It was obvious.
The information broker was deeply conflicted and hesitant. In Babua's heart, there was both a desire for wealth and a fear that if he accepted Ian's money, he would lose the opportunity to earn his favour.
Due to these complicated emotions, Babua did not dare to take it for a long time.
"Don't worry. This is merely the reward you deserve. Excellence deserves to be rewarded." Ian could see through the man's thoughts. His tone was calm yet carried an unquestionable weight. "Besides that, Mr Babua, I owe you a favour. Perhaps in the future, you or your descendants may need to call upon it."
Those words exploded in Babua's ears like thunder.
He suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with disbelief and shock.
A legendary wizard's favour!
That was no longer something that could be measured in money. It was practically a trump card, capable of reversing one's fate at a critical moment!
The implication hidden within Ian's words, 'your descendants', sent his imagination racing and filled him with awe.
Sure enough, just as the legends described, wizards who had reached the legendary realm possessed unimaginable lifespans. The other party had most likely already lived for more than a thousand years!
For beings of that level...
A promise spanning several generations of time was no empty statement.
After all, according to Babua's limited understanding, a legendary wizard was no longer an ordinary wizard. Being able to transcend the shackles of time itself seemed perfectly reasonable.
Of course, his knowledge of Legendary Wizards only exceeded that of most wizards slightly. He was still merely scratching the surface since no Legendary Wizard had appeared in the world for a very long time.
"Sir… I… I…" Babua was so emotional that he could barely speak coherently. He bowed deeply towards Ian, his voice trembling.
"Babua and I will forever remember your kindness! Thank you for your trust!"
To a man like Ian, an information broker, his promise was indeed priceless.
"You earned it through your own ability and sincerity," Ian replied calmly. "Continue being so "thoughtful" and perhaps we will have opportunities to cooperate again in the future."
"Certainly! Absolutely!" Babua repeatedly assured him.
He knew he had made the right decision today.
Suppressing his excitement, knowing it would be best not to disturb Ian any further, he tactfully said, "Sir, if you have no further instructions, then I shall take my leave. I wish you success in all things!"
Ian nodded.
Babua bowed once more, then quickly turned around and disappeared into the bustling marketplace crowd, his footsteps so light they seemed ready to take flight.
Ian held the wooden box containing the Portkeys, along with the detailed map.
Standing at the street corner, he looked up at the sky.
In the dark night sky, the sun and moon existed at the same time, one preparing to rise, the other to set.
It was a sign that night was approaching.
Originally, he could have used the Portkeys immediately to head to the Ministry of Magic. Given his abilities, even if the Ministry was on guard, infiltrating it and accomplishing his objective would not have been difficult.
However, after studying the detailed map in his hand, which was carefully marked with defensive arrangements and personnel information, Ian changed his mind.
"Since I've obtained such a 'thoughtful' map…"
A faintly amused smile curved his lips.
"Then I should at least give my friends at the Ministry of Magic some face. Paying a visit in the dead of night is much more polite than barging in during working hours."
He decided to act during the latter half of the night, when the Ministry's defences would be at their weakest and its personnel at their most exhausted.
This was not only to avoid unnecessary trouble.
It was also an elegant tactical choice based on superior intelligence.
Needless to say, it certainly wasn't because Ian wanted to rest a little longer. Matters concerning a legendary wizard could hardly be called laziness.
Returning to his somewhat dreary inn room, Ian did not rush into action.
There was still time before his planned midnight visit, so he took out Musa's notes again.
This time, he did not merely skim through them. Instead, he cleared his mind and carefully studied the details regarding the integration of temporal energy guidance and alchemical array formations.
Musa's line of research was indeed uniquely innovative.
He treated time as a kind of 'spice' that could be 'seasoned', viewing alchemical arrays as the 'pot' and the 'fire'. Through precise energy circuits and symbolic resonance, he attempted to influence the 'flow rate' and 'texture' of time within a localised area.
The notes were filled with complicated geometric diagrams, equations describing energy flow and detailed analyses of failed experiments.
Many of the ideas seemed wildly imaginative to Ian, even somewhat contradictory to conventional magical principles.
Yet the flashes of brilliance within them, as well as that reckless spirit of exploration, benefited him greatly.
After all, no one could say with certainty whether such ideas were wrong.
Even classical physicists had once doubted the constancy of the speed of light.
This theory states that no matter how fast you run, light will always be faster than you, its speed being fundamental.
Many people have questioned this principle.
Yet it truly is one of the universal truths.
