Chapter 15: We're Almost Bankrupt (Edited)

"Your job mainly consists of two tasks. The first is to concoct the Beauty Potion as much as you can. I'll compensate you per bottle produced."

"Though your fixed monthly salary is 60 Galleons, you can earn much more than that."

As a qualified boss, Murphy had become adept at selling dreams.

The job sounded very appealing, and Alex nodded vigorously, "I'll do my best!"

"Good, the second task. This bag contains herbs, including some Dittany and other potion ingredients. You need to crush all the herbs in this bag into powder, so fine that the original materials are unrecognizable."

"After mixing, pack everything into cloth bags and stack them in this barn. Someone will come every Monday to take away these mixed powders."

"When these materials are taken away, go buy potion ingredients, focusing on Dittany and then the ingredients for the Beauty Potion. I'll give you a list of other necessary potion ingredients later. Buy as much as you can find in Diagon Alley."

"Every Monday afternoon, someone will deliver some other herbs. Mix those with the Dittany you bought and then crush them."

"Crush, mix, pack, wait for pickup, then buy more ingredients, crush, mix, pack… and keep the cycle going. Is that clear?"

Alex nodded, though somewhat bewildered.

"Any questions?"

Alex hesitated for a moment, "The money for buying potion ingredients…"

"I'll give you a sum of Galleons each week. You won't have to pay out of pocket."

Alex seemed relieved, perhaps having had bad experiences in this regard before.

"Another thing, Mr. Peter Parker, is there a fireplace here?"

"A fireplace?"

"I need to use the Floo Network to get to Diagon Alley…"

Murphy paused, "You can't Apparate?"

"I haven't got my license." Alex looked a bit embarrassed, "I'm afraid of splinching…"

"Useless…" Murphy sighed.

Alex looked downcast, "I, I can take the Knight Bus to work…"

"…Fine, I forgot to mention earlier, but everything you do here needs to be kept secret. My identity, this barn, what you're doing with those ingredients—everything must be kept from every other wizard, understand?"

"And the Knight Bus… Tsk, fine, I'll make you a door key later."

"Ugh, what a headache."

Murphy sighed. Wizards really weren't very useful.

But then again, it's quite normal; not everyone in muggle society knows how to drive or fly a plane.

With the Floo Network being so prevalent in the wizarding world, ordinary wizards had no need to use risky travel methods like Apparation.

It was more commonly used by dark wizards or those fighting them, like the Aurors.

"Oh, right." Thinking of dark wizards reminded Murphy to give a warning, "Be careful when you buy potion ingredients."

He had felt someone watching him during his last few purchases.

But, buying tens of thousands of Galleons' worth of items at once, it was normal to attract attention.

"Flashing money might attract unwanted attention. Be cautious, better assume a different identity for buying ingredients. Can you make Polyjuice Potion? Keep some on hand. In any case, don't dawdle after making purchases; come straight back."

Alex was getting anxious.

"Mr. Parker, can I… think about this a bit more?"

"Salary of 80 Galleons per month."

Alex had no more objections.

"Then let's start working today. There's quite a bit in this bag…" Murphy said, suddenly feeling a vibration at his waist followed by a ringing sound like an alarm clock.

It took him a moment to pull out the brick phone from another undetectable extension pouch at his waist.

Without caller ID, Murphy guessed it must be Patrick.

As expected, upon answering, Patrick's voice came through, "Hello, hello, boss? Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you, what's up?"

"It's complicated to explain over the phone. Can you come over?"

"Alright, I'll be there shortly."

"Wait, you're not thinking of coming to my house, are you?" Patrick said, "Come to the office. We just rented a whole floor in the Lloyd's Building. The address is…"

Murphy felt a bit sheepish; as the founder and the boss, he was only just finding out the company's address after they had already moved.

After hanging up, Murphy prepared to leave. He thought for a moment, took out a pen, wrote down his brick phone number, and handed it to Alex, "You know how to use a public phone, right? If there's an issue, call me on this number. Owls are just too slow."

Alex looked bewildered as Murphy talked into a strange device, accepted the piece of paper, and watched Murphy leave, feeling overwhelmed by all the new things he encountered today.

But thinking of his 80 Galleon monthly salary made Alex feel better.

Mr. Peter Parker is a good man! I must work hard! He opened the bag Murphy had given him and began to pour out the herbs.

Various herbs flowed endlessly from the bag. At first, Alex remained calm, knowing he was specifically hired for this task, meaning there would be a lot.

But after a few minutes, Alex started to feel unsettled.

This wasn't right. This must be several thousand pounds' worth, right?

Not only did Murphy buy magical ingredients, but also a large amount of muggle herbs, which constituted the bulk of the materials.

When the bag was finally empty, Alex looked at the small mountain of herbs and felt dizzy.

He had never seen so many herbs in his life! How long would it take to process all this? The 80 Galleon monthly salary wasn't so easy to earn after all.

Maybe Mr. Peter Parker is a devil!

Meanwhile, Murphy Apparated to central London and then took a taxi to the Lloyd's Building.

Seeing the metal structure before him, Murphy was stunned.

It wasn't a skyscraper, standing less than 100 meters tall, but its exterior was entirely clad in steel, with huge pipes running the length of the building and metal external staircases and large glass facades, making it look like it belonged in 2187 rather than 1987.

"Cool!"

Too damn cool!

Taking the elevator to the 10th floor, Murphy gave Patrick a thumbs-up upon seeing him.

"Nice, you've got taste!"

Patrick couldn't help but smile wryly, even though you're the boss, my son is almost as old as you.

"If you're talking about this building, I thought it matched the technological vision you wanted to achieve. But for now, we can only afford this one floor. Between personnel, office equipment, and the like, we're out of money, even owing the bank a bit."

"No worries." Murphy waved his hand grandly, "A person's worth is determined by their use, and spent wealth returns anew. Just build it! If we go bankrupt, that's on you."

With a stash of potions capable of dimensionally defeating muggles, could he really run out of money? At worst, it's just an issue of not being able to monetize quickly enough. But no matter, it's always possible to find some unsuspecting wealthy individual to fund.

Murphy had no qualms about using capitalists' money to advance productive forces.

Patrick, however, was smiling bitterly, "We don't need to build anything. We're already almost bankrupt."

"Huh?"