Chapter 83: ‘Big Trouble’

Chapter 83: ‘Big Trouble’

After walking out of the bedroom, Louis saw the Ocris sisters sitting at the dining table eating breakfast. It looked like Helen was humming a little tune, seemingly happy about today’s business trip. But Ocris had a very strange look on her face, her mouth even a bit pouted.

Louis didn’t understand why. He went to wash up first. After a short while, he heard a series of inner thoughts and complaints from outside the washroom door.

Ocris:

[What a joke…]

[How is this possible…]

[Getting a flower card on the very first official day of work? I don’t even have one yet, I don’t have one yet…]

[What on earth is going on? When did Louis get so many big donors behind him?]

[Could it be, could it be that I’ll have to beg Louis to watch over me in the future?]

Helen:

[What rank did Louis and I get assigned anyway? Sister still hasn’t said.]

[What things do we need to buy for the Muggle city trip? Do they ride brooms too?]

[…]

Louis chuckled lightly, wiped the toothpaste off his mouth, walked out of the washroom, and sat down at the dining table.

Seeing Teacher Ocris sneak a glance at him, Louis blinked at her.

Ocris, who had been sneakily looking at Louis, blushed a little when she saw him blink at her. She coughed and said, “Louis, Helen, Director Trif called me this morning. Your positions have been decided… You should call Trif this afternoon to confirm…”

Ocris’s voice grew softer and softer, until by the end, even she couldn’t hear herself.

“Oh.” Louis, eating the Eight-Treasure Porridge prepared by the Magic Cat Cafe, said “oh” and didn’t ask further.

Ocris secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“By the way, Sister, do you know Earl Crowley?” Helen asked curiously.

Unlike Ocris, Helen’s parents were pure-blood wizards, and she had grown up in the Academy since childhood. So she had almost no contact with the outside world. She had even less experience meeting ministers and nobles from the Muggle Kingdom side.

But Ocris’s father was the Muggle King, and she grew up in the Muggle royal court, so she was actually quite familiar with Crowley.

Remembering this matter about Crowley, Ocris couldn’t help but rub her forehead.

“The affairs of the Crowley Family are still somewhat special. Remember, when you get there, don’t provoke that thing. Just investigate the situation, write a report to deal with it, and come back early—as long as you don’t provoke It, you’ll be fine.”

She knew about the affairs of the Crowley Family; it was quite famous in the Kingdom of Sorrento.

It really was terrifying…

This time, Barriff really landed Louis with a big trouble. And the Ministry of Magic already knew about this matter; instructions from the Department of Mysteries had already come down.

There was no choice but to go.

Ocris said, “But don’t worry too much. Trif said he has already applied to the Magic Prison to dispatch someone at the Warden level to assist… It might be Warden Stuart.”

At this point, Ocris rubbed her forehead again.

Stuart might not be able to solve that trouble, but if danger was encountered, it could still bring Louis and the other two back safely.

It’s just that last time, Louis and Helen really offended it badly… Helen was fine, Stuart wouldn’t make things hard for her. But Louis might suffer a bit.

“Sister, sister, can’t we call and ask it not to come? Helen is so scared of it.”

Helen was a bit afraid; the sandwich in her hand didn’t seem tasty anymore.

“Don’t worry, Helen. Having it there is still somewhat a good thing.” Ocris looked at Louis with a serious face: “Louis, you must show some respect to Sir Stuart. Even I treat it as an elder. Moreover, it is now the Warden, so by any measure, it is your superior.”

Hearing this, Louis blinked—so this guy mentioned the business trip specifically to deal with me?

“Don’t worry, Sister, Louis is very polite.” Helen quickly buttered him up, saying nice things: “Right, Louis?”

“Right, Mr. Stuart has always been very polite.” Louis lowered his head and cut two pieces of cake, handing them to the two sisters: “If there’s no politeness, I’ll teach it again.”

