Both Sides Exchange Views

Regulus remained composed, his tone not forceful. "I am the direct manager of the Black family's businesses in France, and I have handled tonight's events from beginning to end."

He looked at Isabelle, a slight smile playing on his lips, "If you wish to speak directly with Mr. Black. Orion Black, that can certainly be arranged, but it will require a different time and place."

Isabelle's eyes flickered; she understood the meaning behind Regulus's words.

It's fine to talk to him here, but if we take things to the next level and have a formal conversation with Orion Black, then it becomes a matter between the Black family and the French Ministry of Magic.

She had naturally gone through the Black family files before she came, and she saw everything Gaston had seen, but this wasn't marked in the files.

From the very first moment he confronted Gaston on the western battlefield, this young man never yielded an inch.

Gaston wanted to investigate the wand, citing international agreements. Gaston surrounded him with his men, but seven people stepped forward from behind him. Gaston demanded a reasonable explanation, but he shifted the blame back to the intruders.

From beginning to end, he neither showed weakness nor lost control; every response was perfectly timed to the point where the other party had no choice but to accept it.

The same thing happened now, even sitting at the negotiating table. Before she could finish her opening remarks, he interrupted her, and his suggestion to call her "sir" was rejected in a way that was neither too forceful nor too soft.

Her diplomatic approach wasn't particularly sophisticated, but it was effective enough. In most cases, once this process was followed, the other party would gracefully back down.

But from the beginning until now, all her words have been blocked.

His combat ability far surpasses that of his peers—that's all that's written in the file—but right now, it has nothing to do with combat ability. This boy's mental maturity is also far beyond that of his peers.

She exchanged a very brief glance with Gaston, then turned back to Regulus, deciding to abandon the usual routines.

His tone was natural and his voice gentle. "Mr. Black, what is your assessment of tonight's events?"

Regulus picked up his coffee cup and held it up. "Local France smugglers Attacks the Black family's estate, it's that simple."

Isabelle nodded. This characterization was the best version for the France side: the local security incident had nothing to do with UK or international politics.

Just then, there was a knock on the restaurant door, and Auror, who had been in charge of the site survey, pushed the door open and came in.

He was in his early thirties, with brown hair, and a pair of brass-framed goggles perched on his nose, pushed up to his forehead and left there.

He strode over to Gaston, bent down slightly, and whispered in his ear, "Mr. Gaston, regarding the further test results of the Killing Curse Spellcasting, we found remnants of triggered curses on those three Spellcasting. They have the same structure, are pre-embedded, and our preliminary assessment is that the curse remained on the victims for at least three days."

Gaston frowned, nodded, and the Auror straightened up, turned, and left.

He turned his gaze back to Regulus.

A triggered curse, pre-planted, planted before any action is taken—this is not something a smuggler would do.

Delacroix spent twenty years in the Southern France, Gaston could practically recite his file: smuggling, receiving stolen goods, bribery, intimidation—but he didn't touch that level of Dark Arts.

A wizard who can acquire pre-installed trigger curses wouldn't be holed up in the Cassis Port selling animal pelts.

Gaston shifted his gaze from Regulus to Isabelle.

Isabelle nodded to indicate that she understood, her expression remaining largely unchanged, except that she switched the leg she was crossing.

Regulus watched the two men's furtive glances.

He also learned that the Auror ' exploration had reached their target and they had discovered it.

Felix and Dupont exchanged glances, but neither of them spoke.

Regulus remained calm and unmoved, his eyelids slightly lowered.

The atmosphere in the main house froze for a moment.

About ten minutes later, the door opened again, and the Dark Lord walked in and whispered something in Gaston's ear again.

"Mr. Gaston, the results of Delacroix's examination are in: two traces of the curse."

He glanced down at the test results in his hand, his voice even softer. "The first one is a memory curse, a high-level pre-embedded type. The triggering condition is related to mental intrusion. The specific mechanism needs to be further analyzed back at the department. After being triggered, the mental structure completely collapsed, which is the cause of death."

The second location is in the throat, an organ-blocking curse that causes tracheal expansion and suffocation. The initial assessment suggests the trigger is related to uttering specific words.

He closed the notebook. "It's from the same system as the triggered curses on the previous three Spellcasting; the method should be from the same wizard."

Gaston listened, remained silent for a moment, then turned his head to look at Isabelle. Isabelle did not respond, her eyelashes drooping slightly.

