A-New-War-On-Horizon? (II) [Chapter 290]

“Well, we know that the Minister and his Undersecretary stole our gold, but with how busy we are-” Saul paused for a moment as he waved around his hands “-From we, I meant the Ministry-” Saul clarified as he raised one of his fingers to make a point. “-We simply decided to hire a private force to track the gold and reclaim it” Saul finished.

Amelia frowned as she began tapping her fingers on her knuckles with a thoughtful look on her face. “From ‘a private force’, you mean the Lost Garden, right?” Amelia asked while she emphasized ‘a private force’ with her fingers when she spoke, only to receive a nod from Saul in return.

However, before Amelia could say anything, Connie decided to butt in, trying to be the voice of reason. “You can’t be serious, Saul!” Connie scoffed. “With the London incident, the ICW would be keeping a close eye on us and if Potter goes and starts a Goblin Rebellion in the process of reclaiming Ministry gold, the ICW would be forced to act” Connie warned.

“And that isn’t all… I hope you guys haven’t forgotten, but Potter is a Dark Lord. The Ministry can’t be seen making any sort of deals with him so openly” Connie pointed out.

“Potter and almost all of his followers might be wanted criminals, but not all of his followers are criminals, and Lost Garden is not an illegal organization, at least not yet” Saul scoffed. “Yes, we are skirting along the lines, but that’s enough of a gray area for us to hand them the assignment” Saul finished with a grin on his face.

“Saul is right… If we do this then we would be simply exploiting a loophole, but it would be enough to prevent the ICW from charging us with anything” Amelia agreed with a smile on her face. She was starting to like the idea. “However, they might attempt to sacrifice us in order to appease the Goblins” Amelia pointed out.

“Yes, I am sure that they are going to try that” Saul nodded his head in agreement. “However, according to the treaties, the Goblins don’t have authority over any Wixen as long as they haven’t committed any crimes on Goblin soil” Saul reminded the duo.

“Any Wixen must be judged under Wixen laws no matter what crime they might have committed against Goblin Nation as long as they haven’t committed any crimes on Goblin soil” Amelia finished reiterating the rest of the law with a satisfied smirk on her face.

“I hate to be the spoilsport, but the jury might decide to throw the book at the Wixen responsible for the private force in the first place just to appease the Goblins” Connie pointed out in a scathing tone before Amelia and Saul could start celebrating. Both of them considered her words and realized that Connie was right.

There was nothing they could do to stop the ICW from throwing the book at the ones responsible for hiring Lost Garden in the first place…

“So, we are back to square one?” Amelia asked with a groan as she slumped back in her chair, looking really defeated. She was starting to like the idea, but then Connie decided to pour cold water on all of the hope, however, she didn’t blame the woman. It was a good thing that she pointed out a hazard before it was too late.

“Not really…” Saul trailed off and soon both Connie and Amelia were staring at him. “We simply need to find someone high enough on the pecking order who would be willing to take the fall” Saul pointed out, making Amelia wonder if Saul was high on drugs… There was no way someone was going to take the fall for something like this.

A low-rung Ministry grunt might have agreed, but someone high on the pecking order? Forget it!!

“Forget it, Saul, it’s not going to work” Amelia waved her hand dismissively.

“Come on, Amelia. You know just how serious this is. The Goblins have been gaining too much ground since the last treaty was signed. We should have done something decades ago, but we haven’t. Now look at us… We can’t even force them to return our stolen money” Saul growled out as he jabbed his finger at the report lying on Amelia’s table angrily.

“That’s not all! They use our gold to give out loans and instead of getting any interest, we have to pay them in return for letting us keep our gold in their vaults. And what’s more, we simply can’t withdraw all of our gold and use some different banking service!! Do you know why?” Saul asked angrily before continuing his rant. “Because we foolishly allowed them to create a monopoly!” Saul finished angrily.

Both Amelia and Connie were taken aback by his tirade, but neither of them were able to say anything in retort… After all, whatever he said was the truth…

“...I can see the problem, Saul, but what do you want me to do?” Amelia asked bitterly.

“I will take the fall” Saul declared with clear determination in his voice.

“That won’t work, Saul. Your Department is not connected to the Ministry in any way. It needs to be someone from the repository or someone high-up within the DMLE, or someone higher, like the Undersecretary, Chief Warlock or the Minister” Amelia explained. She agreed with everything Saul said…

Amelia knew that they needed to deal with the Goblin issue and they needed to do it soon since the Goblins were basically in control of their finances, and right now, she was between a rock and a hard place… The Ministry needed to cover all the damages caused during the fight, but they didn’t have the funds to cover so much damage.

So, they could either take a loan from the Goblins, which was a really bad idea, or they could reclaim the stolen gold… However, reclaiming that gold was bound to cause another Goblin rebellion…

“Let’s stop here… We still have some time to decide” Amelia decided to end the meeting, looking defeated and tired…