It Wouldn't Be France Without Robbery

The acquaintance Manus mentioned, besides Staky, was of course no other possible candidate.

Although the Nicolas are France, they travel constantly around the world, partly to relax and partly to experience more of the world's changes.

However, Nicolas seems to have been staying in the Britain for the past few years...

Just as Manus was thinking this, his body swayed to the right, and a person who was charging straight at him suddenly passed through the space he had made. The expected collision did not occur, and instead, the person lost control of their momentum and crashed directly into a lamppost.

"Dang--"

It was a really loud noise, and because of the hollow design and material of the lamppost, the echo lingered for a long time, making the person feel like their head was shaking.

By the time he came to his senses, Manus had already vanished.

That guy was a complete Muggle; he only came to cause trouble for Manus for money.

Manus that pursuing such a trivial matter wouldn't cost the other person their life, and even if he spent a lot of time investigating, he would only end up with nothing to show for it, a waste of time. It was better to prevent it from happening in the first place.

However, people who simply rush in looking for trouble and robbery are easy to deal with; if someone charges at you with a knife, just let them run into a wall. But Manus really can't tolerate someone who pulls out a gun.

When Manus knocked on Staky's door, he had already taken three people to swim in the Seine, and none of them had likely swum back up yet. He would probably have to wait until tomorrow to see them again.

As Manus stepped into Staky's house, he couldn't help but say:

Has the security situation in France deteriorated to this extent?

"Ah?"

Staky paused for a moment before realizing what Manus was talking about, and after finding out what had happened, he couldn't help but laugh.

Despite her laughter, she still thought about it seriously and said:

"Normally, while Paris has many thieves and robbers, you should be an exception— France isn't Britain, and young people like you walking alone on the street are easily targeted."

Not to mention that Manus also carried a backpack slung across his body, and his clothes were clearly not something an ordinary person would wear.

At first glance, it looks like a target for a wealthy family's child who is alone; such a target is exactly what robbers love to target.

And...

"It's not that the security situation has deteriorated to this point; it's just that this has always been the case here. I wasn't used to it when I first arrived."

Staky brought over a pot of black tea and several plates of pastries, placing them on the table while comforting Manus:

"Fortunately, after communicating with the Ministry of Magic here, I learned that Wizards in France often encounter similar situations, so they have a well-established procedure."

What's the process?

"You can legally cast spells on them, just remember to use Obliviate —as for those who intend to harm people, just take them to the Ministry of Magic, and they'll let them die a legitimate death."

Such people are dangerous to Wizards, and even more dangerous to Muggles. The police can't do anything about them because they can't handle them all, and also because they can't be sentenced to death under Muggle law.

The people you painstakingly catch might reappear on the streets in a few months, so nobody would want to go through the trouble of catching them again.

Since the Wizards were willing to do it, they naturally had no objections.

"This is outrageous..."

Manus sighed helplessly. Was the environment in France really worse than in Britain?

Actually, it's not just France, Paris that has a bad reputation for safety; London, Britain, isn't much better. It's just that Cokeworth is too poor... well, the safety environment is good, and on his several trips to London, he went straight to places like the London Library, which gave Manus this misconception.

The London Library is considered one of the central areas of London, but people don't usually rob there.

On the one hand, people who go there are not as wealthy as those who go to other tourist attractions; on the other hand, the proportion of people who shouldn't be robbing people there is much higher than in other places.

Police inaction only applies to ordinary people and tourists being robbed. When it comes to robbing someone connected to a high-ranking official, the London police will demonstrate the deep connection between their duties and their salaries.

Leaving aside those unpleasant topics, Manus and Staky chatted briefly before Staky got straight to the point.

During her time in France, she never gave up her research on Beauty Potions, and also continued her experiments with Manus's Beauty Potion.

"The lab report is here; this is only a small part of it. The rest can't fit here; they're in my shop."

Staky's business in France involves using Potions to beautify people, similar to Muggle beauty clinic. As for the experiments related to these Beauty Potions, while they're called experiments, in reality, only VIPs at Staky's shop are qualified to use them.

Want to be a guinea pig?

Let's spend 10,000 to 20,000 Galleons first!

Even so, Staky made a fortune.

Manus knew a little about this, since Staky had offered to split the profits 50/50 with him, but Manus didn't bother to check how much extra money had appeared in his account afterwards.

Although he hasn't graduated yet, he already has a considerable amount of savings. Without spending some effort to carefully investigate, it's impossible to know which revenue streams came from which money.

Even if there's a problem with any of the money, Manus won't bother to investigate until he's short of funds or has plenty of time. Once the Mage Tower's Intelligent Core fully materialized, he'll just hand it all over to it.

His time and energy are far more valuable than a few Galleons.

At that moment, Manus's gaze swept over the experimental report beside Staky's hand, and he nodded:

"France Beauty Potions seem to be more advanced than those in Britain?"

"That's certainly true, mainly because Potions in France aren't as averse to Beauty Potions."

Staky gave a brief overview of the differences between the Potions of the two countries.

While the Potions Masters in the Britain Wizarding World directly condemned Beauty Potions as self-degradation, only those who were genuinely interested in them would secretly study them, and most of them would not sign their names.

So the Potions Masters in the France Wizarding World tacitly approved of this; they wouldn't say that this stuff was unacceptable, they just wouldn't discuss it openly, but that didn't prevent them from researching it privately.

The different attitudes of Potions from the two countries towards Beauty Potions determined the differences in their development of Beauty Potions.

"However, the future development of Beauty Potions in Britain should be much better. I've already seen the Wound-Healing Potion you published in the Monthly Potion Digest; it's a truly brilliant idea."

Staky looked on with admiration. Using the principles of Beauty Potions to research healing Potions... How did Manus even come up with that idea?