Gaston turned back and said to the Auror, "Continue the testing."

Auror nodded, then turned and left.

The door to the main house closed behind him.

Gaston abruptly raised his head, his gaze fixed intently on Regulus.

The outline of this matter is clear enough.

Delacroix's smuggling ring had never touched the Black family Black family's estate before, nor did he touch any large, Pureblood families property.

A smuggler who has been able to operate peacefully for twenty years knows all too well who he can and cannot mess with. No matter how envious he is, he wouldn't be foolish enough to touch a business with Pureblood families UK family background.

But he did it anyway, choosing to do it while the Black family heir was staying.

His subordinates were pre-planted with trigger-based curses, and he himself was also pre-planted with two high-level curses, one to silence him and the other to kill him.

He mobilized his entire fortune, serving as cannon fodder in a probing attack, only to be killed on the spot by the curse upon himself.

There are certainly wizards in France capable of arranging curses of this caliber, and quite a few at that.

But Gaston couldn't imagine a wizard of that caliber going to such lengths just to pull off something like this.

With the Killing Curse, the shared origin of the curse, and Black, Gaston was almost certain that this was not a local crime at all; it was foreign.

The France probably have a good idea of which powers the Black family is involved with in UK.

The UK wizard who called himself the Dark Lord had gathered a large following, so naturally, things were far from harmonious.

Everything was fine for the past few decades, but things have become increasingly turbulent in UK in recent years.

Or to put it more simply, there might be internal conflicts within the Black family, perhaps even a split, or death, and someone might want to do something to this thirteen-year-old heir.

The infighting within Pureblood families is always more ruthless than outsiders imagine.

Regardless of the outcome, the result was the same: UK's mess spilled onto France soil, and France became someone else's battlefield.

Gaston's lips twitched down slightly, and Isabelle shifted her leg position again.

accurate.

He rose from the lowest-ranking patrolman to a high-ranking official in the Law Enforcement Department within the Auror System, and this was the kind of thing he hated most.

If someone else has a grudge and causes trouble on their territory, handling it well means cleaning up their mess, while handling it poorly shows incompetence of the France law enforcement system. Moreover, the very nature of this incident is a trap.

If we acknowledge that this was an organized act by the UK, with UK influence infiltrating France and manipulating France illegal organizations to plan Attacks against an heir to a Pureblood families UK family, then it is an international incident.

International incidents need to be reported to the International Confederation of Wizards, cross-border investigations need to be launched, and disputes need to be resolved with the UK Ministry of Magic.

If it is not acknowledged, but classified as a local security incident, with France smugglers Attacks the Black family's estate, France Auror arriving in time and the two sides cooperating smoothly, this incident would cause the least damage to France's face.

A thirteen-year-old UK boy single-handedly dealt with over forty invaders, while the French Ministry of Magic was completely unaware beforehand, did nothing during the incident, and was subsequently summoned to sweep the floor. This kind of thing, which is even more shameful than the UK causing trouble, should not be written into the report.

Gaston looked at the composed and well-mannered boy opposite him and suddenly realized that the boy had probably thought of this from the very beginning.

Isabelle lowered her crossed legs, leaned back, and in a gentle tone, definitively defined what would happen tonight.

"Mr. Black, the initial assessment from the France side is that this was a violent intrusion by a local smuggling ring into a foreign estate."

The Delacroix gang, a criminal organization wanted by the French Ministry of Magic for many years, was defeated on the spot tonight during the commission of their crime. The actions of the manor's management in self-defense were entirely legal, and the France side has no objection to this."

She continued, "Regarding the follow-up, all members of the Delacroix gang currently in custody, the injured, and related physical evidence will be handed over to the French Ministry of Magic Law Enforcement Department Division for unified processing."

These are France sorcerers who committed crimes on France soil and should be dealt with according to France law. We will ensure the full process."

As she said this, she glanced at Gaston.

Gaston continued, "After the prisoners are handed over, the Law Enforcement Department will launch a full-scale manhunt for the remaining members of the Delacroix gang."

The gang operated in Southern France and was involved in smuggling, illegal detention, bribery, and numerous illegal transactions involving Magical Creatures. This arrest is a significant step forward for the Law Enforcement Department.

After Gaston finished speaking, Isabelle continued, "The France side will also pay a higher level of attention to the security of the Black family's properties in France. Specific measures can be coordinated between Mr. Laval and us later, including increasing the frequency of Auror patrols, conducting security assessments of the area surrounding the estate, and providing rapid response support when necessary."

