Negotiations Complete

While Bolige and Ragnok were still pondering the deeper meaning of Skylar's words, Slak suddenly widened his eyes. A terrifying thought suddenly popped into his mind, and he said in a trembling voice, "Mr. Malfoy, do you mean...?"

Skylar nodded, saying calmly, "Yes, just as you thought, Voldemort has been driven away by me—if your Goblin race chooses to cooperate with me, there's no need to worry about Voldemort's threat."

"Of course, providing you with protection doesn't come without a price. In the business cooperation related to protective gear and armor, I will take an extra 10% of the profits."

Slak swallowed hard before saying, "If the safety of the Goblin race can be guaranteed with only a tenth of the profit, I think it's fine."

"Furthermore, you Goblin shouldn't even think about standing idly by in defeating Voldemort. After launching a full-scale war, you'll need to send your own people to participate. I won't approve if the number is too low..."

"That's fine too."

"Although Gringotts is a commercial organization independent of the two major Goblin organizations, I believe you still have some influence over it— Voldemort has hidden something in Lestrange's vault, and I need your help to retrieve it. This is crucial to the plan to eliminate Voldemort, and it will also be beneficial to you."

"Yes, I have close relationships with many high-ranking members of Gringotts, so this matter can be left to us..." Slak paused for a moment, as if making a firm decision, and said with a resolute look in his eyes, "Not only that, I can also promise that if we can achieve all the cooperation mentioned earlier, from today onwards, Gringotts will open its doors to you without violating the interests of the Goblin race."

Skylar secretly admired Slak's decisiveness. Slak's promise was already a great gesture of goodwill—opening a door for him, which meant that in the future, as long as it wouldn't cause trouble for Gringotts, he could cooperate with Skylar to let him into anyone's vault.

"Since you're cooperating so readily," Skylar said with a smile, "Then I can't keep anything from you. I have a list of evidence showing that people in the Ministry of Magic were colluding with the Death Eaters during the last Wizarding War. If you handle this properly, it could be enough to cause a major reshuffle of the Ministry of Magic, which could lead to reforms, or at least some progress, in all the unfair systems and laws that Goblin have faced over the years..."

The three Goblin finally showed expressions of shock.

Slak quickly exchanged glances with the other two Goblin and said in a serious tone, "Mr. Malfoy, our Goblin race has expressed a strong willingness to participate in all the cooperation you have proposed—I hereby promise you, on behalf of all Goblin within Britain, that you will gain the friendship of our Goblin race, and we will cooperate with your actions to the best of our ability!"

Mission accomplished!

Don't be fooled by how easily Skylar completed the task while chatting and laughing; in reality, negotiating with the Goblin was anything but easy.

In the wizarding world, most wizards dislike Goblin simply because they find them greedy, treacherous, and cunning.

Only those who truly understand them will realize that this is actually a difference in beliefs and values between races, as well as a difficult-to-eliminate divide between races.

For wizards, the foundation for a society to exist lies in a certain degree of mutual trust. For example, wizarding citizens must believe in the management capabilities of the Ministry of Magic and the fairness of the legal system in order to be willing to elect a minister in the election and pay taxes.

The same applies to business transactions. Ordinary buying and selling transactions require integrity. It's impractical to meticulously draft a magical contract for every small transaction.

But Goblin are different.

Goblin only care about profit, not integrity; they have no concept of "keeping promises" or "the spirit of contracts."

In the original story, Harry Potter saved the Goblin Griphook's life, but Griphook, after leading him to Gringotts to retrieve the sword, summoned the Goblin of Gringotts and ran away with the sword.

Harry and the others naturally viewed the Goblin's actions as a betrayal, but they didn't consider that the Griphook's actions actually stemmed from distrust of Harry and the others (and indeed, of all human wizards).

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Goblin: The First Beast*, Newt Scamander visits a Goblin pub in Newt New York. The pub owner threatens to report him to the MACUSA. Newt is forced to agree to a deal on the condition that the Goblin doesn't report him. However, as soon as the deal is done, the Ministry of Magic arrives, completely ignoring the situation – a blatant breach of contract.

These examples are sufficient to prove that Goblin are a race without any sense of contract. This can only be attributed to the fact that, over the past thousand years, the distrust between the two races of wizards and Goblin has grown to a point that no one can break, not even Skylar.

Trying to be honest with Goblin is absolutely unacceptable; only a fool would do that.

What? You're talking about those fanfiction protagonists who dared to attack Gringotts' financial system, and in the end, the Goblin obediently lost money? Those protagonists aren't stupid, they're just overpowered geniuses! The real fools are actually... well, never mind.

What can restrain Goblin is never their pale and powerless promises, but naked interests—enough interests to make them so addicted that they cannot extricate themselves.

Only by tying their interests together with one's own, forming a relationship where they share both prosperity and adversity, can one possibly get the Goblin to willingly cooperate with one's actions, or even work for one's benefit to some extent.

Skylar understood this perfectly, which is why he offered one cooperation agreement after another that the Goblin found hard to refuse, gradually strengthening the cooperative relationship between the two parties.

Overall, Skylar was quite satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations, gaining not only the friendship of the Goblin but also access to Gringotts' Gringotts.

In this way, one of Voldemort's Horcrux, the Hufflepuff's Cup, can be dealt with in the near future.

The Lestrange are still in Azkaban, and Voldemort certainly doesn't want to reveal his resurrection anytime soon, so Skylar can definitely get his hands on the Golden Cup before they do.

Aside from the aforementioned gains, the most important thing was that the secret list that Skylar presented to them at the last moment was actually intended to use the Goblin to remove the corrupt parasites within the Ministry of Magic, paving the way for his future reforms and plans. He could even remain uninvolved, letting the Goblin bear the wrath and hatred of the victimized wizards. For Skylar, this was entirely beneficial and harmless, a remarkably clever way to use someone else to do his dirty work.

[Strategic Partner Goblin Acquired!]

[Access to the Gringotts Vault Granted!]