A smile slowly appeared at the corner of Link's mouth.
That smile was like a spring breeze sweeping across winter land, melting all the frost on Link's face.
Seeing this, Emily finally let out a sigh of relief.
The sudden change Link had shown just now had been truly frightening.
In the entire hall, only Fleur still remained in her original dazed state.
This was actually a variation of Link's Legilimency spell.
By blending Legilimency with the power of Occlumency and invading the mind, he could temporarily allow others to discard unnecessary emotions and become calm and rational.
"Tell me carefully... how exactly did Maxime go mad?", Link helped Fleur to her feet and asked gently.
Hearing this, Fleur instinctively trembled, as if recalling something terrifying, and said in fear, "Link, you remember we met at Durmstrang, right?"
Link nodded, but his gaze couldn't help drifting toward Dumbledore.
By coincidence, Dumbledore was also looking at him.
As their eyes met, Dumbledore's expression didn't look very good.
Link had been to Durmstrang?
This was information Dumbledore had never obtained before.
As for what Link went there to do, Dumbledore didn't even need to ask.
Nothing more than the same things he had done at Hogwarts.
Seizing a seat on the school board, installing a puppet headmaster, and taking control of the entire magical school.
Dumbledore even felt that Link's progress at Durmstrang was probably faster than at Hogwarts, and his control even more thorough.
After all, Durmstrang didn't have a headmaster like him, Dumbledore.
'Link… you really hide things well!'
Thinking this, Dumbledore closed his eyes and refused to continue the eye contact with Link.
Meanwhile, Fleur had no idea that her single sentence had exposed Link's arrangements at Durmstrang and continued, "In fact, the Triwizard Tournament dealt a huge psychological blow to Headmistress Maxime."
"She could never understand why Beauxbatons lost to Hogwarts... and lost so badly!"
"Clearly Beauxbatons has such a good learning environment, and the scholarships given to students are higher than Hogwarts."
"Yet it just can't produce legendary-level genius wizards continuously like Hogwarts can.", As she spoke, Fleur gave Link a complicated glance.
Obviously, the genius wizard she was referring to was Link.
It was Link's almost incomprehensible performance in the Triwizard Tournament that pushed Maxime to the brink of collapse.
"So after the Triwizard Tournament ended, Headmistress Maxime began thinking about reforming Beauxbatons. At first, her reform plan was to improve the school's teaching quality."
"She believed that Hogwarts students were so outstanding because their professors were excellent. But the problem is, truly excellent professors are rare."
"You can't just buy them with money... you also need luck. So she turned her attention to Durmstrang."
Fleur continued, "She wanted to take advantage of Durmstrang's internal and external troubles and directly seize control of it."
"Then she planned to use her authority to lure some of Durmstrang's excellent professors to Beauxbatons through various means, raising Beauxbatons' teaching standards and changing its educational approach."
"At that time, Headmistress Maxime wasn't completely crazy yet."
"At least during the whole attempt to take over Durmstrang, she never used any force beyond money and political maneuvering."
"And then… she failed again."
Link touched his nose and said nothing.
He himself was the main reason for Maxime's failure that time.
But Link felt that even without his appearance, it would have been very difficult for Maxime to subdue Durmstrang.
If anyone else had appeared as an alternative, the conservative professors of Durmstrang would likely have supported that person just as they had supported him.
After all, Maxime's attitude had been far too arrogant.
With other people, that might not have mattered.
Durmstrang's hardliners might even have appreciated it.
They worship strength.
A weak soldier is weak alone; a weak general makes the whole army weak.
In their view, a strong leader could better lead them down a powerful path.
Wasn't that far better than that coward Karkaroff?
But the problem was that Maxime was a woman... and a half-giant witch at that.
How could Durmstrang's conservatives possibly accept that?
After all, Durmstrang is famous across Europe as a pure-blood wizarding school!
Its foundation is dark.
There was no way it would accept the rule of an arrogant half-giant witch.
Fleur sighed deeply and continued, "This failure completely drove Headmistress Maxime insane. Although she still held onto her original reform ideas, her methods became more and more ruthless."
"She began targeting small magical schools nearby, using countless methods including assassination, bribery, and sowing discord to seize control of them."
"The result was that small magical schools across Europe suffered terribly."
"They were almost completely wiped out under Headmistress Maxime's attacks!"
