No sooner had he finished speaking than an elderly wizard from the Wizengamot Council of Elders took up the thread. Impeccably dressed, renowned for his academic rigor, with a slightly vacant look in his eyes, he said at once, "Let us examine what Mr. Lockhart has done. To date, he has published twelve bestsellers sold across the world! Every one of them meticulously documents his adventures in various countries and his 'exclusive' experience combating Dark Magic! How many experts reviewed these books? How many magical schools selected them as reference materials? If all his knowledge was plagiarized, then are all the scholars in the Wizarding World blind? Wouldn't a single true 'original author' have come forward to accuse him?"
With a cold sneer, he pointed at the trembling Lockwood in the witness stand, his tone filled with icy disdain. "Why is there only this... Mr. Lockwood? And only after Mr. Lockhart has been famous for more than a decade?"
He deliberately stressed the word "only," questioning the reliability of an isolated witness.
Immediately afterward, an elderly woman from the Wizard Charity Foundation, wearing an Order of Merlin, First Class on her chest—her finger adorned with an inconspicuous silver ring bearing an Ouroboros pattern—added in a gentle yet piercing voice:
"Not only that. Over the years, Mr. Lockhart has anonymously published more than thirty highly valuable papers on spellwork and Defense Against the Dark Arts! His collaborators include renowned scholars and field experts from countries across the world! Are these collaborators and rigorous academic journals also accomplices to his plagiarism? Does that logic make any sense?"
She paused, her words earnest and carrying an unquestionable weight. "Setting aside these academic accomplishments, there are even more important acts. Through his book royalties and speaking income, Mr. Lockhart has long anonymously supported dozens