At the same time, Salzburg.

As one of Europe's most vibrant ancient cities, Salzburg, which rose to prominence due to the discovery of salt mines and gained worldwide recognition for its religion and art, has long lost its former prosperity in today's increasingly capitalistic and realistic society.

Last winter, with the colossal red alliance, the largest in human history, collapsing, the city celebrated like most European cities, with newspapers, radio, and television news all rejoicing, and everyone optimistically believing that everything was getting better, and that the economic depression since World War II was finally over.

However, politicians lied… or rather, the world lied.

When people eagerly wanted to carve up the bear meat, hoping to survive the winter, they found that the fall of that red flag seemed to freeze Moscow's winter, plunging the already difficult capital market into an ice age.

The Great Depression did not disappear as people had hoped.

If previously people could attribute the cause of the Great Depression to the Cold War clouds, then with the former Soviet Union choosing to actively "disconnect," the cruel reality finally shattered the beautiful dream that capitalist society had been boasting about.

Soaring prices, currency devaluation, welfare cuts, reduced food production, sluggish employment...

Even this "City of Music" located at the northern foot of the Alps, known as the gateway to the Alps, was inevitably affected by the Great Depression. Tourists almost completely disappeared from the city. Although many young people who had gone out chose to return to their hometowns, most of them just stayed at home doing nothing, waiting for the so-called miracle to happen.

However, almost everyone understood...

The real world no longer had the soil for miracles to thrive.

And for old Jerry, who had lived in this city his whole life, the most direct feeling might be the changes that had taken place in the Harnisch tavern in Old Town's Grain Alley.

Over the years, old Jerry had developed the habit of sitting in the Harnisch tavern for a while every day.

Compared to those "black shops" used to attract tourists, the small shop run by the Mair couple was more like a haven for escaping worries and whiling away the time than a tavern. The tavern owner, Kurt Mair, never seemed to care about profits. No matter how many customers there were, he always quietly guarded this pure land for the people of Salzburg.

In old Jerry's view, Kurt Mair's reason for opening this tavern was obviously a personal interest rather than a livelihood.

Although the Harnisch tavern was not open for long each day, the lantern hanging at the entrance of the tavern would light up on time when the sun went down, and would not go out until the central church rang the midnight chimes.

However, since last autumn, the opening hours of the Harnisch tavern had begun to become irregular.

From starting business at six o'clock every afternoon without fail, and being open for six hours every day, to occasionally delaying opening and closing early, and even recently, being closed all day was an occasional occurrence.

If it weren't for seeing that the Harnisch tavern's sign was still there, and Kurt Mair was in good spirits and didn't seem to be affected by any Great Depression, old Jerry almost thought that the Mair couple were planning to move away. After all, too many shops in Salzburg had closed or changed hands during this time. It was said that even the central hospital had changed owners.

Therefore, for old Jerry, the Harnisch tavern was like the last spark.

If even good people like Kurt Mair couldn't hold on, then this city, and even this country, might have reached its most desolate time. After all… this was already the last tavern in the entire city.

This morning, old Jerry leaned on his crutches as usual and slowly walked along the cobblestone road of the old street.

According to his planned route, he would walk around the old town for a big circle first, and then go to the Salzburg Cathedral to sit and rest for a while, listen to the nuns and priests tell stories, chat with a few old friends, and if he was lucky, he could sometimes see the nuns of Nonnberg Abbey reciting doctrines or singing hymns in the central square.

Of course, most of them were elderly black-robed nuns, after all, this was not a big city.

"Last time I heard Kurt say that his former commanding officer had adopted a little nun from a monastery in England, I wonder if she will settle in Salzburg. If there is such a little angel, life will not be so boring..."

Old Jerry leisurely "inspected" the old street, tirelessly looking at the familiar brick walls around him.

The Harnisch tavern didn't open yesterday again. Counting the day before yesterday, the lights of the Harnisch tavern had not been lit for two consecutive days. I don't know what Kurt Mair has been busy with during this time, perhaps…

Before the messy and divergent thoughts in old Jerry's mind surfaced, the old man suddenly stopped, looking at the front in disbelief, making a strange wheezing sound in his mouth.

Not far in front of him, the Harnisch tavern was opened unexpectedly!

If old Jerry remembered correctly, this might be one of the few times in the Harnisch tavern's many years of operation that it opened in the morning. What shocked Jerry even more was that the bar owner Kurt Mair, who was usually expressionless, was now leaning on the door, talking to an unfamiliar old man with a bright smile.

And standing next to the old man were several little girls of about eleven or twelve years old, one of whom was wearing a nun's habit.

In the cool morning breeze, old Jerry vaguely heard a few words of chatting from not far away.

