"Only two months?!"
Tver looked at the remaining sacks in surprise.
"And these are only the ones that have already reached me. There are even more on the way, and the number keeps growing. I can fill an entire sack almost every day!"
At this point, Joanne did not know whether she ought to complain or be happy.
Her previous book had actually won her quite a few readers, especially young ones, who loved writing to her in childish handwriting.
But since she had only been responsible for polishing that book, while the actual content could more or less be called plagiarism, she had read every letter out of guilt and carefully written a few lines in reply.
Fortunately, that book's success had not fully settled in yet, so there were not too many fans writing to her. The pride it brought her far outweighed the tedium of answering letters.
But now things were different.
Governments around the world seemed to have lost their minds. The moment the book went on sale, every kind of official mouthpiece began praising it, openly or subtly.
Education departments had even placed it directly on their recommended reading lists for teenagers.
This was the first time governments across the globe had been so united in promoting a single book. The influence it produced was easy to imagine.
If the internet had been more developed and the fans could gather together, this vast wave of enthusiasm would have crushed any other kind of fanbase.
So Joanne had found herself with this thrilling new problem.
The little fans who could not gather together could only express their love for the book by writing to the author.
"This many?" Grindelwald had only glanced over casually at first, but even he was startled by the sheer number of letters.
To put it bluntly, the entire British wizarding world might not send this many letters in a day, even counting international correspondence.
Hearing another voice, Joanne finally realized Tver was not the only person here. Marvolio and an elderly man were also sitting in the living room.
"And this is?" she asked Tver curiously.
Because she posed no threat and had taken on an important role in their publicity efforts, she was one of the few people who knew all of Tver's plans.
Naturally, she was curious about an old man Tver was willing to accept, and even respect.
Grindelwald stood with a smile and gave a perfectly composed bow.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Madam Rowling. I am Gellert Grindelwald."
Grindelwald?!
From the information Tver had "accidentally" revealed, this first-generation Dark Lord's personal life and former grand career were both extraordinarily fascinating.
If there was anyone Joanne was most interested in now, aside from Tver, it was Grindelwald or Dumbledore.
Of course, their stories were connected. Hehehe...
No one knew what she had thought of, but Joanne's eyes filled with fascination and curiosity as she moved closer to the old man, in whom traces of his former bearing could still be seen.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Grindelwald," she said with a brief courtesy, and only that. "As you know, I'm now a fairly well-known author, and what I'm best at is writing other people's stories."
"I wonder whether you've ever written down your own story, so readers all over the world could marvel at your once magnificent... career?"
"?"
Not only Grindelwald, but Tver, Marvolio, and Cynthia all looked at Joanne in surprise.
The first-generation Dark Lord's fearsome reputation was known throughout the world. No one had ever dared speak to Grindelwald like this before.
Joanne could only be described as fearless because she did not know better.
Still, the story between Grindelwald and Dumbledore? It did sound rather fascinating...
Tver's expression turned strange.
"My apologies, Madam, but I have no intention of spreading the story of my failures," Grindelwald said helplessly.
That failure had shattered the pride in his heart. If he had not known Joanne was purely curious, he might have thought she was deliberately reopening his wounds.
Joanne pursed her lips, unwilling to give up. But seeing Grindelwald's firm and solemn expression, she did not dare push further and had no choice but to turn her gaze to Marvolio.
In the past, she had thought Marvolio was merely an ordinary wizard. Only after learning about Horcruxes, and with Tver's explanation, did she realize he was a Horcrux of the second-generation Dark Lord currently wreaking havoc in the wizarding world.
Although she did not know why there were so many Dark Lords on Tver's side, that did nothing to dampen her desire to investigate.
Watching Marvolio stiffly deal with Joanne, Tver turned his gaze to Cynthia, who was quietly sorting the letters.
"I did ask the governments to promote this book heavily, but why were they so obedient? Why did they put so much effort into it?" he asked curiously.
He had only given those publicity instructions casually. He had thought the countries would simply go through the motions, at most increasing their efforts slightly according to how close their relationship with him was.
Cynthia smiled faintly.
She had also been startled by the scale of the governments' publicity efforts at first, so she had looked into it before coming over.
"In fact, as cooperation between the Wizards' Confederation and national governments deepens, and as they taste the benefits brought by potions and magic, they've realized that magic isn't only useful for fighting."
"They even said that using a wizard's abilities for combat alone is simply a waste of their talents."
That was quite true. In terms of destructive power in war, technological weapons caused far more damage than wizards. After all, not every wizard could cast large-scale magic like Protego Diabolica.
The true strength of wizards lay in the vast variety of magical effects they could produce, especially miraculous effects that technology still could not achieve.
If they were applied to fields such as scientific research and medicine, they could at least force research progress forward by a large margin.
"So in the end, it was profit that drove them into this frenzy?" Tver asked.
And here he had thought that afternoon tea had won him quite a bit of goodwill. So it had all been business after all.
"Yes," Cynthia said with a smile. "In this feverish atmosphere of chasing profit, anything that can deepen their understanding of magic naturally arouses their curiosity."
"And many political figures know that you teach at Hogwarts, and that Dumbledore is the Headmaster of that school."
"So when they saw that The Philosopher's Stone tells a story that takes place at Hogwarts, and even involves Voldemort, they treated the book as a guide to understanding the wizarding world and Dumbledore."
"Some officials even complained to me, asking why there was no story about you in it."
"And what do the readers think of magic?" Tver asked with an amused shake of his head.
"Here, read it yourself." Cynthia smiled as she handed him a pink letter covered in cute stickers.
Tver opened it, and the adorable handwriting appeared before his eyes.
"Dear Auntie Rowling, I'm a little fan from China. Mum said I should write to you in English, but I can't even learn pinyin properly, so I can only tell you this: I really, really, really, really like the book you wrote!
If I could, I'd want to receive a letter from an owl when I'm 11. I would be very, very happy then!"