Sometimes...
There are some things that violate common sense...
But, perhaps people simply have not yet found a way to explain them.
When he tried to design a small-scale time alchemy array in his mind for 'micro-speed fermentation,' shortening the dough fermentation process from several hours to just a few minutes while preserving the flavour, he experienced a sudden surge of enlightenment towards an entirely new field of knowledge.
[Ding, Alchemy Proficiency +7]
[Ding, Alchemy Proficiency +9]
Inside his mind, the system notifications that had remained silent for so long rang out one after another.
Ian paused slightly, then a faint smile appeared on his lips.
"What an unexpected gain."
It had been a very long time since he had achieved such rapid and continuous growth in alchemy proficiency.
At his current level, ordinary alchemical operations and existing systems of knowledge could no longer provide effective experience gains. Only by coming into contact with completely different, profoundly deep new knowledge and comprehending it fully could the nearly stagnant progress bar move once more.
"So, shutting oneself away to work in isolation really does have its limits," He thought to himself. "You still need to constantly encounter new things and create new sparks of thought through collision and exchange in order to grow further. Musa really is a treasure."
Immersed in the ocean of knowledge, he lost track of time.
It was only when the familiar sensation of hunger rose from his stomach once more that he realized that night had fallen and it was time to solve the issue of dinner.
Well...
Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a midnight snack.
After all, it was very late indeed.
Closing his notebook and putting it away carefully, Ian stepped out of his room once more.
The inn's front hall seemed even livelier than before, with faint sounds of noisy arguing coming from inside.
When he arrived, he saw the innkeeper standing at the entrance, looking unlucky. Several wizards dressed in a rough, tribal style, their faces marked with tattoos, stood opposite him.
There were men and women among them, all visibly upset as they pointed at the innkeeper and shouted:
'"definitely something wrong with your inn! My elder brother Kabu may have walked a dangerous path, but he was always strong! How could he suddenly collapse here for no reason and end up looking like that? You must have used some vicious curse!"
"That's right! Pay compensation! Otherwise, we'll smash this rotten place apart!"
Hand over the murderer!"
These people were clearly family members of the Dark Wizard Kabu, who had been taken away earlier. They had come to cause trouble and extort compensation, though that didn't necessarily mean they had any deep familial affection for him.
The innkeeper looked extremely displeased.
Yet he was not overly panicked.
As he tried to explain himself, he secretly signaled to a nearby waiter.
The waiter immediately understood and hurried out.
"Calm down, everyone!" The innkeeper announced, addressing both the family members and the surrounding crowd. "Mr. Kabu's condition has already been investigated by Aurors from the Ministry of Magic! It is an old condition of his acting up and has absolutely nothing to do with our inn. Causing trouble here is pointless!"
Naturally, the Dark Wizard's family members were not satisfied with this explanation.
"Bullshit! The Ministry of Magic must have been bribed by you!"
"Exactly! If we don't get an explanation today, we're not leaving!"
The group became increasingly aggressive, and some of them began pulling out their wands, instantly making the atmosphere tense.
"Time to go, let's go."
The guests surrounding the commotion all backed away, pointing and whispering among themselves. Most of them looked like they were enjoying a good show, and nobody stepped forward to mediate.
Suddenly, a rapid series of footsteps could be heard.
The Ministry of Magic enforcement officers from earlier had returned, once again led by the same senior Auror.
His face dark with anger, he swept his sharp gaze across the troublemakers.
"You again! The Kabu family!" The senior Auror's voice carried unquestionable authority. "The Ministry of Magic's investigation has made everything clear. Kabu suffered magical backlash caused by his own condition, and it had nothing to do with anyone else! Are you gathering here to cause trouble and threaten public safety? Do you want to spend a few days in the Detention Room?"
Seeing the law enforcement officers return with such forcefulness, the troublemakers' arrogance immediately weakened by half.
An elderly woman, who appeared to be their leader, still tried to argue.
"Sir, my son..."
Before she could finish speaking, the Auror interrupted her mercilessly. "If you have objections, you may file an appeal through the Ministry of Magic Appeals Department according to procedure. But for now, leave immediately! Otherwise, you will be arrested for disturbing the peace!"
The members of the Enforcement Team behind him immediately stepped forward, revealing magical handcuffs and giving off an unfriendly vibe.
Seeing this, Kabu's family realized that continuing the disturbance would not be to their advantage and that they might instead drag themselves into trouble.
Reluctantly, they put away their wands, muttering curses under their breath, and left the inn dejectedly under the 'escort' of the Enforcement Team officers.
