Chapter 725: Celebration
When he put away the communication mirror, Felix couldn’t help but laugh; rumours always caught more attention than facts, especially when they were paired with a short, concise, and easily spreadable sensational headline.
It would have been perfect if the rumour could creatively ‘explain’ major events in history with complex explanations in three or two phrases. Not only will it most likely be popular at the time, but it will also gain everlasting vitality thereafter.
To avoid being impacted by the unique charm exuded by these lovely rumours, it would be best to provide another topic worthy of being talked about, in addition to disclosing the truth in a timely manner. Thus –
“I’m going to organize a Christmas bonfire.” Felix said.
“Here?” Horace Grimsditch was somewhat perplexed to hear this response, and he stomped his foot and turned around in place. “Oh, uh, good idea …” he said reluctantly, but it didn’t take him that long to change his mind and begin to become deeply fascinated with this idea.
“Christmas at sea! Bonfire night! Guys–”
Grimsditch hunched over and shouted excitedly at the suitcase, which made the normally serious and old-fashioned man look a bit crazy. He turned his head sideways and explained, “People need to be happy.” He remained hunched on the ground as he spoke, looking somewhat comical.
Before anyone outside could comment, about seven or eight hands stretched out from the suitcase and dragged him inside without warning. After a few moments, a hollow echo came from the suitcase, like an old loudspeaker with dubious quality operating, but the squeals and cheers could still be clearly distinguished in the deafening clamour.
Jura walked over to Felix.
“Is it true that there’s going to be a bonfire?” He asked in a whisper.
“Yeah, but it will take a while.” Felix said. The others stood at a distance, and a young Auror tried to come over but was pulled back by his companion, who shook his head slowly but firmly and looked over with a serious expression as if the two were talking about some profound issue.
“Will we be attacked?” Jura blurted out the most fearful worry in his heart.
“That’s why we have to be patient,” Felix explained, “until the ‘drill’ is over, and we take control of the island to depart — not now — so in theory, yeah,” he said in a relaxed tone, “there is an actual possibility that we could be attacked by deadly weapons.”
He stepped over and picked a dry rock to sit on, breathing the cold, biting sea air and tilting his head toward the azure sky. A few dozen kilometers in all directions are within his range of view, but he’s not actually paying attention to everything, as he just sat in silence. The huge magical power surging through the island seemed to be an extension of his limbs, and countless tiny runes flickered between the cracks of rocks and stones. He began to recall the experience of the past six months bit by bit, from the initial surprise to calm acceptance and active mediation, the role he played grew larger and larger, and now he finally placed himself on one end of the scale, tilting the weight of peace written on the other end high.
He stood at the forefront of all the wizards, and any eyes directed at this group would inevitably focus directly on him and confront his presence.
As the sun rose to its highest point in the day, Akingbade showed up, winded and dusty, with the happy news. “It’s over. Twenty minutes ago … the spokesperson walked out of the White House …” he talked incoherently with excitement, his face blossoming with a smile, “I used the Portkey in order to tell you the news personally.”
Even if he appeared to be very calm, when the dust settled and everything drew to a conclusion, Felix quietly felt a sense of relief in his heart, as if a weight had been lifted. He did not care what kind of heated play happened in Washington, hundreds of kilometers away from the coast in the past few hours, even when Akingbade told him that the other side extended an invitation, ready to restart negotiations he did not show any unusual expression, that is something for the future, all that needs to be done now is to welcome tomorrow’s Christmas, and after that, the New Year!
Half an hour later, the floating island left towards the deep sea.
The President in the White House, who saw this scene through the satellite transmission feed, sighed in relief and sat down in his chair, covered in a cold sweat. The senior officials and cabinet members around him also breathed a sigh of relief, as the stone in their hearts fell to the ground. Now there is no one in the world who knows more about the strength of the other side than they do, other countries can only rely on the satellite in the sky to observe and assess from a distance, while they are the party that experienced it first-hand, so they can do more, all kinds of complex probing equipment were installed throughout the port and surrounding areas along with the military a week ago.
Of course, now all the equipment has failed and turned into some kind of state that is completely unexplainable by the existing scientific system.
An hour ago, they were heatedly debating whether to use the ultimate card – a decision that is not so easy to make, and other countries have also politely conveyed their meaning through explicit and implicit means, once they use the nuclear bomb, the situation will most likely go completely out of control. That’s something all countries don’t want to see. Of course, the White House also does not want to see that. They have used all means at home and abroad to force the wizards to create a head-to-head confrontation, but it was not to pull themselves into the abyss of war.
This was done with the foreboding that wizards would seriously damage their interests in the future, or rather, the higher the presence of wizards, the more threatening it would be to their worldwide voice.
Since this is the case, it becomes necessary to suppress the most influential international wizard organization at the moment as much as possible.
The best outcome they envisaged was to create a worldwide anti-wizard movement, while they themselves would adopt a strategy of soliciting and fighting against their own wizards, by using various political means to attract and divide the entire wizard community, under the pretext of either racial distinctions or differences in lineage … but all these scenarios were based on one premise –The International Confederation of Wizards must disintegrate (the International Pan-Magical Alliance is just an empty shell in their view).
They almost witnessed the rejuvenation of the International Confederation of Wizards, which was in decline.
It was all because of one man, Felix Hap.
