"You've really got some nerve saying that, Skofin."
At some point, Iyeta had already appeared inside the suite. As she walked toward them, she said, "But if I remember correctly, weren't you expelled from the International Confederation of Wizards because you attacked Patriarch Harris?"
Skofin's expression didn't change. He simply shook his head calmly.
"No, it wasn't the Harris family that exiled me. It was me who abandoned the Harris family. There's a huge difference between those two things. I hope you don't confuse them."
"You..."
Iyeta was clearly furious. She pointed at Skofin, her face pale as she stood there stiffly for a long while before finally sighing.
"You really haven't changed at all."
After saying that, she stopped looking at Skofin and instead bowed to Link and Dumbledore.
"My apologies for letting the two of you witness that. The delegation from the French Ministry of Magic has already arrived at the International Confederation of Wizards. On behalf of Elder Harris, I've come to invite you both to lunch."
"Oh, they're here already?" Link said expressionlessly. "That was fast. Don't tell me this is because you kept urging them on after receiving my proposal?"
Iyeta didn't answer. She only lowered her head even further. The answer was obvious.
Seeing that, Link didn't press the issue. He let out a light chuckle and, together with Dumbledore and the others, followed Iyeta back into the elevator inside the suite.
As Iyeta activated the elevator, everyone's strange looks gathered on Skofin.
He had definitely concealed part of the truth just now.
Otherwise, Iyeta wouldn't have rushed out to say he was exiled for attacking Patriarch Harris.
Still, Link was only surprised that Skofin had such a past.
He had no intention of digging deeper into it.
After all, the long years they had spent together had already proven more than enough that Skofin was trustworthy.
"We're here.", Iyeta spoke softly, and almost at the same moment, the elevator doors opened.
What appeared before Link wasn't a corridor at all, but directly a massive reception dining hall.
The restaurant still carried an intense seventeenth- and eighteenth-century aesthetic throughout.
Even among large old wizarding families like the Malfoys, this kind of old-fashioned style was actually pretty rare now.
But Link's gaze remained fixed on the elevator behind them from beginning to end.
After all, that elevator had just brought them directly from their resting suite to this dining hall.
Naturally, the International Confederation of Wizards couldn't possibly have designed their building without hallways, so that meant this extremely sci-fi-looking elevator wasn't just comfortable to ride in.
Its interior very likely integrated spatial transfer technology similar to Apparition or the Floo Network.
That only further confirmed Link's speculation that the International Confederation of Wizards might eventually abandon Earth altogether.
After all, while this sort of spatial transfer technology operated on the magical side of things, it could equally be used for ultra-long-distance jumps through space.
Compared to the defensive rune arrays laid out around the exterior of the Confederation headquarters, the technological gap was absurdly huge.
Link could only say that their tech tree had developed in a wildly crooked direction.
"Welcome! Mister Link Flamel, and our old friend, Professor Dumbledore! I am William Harris, one of the elders of the International Confederation of Wizards, as well as the mediator in charge of this conference."
While Link was observing the elevator, an elderly man seated at the head of the dining table in the center of the hall stood up.
He spread his arms and embraced Dumbledore before turning toward Link.
"Come, take a seat! Ah, of course! I still need to introduce everyone. This here is Minister Peter Cotton of the French Ministry of Magic."
"Sitting beside him are the Director of Magical Law Enforcement, the Head of the Auror Command, and several other officials from the French Ministry."
Old Harris looked like an exceptionally kind old man.
He had a snowy white beard, neatly groomed much like Dumbledore's.
But the most striking thing about him was his eyes.
Those brownish-yellow eyes looked ordinary at first glance, yet somehow seemed capable of speaking on their own.
Meeting his gaze, Link could feel endless goodwill radiating from them. Even when Link deliberately activated Legilimency and Occlumency for a moment, he still detected nothing unusual.
And yet despite that, Link still felt it was all an act.
According to what Skofin and Iyeta had said earlier, Old Harris should be Skofin's father, and there had once been an extremely serious conflict between them.
Yet now that father and son had reunited, Skofin was the one losing composure. His eyes had even reddened, though it was hard to tell whether from anger or emotion.
Old Harris, on the other hand, showed no change whatsoever in expression even while staring directly at his own son.
The feeling he gave off was almost like a machine.
