"Mr. Washington, may I have the honor of this dance with you?"
As the lights in the ballroom suddenly dimmed and the music slowly began to play, a woman with a flirtatious smile on her face suddenly walked up to Link and spoke softly.
A strange look flashed across Link's face as he said, "My wife is right here, and you still dare to come invite me to dance?"
"So what?" The woman looked even more confused than Link. "For people like us, that shouldn't be a problem."
As she spoke, she pointed to the side. "Look, that's my husband."
Following the direction she pointed, Link saw that the area in the center of the ballroom where the students' dining tables had originally been placed had now been completely cleared. It had clearly been turned into a dance floor.
Several pairs of middle-aged men and women were dancing gracefully there to the gentle music.
To be honest, Link couldn't tell which one was this woman's husband.
But that didn't stop him from understanding what she meant. Among aristocratic circles, everyone usually just did their own thing.
Taking a deep breath, Link shook his head and said, "I love my wife very much."
As he spoke, Emily also stepped forward and wrapped her arm around Link's, looking coldly at the woman in front of her.
"Is that so? What a pity.", The woman spoke as she left somewhat dejectedly.
Before leaving, she also gave Emily a rather complicated look.
In that gaze, there was confusion, and even more so, envy.
Along with that woman, quite a few other women who had been gathered around Link also withdrew.
Although these women weren't in the same group as her, they all understood one thing.
It was impossible to invite Link to dance tonight.
Only then did Emily nod in satisfaction and say to Link, "How about we have a dance?"
"No," Link said calmly. "Let's head back as soon as possible."
"So urgent?"
"I have a bad feeling. So the sooner everything is done, the better."
As he spoke, Link turned to Fleur and said, "You and Emily go back to the guest rooms together. Quickly. We still have some other matters to handle here. Also, Gabrielle should go with you."
Link spoke with absolute firmness. Fleur understood what Link was planning to do.
Her heart immediately tightened, and she was just about to pull Gabrielle along and leave the ballroom.
But unexpectedly, Gabrielle grabbed her back instead.
Gabrielle looked at Link with a guarded expression and said, "You're inviting me to your guest room? What kind of crooked idea are you plotting?"
"Let me warn you, Beauxbatons does not allow overly intimate relationships between guests and students!"
That was the truth.
Even at a ball like this, guests and students weren't allowed to dance together.
This was Beauxbatons' way of protecting the lower-year students. Otherwise, given how Beauxbatons currently operated, a lot of disgusting things would definitely happen.
But rules, from the moment they were created, were never destined to be enforced one hundred percent.
There would always be people willing to take risks and break them.
Like Lola earlier.
Their intentions were obvious.
After all, the benefits of doing something like that were simply too great.
But Link really didn't mean anything like that!
"Haa..."
Link let out a long breath and said, "You misunderstood. I just wanted to give you sisters a chance to talk. I won't be returning to the guest rooms for a while."
"That means it'll just be you three girls there. If you're still worried, you can skip the guest room and go talk somewhere outside instead."
"So you're trying to lure us away?"
Gabrielle's guard didn't drop at all. She then looked at Link as if he were trash and said, "After leading us away, you'll be free to do whatever shameful things you want."
"Like dancing with those women from earlier, and doing some disgusting things along the way!"
Link felt the veins on his forehead starting to bulge.
Ever since he had taken power, this was the first time he had met someone this difficult.
Fleur, standing beside Gabrielle, was also getting anxious.
She clearly knew what Link and the others were about to do.
She was just about to try persuading Gabrielle again.
But before she could speak, Gabrielle sneered and said, "But that has nothing to do with me. I don't care what tricks you people want to play, as long as it's not played on us!"
With that, she pulled Fleur away from the ballroom.
Judging from the direction they left in, they were probably heading to the guest rooms.
This made Link let out a sigh of relief as he said, "Emily, follow them. Bring Krell with you. After our plan here is finished, he'll help you take Gabrielle away and abduct her."
Emily nodded in understanding and quickly followed after Fleur and the others who had already gone far ahead.
Meanwhile, Link and Dumbledore exchanged a glance and slowly walked in the opposite direction.
According to the rules, guests weren't allowed to move freely inside Beauxbatons Castle.
Because of this, Maxime and the others had also set up restrictions at each exit of the ballroom to limit the guests' movement range.
Unfortunately, restrictions like that were basically meaningless to wizards of Link and Dumbledore's level.
The two of them moved almost completely unhindered all the way to the eighth floor, then entered the ambush location they had previously studied and decided on.
The magical bridge connecting Beauxbatons Tower One to Tower Three.
This could be considered one of Beauxbatons' landmark structures.
The distance between the two towers was nearly one hundred meters, yet they were connected by a magical bridge nearly three meters wide.
Calling it a bridge wasn't entirely accurate. It was more like a corridor.
