Chapter 166
“It’s not over yet!”
In a mountain pass amidst whispering winds, a dozen black-robed wizards argued fiercely.
It had been less than an hour since the assault, and they efficiently woke up their companions and split into three groups to hide.
It is a pre-selected hiding spot.
“Bethany stayed behind, Jura, you have the best relationship with her, what do you think, we should do?” The short boy whose mask was removed by Felix asked.
His face looks bloodied, and his brown hair is stained with blood.
Jura looked around at his pessimistic companions and spoke with difficulty, “We can’t go back. That man, that gentleman … he is too strong, we don’t have half a chance, your sister …”
“Byers, Jura also worried, if not that gentleman did not make a move in the end -”
“We can’t run away ourselves.” One person finished the sentence.
“The French Ministry of Magic’s Auror must have arrived by this time, too.” A student irritably removed his mask, revealing a round face.
“Can we contact Brother Daniel? He must be aware of the situation.” Someone suggested.
Jura shook his head, “His communication is restricted, and our previous contacts were intermittent. Before the operation, I only told him the time of the assault and the hiding spot, for that matter.”
“We’ll wait another half hour, if he didn’t come, it either means he’s exposed or he can’t leave, so we’ll just move back.”
Byers wiped light scarlet tears and said with trembling lips, “Sister she, she is seriously injured. Will they treat her, Jura? I’m terribly worried about her, I don’t even know if she’s still alive …”
The others also took their masks off, revealing a face full of sorrow.
Jura gritted his teeth: “It’s all my fault–”
At this moment, a strange voice suddenly appeared: ” Jura, you acted too recklessly this time!”
The men turned around with a look of surprise on their faces, “Brother Daniel! And Ebuk, it’s good to see you!”
Two adult wizards appeared there, one with long fiery red hair and a slender build, the other with short dark brown hair and a sturdy, short build.
The crowd surrounded the two wizards and asked questions excitedly.
“Brother Daniel, do you know how Bethany is coping?”
” Yeah, did she get any treatment?”
Daniel, a male wizard with long fiery red hair, listened to their words with a somewhat embarrassed face, “I’m not sure of the specifics yet, as promised, Ebuk and I pretended to be lured away by you guys, and passed on false information to the others, and didn’t go to the Boathouse Hotel yet.”
“But Bethany … will be fine as long as she’s alive. Celeste can’t bear the price!”
Next to him, the short and stout Ebuk nodded nervously in agreement.
Byers slightly put down the worries from his heart, he immediately thought of something, “So can you guys go scouting for news about my sister now? Nominally, you guys are Celeste’s escort, right?”
Daniel showed an apologetic expression, “Byers, my whole squad has been sneaked here, it’s impossible to appear in front of the French Ministry of Magic, besides, I guess Celeste is now in trouble on her own.”
“It’s all because of that guy named Cory Meson, he’s the one who captured Matt!”
“Nonsense!” Daniel reprimanded, “Matt has the guts to attack a high-ranking official of the Magic Congress, and he is one to be blamed for being arrested!”
The crowd fell silent.
Daniel’s tone eased a bit, and he looked at Jura, “The situation was urgent before, and communication was not smooth, so I didn’t have time to ask detailed inquiries. How did you make such a big show, I don’t remember passing information to you. Was the intelligence from someone else? Fury? Herman? Kylie?”
The others looked to Jura, who had initiated this operation.
“It was from New York Ghost paper, Daniel.” Jura said blushingly, “Matt read that Celeste was going to a conference in Paris, France from it, so he and me privately contacted a few people, all graduates, and we thought we were strong enough, so we didn’t bother to tell anyone …”
“We were going to kidnap her, get evidence of the crime and some intelligence from her about the top levels of Congress.”
Daniel looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
Jura said frankly: “At first it went very well, we found the right opportunity to launch a surprise attack, Celeste and her followers were completely unable to rival us, not to mention the few muggle research experts, but then suddenly two Aurors appeared, they are very strong, we retreated together, and yet we were nevertheless pursued, Matt was caught in order to buy time for us to escape …”
Daniel added the information, “That was Celeste’s hidden force, the French Ministry of Magic only allowed two people, she and Cecil, and did not allow the Aurors from our country, Celeste chose two of her most trusted people to sneak in to protect her, Corey Meson being one of them.”
“No wonder they stealthily acted only when we were about to succeed, and deliberately avoided the French Aurors!” Jura came to a realization.
“Brother Daniel, weren’t you there then?”
Daniel said in a not-so-good-natured manner: “If I had been there, these things would not have happened!”
He calmed down and said, “Let’s run through the story again. You and Matt got the information from the newspaper and organized the first operation privately, only to be defeated by Celeste’s hidden force and Matt was captured by mistake. Subsequently, in order to rescue Matt, you gathered more men and planned this operation.”
Jura nodded.
Daniel continued his analysis: “This is from your perspective, next I’ll talk about how Celeste and I, saw this operation, and it’s a warning to you: be aware that in the process, you made too many mistakes!”
The crowd looked at him in silence.
“Because of me and some others, her first two trap plans failed-”
“Thanks to Brother Daniel’s intelligence!”
“We are all part of the Revolutionary Society.” Daniel shook his head: “This meeting … I’m uncertain whether she used it as a trap, after all, it was too risky, the slightest mistake would have caused international disputes, but of course, it could have been a rushed plan! She certainly took precautions, and ordered her two most trusted Aurors to sneak into France and hide in the shadows,”
“It was in this setting that your first operation failed!”
“And Ebuk and I, along with the others, knew nothing about it.”
“After that, Celeste, because she captured Matt and had a chance to get the list, also thought that you might launch a rescue, so she contacted our country Aurors to send more people, and Ebke and I were in the second group.”
“Celeste’s excuse was to defend against Grindelwald’s wannabes, but I pried some inside information from Corey Meson and guessed it might be your handiwork.”
“Up to this point, Ebke and I acted as another significant element of influence, following Celeste, as well as you and the French Ministry of Magic.”
The others listened with great attention, Jura only knew that Matt was captured and assembled the people to rescue, but did not know that there are so many twists and turns.