Remembering how Louis publicly teased Stuart during the assessment last time, and Louis’s usual arrogance, the two sisters glanced at each other and simultaneously put their hands to their foreheads.

Hoping Louis would be ‘polite’ was probably unrealistic.

Ocris felt somewhat distressed. While finishing breakfast, she couldn’t help but admonish Louis for a long while in a tone like an elder’s: “It’s fine at home and at the Academy, but outside you must be careful. Don’t offend Stuart—or Governor Crowley either. Although he is a Muggle, he is now a commander of the Kingdom of Sorrento’s Seventh Fleet. Even the Witch Queen is wary of him. Make sure to show proper respect later.”

After listening for a while, Louis realized that wizards, deep down, seemed very afraid of Muggles.

This made Louis even more curious.

Pausing for a moment, Ocris added, “The Ministry of Magic knows about the Crowley family situation. Plus, this time with Stuart taking the lead, even if you don’t manage to fix it, the Ministry won’t blame you two newcomers.”

After Ocris finished speaking, Louis responded agreeably, finally calming the two sisters down.

After the three finished clearing the table, Ocris planned to take the two shopping for some things. Helen went excitedly, while Louis remembered he had an appointment that morning—with the last little fellow from the Barriff Family. So he went to the office.

Just as he arrived at the door, Louis saw a line of tall and strong Dragon Clan sailors standing there. A few of them were even bruised and swollen; upon seeing Louis, they quickly turned their heads away and lowered their eyes.

In the middle of the Dragon Clan sailors stood a goblin gentleman wearing a small captain’s hat, smoking a pipe, with a big beard, and a colorful conch hanging around his neck—claiming to be the uncle of the ‘big banker’ Kendrik Barriff.

Obviously, he was lying—it would be more accurate to say he was an ancestor of the Barriff Family.

But there was one thing he didn’t lie about—he was in international maritime trade.

A human trafficker.

These guys came yesterday, but they weren’t very polite. So they got roughed up a bit.

[You discovered that this person’s ‘real name’ is ‘Little Conch,’ age 372, full of sins, and cursed by the Child of the Abyss—Since you reviewed the ‘Information Parsing Method,’ you can now see text without words…]

Seeing Louis arrive, the little-captain-hat gentleman quickly took off his hat, stood at the door bent over, and with a fawning face, performed a noble bow. Then he revealed a mouthful of uneven, yellow teeth and grinned.

Louis glanced at him, picked up the key, and opened the door.

This time, the little-captain-hat gentleman’s Dragon Clan bodyguards had learned their lesson. None dared to follow inside. Only the little-captain-hat fellow trotted in with small steps.

“Washed?” Louis asked, putting on gloves while glancing back at the fellow who wanted to get on the bed.

“Washed, washed! I washed my butt as soon as I went back yesterday! This morning, I washed it again specially!” The little-captain-hat fellow pointed two fingers to the sky as he spoke.

“Hmm, bend over there—drink this.” Louis took out a bottle of ‘Nutrient Express’ and threw it to the fellow.

Speaking of which, this guy came yesterday too, but why was he kicked out? Well… no need to elaborate.

You could say he was already annoying after reading the newspaper, and then being so inconsiderate… if not him, who else to beat?

After checking the condition, Louis frowned. He recently discovered something: the later the people from the Barriff Family came, the more severe their condition was. The harder to fix.

Another thing was that ‘Nutrient Express’ had a miraculous effect—otherwise, even with full anesthesia, moving the root cause of the illness would make the patient writhe in pain.

However, compared to others, the difficulty of the little-captain-hat fellow’s condition was on a different level.

Louis tried a few times but actually couldn’t successfully transfer it. Only when he raised an eyebrow and condensed the root cause into a ‘QR code’ did the matter finally conclude.

[Mr. Little Conch’s Favorability +Max]

After asking, Louis learned that Little Conch was the first person who got the ‘Ancient God’s Tendril’ after being cursed.