His books about the non-magical world became the standard textbook for wizards to study the developments of the non-magical world very easily; the system of runes he created was made available for countless wizards to study; the negotiation strategy he formulated became a reality step-by-step – especially this part, which made countless people sigh with regret – If not for the image that wizards had laid in front of the world in the previous months, the current situation where everyone was watching and waiting on the sidelines would not have occurred, not to mention the tacit agreement about cooperation being the main focus and confrontation being secondary.
Needless to say, Hap has personally shown an ability that is comparable to that of a god today.
That is the key concern. In the eyes of the President and Cabinet, the construction of a floating island is not the scariest thing – on the contrary, it fits their fantasy of magic – what truly scares them is the seemingly harmless and fairy-tale magic that has enveloped the whole city, the effect of which is somewhat similar to that of a black-and-white drawing book that children use to practice doodling.
The hidden message behind this magic made them give up on the idea of escalating the conflict any further, and it pretty much sealed the deal.
An hour ago, a small unit of troops closest to New York quietly entered the city, and they detonated hundreds of small explosives, which didn’t cause any damage to the city, as if the two were not in the same world.
What does it imply?
The nukes probably won’t help, and there is a high probability that they might not even work. Even if they detonate in front of that person, the likelihood of them threatening the other party is infinitely close to zero. As for the what-if feasibility … no one dares to gamble on the consequences, if it happens to fry someone he values, the whole country will be in the dust.
A silence fell over the White House as the President read in a low voice the title he seemed to have given to another wizard in the newspaper, and it seemed as if it served as the best footnote to the conflict.
“Archmage? The Sword Bearer?”
…
A different scene unfolded on the floating island. One by one, the wizards in the suitcases stepped out of it, and gawked around like newborn babies with curious and timid hearts, the adults talked in twos and threes, and the children played and fooled around on the uneven reefs and submarine rocks, tirelessly pulling small fish, shrimp and seaweed out of the crevices.
Felix and Akingbade avoided the crowds and strolled on the relatively flat ground.
“You’re going to turn this place into a land where wizards and muggles can peacefully coexist? Let magic and technology merge?”
Felix nodded lightly.
“And also going to invite wise wizards, muggle scientists, and companies from all over the world?”
Again, he nodded.
“That’s a lot of projects.” Akingbade said with emotion. After a while, he stepped down and suddenly asked, “Felix, what do you think about me relocating the Confederation headquarters here?”
Felix looked at him in wonder.
Akingbade smiled, the wrinkles on his face stretched out. “In fact, I have long entertained this idea. During the time when we managed to sign the treaty with several countries, and the circumstances were promising, I was thinking that the … Confederation headquarters must not remain hidden, but I wasn’t able to think of a new destination yet, and it wasn’t the right time. But this thought popped into my head repeatedly, and I first considered Strasbourg, where some of the international muggle organizations are also located … but what could be a better place than an island built by the wizards themselves?”
“I don’t have any problem with that.” Felix replied after some thought.
At that moment a young Auror approached, looking at Felix with eyes full of reverence, he said to the two men, “Some people offered to renovate the surrounding area for the bonfire night, President Grimsditch sent me over to ask you guys …”
Felix and Akingbade exchanged a look, and they naturally had no objection.
As a result, there was a flurry of activity. More wizards gushed out from the suitcase, and with great enthusiasm, they volunteered to assist in fixing the grounds and applying protective magic. Still, soon they faced the dilemma of not having enough materials.
This problem was partially solved when Felix undid the magic in the suitcase.
The two-kilometer radius at the center of the island got replaced by a camp, and then he contacted the headquarters of Future World Company, originally he was planning to ask Lupin to prepare some tents and campfire supplies for the bonfire, which he would personally retrieve. Sirius proposed a whimsical idea, which Felix considered feasible, and Ms. Bones agreed to provide manpower support, so the big event, which was repeatedly described by countless historians, was finalized.
Hundreds of wizards stepped out of the flames, bringing all kinds of building materials with them, and with the wave of their wands, hundreds of houses of various shapes and sizes appeared out of the blue. More and more wizards arrived, and the scene quickly turned into a wizard celebration comparable to the Quidditch World Cup finals.
Even Sirius, who came up with the idea, was shocked by the sheer size of the crowd, and he smacked his lips and said, “There might not be enough space, right?”
“A crammed place could accommodate two or three hundred thousand people with the help of magic.” Felix said with certainty, but when he spotted the vendors pushing carts and peddling their merchandise, he suspected that he had spoken too soon. Later in the afternoon, he saw sneaky Fred and George, who were peddling Weasley fireworks around.
When they spotted Felix looking at them, they immediately smiled wryly and fled.
Not surprisingly, there was a spectacular fireworks display at sea that night.
The whole celebration lasted for half a month, and it was nothing like the solitary Christmas Felix had expected, even New Year’s Day was filled with noise, and the vast sea seemed to connect the wizards from the north to south.
Every day he could see familiar figures. Dazed and seemingly carelessly wandering around … Luna was hugging Valen and waved at him … Hermione… managed to find Sirius’s new motorcycle, which Harry and Ron would occasionally borrow for a ride… …former ancient rune professor Bathsheda Babbling … Professor Burbage who is concerned about the soil of the island … Delirious Trelawney … Lupin and Tonks, Hogwarts students, Professors, Ministry of Magic officials, pen pals who he has never met, and even journalists …
Their story has only just begun.
——
[Author:]
Basically, the main story ends here, and the sequel chapters (epilogues) will be updated a day later.
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