[England, Atop A Cliff]
Number 1, dressed in a black robe, was gazing at the castle in the distance.
Normally speaking, he should not have been able to see that castle.
Because the castle's name was Flamel Castle.
As the residence of the Flamel family, Link had already begun strengthening Flamel Castle's defenses from the moment he led the Flamel family to rise.
By now, it not only possessed several layers of powerful magical defensive spells, but was also wrapped layer upon layer with the Fidelius Charm and advanced Muggle-Repelling Charms. Unless one had learned the current true location of Flamel Castle from Link, its Secret-Keeper, even Dumbledore or Grindelwald personally coming here would absolutely be unable to discover Flamel Castle.
The Fidelius Charm was simply that powerful.
Otherwise, back then, after being entrusted by Snape, Dumbledore would not have used this protective charm to protect the Potters' safe house.
Of course, the Potter couple later died horribly, but that was not Dumbledore's or the Fidelius Charm's fault. It was Sirius being foolish and handing the Secret-Keeper's duty to someone who should not have been trusted.
But at this moment, Number 1 could clearly see Flamel Castle through the Fidelius Charm.
The reason for this was actually very simple.
Because by occupying Sky City, Number 1 had obtained the technology inside Sky City.
It was a detector developed by combining magic with technology that referenced Muggle sonar equipment.
The principle was incredibly simple. It used additional Breaking Charms and protective charms to avoid the effects of Muggle-Repelling Charms, then carried out sound-wave detection to investigate physical objects that actually existed but were hidden beyond ordinary people's perception.
This kind of detector was generally used for jungle exploration and detecting invisible creatures, but clearly, things protected by the Fidelius Charm were also within its detectable range.
But having this device alone was not enough.
Things protected by the Fidelius Charm were not simply invisible. They were erased from people's cognition, so simply detecting the object with equipment was actually meaningless. Even if an ordinary person or wizard discovered the object through this method, they would subconsciously ignore it and pay no attention to it, making it impossible to truly "discover" it.
But Number 1 was obviously not an ordinary wizard.
The King's Blood remaining inside him gave him the ability to resist this kind of "cognitive" influence to a certain extent.
Although this ability was not very strong, with the help of the detection device built upon this ability as its foundation, breaking through that cognitive barrier and truly seeing Flamel Castle became a natural result.
"Oh my! Little Link, you really have quite a few tricks."
After gazing at Flamel Castle for a long time, Number 1 murmured in admiration.
Through his long observation, he had already discovered it.
The entire Flamel Castle could completely be described as impregnable. Its external protection system, centered around the Fidelius Charm, was already very strong, but its internal protection system was clearly even stronger.
Top-tier Auror-level elite hunters patrolling every part of the castle, a large number of magical stone statue guards in an activated state, countless different magical traps, and several safe houses protected by additional Fidelius Charms inside, just in case...
Of course, there was also the powerful spatial aura hidden in the deepest part of Flamel Castle.
Just by sensing it from afar, Number 1 could clearly tell that it should be a spatial protective force field whose strength far surpassed that of an ordinary Space Lock.
At this level of spatial force field, even if Sky City really self-destructed, it probably would not be able to cause much damage to the people hidden inside, let alone him.
One had to know that Number 1's current condition was not very good.
Before leaving Sky City, he had already stripped away most of his King's Blood. In his current state, he simply had no way to break through that spatial force field.
He might even be killed or captured by the defensive forces inside Flamel Castle alone if he rashly attacked and was discovered.
From this, it could also be seen that Link had indeed put a great deal of effort into Flamel Castle's defenses.
Unfortunately, Number 1 had never intended to invade or attack Flamel Castle in the first place. He only wanted to send some information to the people inside.
With Link lacking some key information regarding the King's Blood, he clearly had never anticipated such a situation.
Then things became easy.
Number 1 smiled slightly. With a light flick of his finger, a paper airplane condensed from magic appeared. It slowly pierced through Flamel Castle's protective layer, swaying as it flew toward the castle itself.
After doing all this, Number 1's figure also slowly faded.
He took one last look at the magnificent Flamel Castle before disappearing from the spot.
...
At the same time, inside the safe house in the deepest part of Flamel Castle.
Mrs. Flamel had her hands clasped together, holding a jeweled dagger as she prayed devoutly with her eyes closed.
