Chapter 99: Puppet

On the lawn, several dummies had been set up.

They were specially made by Arthur to automatically restore themselves when broken, making them perfect targets for testing spells.

"Professor Lockhart, try channeling your magic into the magic runes, and then you can cast spells,"

Arthur instructed, explaining each rune and its related spell to Professor Lockhart.

He engraved nearly twenty different runes on Professor Lockhart, all combat-related spells.

Professor Lockhart needed to understand each spell each with the runes. It would be terrible if he used the Killing Curse by mistake during a regular sparring match...

The process was simple, with just over a dozen spells to learn.

Professor Lockhart quickly understood the instructions from Arthur and began experimenting.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Professor Lockhart was incredibly excited, continuously casting spells and blasting the dummies.

Arthur watched with satisfaction and was impressed by the power of the spells.

They were already pretty strong, almost as strong as an Auror. And Professor Lockhart could cast them silently and instantly.

With enough skill in combat, he could be considered a top-tier Auror.

Don't think poorly of Aurors based on the original work—they were valuable assets.

According to Arthur's knowledge, there were only around 50 Aurors in all of England, divided into ten units.

An elite force belonging to the Ministry of Magic.

Aurors are dispatched only on dangerous missions such as capturing powerful dark wizards.

Someone like Kingsley Shacklebolt, who followed Cornelius closely last time, was an elite Auror and already one of Cornelius's trusted subordinates.

If Professor Lockhart had enough skill, he could become a top-tier Auror with his magical powers.

Pure-blood wizards would go crazy if they learned about Arthur's technique.

Not every family had strong people in every generation, so it was a dream come true for pure-blood families to find a way to guarantee a certain amount of power.

...

When Professor Lockhart had used up all of his magic power, he walked up to Arthur, looking tired.

Although tired, his eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Arthur, from now on, my life belongs to you,"

Professor Lockhart gratefully said to Arthur.

Arthur chuckled and shook his head.

"Don't worry, I won't let you put yourself in danger for no reason. You have a more important role to play."

"I need you to continue writing books and show off your strength to the public,"

Arthur explained, casually rubbing his palm.

"What I need is your influence in the wizarding world. When your influence becomes strong enough, I will need you to run for Minister of Magic."

When Professor Lockhart heard this, he was shocked at first, and then he started to breathe heavily.

Minister of Magic, the person whose fame meant everything to Professor Lockhart.

This position was definitely the most tempting.

Why did Professor Lockhart risk being exposed and come to Hogwarts to teach in the first place?

It was to spread his books and his reputation throughout the wizarding world.

And now, Arthur was handing him such a massive opportunity.

How could Professor Lockhart not be happy?

With excitement on his face, Professor Lockhart and Arthur stepped out of the suitcase. Arthur didn't stay and left the office immediately.

But Professor Lockhart's mood couldn't calm down for a long time.

He sat on his swivel chair, spinning back and forth, murmuring to himself.

Suddenly, he thought of a question and stopped moving.

'What was Arthur's purpose in doing this?'

When he thought about this, he couldn't help but shiver, and he came up with a wild guess.

Arthur wanted to be the one who pulled the strings and wanted to control the wizarding world of England, and he was the puppet Arthur dragged in.

"Hiss!"

Professor Lockhart took a deep breath and admired Arthur's cunning as he thought he had figured it out.

At such a young age, he had such deep schemes. It looked like he was going to become another Dark Lord in the future.

However, he immediately laughed and shook his head.

Even if he had signed a contract with Arthur, he wouldn't say anything about it considering the power Arthur had given him.

"Let me become a pawn under your control, Arthur Gaunt."

As if making an oath, Professor Lockhart took out a roll of parchment and a quill.

He kept writing plans on it, needing to increase his influence as much as possible. With his current strength, he could bring to life many ideas that had existed in his mind before.

Arthur, who had already walked far away, had no idea Professor Lockhart now saw him as the puppet master behind the wizarding world.

If he knew, he would surely look dumbfounded.

He only wanted someone he could rely on, so that his own actions wouldn't cause too much trouble.

How did he become the puppet master behind the scenes?

...

"Are you sure?"

At that moment, the puppet master behind the scenes was stopped by Draco.

"I'm sure. This is a promise I make as the future head of the Malfoy family. It can be done during Christmas."

Draco answered Arthur with a firm voice.

"Good, I agree. Be on the eighth floor this weekend at eight o'clock in the morning."

Just now, Draco asked Arthur to teach him magic, offering Arthur the opportunity to visit his family's library in return.

Even though Arthurs was surprised by Draco's determination, he didn't let it bother him and went along with the plan.

After all, the library of the Malfoy family, as one of the oldest and pure-blooded twenty-eight families, was quite valuable.

"Great, I will be there on time!"

Excitedly nodding, Draco couldn't wait.

"Well, I have things to attend to now. See you later."

After saying that, Arthur waved his hand and returned to his dormitory.

He had already learned the Parseltongue quite well through his efforts during this period. With a little more practice on pronunciation, he would try to open the Chamber of Secrets again.

But before opening the Chamber of Secrets, Arthur still needed to draw some gacha to increase his strength.

After all, there was a risk of failing even for a professor-level person when facing a basilisk alone.

(Actually, with the system not appearing, I almost forgot about its existence.)

He definitely needed to add as much protection as possible before going.

It happened to have been almost six months since the last draw, and Arthur had saved over twenty thousand galleons.

He could have a satisfying draw in one go.

...

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