"Ding dong ding dong..."
The bell of the coffee shop rang with a crisp sound. Antoine turned his head and took a glance, seeing it was just a few staff members from the Magic Congress coming in to buy coffee together. He turned his gaze away indifferently.
"It's about time, right?" Antoine finished the remaining coffee in his cup in one gulp, frowned slightly at the bitterness, and said, "Let's go, time to get to work."
Vid withdrew his gaze from observing the other customers in the shop, nodded, and the two walked out of the coffee shop together, turning into a relatively quiet nearby alley.
The alley was piled with some debris, sunlight was cut into narrow bands by tall buildings, and fine dust floated in the air.
Seeing this, both couldn't help but pause and take a look.
Ever since Hosone and Hughes got ambushed by the floating dust, such dust in their eyes was no longer seen as a harmless natural scene but as something that could become a dangerous weapon at any time.
Of course, the dust in the alley was just dust, with no mysterious power.
Vid asked, "You must be quite busy now, right? Didn't Mr. Grindelwald have other tasks for you?"
The Witch Pure Party took over part of Prometheus's legacy and clues, and also had to respond to the new situation after the power shift in the Magic Congress. In theory, it was a time when hands were short. Antoine, as Grindelwald's trusted officer, seemed unlikely to be "wandering" with him.
Antoine laughed and said, "Accompanying you to complete this task is my current work—personally instructed by the gentleman."
"Alright then." Vid grabbed Antoine's arm and said, "Get ready."
Antoine adjusted his stance slightly, and asked with a hint of surprise, "When did you learn Apparition?"
Vid smiled and said, "Of course... before the tournament."
The next moment...
"Bang!"
A slight, muffled sound of air being forcibly displaced echoed in the alley.
The figures of the two instantaneously disappeared from the alley.
...
"Bang!"
After a dull explosion, the figures of Laira and Fontana staggered and appeared at the edge of a forest clearing.
Under their feet were soft fallen leaves, the air was cold, with the unique moist vegetal scent of the mountains.
In the distance, the majestic silhouette of Graylock Mountain loomed in the mist, and between the swirling clouds and the mountain peaks, the spire of a towering castle was vaguely visible—that was Ilvermorny Magic School.
Laira quickly steadied herself and immediately wielded her Magic Wand to lift the Full Body-Bind Curse on Fontana.
Finally freed, Fontana collapsed to the ground, coughing violently for a few moments, with no joy of survival on his face, only a desolate grey pallor and deep exhaustion, as if all his essence and spirit had been drained.
Once, his authority and confidence as the Principal of Ilvermorny were all gone, now only the despondency after being defeated remains.
Laira looked at him, her brows tightly knit.
She tidied her somewhat disheveled hair and damaged robe sleeves. Although her face was pale, her eyes burned with a fire of defiance.
"Listen, sir, we won't just end like this!"
Laira said through gritted teeth, "I chose to leave, not to admit defeat, but to start the second phase of the game!"
Fontana raised his cloudy eyes to look at her, without much reaction.
Laira's eyes flickered with an indomitable light: "As long as I haven't been formally arrested and convicted, my identity can still attract those who also fear being held accountable!"
She squatted down, looked straight at Fontana, as if trying to ignite him with the fire in her eyes.
"I still hold decades of secrets within the Congress, each department's weaknesses, shady deals, countless people's handles... these will be my most powerful trump cards for the future."
"Once temporarily settled, I will immediately contact the remnants of our forces at home and those 'friends' internationally who have been trying to intervene in the American Magic World."
"We are not alone, sir, many will become our invisible strength."
Laira slightly softened her tone and said, "For now, we just need to hide and survive! Then find ways to use all available channels to collect more dirt on our opponents. We can also selectively leak some secrets to attack the legitimacy of the regime after my departure."
"And the people are forgetful. It won't be long before they find that the successors cannot solve the many current problems at all, and the Magic World will instead fall into continuous chaos and scandal... By then, they will miss us!"
"Cheer up, sir! We need to wait for the right opportunity as former leaders persecuted by conspiracies... as long as we are still alive, there is always hope!"
As Laira spoke, she almost felt convinced by her own words, and her expression became optimistic.
But Fontana's reaction remained indifferent. He grabbed a handful of moist soil from the ground with his thin hand and let it slip through his fingers.
"Sir!" Laira said urgently.
Her bond with Fontana wasn't very deep, but in her plan for survival in desperation, Fontana's strength was essential.
"Are you done?" Fontana said in a dry voice, "Do you really think... we can still do these things now?"
"Why not?"
Laira said a bit anxiously, "Every job I handled, I left some backdoors that only I knew about. In the short term, the work at the Congress Headquarters will certainly fall into chaos! They can't find someone to replace me that quickly!"
"Most importantly, we didn't confess guilt until we left. As long as we haven't confessed, there's still a possibility to overturn the case!"
"And do you know how many people are my supporters? The whole of the United States is tied to our wagon, countless people! Even for their own interests, they have to support us reclaiming power!"
"As long as everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty! By then, those clamoring for accountability will be the real criminals!"
"Don't worry, today was a sudden incident, it won't be long before there will be voices speaking for us! Later, I'll write a few letters..."
In her mind, she was calculating whose secrets she had in her hand, forcing them to have no choice but to side with her.
Fontana looked up at the emotionally charged, confident Laira. After a moment, he let out a bitter smile, his eyes full of sorrow and a sense of powerlessness at foreseeing the outcome.
"No, they will definitely hold them accountable, Laira..."
Fontana said despondently:
"There is no such thing as avoiding culpability. No matter how many people are implicated... they will only resent too few, not fear too many being sent to prison."
"Why do you think that?" Laira frowned, "The people at Congress aren't lunatics—of course, a few of them indeed are—but do they want to destroy the United States by doing so?"
Fontana asked slowly, "Do you know... why I couldn't break free from the ropes just now?"
Before Laira could answer, he continued in a self-answering manner, "Because I couldn't do it."
"Even without a Magic Wand, my Silent Wandless Spells can easily smash or twist an iron chain, but I couldn't break that seemingly ordinary hemp rope."
He turned his head, his gaze wandering over the grass looking for something.
It's just that the rope that bound him, although appearing as a tangible object, was actually conjured by magic. After Laira lifted the spell, it disappeared.
After a moment, the dazed Fontana looked up at Laira and powerlessly asked, "Do you think, in the whole world, how many wizards' Imprisonment Spells can do that?"
Laira's face turned pale, her lips trembling slightly as she said, "...Dumbledore?"
She clung to a faint hope, wishing it definitely had to be Dumbledore.
However—
"No." Fontana shook his head and said, "Dumbledore has been in the United Kingdom recently, hasn't even left Hogwarts much... The one who struck me in the dark must be Grindelwald... the Witch Pure Party has come, Laira!"
His body trembled slightly, covering his face, painfully saying:
"We let a large power vacuum appear at the top of Congress, we'll cause countless government staff to be swept out, a lot of positions left vacant... and then replaced by their people."
"You think they'll stop at the right moment, or even welcome you back for the sake of Congress's stability? No, they won't! The list of accountability will only get longer and longer!"
"The charges we've left are like the sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head, as long as someone refuses to obey them, that sword will come down!"
"In the end, the Witch Pure Party people will be like mold, crawling along the cracks we've made, covering the whole wall! The entire American Magic World will fall into Grindelwald's hands."
"Laira... the demon that was blocked by your aunt seventy years ago, we've now let in with our own hands... we are the sinners of the American Magic World!"