Not far away, Emily was looking at her with an expression of helplessness.
Not long after Link led his troops out on the expedition, Mrs. Flamel and Emily had already been placed inside this safe house where a spatial force field had been activated.
Because the defensive strength of the spatial force field had been taken into consideration, this safe house was not very large.
To prevent Mrs. Flamel and Emily from getting bored inside, Link had specifically arranged for various forms of entertainment to be set up here, such as Wizard's Chess, Gobstones, recordings of the Weird Sisters, recordings of pegasus races, and various games of Nine Men's Morris.
Unfortunately, out of concern for Link, Emily clearly had no mind to fiddle with those entertainment facilities.
As for Mrs. Flamel, from the day she entered the safe house, she had begun a long prayer that seemed as if it would never end.
At first, Emily could understand Mrs. Flamel quite well.
After all, as a mother, Mrs. Flamel was undoubtedly worried about Link's safety.
Therefore, using prayer to soothe her heart was also a viable method. It was not as though there were no wizards who believed in gods, so there was nothing strange about it.
At first, Emily had even planned to pray together with Mrs. Flamel.
But later, when Emily discovered that the thing Mrs. Flamel held in her palm as a prayer tool was neither a cross nor the scriptures of some religious sect, but an antique dagger embedded with a large number of gemstones, she began to feel that things were becoming somewhat strange.
She did not remember any religious sect in this world that used daggers as holy objects for prayer.
Could this be a sect created by Mrs. Flamel herself?
Or was Mrs. Flamel holding the dagger simply so that she could make a final resistance if an enemy invaded?
Emily could not understand. She could only keep her mouth shut, sit on the sofa with her hands resting on her stomach, and quietly stare into space.
Just then, a paper airplane entered her field of vision.
It seemed to have no physical form, twisting and turning as it passed through the wall and flew straight toward them.
At first, Emily thought she was hallucinating, but after rubbing her eyes and opening them again, she was surprised to find that the paper airplane had actually collided with the spatial force field before slowly falling to the ground.
If it could be stopped by the spatial force field, then it definitely was not a hallucination!
Emily instinctively stood up and wanted to shout, but she saw that Mrs. Flamel, who had originally been praying beside her, had somehow already stood up and was walking toward the paper airplane with a solemn expression.
"Aunt Leoni, shouldn't we hurry and notify Grandpa Beckman? This paper airplane doesn't look like something that should be here."
Emily spoke somewhat anxiously.
Hearing this, Mrs. Flamel nodded and raised her hand to pull the alarm, but her gaze remained fixed on the paper airplane on the ground.
This reaction frightened Emily.
Ever since Mrs. Flamel entered the safe house, her mental state had not been very good. Praying while holding a jeweled dagger was a typical example.
She quickly got up and came to Mrs. Flamel's side. She was just about to speak some words of comfort when the paper airplane before them suddenly unfolded, revealing clear words inside:
[Link Flamel is going to die.]
The line of text did not remain for long. It soon disappeared into the air together with the paper airplane.
But the content of those words was deeply engraved into Mrs. Flamel and Emily's minds.
Mrs. Flamel looked as if she had been struck by lightning. After a roar rang through her head, she instinctively fell backward.
Emily's condition was also terrible, but she still reached out and caught Mrs. Flamel.
"Aunt Leoni, it's okay. This is just a method the enemy is using to disturb our minds! Link will definitely be fine. He's so strong! There is simply nothing in this world that can defeat him!"
Emily said this while forcing down the sourness in her heart.
It was as if she was comforting Mrs. Flamel, and also trying to convince herself.
"I know, I know. Of course I know. It's fine. This is something that was bound to happen. I'm just worried. But it's okay. I just need to see him with my own eyes..."
Mrs. Flamel spoke somewhat incoherently. As she spoke, she reached out with a trembling hand and took a mirror from her chest.
A flash of surprise crossed Emily's face.
She recognized the mirror in Mrs. Flamel's hand. It was a two-way mirror that could be used for communication.
There was nothing unusual about the mirror itself, but the question was, at a time like this, who did Mrs. Flamel want to contact?
This question had only just arisen in Emily's mind when she quickly received the answer, because an image began to appear on the two-way mirror.
At first, the image was very blurry, as if it had been affected by some kind of interference.
