I Am a Reasonable Man

At that moment, the crowded lobby seemed to freeze after Lester spoke. No one said a word for a long time.

Some wizards who had just entered through the fireplaces or phone booths were utterly baffled by the strange scene before them.

After a long while, a snort broke the silence in the lobby.

"Sorry, are you trying to be funny?"

"Does he really think he's Voldemort? He wants to hold so many of us hostage all by himself!"

"No way. This must be some event organized by the Ministry of Magic."

It was no wonder the wizards reacted that way. They had lived in peace for far too long.

It had already been a full ten years since the last dark upheaval.

After ten years of comfortable lives, the wizards had come to regard the Ministry of Magic as the safest place besides Hogwarts.

Yet now, in this supposedly safest place, a fierce-looking middle-aged man was pointing his wand at hundreds of wizards and telling them to squat with their hands over their heads. How could they not be stunned by such an absurd situation?

So even with Lester's wand pointed at them, the wizards who had come to conduct business at the Ministry of Magic felt no fear at all.

Quite a few Ministry of Magic officials were among them, frowning as they watched this farce unfold.

Just as everyone in the lobby was pointing and whispering about Lester—

The brick tossed onto the floor in front of Lester suddenly trembled.

Then, a horrifying sight unfolded.

Prisoners dressed in gray prison uniforms began streaming out of the brick, one after another, into the vast lobby.

One, two, three...

Ten, twenty, thirty...

As the number of prisoners continued to grow, the smug smiles on the faces of the watching wizards gradually froze.

These prisoners were all powerful dark wizards. In the Wizarding World, each of them could take on several adult wizards by themselves.

What was more, these deranged prisoners had been locked in the sunless hell of Azkaban for years. Even a normal person would go mad after spending a few days in that damned place, let alone dark wizards who had never been right in the head to begin with.

The dark wizards who had just arrived in the Ministry of Magic lobby through the Portkey first greedily inhaled the air of freedom, then openly turned their gazes toward the stunned wizards before them.

A terrifying aura radiated from the prisoners, and fear continued spreading through the hearts of the other wizards in the lobby.

[Ding! Fear Points gained from Liwa: +14]

[Ding! Fear Points gained from Ou Hengde: +23]

[Ding! Fear Points gained from Mark: +26]

[...]

Even a battle-hardened Auror would struggle to stay calm under the predatory stares of more than a hundred prisoners.

Let alone ordinary wizards like them, who had no fighting ability at all!

Due to the Ministry of Magic's control policies, meant to better keep the Wizarding World's wizards under control—

Hogwarts, Britain's only magical school, deliberately avoided teaching students offensive magic with lethal power.

As a result, unless they worked in combat-related positions or were Pure-bloods of noble birth with family inheritances, most wizards could not even cast a Disarming Charm.

Thus, under such an educational system, when faced with danger, these wizards did not even have the ability to resist.

"They're giving me so many Fear Points!" Lester looked at the trembling wizards before him and listened to the constant system notifications in his ear. He felt like he was about to get rich.

Though these wizards were not very strong and could only provide a little over twenty Fear Points each, there were so many of them, and the gains came so quickly.

At that moment, the prisoners who had just escaped Azkaban and regained their freedom stared at the frightened wizards in the vast lobby, their eyes practically glowing green.

If their boss, Lester, had not been standing nearby watching them, they would have already slaughtered every one of these wizards with Killing Curses.

As for whether they were Pure-bloods or not, these crazed prisoners did not care in the slightest. All they wanted now was a bloodbath, to vent every grievance they had suffered over the years in Azkaban.

"All right, everyone, throw your wands onto the ground, then squat down with your hands over your heads!"

Seeing that the wizards before him had been scared stiff and were not responding at all, Lester helplessly stepped forward and said, "I'm a reasonable man. If you cooperate, I won't hurt you."

Clatter, clatter.

The moment Lester finished speaking, the wizards in the lobby who had been mocking him just moments ago threw their wands away without hesitation to save their lives, then obediently squatted on the ground.

Of course, some were not so obedient. Believing that there were too many people for Lester to notice if they kept their wands, they tried to be clever. They merely pretended to throw their wands away before squatting down with the crowd.

"Damn it, you dare play tricks?!"

Just as those self-satisfied wizards believed their little scheme was flawless, the prisoners behind Lester were not pleased.

They had been imprisoned in that hellhole of Azkaban for so many years, and everything now felt incomparably novel to them.

Having kept their eyes on the hostages' movements, they naturally noticed that some wizards had tried to be clever and had not thrown their wands onto the ground. The prisoners immediately flew into a rage.

Especially when they saw that the wizards hiding their wands were often dressed in luxurious aristocratic robes, clearly Pure-blood Ministry officials, the prisoners became even angrier.

Even so, they did not strike immediately. Instead, they all turned to their boss, Lester wearing Sang Biao's face, seeking his opinion.

Under so many gazes, Lester's expression did not change. He merely nodded at them.

After all, he was not some saint. If he were asked to slaughter innocents indiscriminately, he certainly could not do it.

But hiding their wands clearly meant they intended to oppose him and his people.

Besides, most of them were Pure-blood Ministry of Magic officials. Naturally, Lester had no objection to the prisoners' request.

They were prisoners, dark wizards, not his soldiers.

His relationship with them was more one of cooperation than leadership.

Now that they wanted to unleash the beastly urges they had suppressed for years, Lester naturally would not stop them.

Sure enough, after receiving Lester's approval, quite a few prisoners revealed vicious expressions, their bloodthirsty eyes fixed firmly on those Pure-blood wizards who had tried to be clever.

"Avada Gnaw-the-Melon!"

Suddenly, one prisoner moved. He yanked a black wand from his robes, swept it through the air in a semicircle, and expertly cast a Killing Curse.

The instant the Killing Curse appeared, a commotion erupted among the hostages, and many wizards shut their eyes in terror.

Among them, a Pure-blood in ornate robes who had just been smugly preparing to use Apparition to escape secretly stared at the green Killing Curse speeding toward him and froze in utter terror.