Chapter 676: 676: Changing the Situation, Expanding Strength

Inside the high tower of Nurmengard.

The wizards who had been drawn in and recruited into the Acolytes had gathered together.

They cheered for Grindelwald, believing he would save this decaying wizarding world.

No matter when or where, the white-haired man with mismatched eyes seemed to possess endless charisma.

"Grindelwald!"

"Lead us in cleansing this world, Grindelwald!"

The cries rose toward the tower.

Grindelwald shifted his gaze away from the basin of water that had turned red.

The bloody marks on his hand were healing, and by the time he stepped outside, they had already disappeared.

The cheers grew almost suffocating as the crowd repeatedly shouted Grindelwald's name.

The Elder Wand moved in Grindelwald's hand.

He opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of mist.

The mist spread into the air above them.

Within it appeared scenes from the goblin rebellions of the past.

"Goblins."

Grindelwald's voice entered every ear.

"These ugly, greedy creatures."

The image changed.

Wizards and goblins appeared, attacking one another.

"They are disloyal."

The scene shifted again.

This time, the goblins had been defeated, while the wizards stood victorious.

"And yet they enjoy things that should never have belonged to them. They control all the wealth of the wizarding world."

Within the mist, the goblins' armour changed into suits.

Despite being the defeated side, they now stood openly before wizards, examining each one with greedy and contemptuous eyes.

"Why?"

Grindelwald raised his wand and gave it a slight wave.

"Why should proud wizards be ordered around by goblins?"

"We won the war, yet incompetent fools placed us beneath the goblins."

Grindelwald's voice struck the hearts of every confused wizard like a hammer.

Yes.

Why?

Wizards had won, yet they had handed all their money over to goblins for safekeeping?

Among the crowd, some remembered the contemptuous looks goblins had given them when they were poor and desperate.

Others remembered the greedy way goblins had stared at them whenever they deposited money, as though the wizards themselves were thieves.

"It was those incompetents!"

Grindelwald's voice rose.

"They handed away the victory we fought so hard to obtain."

"We will take everything back and make those ugly, filthy creatures disappear."

"This world belongs to wizards. Goblins have no right to strut around arrogantly on wizarding land."

The emotions of the Acolytes had already been stirred to a fever pitch.

At that moment, they wanted nothing more than to kill every goblin.

Yes.

The poverty they had endured. The contempt they had suffered from Gringotts when they were down on their luck.

It was all because of those goblins.

They were parasites, greedily sucking the blood from wizards and making them weaker and weaker.

It was the goblins!

They were the ones making life difficult for wizards!

"Now," Grindelwald's excited voice returned to calm. He raised his wand toward the mist and said softly, "Do what you should do."

The Acolytes roared and raised their wands, firing green sparks that shattered the mist.

The image of Gringotts within it broke apart, then vanished completely.

The Acolytes left Nurmengard and rushed toward Gringotts branches across different countries.

The first to suffer was Gringotts in Switzerland.

The Acolytes stormed inside, killed the troll guards, dragged the goblins from behind the counters where they had once looked down on wizards, and burned them alive.

They blasted open the vault doors with Exploding Curses and unleashed Fiendfyre inside, setting everything ablaze.

Money?

Ideals did not need money!

They were fighting for magic. Returning everything to magic was what truly mattered!

The once arrogant and greedy goblins were now like frightened birds.

They loudly cursed the thieves who had broken in.

The goblin who shouted the loudest was dragged out and set on fire in public.

The stench of burned corpses spread over the Swiss wizarding settlement, while Gringotts burned in the flames.

In the end, only ruins remained, along with a single surviving goblin.

It was devastating.

Even those who had targeted Gringotts in the past would never have acted so recklessly.

To put it simply, the goblins had always believed that because they controlled everyone's money, no one would be foolish enough to oppose them like this.

But they were wrong.

The situation was no longer what it had once been.

The Acolytes believed the end of the world was approaching. Who cared whether goblins minted the currency anymore?

After everything that had happened, no one could remain calm.

And that included the wizards.

They had always believed Gringotts was the safest place in the world.

If they stored their Galleons there, no one could ever steal them.

But now, reality had shattered that centuries-old assumption.

Some wizards reacted immediately and rushed to Gringotts without hesitation to withdraw their money.

The wealthy were hauling it away by the cartload.

Arguments erupted between goblins and wizards.

Griphook tried to stop the wizards as they scrambled to submit withdrawal requests.

"You can't do this!"

"Actually, we can!"