But soon, the image gradually became clear, and the scene of the battlefield inside Sky City truly appeared before Emily and Mrs. Flamel's eyes.
They could clearly see the ruined yet magnificent Sky City, as well as all kinds of magical spell barrages flying through the sky.
Immediately afterward, the image shook violently again. The carrier of the two-way mirror was probably moving at high speed. When the image stabilized once more, the figures of Sigefin, Krell, and the other elite Aurors also appeared in the frame.
By this point, things were very clear.
There were only a few commanders accompanying Link on this expedition, and almost all of them had already left the country. The only one who had not left the country was naturally the carrier of the two-way mirror.
That person was Newland!
"Newland is a pitiful child. He and his mother both suffered terribly in the past, especially his mother. In order to raise her son, she endured too much suffering. Those hardships blinded her eyes and destroyed both her hands. As a mother myself, my heart truly aches. So, I helped her a little, allowing her to see her grown son again and touch her son's handsome face."
Mrs. Flamel spoke slowly. Perhaps she had empathized with Newland's mother's experiences. Two clear tears slid down her face. "Newland is also a sensible child. He loves his mother very much and knows how much she sacrificed for him. Therefore, he also deeply sympathizes with and understands me, who am also a mother. He is willing to help me, this mother, with a few small things, such as passing along some information so that I can know in time that my son is still safe and sound."
After hearing Mrs. Flamel, Emily was stunned.
She had never imagined that Mrs. Flamel could plant a spy beside Link, and that she had chosen someone whom Link valued so highly, Newland.
Was this what one would expect from Mrs. Flamel, who had once led the Flamel family out of its predicament and back to prominence?
Emily sighed inwardly, but her attention was soon drawn to the image in the two-way mirror.
As Link's fiancée, how could she possibly not worry about her fiancé?
Judging from the perspective of the image, the two-way mirror on Newland's side should have been tied to Newland's combat communicator, and it was a very small model. Its advantages were strong portability and stability, but as a drawback, it could only transmit images and sound in one direction, and the perspective shook badly, making it impossible to fully display the situation on the entire battlefield.
Fortunately, neither Mrs. Flamel nor Emily intended to watch some perfect live broadcast of the battlefield. They only wanted to make sure Link was safe.
The two of them simply sat together in silence and watched. The small mirror surface had captured all their attention.
As time passed, they also gradually learned about the current situation on the Sky City battlefield from changes in the image and conversations between Newland and the others. The Sky City capture plan had succeeded perfectly, the outer district had already been brought under control, and the work of taking control of the inner district was progressing steadily. As for Link and Dumbledore, they had entered the headquarters building of the International Confederation of Wizards, located at the very center of Sky City.
Emily could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"You can rest assured now, right? Link is already very strong, and Professor Dumbledore is also by his side. With the two of them working together, even the most terrifying enemy wouldn't be able to defeat them."
Unlike Emily, the worried look on Mrs. Flamel's face did not lessen at all.
Listening to Emily's words of comfort, Mrs. Flamel sighed deeply.
"My heart is a mess, little Emily, really a mess. I don't know why, but I always have this ominous feeling, as if something is weighing on my heart. I've had this feeling before, but that was on the night Little Link's father died. I'm very worried, really very worried..."
Mrs. Flamel's voice grew softer and softer until, in the end, it was almost inaudible.
As she spoke, she also tightened her grip on the jeweled dagger.
Hearing this, Emily also sighed. She reached out and hugged Mrs. Flamel, her eyes slightly red.
To be honest, she had the same feeling, but she had not said it aloud.
Mrs. Flamel was already feeling terrible. There was no need for her to bring it up and make her even more uneasy.
Creak!
The door of the safe house was suddenly pushed open.
Beckman, fully armed, rushed inside.
He had immediately come over after receiving the alarm.
However, seeing the harmonious scene before him, he relaxed.
Link had deliberately left him at Flamel Castle to protect Mrs. Flamel and Emily. He did not want his daughter and granddaughter-in-law to get hurt, nor did he want to let down Link's expectations, so he remained vigilant at all times.
But just then, a loud noise suddenly came from the two-way mirror Mrs. Flamel was holding up.
Immediately afterward, Beckman saw the expressions on Emily and Mrs. Flamel's faces suddenly change.