Vid's eyes narrowed slightly.
This poppet resembled a soldier, only two or three inches tall, dressed in gray-green military attire, with a blurred face, thick legs, and slender arms.
To a wizard, the roughness of this poppet was almost laughable, but Vid's first reaction upon seeing it was—
This image was designed for a certain purpose.
He didn't voice his guess, just blinked and watched Machioni continue the demonstration.
The poppet soldier fell onto the table and quickly climbed up, its thick legs ensuring it could stand steadily on the ground, then its head turned around and finally "looked" at Vid.
Because its eyes were merely two black dots painted on, they couldn't move as flexibly as other poppets, but Vid distinctly felt that it seemed to be "looking" at him.
"Fool! Your master is here."
Machioni pinched the poppet's head, turned it around halfway to face himself, then coughed pretentiously twice and said, "Pour me a glass of water."
Poppet: "..."
"I said—pour, me, a, glass, of, water!" Machioni said slowly, word by word.
This time, the poppet seemed to finally receive his command.
It spun around twice on the spot and clattered towards the kettle.
"Bang!"
It kicked over a cup.
Then it grabbed the kettle's handle with both hands and dragged it toward Machioni.
"Thud!"
The kettle fell onto the table, its lid dropped, and water spilled everywhere.
Luckily, the wizards sitting around the table all had considerable skill, and with a spell, cleaned up the water on the table.
The poppet persistently dragged the kettle towards its owner, and Machioni looked at the two and said, "See, it's just a little fool, so imitation dolls basically have no demand..."
"Bang!"
The kettle nearly hit Machioni's face; he dodged, but still ended up with tea splashed on his face.
Two tea leaves hung on his face.
Vid and Lupin originally intended to stay polite, but couldn't hold back and burst into laughter.
The poppet seemed to have completed its task, standing calmly, waiting for the next command.
Machioni wiped the water from his face, took a deep breath, and tapped the foolish poppet with his magic wand.
Subsequently, the poppet vanished from the world.
"—like that!"
Machioni resiliently ignored the laughter of the two and continued the previous topic: "The flexibility of imitations is not even better than the pieces of wizard's chess, so poppets are our main business direction at the moment."
"But I've heard the British Ministry of Magic is organizing a big event that Fudge claims is unprecedented... It's a great opportunity for our workshop, but having only one or two flagship products makes it too easy to fall behind..."
"Recently, I've been trying to persuade the Ministry of Magic to implement a law banning counterfeit Friendship Books from entering the United Kingdom, but haven't been very successful... If I miss this chance, who knows when the next one will come..."
Machioni mumbled continually, clearly troubled by this issue for quite some time.
"But now with the communication beans, things are different—we can certainly catch those guys off guard!"
"However, to prevent being imitated by those shrewd merchants, we might have to postpone the release for a year... at least half a year..."
"Actually..." Vid said, "There's a part of the bean's design where a Disappearing Spell is added to the seal, triggering if someone attempts to crack it."
"Disappearing Spell?" Machioni's eyes lit up, quickly asking, "Can it be added? Will there be conflicts? Is there a chance of accidental activation?"
Vid simply showed him the design blueprint.
He never worried about Machioni leaking it; Machioni was extraordinarily reliable when it came to protection of property rights, even more than Vid himself.
The Friendship Book has been around for almost two years now, and outsiders can only speculate the production method from the final product, producing rough imitations; Machioni's protective measures are evident.
Machioni was once a student of Professor Morry, with alchemy prowess comparable to any typical alchemist, so understanding the design was not difficult for him.
After looking for a while, Machioni grinned: "Did Professor Morry help you revise it?"
"Yes." Vid answered.
The two exchanged a knowing glance.
"Then I'd better hurry to start production." Machioni packed up the blueprint and stood up, smirking: "I can't wait to see those guys have a rough time."
"It's a chain-spell." Vid said: "A regular counter-spell will only make the bean disappear, but if they try to lift the Disappearing Spell, it will trigger the counterattack."
"I get it." Machioni nodded: "Rest assured, I'll make the arrangements... So, should the contract still be dealt by me and Remus?"
"Yes, of course." Vid agreed.
Signing a Magic Contract is never just a matter of writing a name; there are many details to negotiate in between, and over the years, Machioni's Magic Workshop has become increasingly formal, even learning management practices from large Muggle enterprises.
Vid doesn't have the patience to handle such things.
Luckily, Lupin is serious, meticulous, and dedicated, so Vid entrusted the follow-up to him without any concern.
Lupin escorted Vid out of The Hog's Head Inn before returning to the guest room upstairs.
Machioni remarked with a grin: "Remus, do you take on a 'motherly' role when interacting with Vid?"
Lupin wasn't angry, just calmly explained: "The Hog's Head Inn has some dangerous guests; I don't want Vid to come into contact with them."
"I understand, I'm not mocking you... Actually, I think what you're doing is great."
Machioni chuckled, then said seriously: "Remus, since you're in Hogsmeade, make sure you protect Vid—recently, in France, Germany, and Italy... several renowned alchemists have gone missing."
...
Vid left The Hog's Head Inn, planning to meet up with his friends at the Three Broomsticks.
Nearing the place, he saw a person staggering toward him, looking dazed and pale.
It was Carrel.
He accidentally bumped into a girl, who pushed him away, and Carrel just sat there, dazed, with no response.
The girl walked away angrily, and Vid watched for a moment, sighed helplessly, then walked over and crouched down, grabbing Carrel's shoulder and asking, "Hey, Carrel, what's wrong."
"Sea..." Carrel mumbled.
"See?" Vid asked curiously, "What did you see?"
As he spoke, he glanced around.
Carrel rubbed his face vigorously, forcing a smile: "The Halloween decorations in a shop just startled me... I suddenly saw it and got scared."
"Really? I'll check it out later then."
Vid helped him up forcefully, saying, "But I remember you weren't that timid, you're a Gryffindor after all."
"It's mainly because I haven't seen these moving magical creatures in the Magic World before; after all, I'm just..."
Vampire.
—Is that really true?
Carrel suddenly felt huge doubt, as if covered by a layer of fog, obscuring the truth.
—His whole family are vampires, so why are the delicacies in his memory ordinary food, not... not blood meals?
Could it be because they all abide by laws?