Vanessa nodded, her expression easing. "Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. Just don’t take too long—otherwise, someone might e barging in." She shot him a knowing look before stepping out aly closing the door behind her.

  Once Vanessa was gone, Alex’s expression shifted back to one of pyful sarcasm as he turo Yulia. "See? I’m always ho and reliable. So, have you made up your mind, or do you need me to go the extra mile and personally deliver the key—and your family’s secrets—to Minister Bagnold?"

  Yulia’s face twisted further in frustratiohoughts rag but no escape. Her silence was all Alex o see. He let out a sharp huff and stood, making a move toward the door. "Wait! Don’t!" Yulia’s voice rang out, strained and desperate, stopping Alex in his tracks. She couldn’t let him leave like this.

  "ged your mind, have you?" he asked, his tone as casual as if they were talking about the weather.

  Letting out a long, defeated sigh, Yulia sank deeper into the couch, her body nguage a portrait of exhaustion and surrender. She looked up at Alex with weary eyes. "If I agree, you’ll help me save Torquil, right?"

  Alex’s smirk widened. "Save him? Do you think this is some fairytale where people just get rescued on a whim? Torquil isn’t just anyone—he’s Bagnold’s prized possession now." His words cut sharp, leaving no room for fantasy.

  "But you said—" Yulia’s voice cracked as she spoke, her frustration palpable. "You said if I agreed to your terms, you’d solve this!"

  "I did say I’d solve it. For you," Alex said, his expression unfazed. "But I never promised Torquil would walk out of this alive. I get rid of him, though." He slid a finger across his throat in a mog gesture.

  Yulia’s breath caught. "He’s being held under heavy prote of the auror. How do you even pn to pull that off?"

  "That’s my problem, not yours," Alex replied with a cold smile. "You’re better off not thinking about it."

  Yulia hesitated, still wrestling with the impossible deal he was dangling in front of her. "If you’re serious, then after you deal with him, you’ll return the key, right?"

  Alex shook his head. "Oh no. That’s noiable."

  "What?!" Yulia’s posure cracked, and she leaned forward, her voice raising in panic. "How I agree to this if you won’t return the key?!"

  "I’ll destroy it in front of you after the deal is done," Alex offered, his tone as calm as ever. "And I’ll keep your secret safe. The Travers family’s skeletons will stay buried—so long as you py your part."

  "Destroy it? Do you even realize how much effort we’ve put into the materials in that vault? You think I’d just let you destroy it? Impossible!" Yulia’s anger finally boiled over, her voice trembling with rage.

  "Then I guess there’s no deal," Alex said, standing up again. His hand was already on the door handle when he added, "You’d better start preparing for war."

  "Wait!" Yulia all but screamed, her voice raw with desperation. She ched her fists so tightly her nails dug into her palms.

  "That’s more like it," Alex said, turning back with a smirk. "Sometimes keeping the family whole and safe is better than falling apart over a stubbrudge, don’t you think?"

  Yulia gred at him, her jaw tightening as she held back a scathi. ‘You have the audacity to talk about family when you just offered to kill my brother-in-w?’ The thought burned in her mind, but with the Travers family’s safety—and her own child’s future—at stake, she swallowed her anger. Sensing her defeat, Alex returo his seat, his expression softening slightly. "Alright. Let’s hear it. What’s your decision?"

  Yulia exhaled heavily, the weight of her choice evident in her every move. "Fine. You get rid of Torquil, destroy the key in front of me, and keep our secret safe. But you also have to promise not to bee our enemy iure."

  Alex leaned back, looking pleased but unfazed. "At best, I’ll let you off the hook this time. But if anyone from the Travers family crosses me again, don’t expect me to be this le."

  Yulia bit her lip, her mind rag for a way out, but there was none. She finally nodded. "Alright. But you’ll have to take an Unbreakable Vow to e. I won’t agree to anything otherwise."

  "Fair enough," Alex replied, shrugging. "But there’ll o be a third-party witness, and that witness must also keep this arra secret."

  "Agreed. I’ll arra," Yulia said, resigned.

  "Now for my terms." Alex leaned forward, his tone shifting to one of businesslike detat. "Thirty thousand Galleons. If that’s too much, I’ll take half the materials in your family’s treasury—four ounces of refined mithril, a four-foostring, and a full copy of your family library."

  Yulia stared at him, sck-jawed. "You’re ihirty thousand Galleons? Half the treasury? That’s enough to bankrupt us a from Engnd tomorrow!"

  Alex smirked. "Then make me a teroffer."

  "Five thousand Galleons. You take three materials from the treasury—no more than one ounithril. The dragostring is fine. As for the library, I’ll allow you to copy twenty volumes, max."

  iating with Alex was a battlefield Yulia Travers had never imagined she'd find herself on. A noble dy, used to a life of elegand etiquette, was now haggling over every st Galleon and ounaterial with someone who had navigated the rough waters of the market since childhood.

  “25,000 Galleons. I’ll even throw in a minor cession oerials in your treasury—let’s say, ohird of it—and 1,000 books from your family’s colle. That’s as far as I’ll go. Don’t try my patience,” Alex said, leaning back slightly, his tone leaving no room fument.

  Yulia shook her head, refusing to yield, tering his terms with a firm but desperate determination.

  What followed was an exhaustive iation, ohat dragged on far lohan Yulia would have liked. They argued down to the ti details—disputing the number of Galleons by one or two, haggling over whether a fra of an ounithril should be included, and eveing the precise number of books Alex could take. The miretched into ay as they painstakingly settled each term.

  Finally, after more than half an hour of relentless bad-forth, the two reached an agreement. For Yulia, the ordeal had been nothing short of torment. To her, each word she uttered seemed to erase the painstaking efforts of geions of the Travers family. The losses weighed heavily on her, leaving her exhausted and visibly pale.

  Meanwhile, Alex, though visibly satisfied, couldn’t resist muttering, “For such a wealthy family, they’re surprisingly stingy. At least the final haul was better than I’d hoped. Not bad for a day’s work.”

  Yulia wiped the sweat from her forehead, her voice weak but resolute. “Now that we’ve settled this, I’ll call someoo withe oath.”

  Alex waved a hand dismissively but added with a smirk, “Just don’t bring that idiot Dolores. If she messes up the spell, I’ll probably end up as a toad.”