"Oh, my master, all this time, Phil worried every day. Master would surely be all right, but Phil didn't..."
Karn had only just arrived at his home in Diagon Alley when the two house-elves, Phil and Isaac, crowded around him, tears flowing on command. If Karn had not forbidden them from hurting themselves, they would surely have banged their heads against a pillar or the wall.
"This had nothing to do with you. Phil, Isaac, make me a cup of coffee with extra milk." Karn felt rather helpless about the house-elves' servility. They had been trained far too thoroughly. Whenever this happened, he could only give them something to do to distract them.
"Right away, merciful master."
With that, Phil immediately vanished before Karn's eyes using Apparition. Although the kitchen was only a few steps away, he clearly could not let Karn wait any longer.
Isaac, meanwhile, looked around. Finding no luggage that Karn had brought with him, he rubbed his hands and asked, "Master, your clothes..."
"Hang them up for me."
"Of course. Isaac will clean them again."
Karn then went to the study. Nearly a year had passed now, and he needed to find out whether anything significant had happened in the wizarding world during that year.
However, Karn had not entirely set aside his ventures in the non-magical world. He created three shadow clones to handle matters there.
Finance and his various businesses-before leaving, he had hired a manager. Over the year, Phil had taken Polyjuice Potion several times, assuming Karn's appearance to collect the quarterly financial statements.
He hoped those managers had not been too greedy under the circumstances. Otherwise, Karn had plenty of spells he wanted to try on people.
At this stage, the wizarding world could still offer Karn greater value. His main purpose