Mysterious Journey

Chapter 713 Father and Daughter

"I understand, but if it might affect normal business, I suggest you assign someone to explain things to the people waiting in line outside beforehand—unplanned waiting is an emotional breaking point every second.”

Kolmogorov, the old man who first flipped the blackboard over, thought for a moment and added.

The existence of supernatural phenomena in this world isn't really unacceptable to most former Soviet scientists—not seeing or hearing them is just a veil-like barrier.

The magical world might be able to erase all the information, but it can't erase the desire for something beyond nature from the human soul.

Over the past six months, Kolmogorov and others had deduced some of the things the Ministry of Magic was desperately trying to hide through a series of clues. However, both Walter's Tianming Group employees and Kolmogorov's group of scholars from the former Soviet Union tacitly maintained the final "wall" between them.

"Also, don't touch our blackboard!"

Kolmogorov gave one last reminder before disappearing into the room with the other scholars.

Watching the last former Soviet scholar disappear behind the door at the end of the room, Walter drew his wand and lightly tapped the lock. With a few crisp clicks of the lock cylinder, a thick metal curtain slowly slid down.

At the same time, the slightly older wizard finally returned to Walter's side.

Every corner of the room now shimmered with faint magical ripples. The numbers on the electronic scale on the counter began to display anomalies. The lights on the ceiling flickered before finally stabilizing after the wizard waved his wand.

"Safe, everything is normal," the older wizard said seriously.

"I've also confirmed everything is correct. Then, I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Sproat."

"Don't worry, leave it to me."

Sproat nodded and casually waved his wand. The blackboards that had been next to the counter moved silently to the corner, along with the shelves and potatoes, revealing the blue stone floor in the center.

Then, the floor began to rumble, and a rectangular stone gradually rose.

It was a fireplace sunken into the ground, with several mysterious runes engraved around it.

Walter grinned at the Ivanovich father and daughter.

"It's always good to be cautious, right? Under the noses of the non-magical world and the Ministry of Magic, we'd better not leave too many traces—although, in my opinion, even if they found out, they'd pretend not to see it."

"Is it so difficult to go to Hogwarts?"

Mr. Ivanovich frowned, looking around at the walls of the room.

This was completely different from what he had imagined. It was just a normal entrance guide, so how did he now have the feeling that he was participating in some extremely secret magical gathering's admission ceremony?

"Oh, for you, yes."

Walter shrugged, tapping the fireplace in front of him with his wand as he casually explained.

"The former Soviet magical world has now been re-divided into several independently governed regions. If you want to go to England through the normal process, you'll need quite a few approvals... Portkeys are under surveillance, and long-distance cross-border travel requires some special methods, such as a large ship—if you don't want Miss Ivanovich to miss her enrollment..."

Cross-border? A large ship?

Yermack Ivanovich became more and more confused.

Just then, Sproat had drawn his wand and began to tap the magical runes on the rising fireplace in a strange order. As he tapped, the runes flickered on and off.

"Encrypted channel, i-L-d—β—8-31—"

He muttered, staring intently at the flickering runes.

"Okay, the network is smooth, and the authorization code has been verified—Hyperion has opened the login point."

He inserted his wand directly into a small hole on the side of the fireplace. Immediately, blue and white flames rose from the center of the fireplace, and a metal plaque was faintly visible in the flames, with something written on it in gilt lettering.

"Okay," Sproat said, turning around. "The temporary connection has been established, and we can depart."

He glanced at the confused Ivanovich father and daughter, and the middle-aged wizard grinned, proudly pointing to the blue and white flames and taking out a small bag of glittering powder from his pocket, explaining calmly.

"The Floo Network is connected, so you can say goodbye to your daughter—don't worry, she should be back before nine o'clock tonight."

"Say goodbye?! Sir, I must have misunderstood you."

Yermack Ivanovich frowned, letting out a cold laugh without any humor, and narrowed his eyes.

"...Does this sound like only Irina can go through here? This is not a good time to joke."

"I'm not joking, you can't go through here, Mr. Ivanovich."

The middle-aged wizard Sproat took his wand out of the fireplace and said seriously.

"Yermack Ivanovich, according to the Russian Ministry of Magic's records, you are restricted from entering and leaving the country. If people find out that you are in Diagon Alley in London, thousands of miles away, it will cause a lot of trouble for all of us."

"London? Diagon Alley?"

"Yes, a very famous wizarding shopping street where Miss Ivanovich can buy most of the textbooks, supplementary materials, including wands, robes and other school supplies... That's how Hogwarts students do it."

Walter grinned and explained with a smile.

"Are you mocking me?! Young man, do you think I'm one of those mediocre wizards?"

Yermack carefully examined the fireplace, a look of absurdity on his face.

"Using Floo Powder to go to London, England? How is that possible? It's thousands of kilometers from here to London, so many fireplaces and secret networks, how do you know when and which chimney to come out of?"

