Revolutionary

Lucius was finally taken away.

And because he had used vigilante punishment on a Gringotts employee, he happily received another fine of one thousand Galleons and a two-month sentence.

Murphy expressed deep sympathy for this, and hoped he would get along swimmingly with the Dementors in Azkaban and reform himself properly.

As for Lucius'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 him again about the so-called source of his funds.

And as a reward for Locke turning on the court, Murphy hired the goblin as his plenipotentiary agent to help him manage his funds in the wizarding world.

Afterward, with extreme integrity, Murphy fulfilled his promised donation to the Ministry of Magic and the minister's "small" gift as agreed, winning a wave of praise.

In the few days after the Wizengamot trial, Murphy practically became the most popular person in the Ministry of Magic.

Millicent personally handled his VIP visitor permit for him; from now on, he could Apparate into the Ministry of Magic at any time without needing to apply in advance.

Thinking again of how, just a few months ago, he could only use the temporary passage even to go to work, Murphy could not help feeling it was somewhat ironic.

I was diligent and conscientious, so I suffered injustice.

I had no scruples, so I could go anywhere without obstruction.

Since these were the rules of the world, could anyone blame me for becoming like this?

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

Renting the storefront, renovating and decorating it, buying raw materials, then purchasing some potions to fill out the display had cost Murphy less than a thousand Galleons in total.

Because it was so cheap, Murphy simply opened another branch in Diagon Alley as well.

He did not care about the little money made from selling potions, but if it could disgust Draco Malfoy, that was nice too.

On the first day of business, Supreme Potion held a grand opening sale: all potions were only thirty percent of the original price, while members who topped up their accounts only paid ten percent.

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

Wasn't it just burning money? I can afford to burn it.

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

Using Internet marketing tactics from more than thirty years in the future to deal with one tiny wizarding pharmacy at this time made Murphy feel it was a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

But that did not matter. As long as it worked.

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

Of course, these shop assistants were not meant to watch the store for him. They would go deep into the Beauty Potion production line and begin their own career of brick-moving.

At present, Murphy still had not found a non-magical production method for Beauty Potion, so he could only use this approach to increase output.

Murphy was not worried about being unable to recruit people.

The employment pressure in the magical world was simply too great. Even if he cut the salary he offered in half, applicants would still line up from the Leaky Cauldron to Ollivanders.

Standing once more from the perspective of a capitalist to look at his own failure to find a job back then, Murphy now believed it had been inevitable.

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

Things like washing dishes and clearing tables could be done with magic, and quite well at that, so why hire a waiter?

Magic was too convenient, causing some low-skill jobs to lose all value of existence.

Look at all of Diagon Alley; in almost every shop, the owner was the only one managing things, because work such as sorting goods and cleaning could easily be solved with magic.

In fact, the all-purpose nature of magic did not merely reduce the number of jobs.

Looking at it from a broader perspective, that all-purpose nature also suppressed the grand division of labor in society.

For a wizard who had mastered magic, needs in every aspect of life—food, clothing, housing, and transport—were easily satisfied.

Never mind things like cooking a meal, cleaning up, or cutting and sewing clothes; even building a house, work that for Muggles might require many people cooperating over many days, could be easily completed by a wizard with a wave of a wand.

The leap in productivity that Muggles achieved through social division of labor and standardized production chains could be accomplished by wizards simply by mastering a little more magic.

This resulted in wizards having a far lower need for material exchange and mutual trade than Muggles did.

Therefore, wizards needed society far less than Muggles did. They did not need to become social beings; they were closer to, and more inclined toward, living self-sufficiently as family units, like in the agrarian age of the Muggle world.

This was why wizards all seemed so strange and casual, so naive, so intent on doing things their own way.

Because society's binding force over them really was not that strong.

This was why Diagon Alley, a shopping center of Britain's wizarding world, actually had only those few streets.

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

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

Because rather than a government, it was more like a commune, without that many reasons to guarantee coercive force.

This was why wizards would actually hand the right to mint currency over to goblins, who fundamentally did not get along with them.

To Muggles, this was practically like handing a gun to one's own enemy, but in the eyes of wizards, that was not quite the case.

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

They would not be left without clothes, nor would they go hungry.

This was a utopia.

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

By comparison, Murphy, who was used to the grind and competition of the Muggle world, seemed rather out of place in this society.

In the original story, hardworking Hermione was treated like a freak for the same reason.

Like him, she came from Muggle society. She was used to striving.

"I was still too naive back then."

No wonder the owner of that potion shop had looked down on his methods. He had clearly used more advanced and accurate measuring techniques, and the potions he brewed had been more effective too.

But progress was not the first value of this relaxed society.

Stability and tradition were.

That was why Ollivander was the best wand shop, because it was the oldest.

That was why Hogwarts stood above the rest, because it had the longest history.

That was why some wizards pursued pure blood, because that was what they saw as orthodox.

A potion shop would not need an employee who tried to be different.

So... his job hunt back then had been doomed to fail.

That also explained what was going on with Dumbledore's fence-sitting attitude toward both Lucius Malfoy and himself in the courtroom.

He was a moderate reformist. He was kind-hearted and had principles of his own, yet he did not preach his beliefs. He was wary of evil and fought against it, but he did not hate it with every fiber of his being. So sometimes, his way of doing things came across as: "Good enough is good enough."

To Murphy, this seemed rather strange, but in truth, this was the overall style of wizarding society.

Everyone maintained a kind of gentry-like harmony, living according to certain tacit, customary rules that had subtly taken root.

Here, reformers did not really have much soil to grow in.

That was why Grindelwald had been doomed to fail back then, and why the later Voldemort looked even more like a joke.

However, now Murphy had arrived.

He was not like Hermione Granger or Harry Potter, children who had only spent their childhoods in Muggle society, and so he could not be assimilated by the values of wizarding society the way they could.

He was a transmigrator. When he came to wizarding society, he had already been an adult.

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

And so, after spending the previous few years forcing himself to try and adapt to this world, only to fail, Murphy had now realized that if he wanted to keep living—if he wanted to live comfortably and at ease—he had to change this world.

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

He drew the wand he currently possessed.

It was the wand that truly belonged to him.

Aspen, fourteen inches, phoenix core.

This was a wand that belonged to a revolutionary.

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

(End of Volume One)

(There will be another chapter this afternoon.)

Volume One is over. I've put the Volume One summary in the related works section, so anyone who wants to read it can go take a look.