Watching their miserable retreat, the surrounding guests burst into laughter and discussion.
"Heh, what a joke! Kabu brought this upon himself, and now they're trying to blame the inn?"
"Exactly. Did they really think the mountains of galleons that the inn pays to the Market Management Committee every year were for nothing? Without this level of protection, how could they even run a business?"
"Well, this works out perfectly. The whole family can reunite in the detention room now!"
Ian had just walked to the entrance when he overheard the crowd discussing the matter. Chuckling casually, he added his own teasing remark.
"Well, things really did turn out nicely for them. The whole family's together now."
His voice wasn't loud, but many of those present still heard it.
The dark humor of his words immediately resonated with the crowd, causing an even louder wave of laughter to erupt around him.
"Well said! Nice and tidy together!"
"This gentleman is absolutely right!"
However, among the laughing crowd were a few well-informed or perceptive wizards, who looked at Ian with traces of awe and restraint in their eyes.
They might not have known exactly how strong Ian was, but they could sense that this extraordinary foreigner was not someone to be provoked. Some even suspected that he might be connected to Kabu's sudden collapse.
In most wizarding territories, especially in places like Africa where the law of primal strength was highly respected, power equalled status. It was the sole standard by which others judged whether you deserved respect.
Ian's calmness and unfathomable aura made the crowd unwilling to show even the slightest disrespect.
Ian paid no attention to the various gazes directed at him.
He strolled out of the inn and once again immersed himself in the noise and excitement of the night market.
He did not care much about the situation with the Dark Wizard's family.
In fact, there were quite a few Dark Wizard families like that in Knockturn Alley. The difference was that the Dark Wizards there were slightly smarter. As long as they hadn't completely lost their minds, they knew better than to cause trouble in Diagon Alley.
Did they really think that Aurors were easy opponents?
Not every wizard was an elite fighter.
In fact, even elite wizards like Harry Potter's father and Sirius Black had found it very difficult to face Aurors.
Any wizard capable of becoming an Auror was, at the very least, a minor elite.
Of course, there might not be that many truly powerful wizards within the African Ministry of Magic. But comparatively speaking, the average wizard wandering the streets here was not particularly strong either.
That was simply how this place worked.
The strong were absurdly strong.
The weak were extremely weak.
Ironically, average-level wizards were the rare minority.
As he made these observations, Ian wandered through the night market.
Eventually, he found a popular open-air food stall and ordered a huge beef steak, grilled over magical flames and coated in a spicy sauce. He also ordered a chilled local beer with a refreshing mint flavour.
He ate heartily and with great satisfaction.
The night market had a lively yet relaxed atmosphere, overflowing with the vitality of ordinary street life.
After eating and drinking his fill, he strolled leisurely through the market to digest his meal.
"Now this really is rare."
In an open plaza, he saw a wizard in flashy robes standing on a temporary platform displaying Muggle technology to a crowd of wizards.
The wizard held a mobile phone in his hand.
Although it was rather bulky, it was unmistakably a phone. Voices from far away could be heard clearly through it, causing astonishment to spread through the crowd below.
"Look! This is the 'magic' of the Muggles!" The presenter shouted, his tone conveying a strange mixture of amazement, disdain, and faint, almost imperceptible anxiety.
"They don't use wands or spells, yet they can communicate across vast distances and soar through the skies! I've even heard they're developing something called a 'network'."
"And once it succeeds, it'll connect all the world's information together!"
The surrounding wizards reacted in different ways.
Some watched with fascination, like Muggles observing magical tricks and performances; they found the display novel and entertaining.
Others showed disdain, believing these to be mere gimmicks, unworthy of comparison to true magic.
Some frowned deeply, their eyes filled with unease and vigilance.
Ian stood quietly at the edge of the crowd, silently observing and studying the complicated expressions on the wizards' faces.
"The technological explosion has truly had a massive impact on the wizarding world," He thought to himself.
This impact was not merely material.
It was psychological and cognitive as well.
When Muggles achieved things through technology that even ordinary wizards found difficult, fear quietly began to grow, fear born from the unknown and from the possibility that their status might one day be threatened.
Ian recalled the charismatic blond-haired man and the movement he had ignited.
The transformation of an era is always accompanied by pain and chaos.
The magical world could not remain untouched by it.
The fear that wizards held towards Muggle development was the most important reason why Grindelwald had been able to gather followers.
And now... That fear was already quietly taking root in this era.
(End of Chapter)
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