[The Next Day]
Inside the conference hall at the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards.
Link, old Harris, and the delegation from the French Ministry of Magic gathered once again.
This was the second day of the mediation process. According to the original plan, they were supposed to formally finalize the detailed terms of the agreement, including the exact amount of compensation, the timing of the apology, the contents of the apology statement, and other specifics, then officially write them into a magical contract for both sides to sign.
If everything followed yesterday's discussion unchanged, then this would absolutely be an unacceptable outcome for the French Ministry of Magic.
So arguing was unavoidable.
Yet at this moment, the entire conference hall was deathly quiet.
Link, Dumbledore, and old Harris were all focused on reading the parchment documents in their hands, while the representatives from the French Ministry of Magic sat blankly on the opposite side of the long table, looking completely lost.
After a long while, Link was the first to put down the document in his hand and let out a long sigh.
What they had just read was an urgent report jointly sent by the French Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards' French office.
It clearly described one thing, large-scale protest demonstrations had erupted within the French magical community, with signs of rebellion.
The cause was simple enough.
Yesterday's meeting results had been leaked, eventually leading Norton and more than ten staff members of the French Ministry of Magic to publicly commit suicide inside the ministry's main hall.
After that, a chain reaction began.
First, the people who witnessed everything in the hall fell into a frenzy and attempted to storm the French Ministry of Magic.
After fifteen minutes of discussion inside the minister's office, a large number of Hit Wizards were dispatched into the ministry, driving all protesters out of the hall and announcing that the French Ministry of Magic would temporarily stop receiving visitors.
But the disturbance did not end there.
On the contrary, the French media smelled blood like sharks and began reporting the incident crazily while adding fuel to the fire.
Eventually, under their agitation, the people became enraged.
Several hundred wizards from all across the French magical world gathered at the entrance of the French Ministry of Magic located in the center of Place Furstenberg. They raised their wands and fired spells into the air in protest.
During this period, more than twenty wizards burned themselves alive in extreme anger.
The French Ministry of Magic made no statement regarding this. They did not even carry out the most basic operations of maintaining order or sending Hit Wizards and Aurors to disperse the crowd again.
The entire French Ministry of Magic seemed paralyzed.
However, according to the explanation in the report, this could not entirely be blamed on the officials on duty in the minister's office.
Because among the ministry staff, there were also many dissatisfied with the results of this meeting.
Though restrained by their positions from taking extreme actions like the ordinary citizens, they instead chose passive resistance, directly causing the entire command structure of the French Ministry of Magic to collapse.
Orders could not even be properly issued or carried out at the lower levels.
Link looked deeply at the French Minister of Magic sitting opposite him.
The current situation was entirely their own fault.
Yesterday's meeting contents would not leak out for no reason.
The only explanation was that there was a traitor within the French delegation.
Actually, that alone was not a big deal.
Similar things had happened many times in the British Ministry of Magic during Fudge's administration.
Normally, as long as one side used tough measures to control the media and protesters to stop things from worsening further, while also using softer methods to calm public dissatisfaction, the situation could largely be stabilized.
Unfortunately, in order to show respect toward the International Confederation of Wizards during this mediation conference, and also to pressure Link, the French Minister of Magic had brought over practically the entire leadership of the French Ministry of Magic in one go, including the head of the Auror Command and the director of Magical Law Enforcement.
The direct result of this was that the agents they left behind at the French Ministry of Magic lacked both the authority and the experience to deal with such large-scale incidents.
So after the incident occurred, their leadership was easily stripped away.
"How stupid."
Thinking this, Link could not help saying his true thoughts out loud.
Hearing that, the representatives of the French Ministry of Magic all looked somewhat dissatisfied.
But the reality before them made them too ashamed to even lift their heads, because even they themselves felt their earlier actions had been unbelievably foolish.
"Minister, your French Ministry of Magic has caused me quite a lot of trouble this time.", Old Harris finally spoke.
As he talked, he tossed out a crystal ball.
The crystal ball rolled across the table, and when it reached the center, a burst of light exploded from it, displaying an image.
It was Place Furstenberg at night.
Hundreds of wizards dressed in different styles had gathered in the square.
They raised their wands high, countless spells shooting into the sky like fireworks before exploding in the night.
Around them were terrified Muggles, along with Muggle police officers who had come to investigate after hearing about the disturbance.
The conflict broke out without warning.
A small group of gathered wizards pointed their wand tips at the Muggles.
After flashes of scarlet spell light flickered repeatedly, explosions, screams, cheers, and angry curses echoed throughout Place Furstenberg.
