Faced with such a bizarre French Ministry of Magic, rumors spread throughout the British Ministry coalition. Nearly everyone had their own theory.
The most widely accepted one was that the French Ministry had already decided to turn the entire Ministry into a trap the moment they received Britain's declaration of war.
That was why they had turned the French Ministry into what looked like an abandoned city.
At first glance, the theory sounded quite reasonable.
After all, the Matagot cats and the cat-bodied old women they had encountered earlier had terrifying combat strength.
If it had been any other force without a legendary wizard guarding it, that first wave of attacks alone would probably have been enough to badly cripple the invaders, or even wipe them out completely.
That fit perfectly with the idea of a death trap.
But after thinking about it more carefully, there were many problems with that explanation.
For example, people should also have been a key part of such a trap.
The French Ministry's wizards could have appeared while the Matagot cats were attacking to support them, or they could have set up more mechanisms and traps throughout the corridors and even inside the office hall.
Yet even now, although the British Ministry forces had pushed all the way into the deepest part of the French Ministry, they still hadn't found a single living person.
Something was clearly wrong.
The eerie atmosphere also put tremendous pressure on the coalition.
They would rather fight brutal street battles, where the death rate was highest and people called it a meat grinder, than stay in a place like this.
If not for the sense of security Link gave them, many of them would probably have already broken down and smashed everything around them instead of carrying out an orderly search.
However, the situation changed when they reached the area near the Minister's office.
Because they found the first person they had seen since entering the French Ministry.
More accurately, they found a corpse.
The body was hanging from the steel beams in the middle of the corridor.
Judging by her appearance, she was a woman no older than twenty-five, wearing a light gray business suit with light makeup on her face.
Of course, light makeup or not, even the best makeup in the world couldn't make her look beautiful now.
The bluish-purple color unique to hanging victims had spread across her entire upper body. A fountain pen had been stabbed straight into one of her eye sockets, while her other eye bulged outward. Together with her slightly open mouth, the corpse looked horrifying.
But that naturally wasn't enough to scare the people from the British Ministry.
If anything, the corpse actually reassured quite a few of them.
At least they weren't the only humans inside the French Ministry.
So by the time the scouting team reported the discovery to Link and brought him over, a large crowd of Aurors and Hit Wizards had already gathered around the corpse.
They chatted enthusiastically while pointing at it.
Some claimed she had given birth to at least three children, based on the shape of her stomach and pelvis.
Others insisted she had committed suicide because there wasn't a single sign of struggle on her body.
To be honest, the scene looked a bit like an eighteenth-century slave auction, with buyers pointing and commenting on the slaves standing on the platform. It was enough to make people uncomfortable.
After all, the woman hanging there had white skin.
Link didn't stop them.
He simply raised his eyes and quietly examined the corpse.
The longer he looked, the deeper his frown became.
He felt as though there was a slight curve at the corner of her mouth.
As if she were smiling to welcome him.
Finally, he waved his hand and said,
"Everyone, step back. This isn't an ordinary corpse. It's an Inferius."
"That can't be right, Lord Flamel. We've seen plenty of Inferi before, but never one this pretty."
An old hunter from the Hunter Corps joked while slowly backing away.
The others reacted much the same.
Although they found it hard to believe, instinct still made them obey Link's order.
Some veteran hunters who were close to Link even lit large flames with their wands, trying to prove that the hanging woman was just an ordinary corpse.
They had good reason to think so.
Inferi were among the most common creations of Dark Magic, and they had seen countless of them.
These crude Dark Magic creations usually had to stay in extremely damp places, or even underwater. Their bodies were always soaked because that was the only way to preserve the corpses.
That love of water also made them extremely afraid of fire and light.
But the corpse before them was completely dry and wasn't affected by the surrounding light or flames at all. That clearly didn't fit what they knew.
Still, being reasonable didn't mean they had the right to question Link's judgment.
As Link's most important force, what they had just done was clearly overstepping.
Krell was so furious that his eyebrows shot up. He raised his cane and repeatedly smacked the hunters over the head while shouting all kinds of countryside English curses, turning all their grins into miserable expressions.
Even then, he still wasn't satisfied.
Those idiots had only just earned themselves some favor with Link by showing their loyalty.
Yet before long, they had ruined it again, throwing all that effort away.
How could Krell not be angry?
Fortunately, Link waved his hand in the end, stopping Krell from beating the hunters to death.
Looking at the unconvinced expressions on their faces, Link sighed helplessly.
The Hunter Corps was indeed the most loyal force, and their combat ability was outstanding. After years of hunting and constant battles, the hunters who remained were already among the best fighters in the entire magical world.
On top of that, after becoming a member of the British Ministry, Link had equipped the Hunter Corps with the highest possible budget.
They could truly be called the elite among Aurors.
But matching that fighting ability was their lack of discipline and common sense.
These rough old veterans had never accepted, perhaps had never even intended to accept, their new identities.
Many of them still thought of themselves as the lawless hunters they used to be, not as Aurors.
And in their eyes, Link wasn't some Ministry official.
He was simply the boss of the Hunter Corps, the family head they had sworn loyalty to. The only difference between then and now was that the "Hunter Corps" had grown much larger.
Shaking his head, Link flicked his wand.
An invisible blade sliced through the rope holding up the corpse.
The woman's body crashed heavily onto the floor.
