A New Professor... One of Them

"Waste? How could spending time on study and research be called a waste?"

Manus shook his head in disagreement.

"Bellows, I understand what you mean. You don't want me to devote myself to a direction that appears to offer very little return and will most likely yield no return at all because of you..."

"But what I want to say is that I didn't choose this direction because of you. I only began researching it earlier because of you, and it isn't entirely for your sake, either."

At that, Manus stroked his chin.

"Bellows, do you think I'm short of money?"

Bellows did not immediately recover from Manus's abrupt change of topic, but he still answered instinctively.

"No."

The King Family ranked among the wealthiest in the British Wizarding World.

Especially considering that, during this period, most of the other top-ranking families had made massive investments in Voldemort, the King Family, which had suffered relatively few losses thanks to Manus's grandfather's foresight, might well have had the greatest financial reserves in the British Wizarding World at present.

"Then do you think I'm particularly interested in making money?"

Bellows thought for a moment, then shook his head.

If Manus had truly been keen on making money, then even if he had not gone to Slytherin house, he should have been enthusiastic about building all manner of connections based on mutual interests, rather than wasting time in fields like Potions and Transfiguration.

Those fields could make money too, but compared with the family's existing businesses, their efficiency was far too low.

Potions were not pharmaceuticals. They could not be mass-produced consistently, and their effects were so good that one bottle would do the job, making it impossible to generate stable, ongoing income.

By comparison, even selling alcohol was more profitable than selling