The image abruptly ended.
At the very end, a helicopter was shot down.
Judging from the markings on its side, it seemed to belong to a French Muggle media company.
"In just the past few hours, footage like this has already spread throughout France."
"If the Ministries of Magic from Italy and Germany hadn't sent emergency intervention teams into France to work together with the French Muggle government to suppress things, news like this would probably have already spread across the entire world."
Old Harris stared at the French delegation, his eyes sharp like a hawk's.
"Even so, the spread of information inside France is still impossible to stop! This is a serious challenge to the International Statute of Secrecy, and it is the direct result of your dereliction of duty!"
The French Minister of Magic looked completely drained of color, his whole body trembling.
Facing the furious old Harris, he could not even speak a complete sentence anymore. He could only mumble broken words like "I'm sorry" and "This can't all be my fault."
As for the others in the delegation, they simply acted like ostriches, lowering their heads and saying nothing.
Old Harris waved his hand impatiently and continued, "Stop making these meaningless excuses."
"The International Confederation of Wizards' Accidental Magic Reversal Squad and Memory Modification Team already departed for the French Ministry of Magic two hours ago to carry out further information suppression and memory wiping operations."
"You also need to stop this unrest as soon as possible, no matter the cost!"
"Y-Yes… thank you for your assistance, I really…"
"You should indeed thank the International Confederation of Wizards. But gratitude is gratitude."
"Since you are directly responsible for this riot, all related expenses will be borne by you. Someone will send you the bill afterward. You just need to pay it."
Hearing that, the French Minister of Magic froze for a moment, then bowed deeply toward old Harris once again.
But a bitter smile hung on his face.
"Wait.", Link's voice suddenly sounded.
The French Minister of Magic's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively looked up.
But Link was not speaking to him at all. He was speaking to old Harris.
"This report says the criminal Norton committed suicide, right? If that's the case, then what happens to the agreement we settled on yesterday?"
"Hm, that is a problem." Old Harris thought for a moment before saying, "How about this? Let the minister hand over Norton's corpse to you for disposal."
"That way, when you bring it back, it can still count as an explanation to your side. At the same time, as compensation, we'll increase the financial reimbursement. What do you think?"
Before Link could answer, the French Minister of Magic suddenly screamed, "No! Absolutely not!"
Link and old Harris both looked over at him.
Only then did the French Minister of Magic realize he had lost control. Lowering his head slightly, he pleaded, "Mr. Harris, and Lord Flamel, we truly cannot hand over Professor Norton's body!"
"He is the source of this entire incident, the root of the people's anger. If I hand over his corpse to you, forget calming the situation, the enraged people will probably drag even me, the Minister of Magic, down from my position!"
'Aren't you already finished anyway?'
'After something this huge happened, do you really think you can still safely remain in the position of Minister of Magic?'
'The moment you return home, you'll probably be forced to consider stepping down.'
Link mocked him wildly in his heart, a sarcastic smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
Seeing that, the French Minister of Magic gritted his teeth and said,
"Eight million! We are willing to compensate your ministry with a full eight million Galleons! That's all of our Galleon reserves. Please forgive us!"
As he spoke, the French Minister of Magic lowered himself completely. His bent posture made him look almost like he was kneeling before Link.
But Link still shook his head and sighed, "What use do I have for Galleons?"
"If that many Galleons flood the market all at once, it will cause rapid inflation across the entire British magical world, eventually collapsing prices and the commercial ecosystem. That would only harm me, not benefit me."
"Then we'll replace it with resources. As long as it's something the French magical world can produce, please name it. We'll do everything we can to satisfy you!"
The French Minister of Magic continued speaking, yet Link shook his head once again.
This nearly drove the minister to despair.
What he didn't know was that Link genuinely had no interest in those things.
Resources and Galleons might elevate the overall economic strength of the British Ministry of Magic to another level.
But after discussing it with Dumbledore, Link had basically confirmed that Norton was also one of the carriers of the King's Blood.
What Link wanted was the King's Blood inside Norton.
"Ahem."
Old Harris suddenly coughed.
"Resource compensation is actually quite good. If Mr. Link Flamel is dissatisfied with it, we can also take it over. Of course, in exchange, the International Confederation of Wizards can offer more compensation options."
As he spoke, old Harris took out a scroll of parchment and floated it in front of Link with magic.
"Please take a look first. If you agree to a resource exchange, you may freely choose any two items from here."
Link did not mock old Harris for trying to cut in. Instead, he directly opened the scroll.
Dense lists of items immediately entered his sight.