Lucius quickly entered the amount of 800,000, but stopped just before clicking confirm.
"What's wrong?" Madam Zabini asked anxiously. "There are less than three minutes left. The Black Family is wealthy, but they can't easily come up with 800,000 Galleon."
Lucius lowered his hands. "Calm down, Lucretia. It seems we've fallen into a trap."
Old Nott immediately understood, "The Black family kid wants us to spend a lot of money to get the advertising?"
Indeed, before, they were adding it Galleon a time, but when they saw them stop, they added tens of thousands at once.
Why do we do this? It's to provoke them.
Madam Zabini glanced at Sirius Black was lounging lazily in his chair, her beautiful face fixed on him. "Lucius, how exactly did you offend him?"
Her teasing tone made Lucius quite embarrassed.
He had just spent a sum of money to clean up Fudge's mess, and after only a couple of days of peace, he encountered this kind of trouble again.
It all started with that bizarrely appearing smear article. If he hadn't known Fudge's character so well, he would have suspected that they had orchestrated this whole thing together.
Fine, so everyone thinks Lucius Malfoy is a sucker, huh? At worst, the Nobili brand will just stop advertising. It's not like we can't use traditional advertising channels, even if the effect is a bit worse and we have to spend some Gold Galleons. It's not a problem at all.
Just then, Sirius Black, who had been slumped in the chair, suddenly stood up.
He bowed gracefully to Lucius, saying, "Thanks to Nobili's generosity, our newly established 'Prongs' brand has secured a prime-time advertising slot."
A brand of Prongs? What the heck is that?
Lucius took another deep breath, recalling when he entered the arena.
He had initially thought that Vincent was just trying to build a good relationship with them by chatting and laughing with them, but now it seemed that they, like him, had started a new magical home appliance brand together.
Then they will become competitors.
Lucius glanced at the time.
With less than ten seconds left, it was too late to change the price.
He hurriedly reached out and tapped the confirmation screen on the projection screen in front of him.
At 11 a. m., the prime-time advertising slot for the global live broadcast of the Triwizard Tournament was finally secured by the Nobili brand for 800,000 Gold Galleons.
When the text appeared on the projection screen, Sirius Black, who should have been dejected, was all smiles.
In the final, intense tug-of-war, he won.
That's a whopping 800,000 Gold Galleons! That's a huge financial drain.
Vincent was overjoyed to have made such a windfall.
Especially since they're making money off Pure-blood men, they must be laughing in their sleep these days.
Madam Zabini looked at Lucius with utter bewilderment. "Are you crazy? If Black just said something casually, we'll lose hundreds of thousands of Gold Galleons for nothing!"
Old Nott reached out to stop her, "Lucretia, haven't you figured it out yet? This is an open conspiracy against us."
From the moment they stepped into this hellish venue, the Nobili brand was destined to bleed money profusely.
Unless they can give up the opportunity to advertise to the global Wizarding World and abandon the vast international market, they'll have to accept it even if it costs a million Gold Galleons.
Although Madam Zabini was a woman, she was not a stupid woman, and she figured it out after a little serious thought.
"These bastards!" she cursed, then glared fiercely at the center of the hall.
Vincent, beaming with joy, was announcing the results of the Tender Meeting, but her eyes were growing increasingly fierce.
That little brat is the biggest winner; he's definitely involved in the whole thing.
They had already failed with the Wizard Cards two years ago, and today they failed again.
Madam Zabini angrily picked up the wine glass on the table and drank it all in one gulp. "You should have listened to me in the first place. If you hadn't killed this little beast, there would have been endless trouble later."
Even Lucius and the others had a fleeting moment of regret.
But it's too late to regret it now. He's no longer some nobody, and his magical abilities are enough to take on three Death Eaters on his own.
A few long sighs were enough to express their feelings at that moment.
After Vincent happily announced the results, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers lightly.
Several long food carts slowly entered the venue and stopped along the marble floor in front of the platinum table near the center.
He walked over to one of the food carts and picked up a bottle of champagne from the ice bucket on it.
"Today is a wonderful day, and I hope everyone will do me the honor of attending the banquet that follows."
Vincent turned around, facing Lucius and the others, and raised the bottle in his hand. "Relax, I've never liked formal occasions. This is just a simple lunch."
He shook the champagne bottle and slowly opened the cap.
With a "bang," the golden liquid inside the bottle burst open the sealed cork, spraying out a large number of bright, floating bubbles.
Vincent poured champagne into a stemmed glass on the dining cart, then raised it to everyone, saying, "Have a wonderful day, everyone, please enjoy!"
Some were happy while others were sad. For most of the wizards who were already just watching for fun, they were still very happy to attend Wayne Enterprises' banquets unless there was something important to do.
But for the Pure-blood gentlemen who have been tricked, they don't want to stay even a second longer.
Lucius, his face grim, stood up and strode toward the exit of the venue.
"Ha ha—" Sirius Black stopped in front of them, holding a wine glass. "Congratulations, Mr. Malfoy."
Madam Zabini and Old Nott looked extremely grim, while Lucius managed to force a fake smile.
However, his voice was extremely cold. "Mr. Black, I have to thank you for your help."
Sirius Black nodded with a beaming smile. "It's lunchtime now, won't you stay and have something to eat?"
Lucius looked at the increasingly lively venue and said, "Forget it, I can't afford Wayne Enterprises' hospitality."
Sirius Black shook his wine glass with a hint of regret, took a small sip of champagne, and said, "Well, you're all very busy people, you really don't have time to waste here."
The gentlemen were seething with hatred as they watched him leave with an air of nonchalance, but they quickly displayed their proper demeanor, walking out of the venue with elegant steps despite being severely ripped out.
Vincent, who was talking to the head of the Cleansweep Broom Company, almost burst out laughing when he saw this scene.
He took a sip of champagne to ease the awkwardness. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ollerton, we're not talking business today. Besides, the Flying Boots are still a long way from mass production."
Wightthorn and Theo, who were nearby, breathed a slight sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Although they lost the pre-match advertising auction to Cleansweep Nimbus, as long as they can maintain their base in the Britain before the Flying Boots officially go into mass production, they still have a good chance of surviving.