[Apparently, the rise of the Barriff Family has a hidden past…]

[If they hadn’t escaped quickly, it probably wouldn’t have been just their buttocks hurt by that Ancient God’s Tendril…]

[Regardless, that venture was worth it—a family that was already very daring and skilled at business suddenly obtained an immense, mysterious fortune, and successively caught the gold rush of the Muggles’ Industrial Revolution and the wizards’ Magic Revolution…]

[The Barriff Family gradually rose, becoming one of the world’s largest capital groups.]

[And this Mr. Little Conch is the source of all this wealth and curse…]

“This is truly amazing!” The little-captain-hat fellow looked in the mirror, dumbfounded. “The Abyss God’s curse on me is really gone! I’m perfectly fine! Perfectly fine!”

Louis, washing his hands nearby, didn’t say much. While treating the sixth person, Louis realized it did seem to be a kind of curse. Or rather, only the last five people who fell ill had curses that hadn’t fully manifested.

“That conch necklace of yours can only Seal for three more years at most.” Louis wiped his hands with a towel, looking at the goblin gentleman. “Wealth and longevity have a price, Mr. Little Conch…”

At that moment, a pink letter suddenly flew in through the window, interrupting Louis. He casually caught it. Seeing the little white fox fur on it, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“Mr. Louis, did you just call me Little Conch?” The goblin gentleman was stunned—how long had it been? Hundreds of years? This nickname of his hadn’t been called in so long?

He placed his hat over his chest and bowed solemnly.

[It seems, like the others, Mr. Little Conch intends to discuss a big business deal with you… or a big trouble…]

Little Conch said, “Sir, as you said, wealth and longevity have a price…”

Before he could finish, he was kicked out the door.

[Obviously, Louis wants absolutely nothing to do with any trouble related to cosmic-level high-dimensional beings like Ancient Gods or Outer Gods—even if there are no true Ancient Gods in this world, even if it’s just their offspring…]

The goblin shouted outside the door: “The Barriff Family is at your service anytime…”

Bang. The door closed.

What does ‘at your service anytime’ mean?

That’s ‘trouble for you anytime’!

Look at what kind of job Kendrik introduced later? Trouble even Stuart couldn’t solve!

And after getting Wallace’s cousin to do some writing work, what kind of mess popped up? The Dragon Clan Colosseum!

[Louis decided to have some fun first.]

Throwing away the towel, Louis raised an eyebrow and looked at the pink letter. With one sniff, he recognized a familiar scent—it was from someone he knew.

On the wax seal, there was also a tuft of white fox fur.

Louis couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Opening it, he saw a line of riddles that needed a Crystal Ball to predict—but Louis could tell the riddle was fake. If someone actually used this riddle with a Crystal Ball, it would directly connect to a ‘video call.’

“Tsk, quite playful—but who is this?”

Raising an eyebrow, Louis smiled and lay down on the balcony’s rocking chair. He took out a Crystal Ball, touched it, and a live stream appeared.

On the other end was a little white-haired fox.

[Oh my, I hope nobody sees. What if someone records this and blackmails me tonight? What should I do? I, I have nobody at home tonight… I want to eat a long, big trouble…]

As she spoke, Miss Lilith winked, pulled down her shoulder strap, and started her live performance—and behind her, there were actually five more little foxes!

They looked pretty good at dancing! It was that dance Louis taught them the other day, which he didn’t record.

But this time the dance was much spicier…

What does this mean? Want me to come over tonight?

Louis blinked. Instantly, he wasn’t sleepy at all.

Looked like these six little foxes indeed had pretty big troubles.

Just as he was enjoying this, the door banged open as Helen excitedly ran in.

Suddenly, Louis and the person on the other end quickly threw their Crystal Balls.

“Louis, Louis! There’s news! Quick, contact Director Trif—you seem to be the Three of Hearts!”

Whether it was the Three of Hearts or not wasn’t important. What mattered was that Helen couldn’t wait to go play in Englen City.