There were no visible supports underneath it at all. From a god's-eye view, it looked as if a wooden plank had simply been laid across the tops of the two towers.
Above the bridge stood rows of white Roman columns and a marble ceiling.
Every detail on them was carved with intricate patterns and embedded with tiny fragments of magical gemstones.
If illuminated by moonlight, those patterns would emit a faint yet incredibly complex and beautiful glow.
Turning the bridge itself into the most beautiful structure in all of Beauxbatons.
And most importantly, this was almost the highest point ordinary wizards could reach in Beauxbatons.
Standing here and looking down, one could clearly see the entire brightly lit Beauxbatons complex.
If the moonlight were just a bit brighter, one could even see the distant deep-blue lake and the dark-red sea of higanbana flowers.
These three colors intertwining together were enough to intoxicate anyone who saw them.
"Unfortunately… today's weather isn't very good."
Dumbledore looked at the pitch-black night scenery in the distance and spoke with some regret, "I heard Olim mention Beauxbatons' beautiful scenery a long time ago."
"I thought I'd be able to see it for myself this time. But it seems the weather isn't cooperating."
As he spoke, there was an indescribable melancholy about him.
Following Dumbledore's words, Link looked up toward the sky.
He saw that the already dim moon tonight was now completely hidden behind dark clouds, with only faint strands of light slipping through, illuminating large masses of clouds rapidly drifting by.
The corner of Link's mouth slowly curled up into a ferocious smile.
"A dark night with strong winds. Perfect weather for killing!"
Dumbledore glanced at Link and said, "You and I want different things. Naturally, we see different things."
Link didn't respond to Dumbledore anymore.
Instead, he took out his wand and began drawing dense and complex formation patterns in the air.
From the moment they were created, these patterns carried a silvery white glow.
But every single symbol, without exception, instantly sank into the darkness the moment Link finished drawing it.
As if they had automatically sunk into another dimension.
This was the counter-spell to the Anti-Apparition Charm.
This type of counter-spell had automatically appeared in Link's mind after he raised his Apparition spell to LV6.
It could temporarily remove the Anti-Apparition restriction within a certain range without being noticed.
Very useful.
But also very time-consuming.
It took a full fifteen minutes before Link finally completed the entire formation.
He let out a small breath of relief, then removed the spatial positioning brooch from his chest.
Using the tip of the brooch's pin, he lightly pricked his finger.
A trace of bright red blood seeped from his skin and began to ripple in the darkness.
Gradually, it merged with the brooch, forming the shape of a doorway.
Then, figures slowly began stepping out from that doorway.
First came the Flamel family's hunter squad.
Then the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic also began appearing one after another.
By the time the doorway finally dissipated, more than fifty hunters and Aurors were already silently standing around Link and Dumbledore.
"Young master!"
"Commissioner Flamel!"
The commanders of the hunter squad and the Auror unit spoke almost at the same time, then got cut off by each other and ended up glaring angrily at one another.
The Auror unit commander was still Sand.
After serving as head of the Auror Office for some time, he had already developed quite an imposing presence.
In comparison, the hunter squad's commander was somewhat lower in status.
Krell had already been sent by Link to protect Emily.
The one leading the hunters now was only a temporary commander.
Even so, he showed no fear at all.
His gaze toward Sand was filled with arrogance and disdain.
"There will be a battle here shortly."
Link spoke calmly. Upon hearing this, the two who had just been confronting each other immediately turned around and adopted respectful listening expressions.
"Your task is to conceal yourselves as much as possible. Don't let anyone else discover you. And once the battle begins, your task will change to guarding both ends of the bridge. Don't let any unrelated people come in and interfere with our fight."
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
The temporary hunter commander and Sand responded in unison again.
But this time, they didn't argue with each other. Instead, they each led their people to opposite ends of the bridge and began standing guard.
Watching their figures slowly disappear into the night, Dumbledore's mouth twitched slightly.
"The Disillusionment Charm and Silencing Charm are one thing. Those are spells they should already know. But what's with the Invisibility Cloaks?" Dumbledore said with a conflicted expression.
"And judging from the concealment effect and speed, they're the highest-grade type. Is it really necessary to invest this much in them? That's more than fifty top-tier invisibility cloaks. If converted into Galleons, that should be about…"
Dumbledore paused and began calculating silently.
Link simply shook his head and said directly, "Around fifty-five thousand Galleons. I personally approved that reallocated funding, so I remember it."
"As for why we invested so much in them, you should already see the results, shouldn't you?"
Dumbledore looked toward the darkness at both ends of the bridge. Though he didn't want to admit it, he still nodded in the end.
With the enhancement of multiple concealment spells combined with the cover of top-tier invisibility cloaks, the effect really was excellent.
So good that even a legendary wizard like himself would probably have a hard time noticing that over fifty of the most elite combat wizards were hiding there, if he hadn't already known.