"At the same time, Beauxbatons, which absorbed the 'blood' of these smaller schools, became stronger and stronger."
"Its student population grew larger, and the quality and number of its staff also rose rapidly."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Emily asked softly with a frown.
She didn't think Maxime had done anything wrong in this matter.
Expansion of power often involves unsavory methods. The Flamel family was like this, and so were other families and organizations.
Maxime was only doing what everyone else would do.
Those small magical schools that were swallowed didn't deserve much sympathy.
Some of them may indeed have had excellent professors.
But overall, they were still places that misled students.
Students graduating from those schools either went down dark paths or became useless... there was no third possibility.
So being absorbed by Beauxbatons couldn't really be considered a bad thing.
"Yes, if it had just stopped there, it would indeed have been a great thing for Beauxbatons. But the problem is, that was only the beginning…"
Fleur said quietly, "The steady improvement in teaching quality and student numbers made Headmistress Maxime very happy."
"Although maintaining this situation required huge financial spending, she believed that as long as student quality also improved... even if it was only half of Hogwarts' genius production rate... she would be satisfied."
"Unfortunately, reality proved her strategy wrong."
"During a schoolwide test six months ago, the average scores of all Beauxbatons grades not only failed to rise... they dropped by nearly thirty points!"
"That's an astonishing number. So astonishing that Headmistress Maxime completely lost her mind."
"Her failure was inevitable," Link said, shaking his head.
"Even compared to Hogwarts and Durmstrang, Beauxbatons has the best living conditions... let alone those poor remote small schools."
"When the professors and students from those poor schools entered Beauxbatons, it was like mice falling into a rice jar, like starving ghosts from hell suddenly dragged into heaven."
"Such a drastic change in environment wouldn't make them strive harder."
"Instead, it would turn them into parasites addicted to comfort!"
"This is human nature! Even wizards are no exception!"
"As expected of you, Link. Your guess is exactly the same as the conclusion Headmistress Maxime reached after her investigation."
"Those professors and students gathered into Beauxbatons really did become corrupted."
"This corruption even began to spread... many originally excellent Beauxbatons professors and students were influenced and became lazy as well."
Fleur spoke slowly, "But predicting something beforehand and discovering it afterward are completely different! Headmistress Maxime had no mental preparation."
"When she learned that all her good intentions had gone to waste... and that those who benefited even treated her like a sucker... she completely lost her sanity!"
"What happened next?" Link asked, sitting up straighter.
He had a feeling that what Fleur was about to say next was the key to what they had come to France to investigate.
Link trusted this intuition very much, because it was actually a kind of quasi-precognitive ability resulting from his rapidly increased mental strength.
Very mysterious.
Hearing this, Fleur closed her eyes painfully and said, "During the early stages of Headmistress Maxime's plans to annex Durmstrang and other magical schools, Beauxbatons welcomed a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"His name was Madro Tomfud Lilo. Professor Lilo was very young but extremely knowledgeable."
"He always approached topics from angles we had never imagined before and provided us with truly practical defensive magic knowledge."
"Most importantly, he wasn't arrogant. Compared to the formal title 'Professor Lilo,' he preferred students to call him Madro."
"His excellent teaching combined with his approachable personality quickly made him the most popular professor in Beauxbatons. Even Headmistress Maxime thought highly of him."
"What does this have to do with what you were saying before?" Krell frowned.
He felt Fleur was going off topic.
"Of course it's related!" Fleur suddenly said loudly.
"Because it was this Madro who, when Headmistress Maxime was depressed over the complete corruption of professors and students, gave her a proposal!"
"He proposed implementing a comprehensive teaching system at Beauxbatons that combined Hogwarts' Headmaster Black-style education with Durmstrang's Spartan-style education!"
"I know a bit about Sparta... survival of the fittest," Krell said, puzzled. "But what kind of Black-style education is that supposed to be?"
As soon as he said this, Dumbledore cast a sympathetic look at Link and Krell.
In his view, for the Flamel family's chief steward to be this ignorant was really…
Link looked a bit embarrassed and took a deep breath before explaining, "Phineas Nigellus Black, Sirius Black's great-great-grandfather."
"He once served as headmaster of Hogwarts, and during his tenure he implemented high-pressure, high-punishment rule."
"At that time, corporal punishment of students was extremely common. If you've ever been to Filch's office, you'd understand."
