still line up from the Leaky Cauldron to Ollivanders.

Looking back at his failed job hunt from the perspective of a capitalist, Murphy now believed it had been inevitable.

The existence of magic meant that most shops simply did not need to hire clerks.

Washing dishes, clearing tables, and similar tasks could all be handled with magic, and handled quite well too. Why hire waiters?

Magic was too convenient. It had completely stripped many low-skilled jobs of their value.

Looking across Diagon Alley, almost every shop was run by its owner alone, because tasks such as organizing goods and cleaning could easily be solved with magic.

In fact, magic's versatility did not merely reduce the number of jobs.

Looking at the bigger picture, that same versatility also hindered the broader division of labor in society.

A wizard who had mastered magic could easily satisfy most needs involving food, clothing, shelter, and travel.

Forget cooking a meal, cleaning a house, or tailoring clothes. Even building a home—a task that might require many Muggles working together for many days—could be easily completed by a wizard with a wave of a wand.

The leap in productivity Muggles achieved through social specialization and standardized production chains could be achieved by wizards simply by mastering a little more magic.

As a result, wizards had far less need than Muggles for material exchange or trading what they had for what they lacked.

Therefore, wizards had far less need for society than Muggles did. They did not need to become social beings. They were closer to, and more willing to live like, the farming age of the Muggle world—self-sufficient family units.

That was why wizards all seemed so eccentric and casual, so naïve, so inclined to do whatever they pleased.

Because society simply did not have that much power to restrain them.

That was why Diagon Alley, the shopping center of Britain's wizarding world, consisted of only a few streets.

Because they did not need that many shops. They did not have that many needs.

That was why the Ministry of Magic's control over wizards seemed so lax.

Because rather than a government, it was more like a commune, with far fewer reasons to maintain coercive power.

That was why wizards had actually handed minting rights over to Goblins they fundamentally did not get along with.

To Muggles, that was practically like handing a gun to their enemies, but wizards did not see it that way.

Because even if the wizarding world's economy collapsed, it would not be that frightening to them.

They would not go without clothes, nor would they starve.

This was a utopia.

A society built on magic, utterly different from the Muggle world.

By comparison, Murphy, who had grown accustomed to ruthless competition in the Muggle world, seemed somewhat out of place in this society.

That was also why the hardworking Hermione Granger in the original story had been seen as a freak.

Like him, she came from Muggle society and was used to competing.

Back then, I was still too naive.

No wonder that apothecary owner had disliked his methods. He had clearly used more advanced and accurate measuring techniques, and the potions he made had been more effective.

But progress was not the highest value in this relaxed society.

Stability and tradition were.

That was why Ollivanders was the best wand shop: because it had the longest history.

That was why Hogwarts stood above all others: because it had existed the longest.

That was why some wizards pursued pure-blood status: because that was considered orthodox.

An apothecary would never need an unconventional clerk.

So... his job search had been doomed to fail.

That also explained Dumbledore's attempt to smooth things over during the trial, whether toward Lucius Malfoy or himself.

He was a moderate reformist. He was kind at heart and held firm to his own principles, yet he did not preach his beliefs. He remained vigilant against evil and fought it, yet he did not hate evil with absolute intensity. Thus, his way of doing things sometimes seemed to be: "Good enough is good enough."

Murphy found that rather strange, but it was actually the overall style of wizarding society.

Everyone maintained a gentlemanly harmony, living according to certain unwritten rules that had gradually become customary.

There was not much ground for reformers here.

That was why Grindelwald had been doomed to fail, while Voldemort, who came later, looked even more like a joke.

However, Murphy had arrived now.

He was not a child like Hermione Granger or Harry, who had merely spent their childhoods in Muggle society, and so he could not be assimilated by wizarding society's values as easily as they could.

He was a transmigrator. By the time he had come to wizarding society, he had already been an adult.

His worldview had long since taken shape, and it was unbreakable.

So after spending the previous years forcing himself to adapt to this world, only to fail, Murphy had now realized that if he wanted to keep living—if he wanted to live comfortably—he had to change this world.

He could not be assimilated. Therefore, he could only remake this world into one he liked.

He drew the wand he carried now.

It was a wand that truly belonged to him.

Aspen wood, fourteen inches, phoenix feather core.

This was a revolutionary's wand.

From the moment he had transmigrated here, it had actually been destined that he would make something big happen in this world.

(End of Volume One)

(There will be another chapter this afternoon.)

Volume One is over! I put my summary of the first volume in the work-related section, so anyone who wants to read it can go take a look.