Following the direction Old Harris pointed toward the dining table, what entered Link's sight were over a dozen people dressed in lavish Versailles-style formal wear.
Even without introductions, Link could identify who they were.
After all, Versailles-style clothing looked so outrageously gaudy by modern standards that some parts of it were practically bizarre.
Aside from the oldest French pure-blood wizarding aristocrats, almost nobody dressed like that anymore.
That said...
Their outfits actually matched the "antique decoration style" of the dining hall quite well.
By comparison, Dumbledore in wizard robes and Link and Skofin in suits looked oddly out of place instead.
After briefly surveying the people in the room, Link and Dumbledore sat down opposite the French delegation.
Newland and Skofin stood expressionlessly behind them like statues. That was their actual role as security personnel, even if neither Dumbledore nor Link really needed protection.
As for Iyeta, she very consciously took on the role of a server, helping Old Harris arrange the tableware.
To be honest, during that process, the interaction between Old Harris and Iyeta seemed a little too intimate.
Judging purely from their body language and the looks they exchanged, their relationship didn't seem like a simple elder-and-junior connection at all. It looked more like...
Link withdrew his gaze and quietly glanced at Skofin.
Skofin was staring straight ahead at the dining knife closest to him on the table. His expression was calmer than when he had first seen Old Harris earlier, but the coldness in his eyes had only grown denser.
"My dear Mister Dumbledore,"
Just as Link was observing Skofin and Old Harris with a strange expression, an elderly man seated in the center of the French delegation suddenly spoke.
"I assume the person beside you must be Mister Link Flamel? One of the members of the Tripartite Committee of the British Ministry of Magic, and Hogwarts' Educational Representative Committee member. Heh, he's really quite young!"
Dumbledore smiled and said, "Youth is a good thing, Minister. It brings more vitality and entirely new possibilities to our world. Besides, although Link is young, he possesses more than enough ability. Even I admire him greatly for it."
"Well said, Dumbledore." The French Minister of Magic lightly applauded.
"But sometimes being too young isn't a good thing. Young people certainly have innovative ideas, but they lack experience."
"Under those circumstances, the innovative decisions they make are more likely to bring catastrophic disasters."
"So compared to young people like Mister Link Flamel, I actually prefer communicating with more mature individuals."
The French Minister paused slightly, the corners of his lips curling upward as he looked at Link with obvious disdain.
"So then, the British Ministry of Magic only sent the two of you to this conference? Where are the elders of your family?"
"And those two committee members, could it be they were too frightened, so they pushed a puppet like you out front to take the blame?"
"A puppet? You mean Link?"
Dumbledore said in surprise, his gaze moving repeatedly between Link and the French Minister of Magic, as if he couldn't believe the other party would actually say something like that.
"Of course. No matter how you look at it, there's no way an enormous Ministry of Magic could truly be handed over to someone this young, right?" the French Minister said with a smile.
"That leaves only one answer. Link Flamel is a puppet, a pitiful pawn placed out in the open to draw enemy fire. As for who's controlling him behind the scenes, that much I wouldn't know."
Although the French Minister said that, his eyes never once left Dumbledore.
The implication couldn't have been more obvious.
After a brief moment of astonishment, Dumbledore suddenly burst into laughter.
As he laughed, he kept patting Link on the shoulder as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
The French Minister didn't care much about that. He merely snorted coldly and said, "Sending a puppet is one thing."
"I don't particularly care about that. But isn't the number of people you brought to this conference a little too small?"
"For this meeting, we brought nearly every major official we have, including the Director of Magical Law Enforcement and the Head of the Auror Command."
"And what about you?"
"You only brought one committee member, along with Dumbledore, who has absolutely nothing to do with the British Ministry of Magic."
"Isn't that a little too disrespectful?"
As soon as the French Minister finished speaking, the officials seated around him all began chiming in as well.
One especially burly man covered in medals, clearly the Head of the Auror Command, even slammed the table and stood up, directly cursing at Link.
Sarcasm and mocking ridicule blended together instantly, turning the once quiet and elegant dining hall into something as noisy as a marketplace.
Seeing this, the smile on Dumbledore's face gradually faded until only a trace of amused interest remained.
He quietly watched Link, apparently curious how he would handle a situation like this.
And Link's answer was so simple and direct it bordered on absurdity.
He merely raised one arm slightly.
The next moment, immense magical power erupted outward.