The Floo Network can be said to be the most common form of travel for witches and wizards in the magical world.

In the magical world, almost every witch and wizard's fireplace is connected to the Floo Network. In Britain alone, there are nearly 1,000 fireplaces connected to the Floo Network. Through the Floo Network, witches and wizards can easily travel between their homes and the Ministry of Magic, wizarding bars, and wizarding shops, but this type of travel is limited to within a single country.

Each region's Floo Network is managed by the Floo Network Administration under the Department of Magical Transportation of their respective Ministries of Magic.

Long-distance, cross-border Floo Network travel is simply impossible.

Unless all magical societies are completely connected, forming a completely unified, undefended behemoth, just like the former Soviet non-magical world, no one can travel between fireplaces in completely different jurisdictions.

"Of course, it's not directly to London through the Floo Network..."

Walter pointed to the metal plaque in the fireplace and said with a smile, "It's just boarding a ship. The address is on there. Just read it out. It doesn't matter if you don't say it right, this fireplace only connects to one location."

"Ship? What ship—"

"There are only five minutes, and one minute and fifteen seconds have already passed."

Sproat took out a pocket watch from his pocket, glanced at it, interrupted Walter, who was about to explain, and glanced at Yermack Ivanovich meaningfully, "Also... we are only responsible for guiding, and we don't have the authority to explain further."

"Hyperion—Reactor Seven? So..."

Yermack Ivanovich raised his eyebrows, looked at the words on the metal plaque in the center of the magic fire, narrowed his eyes, and said softly, "Is this Hogwarts' way of guiding new students? Location unknown, and not even a reasonable explanation?"

"That's right, if you're sure you want your daughter to enter Hogwarts—"

Walter nodded happily, playing with his wand between his fingers. "Obviously, this is not a completely legal way. This is a gray area of international law—you have the right to refuse if you have any doubts."

"It's okay, Dad!"

Irina said, subconsciously hugging the small owlet to her chest.

"This is the opportunity we finally got. I want to go to magic school. I won't let those who laugh at and look down on Grandpa have the last laugh. This world isn't just about Koldovstoretz, there are other magic schools that can teach magic."

"Something's wrong here, Irina—come back with me, I'll think of something..."

"No! You always say that!"

Irina shook her head vigorously, a trace of stubbornness flashing across her face.

"I will definitely be able to go to Hogwarts. I want to become the best witch first, as Grandpa said, and then enter the Wizengamot International Court after graduation and make them admit that Grandpa wasn't a bad person, he was a great hero!"

After speaking, the girl took advantage of Yermack's inattention and rushed to the fireplace, pinching a pinch of powder from Sproat's hand and throwing it into the flames.

With a whoosh, the fire turned emerald green, like a gate to hell.

Irina Ivanovich walked straight into the fire. Following the instructions on the gilded metal plaque in the flames, she shouted in a clear voice, "Hyperion—Reactor Seven" and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Irina! Come back!—Damn it!"

Yermack Ivanovich reacted quickly, shouting and reaching out to grab his daughter.

However, before he could get close to the fireplace, the two wizards standing next to the fireplace suddenly reached out and blocked him. In just a few seconds, Yermack Ivanovich lost his last chance to grab his daughter and could only watch as Irina's figure disappeared into the flames.

Immediately afterward, Sproat casually waved his wand and extinguished the flames in the fireplace.

"Test passed, as expected of a chosen special student."

"Get out of the way! You'd better not block my way, or else..."

Watching Irina disappear into the flames, Yermack Ivanovich's eyes turned red instantly. He quickly drew his wand, panting heavily as he looked at the two wizards in front of him, gritting his teeth, and letting out a low roar like a bull.

Walter stared at the wand in Ivanovich's hand, without any fear on his face.

"Or else? I have to say, your daughter is much stronger than you. And you seem to have forgotten, there are two of us here, two against one, your chances of winning aren't actually very high... If I'm not mistaken, you haven't dueled anyone in a long time, have you?"

"At least dealing with you is no problem..."

Yermack Ivanovich said coldly, the wand in his hand pointed at Walter's chest.

"Okay, I surrender..."

Walter shrugged, sighed, and said helplessly.

"But unfortunately, even if you threaten to kill me with a Death Curse right now, I can't help you. The Hyperion should have entered a jump state by now, and no one can log in without an authorization code—"

"Of course, if you're very angry, you can point at me like this all day long, until your daughter returns from Diagon Alley."

After a slight pause, Walter calmly put away his wand and took out his pocket watch to check the time.

"Oh, unknowingly, it's almost nine o'clock? How about... we go to the room in the back to wait? You know, this potato store is about to open for business... Would you like tea or coffee? Have you had breakfast yet?"

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Big chapter! Made up for the second half of yesterday's chapter, plus a normal update!