Everyone clearly heard the crisp sound of bones breaking.
Seeing that, many members of the Order of the Phoenix and Hogwarts students behind them frowned.
To them, it looked disrespectful to the dead.
The hunters at the front, however, all smiled.
Some even started discussing whether it had been the shinbone or arm bone that broke, saying other bones didn't make such a crisp sound. They looked as though they were simply watching a show.
But they soon stopped smiling.
The next moment, the corpse lying on the floor twitched.
All the laughter in the corridor stopped instantly.
Everyone stared at the corpse.
Under countless eyes, she slowly crawled toward the crowd in a twisted and awkward way.
When she reached a certain distance, she planted all four limbs on the ground, suddenly pushed off with force, and leaped at them like a giant frog.
BOOM!
The woman's body exploded in midair.
Dark green corpse gas mixed with chunks of flesh and countless flies shot into the air, instantly filling the entire corridor.
Link reacted immediately.
The moment she leaped, he had already raised his wand.
A thick magical shield appeared in an instant, firmly blocking all the poisonous gas and insects outside.
Meanwhile, the walls and floor contaminated by the blast were instantly corroded and melted away.
Centered on the explosion, a corroded crater over twenty meters across appeared.
A wave of shocked cries erupted from the crowd.
It was obvious now.
The female corpse really had been an Inferius.
And one that could self-destruct.
"My goodness... I can't believe it. How did you know, Lord Flamel?"
The old hunter who had doubted him earlier spoke without thinking.
His face, along with those of the other hunters, had turned ugly. If Link hadn't acted in time, they would probably have ended up just like the bricks and stone around them.
Hearing that, Link sighed and waved his hand.
"Enough talking. Clean this place up so we can keep moving. I shouldn't have to teach you how to handle something like this."
"Of course! Of course!"
The old hunter nodded repeatedly.
Like the others, his eyes were now full of admiration.
Krell gave his men an approving look.
He felt the hunters were almost starting to treat Link like a god.
That was exactly the result he wanted.
Now that their organization had grown so large, what the Flamel family needed wasn't people with outstanding ability.
When it came to ability, Link himself was already the strongest wizard.
What they needed was loyalty.
And in that regard, the Hunter Corps was clearly the best.
The other Aurors, Hit Wizards, Hogwarts students, and even the Durmstrang people also admired and respected Link greatly.
But their loyalty still fell far short of Krell's standards.
That had already been shown earlier, when many Aurors and Hit Wizards had left their positions without permission to rescue their own children among the Hogwarts group.
Those people still placed their personal interests above both the British Ministry and the Flamel family.
To be fair, there was nothing wrong with that.
It simply wasn't good enough for Krell.
The cleanup of the exploded corpse quickly began.
The veteran hunters might be stubborn and a little foolish, but they were true professionals when it came to dealing with all kinds of battlefield situations.
After burning the entire area with fire once, the dark green poisonous gas filling the corridor disappeared.
The corrosive liquid left on the walls and floor had to be treated bit by bit with the Counter-Curse to remove the curse within it before being buried under Transfiguration.
Without question, it was filthy, exhausting work that required great patience.
So the hunters immediately handed the job over to the eager temporary Hit Wizards from Durmstrang standing behind them.
As a result, Krum and the temporary Durmstrang Hit Wizards ended up working hard inside the pit, while the hunters stood outside chatting and laughing, occasionally pointing at the people below and throwing in a few sarcastic remarks.
To outsiders, the temporary Durmstrang Hit Wizards looked pitiful.
But Krum and the others worked happily.
From time to time, they even shot proud looks at the people watching around them.
Whenever they noticed Link looking their way, they immediately worked even harder, clearly trying to make a good impression on him.
The smile gradually disappeared from Krell's face, replaced by a wary expression.
He realized it.
That old fox Beckman was obviously thinking exactly the same thing as he was, using those Durmstrang youngsters to compete with him for Link's favor.
So Krell's face darkened.
One by one, he kicked the hunters into the pit as well and made them work.
With everyone's combined effort, the corridor was quickly cleaned up, and the main force continued toward the Minister's office.
After what had just happened, the strange atmosphere around them had faded somewhat.
Everyone relaxed a little, and many had even started quietly chatting again.
Unfortunately, the good mood didn't last long.
As soon as they left the corridor and entered the administrative office outside the Minister's office, everyone froze in surprise.
There were even more hanging corpses here.
Hundreds of them.
The office wasn't very large, so the huge number of hanging bodies was an astonishing sight.
Judging by their clothes, they were all employees of the French Ministry.
They ranged from the lowest temporary cleaners to high-ranking minister-level officials.
Link even spotted several Auror corpses wearing the French Ministry's standard combat uniforms.
At last, the answer to why the front half of the French Ministry had seemed so strangely empty became clear.
Before they arrived, something extremely bizarre and terrifying must have happened inside the French Ministry.
Most of its staff had been hanged here.
As for the few who remained, they had disappeared without a trace.
Of course, that hardly mattered anymore.
Based on what they had just learned from the female corpse, every one of the hundreds of bodies before them could explode.
With so many self-destructing Inferi gathered in one place, the explosion would be powerful enough to blow the entire French Ministry into the air.
[🙇🏻 You Can Support the Story Through P@treon—AmbitiousTranslator. It also has 40+ Chapters of all the novels and fanfics. Thanks for reading~]