"I'm just here for a walk, and to show the children around by the way..." the old man said, "It's much more comfortable here than Hogwarts. As for the guy you mentioned? He should still be dealing with the new professors, you know."

Gellert Grindelwald grinned, pointed to his little granddaughter and her friends behind him, and shook his head.

"The tavern is good, if it weren't for these little guys, I could go in and have a few drinks with you - but not now, I promised Albus to take good care of them, and taking the children for a walk smelling of alcohol would drive Albus crazy."

"We have milk prepared here..."

Kurt Mair was interrupted by Grindelwald before he could finish speaking.

"Alright..."

The old wizard patted him on the shoulder and pointed his chin at the Muggle old man not far away.

"Looks like you have a guest. Salzburg is not small, and our itinerary is quite tight today. We'll talk again if we have time next time, and besides, if time permits later, I plan to go back to the old place to take a look, at least tidy up a bit..."

After speaking, Grindelwald took off his top hat and nodded to old Jerry with a smile, as a greeting.

Immediately afterwards, he turned around and led the surrounding little girls to walk along another road - during the Hogwarts term, there were very few such opportunities to skip class and go on an outing openly, and a few minutes of catching up was almost enough.

"Who is he? I don't think I've seen him before."

Looking at the disappearing figure, old Jerry asked curiously.

"Oh, I told you about him. Otto Apocalypse, my commanding officer when I was in the military."

Kurt Mair shrugged and replied with a smile.

"He has been living in a town not far from Salzburg all these years. You should have seen him occasionally, but you just don't remember much. That little nun is his newly adopted granddaughter, and the others are her classmates... It is said that their school is temporarily closed due to the re-hiring of teachers, so isn't this a good opportunity to bring them out to play together?"

"So that's how it is, alas... Was the school also affected by this depression? But, this Mr. Apocalypse..."

Old Jerry nodded and sighed, frowned slightly, and murmured in realization.

"Now that you mention it, I do seem to have a bit of an impression. I'm getting old, besides the friends around me, people like that who shuttle through the city and are occasionally encountered, if you don't look carefully, it's really hard to remember..."

"Hey, who isn't? How about coming in for a cup of morning tea?"

Kurt Mair quietly put away the wand in his hand and said with a familiar smile.

Creating a person out of thin air is much more difficult than making a person disappear silently out of thin air. Since Gellert Grindelwald intends to live in the Muggle world and the non-magical world with a new identity, then they will naturally strive to do it perfectly.

Perhaps it will be a bit difficult in other places, but Salzburg, this is the legendary "Holy City."

Gellert Grindelwald only needs to walk around more, chat and catch up with those old subordinates from time to time, supplemented by a little bit of confusion charm, and he can very easily leave an imprint in this city, forming a "real" history. Whether it is an Auror or a Muggle agent, in front of such a large number of city witnesses, they will not be able to find any flaws.

……

"Professor Apocalypse, just now that…"

Hannah looked back and asked softly with some uncertainty.

As the contemporary heir and barmaid of the Leaky Cauldron, Hannah keenly discovered some traces from the bar behind the middle-aged man named Kurt Mair, some smells that only appear in magical bars.

"That's right, Mr. Mair is a wizard, but not quite the same as your family."

Grindelwald nodded generously in acknowledgment. At this time, they had left Grain Alley and were heading towards Salzburg's most famous Mozart Square. The girls were dazzled by the various Bavarian-style buildings along the way.

"Mr. Mair's customers are mainly Muggles, even if wizards occasionally enter, they are well-behaved and don't act particularly strange, but the drinks and beverages still contain some magical ingredients... After all, even wizards still have to find a way to live, personally, I prefer this kind of atmosphere."

"Yes, I also think... Mr. Mair's tavern has a lot worth learning from..."

Hannah Abbott nodded seriously, "After I go home for vacation, I will talk to my uncle to see if we can modify our Leaky Cauldron a bit, or... at least the Bournemouth branch can refer to this style."

"Bournemouth? That is indeed a good place. But let's go visit Mozart Square first."

Grindelwald nodded noncommittally, leading Elena and others to continue forward.

"I'm telling you, I've lived in this city for decades, the Mozart chocolate balls here are a specialty..."

"Um, Professor Apocalypse, wait a minute. Are we going in the wrong direction..."

Just then, Gellert Grindelwald suddenly heard a timid voice in his ear.

Hermione Granger held a map, looked around at the intersection for a few seconds, pointed to the huge forked road sign with German writing on the right, and then pointed to a line of small characters on the map in her hand, and said with some uncertainty.

"Mozart Square, seems to be in this direction..."

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Goo ah~ Updated! Surprise or not~ Fat chicken updates, fat chicken updates, fat chicken doesn't update, fat chicken soup~