In the eyes of goblins, ownership of an object did not belong to the person who possessed it, but to the one who had created it.

All that currency had been minted by goblins. In their eyes, wizards withdrawing large sums of money they had stored there was practically the same as robbing the goblins' treasure.

Because of this, conflicts also broke out inside Gringotts.

Not between Acolytes and goblins, but between goblins and wizards.

It was extremely lively, yet some people remained completely unbothered.

For example, the Weasley twins.

Florean Fortescue, the owner of the ice cream parlour, found it strange and asked the two of them, who were standing nearby enjoying the spectacle.

"Aren't you worried your Galleons might disappear?"

"Of course not," Fred said.

"Because we withdrew our money a long time ago." George chuckled and pulled out a black card. "We put it somewhere safer."

"A Magic Card!" Florean Fortescue was stunned.

George said, "There's nowhere safer than the Second Dynasty's vaults."

"In the Second Dynasty, you can buy anything you want without worrying about your money disappearing," Fred said with a grin. "Come spend at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. We welcome Magic Cards."

Those words instantly enlightened him.

Florean Fortescue exclaimed, "That's right! You can buy anything through the Second Dynasty, and you don't have to worry about depreciation either."

The Second Dynasty had fixed pricing standards. It was convenient, and there was no fear of losing one's money.

It was practically the perfect choice.

After realising this, however, Florean Fortescue immediately deflated again. He said dejectedly, "That's wonderful, but I don't have a Magic Card."

Magic Cards were far too rare.

Even pure-blood families were not guaranteed to receive one, let alone someone like him.

"You don't know?" Fred made an exaggeratedly shocked expression.

"Know what?" Florean asked in confusion.

George raised a finger and wagged it. "Our benevolent King heard about this disaster and specially opened applications for Magic Cards. You only need to visit the Magic Card service counter at a Silverhand Johnny Specialty Store to apply."

"There's something that good?!"

The moment Florean heard that, he did not want to stay there for even another second.

In fact, they were not the only ones listening to the conversation.

The two famous owners of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes always attracted attention wherever they went.

The moment people heard that Magic Cards were now available for application, almost no one could remain seated.

The wizards queuing at Gringotts immediately dispersed.

Afraid of being the last to arrive, they hurried toward the Silverhand Johnny Specialty Store.

The application process was somewhat complicated, but no one dared complain.

Each person behaved as obediently as a well-behaved child.

They had to register and undergo verification, as well as leave behind a drop of blood and a handprint.

A werewolf hesitated at the front of the queue for a moment before finally gathering his courage and stepping forward to ask.

"Excuse me, can werewolves apply for a Magic Card?"

The beautiful witch processing the applications froze, then looked at the werewolf with obvious surprise.

The werewolf's expression dimmed.

He had known it.

Werewolves were not allowed to apply.

"Aren't you a resident of the werewolf community? Mr. Chudai already gathered the residents yesterday to apply."

"Huh?" The werewolf froze.

He was a werewolf from out of town. After hearing that Britain had passed the Werewolf Equality Act, he had decided to come over.

He had never expected it to actually be true.

For a moment, he felt dazed.

"If you haven't applied yet, then please join the queue."

As soon as she finished speaking, an irritated wizard called out, "Hurry up and get in line. Don't think you get special treatment just because you're a werewolf!"

That remark immediately drew agreement from the others.

Another wizard said enviously, "If I hadn't failed to get a residence slot in the werewolf community, I would've moved there ages ago. You get health insurance just for moving in. It's ridiculously enviable."

The wizards were practically green with envy over the treatment werewolves received.

Their Second King really did favour the werewolf community.

Residents there could apply for health insurance, which alone put them far ahead of other places.

It was not as though wizards never got sick. On the contrary, one careless mistake could easily lead to serious problems.

And Silver Cross Hospital was well funded, employing highly skilled Healers. It was in no way inferior to St Mungo's.

The prices and quality were the same as St Mungo's, but with health insurance, the cost was cut directly in half.

Who wouldn't want that?

Even Lucius and Draco Malfoy, members of the foremost ancient family, were extremely envious of the health insurance.

The werewolf was shooed to the back of the queue by the other wizards.

Even now, he still felt somewhat dazed.

In his usual experience, people avoided places where werewolves gathered.

But judging by these wizards, living among werewolves seemed to be something worth envying.

All he wanted now was to tell several of his werewolf friends about what was happening here.

The werewolves living abroad truly had it miserable.

In some places, werewolves were even used as materials.

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