As if thinking of something, Dumbledore let out a deep sigh.
Seeing this, Link smacked his lips twice and said somewhat helplessly, "Alright, I get it. I'll increase Hogwarts' budget next year. We'll use the same standard as the Auror unit and hunter squad. That should be fine, right?"
"Oh! It's always good if you're willing to increase the budget so the students can live better. On behalf of all the staff and students of Hogwarts, I thank you."
"But that's not what I meant." Dumbledore continued staring into the distant darkness.
"Looking at these people, and this Beauxbatons castle, I can't help but think of Hogwarts. If one day Hogwarts were to receive a group of hostile guests like us, what a terrifying scene that would be…"
"That's called mourning the dead rabbit while the fox grieves!", Link said with clear displeasure. He had just gained a brand-new understanding of Dumbledore's shamelessness.
'Besides, if not for me, Hogwarts would've already been invaded by Death Eaters.'
In the original story, there were records of Death Eaters working both inside and outside to invade Hogwarts and even forcing Dumbledore to his death.
Link complained silently in his heart but said nothing out loud.
"Mourning the dead rabbit while the fox grieves?" Dumbledore froze for a moment.
"That really is an appropriate metaphor. Sounds like an Eastern proverb. You're quite knowledgeable. But you've never been to the East, have you? Where did you learn that?"
Link stared at Dumbledore expressionlessly without answering. Instead, he said calmly, "Put away those pointless emotions. This isn't the time for casual conversation."
"Pointless emotions?"
Dumbledore sighed. "They really are quite pointless."
After saying that, Dumbledore slowly withdrew his gaze and, together with Link, continued staring into the darkness ahead.
———
[Inside Beauxbatons Tower One]
Madame Maxime was walking along a long corridor.
The outer side of the corridor was lined with large arched windows, directly facing the brightly lit buildings on the outer grounds of Beauxbatons Castle.
The light from those buildings shone through the windows into the corridor, casting patches of slanted arched light and shadow across the floor.
Maxime walked through those bright silhouettes, tilting her head as she continuously observed the lively streets below. A faint light flickered in her eyes.
This light was called hope.
"Beauxbatons is getting better and better."
Maxime said with emotion, "You deserve a lot of the credit, Madero. Without your help, Beauxbatons could never have changed this much."
Maxime spoke with complete sincerity. As her voice fell, beside her, within the shadows on the inner side of the corridor, a figure slowly turned around.
"This is all… what I should be doing.", A gentle voice came from the figure.
Hearing this, a smile also appeared on Maxime's face.
"You're just too modest, Madero. Would you like to come to my office for a drink later? I also happen to have some plans about Beauxbatons' future that I'd like to discuss with you."
"No, Headmistress Maxime. I haven't finished my patrol for tonight."
"Patrol… honestly, I don't quite understand," Maxime said, shaking her head.
"Beauxbatons' security measures have already been raised to nearly the highest level. I don't think there's still any need for you to keep patrolling the castle."
"Yes, I understand. This is probably just useless effort on my part." The figure in the darkness spoke slowly, and a hint of determination appeared within that gentle tone.
"But if I don't walk a few rounds every day, I feel uneasy. As if, if I don't, danger will come to Beauxbatons."
Maxime's expression softened slightly.
"I understand how you feel, Madero. Beauxbatons… this school is like my child. For this school, I would give everything. Even my life."
"That's exactly it!" Madero Liro said emotionally from the darkness. "You're absolutely right!"
"In that case, go ahead and finish your patrol. Consider it putting your mind at ease. If you really do encounter danger, have someone notify me. I imagine that won't be too difficult for you."
Maxime said with a smile, then glanced toward the corner behind them.
There, several small heads were secretly peeking this way.
Those were all Professor Liro's followers, or his admirers.
The only reason those students would abandon the ongoing ball and chase all the way here was because of Professor Liro.
"Madero, I have no objection to students admiring you. But please remember, teacher-student relationships are absolutely forbidden at Beauxbatons.", Maxime said calmly.
Without even turning her head back, she stepped onto the stairs and headed toward her office at the top floor.
This time, Professor Liro didn't follow. He simply stood there quietly.
After losing the cover of Maxime's massive figure, the light from the arched windows poured freely onto Professor Liro.
It illuminated his neat, glossy black formal suit.
And also illuminated his completely expressionless face.
'No!'
Describing it as expressionless wasn't quite accurate.
A more precise way to put it was that there wasn't the slightest trace of vitality on that face.
As if the one standing in the corridor wasn't a living person at all, but a lifeless puppet.
"Understood, Headmistress Maxime."
That same gentle and respectful voice came from Liro again.
Yet his face remained just as it had before, without the slightest change in expression.
Only when the children behind him cheered and crowded around him did human expressions finally appear on his face.
He smiled warmly and reached out to pull the three children into his arms.