"He still keeps the torture devices used to punish students from that era. All kinds of fancy ones. Guaranteed to open your eyes."
"Students like the Weasley twins, if they had been there during Phineas Black's time, probably would have been beaten to death already!"
"And I'm not exaggerating when I say 'beaten to death.'"
"They really would have died."
"Because back then, Hogwarts had an annual casualty quota."
"As long as student deaths didn't exceed that number, everyone treated it as if nothing had happened."
"This educational strategy produced extremely powerful graduates, and it was during that era that the British wizarding world reached its historical peak."
"But that kind of education destroys humanity!"
Dumbledore stepped forward to refute him. Link's last remarks sounded like a comparison between him and Phineas Black, which he could not accept.
"What makes us most precious as intelligent beings is our humanity, which allows us to resist our own desires."
"Phineas' methods may have improved student ability, but they also eroded humanity and pushed us back toward a beastlike state."
"Yes, students of Phineas' era were powerful... the strongest in Europe... and even led the British wizarding world to conquer much of magical Europe."
"But that didn't last, did it?"
"In fact, after that, Britain's position in the international wizarding community began declining rapidly."
"And the reason is exactly that while Phineas' students were powerful, they lacked humanity."
"Many of them became dark wizards... cancers that disrupted the order of the magical world!"
Link narrowed his eyes and replied, "But what's the use of only developing humanity? Professor Dumbledore, you don't think you're fundamentally different from Phineas Black, do you?"
"From my perspective, aren't you both representatives of extremes? The only difference is that Phineas Black was an extreme radical, while you are an extreme moderate."
"And history has already proven that any extreme strategy leads to extremely bad consequences! Only integration and balance is the best solution!"
"So after saying all that, you're just trying to say you're more correct than any headmaster in Hogwarts history?"
"Isn't that the truth? I stand on the shoulders of giants and draw on the lessons and experience of those before me. Naturally I can do better!"
Dumbledore fell silent.
He stared into Link's serious eyes, as if unable to find any words to refute him.
After a long time, he finally said with a bitter smile, "Balance is far more difficult than you think. It's like someone walking blindfolded on a road full of crossroads."
"Under those circumstances, trying to walk in a straight line consistently is almost impossible. Many leaders in history have tried, but without exception they all drifted off course... either to the left or the right."
"I hope you succeed."
"Of course. I have full confidence in myself and my companions," Link said expressionlessly, ending the debate.
Only then did they notice that Emily, Fleur, and the others around them were staring at them with disbelief.
Clearly they had been shocked by what just happened.
This left both Link and Dumbledore somewhat at a loss.
Their complicated relationship couldn't be explained in a few words, nor was it something Emily and Fleur should know about.
At this moment, Krell demonstrated why he was qualified to be the Flamel family's chief steward.
He coughed twice and quickly changed the subject, "So basically, that Madro guy was suggesting Beauxbatons switch to a harsher education system?"
"In general terms, yes. But in the details, there were big differences," Fleur sighed and continued.
"In fact, the core of Madro's proposal was differential treatment."
"He adopted Headmaster Black's extremely harsh education while also introducing Durmstrang's Spartan survival-of-the-fittest system."
"The result of combining these two was that a small number of exceptionally talented students and professors, through monthly exams and excellent daily performance, received higher salaries and scholarships, better living conditions, and even the privilege to command and physically punish lower-ranked students and even professors."
"In contrast, students with poor grades and weak political skills were stripped of most survival resources."
"Some of them even became slaves to the outstanding students!"
"That's really… sorry, I honestly don't know how to describe it," Link said, shaking his head.
"I can only say his proposal went too far. He pushed the reward and punishment system to several extremes. I can hardly imagine how bad the students trained this way would become."
"Such a vicious educational method... even Phineas Black himself probably wouldn't approve if he were alive."
Dumbledore nodded and said, "Indeed. At its core, their system is similar to the competitive model you implemented at Hogwarts."
"But your execution maintained excellent balance, achieving healthy competition without damaging students' nature."
"But it can't be denied that such extreme methods would be far more efficient at improving grades and strength alone than your system at Hogwarts."
"After all, the rewards they offer are simply astonishing."
"That's why I'm begging you… to help rescue Gabrielle," Fleur said, her face pale. "Gabrielle… she's already deeply trapped in it and can't escape!"