Regulus listened, but his attitude remained noncommittal.

Calling the Auror was the intention from the beginning; he couldn't very well kill everyone.

Actually, if the situation and identity were different, killing him wouldn't be a big deal. Fiendfyre, Severing Charm, anything would do; it's just a matter of wielding a wand.

He wasn't afraid of killing and damaging his soul, and he had ample reason to do so, but it was unnecessary, and he didn't want to.

Since Dumbledore knew he was in France and that he was there to deal with Voldemort's observation, it's hard to say the old man wasn't watching him.

If he killed all these people tonight, Dumbledore would be unhappy, Voldemort would be very happy, so he wouldn't do it.

He knew Voldemort's intentions beforehand, and he was observing him, or rather, testing him.

But no one told him the specifics of the test. He didn't know that Voldemort wanted to see if he would kill anyone; he was simply following his own understanding of the rules.

Whatever you arrange, I'll do it. If you send someone to come and see, I'll let you come and see. If you send someone to force me to take action, I'll take action.

Although I summoned the Auror, I didn't let Auror interfere; I single-handedly dealt with all forty-odd adult wizards.

Is there anything else you're not satisfied with?

Even if you're not satisfied, it's not my fault. Go find Bellatrix; she didn't explain things clearly to me, which is because she's inefficient.

Moreover, the Black family had no need to keep prisoners, nor any interest in extracting assets from these smugglers.

It is perfectly reasonable and logical to have the Auror receive the prisoners afterwards; there is nothing wrong with that.

But then again, he was the one who hit him, and it wouldn't be right to let the French Ministry of Magic get away with it so easily.

He may not have been interested in those assets, but what Delacroix had accumulated over twenty years was more than just Galleon.

Smuggling channels, Black Market connections, and goods hidden in the warehouses of Cassis Port —these are all freebies for the French Ministry of Magic, and they certainly can't give them away for nothing.

Regulus stated directly, "The Black family can accept these conditions, but there's one thing."

Isabelle raised her eyebrows slightly.

Regulus continued, "The Black family is considering expanding its Alchemy- related industrial cooperation in France, standardizing measurements at the tool level, and lowering the barriers to entry in the industry."

It's still in the early stages, but France is one of the most mature markets for the Alchemy industry. If there's a possibility of it being implemented in the future, we hope to receive support from the relevant departments of the French Ministry of Magic.

He didn't go into details, didn't mention the Resonance Disk, and didn't explain the technical aspects; he only touched on the topic briefly in this context.

Isabelle realized that this was a bargaining game.

Alchemy, the tools involved, standardized measurements, the Black family name, and the fire manipulation the young man before me had just demonstrated on the battlefield.

She works in an office, but her Magic skills are quite high. She has a general idea of what a wizard who can control fire directly without incantations is capable of in Alchemy.

France's Alchemy industry was the benchmark for all of Europe, and the entire system, from the Beauxbatons education system to the material supply chain Mediterranean Sea coast, had been operating for hundreds of years.

If the Black family has tools that can lower the barriers to entry in the industry, implementing them in France would be a win-win situation: France would achieve industrial upgrading, and the Black family would gain access to the Europe market.

Isabelle's reply was equally brief, "The French Ministry of Magic has always supported practically valuable Magic technology cooperation. The Department of International Magical Cooperation has a dedicated office for commercial and technical exchanges, which can handle initial coordination. If the Black family has a concrete plan, we are willing to engage in formal discussions."

Regulus nodded. "The Black family will send someone to discuss the follow-up."

Isabelle picked up her coffee cup, took the last sip, and then put the cup back on the saucer.

"Regarding the official characterization of tonight's events, I will submit a draft report by tomorrow morning. Mr. Gaston will be responsible for the subsequent prisoner transfer and site cleanup."

She stood up, reached into the file in front of the legal advisor, pulled out a business card, placed it on the table, and pushed it towards Regulus: "Contact me anytime if you have any questions."

Regulus also stood up, Baruk rolled over on the windowsill, transforming from the dark red blanket back into his spider form, his eight legs climbing down the table leg and leaping back onto his shoulder.

"That's settled then, Madam de Lavine."

Isabelle walked over and extended her hand; Regulus shook it briefly, then let go.

Gaston also stood up, walked over, and extended his hand. "Mr. Black."

Regulus reached out and shook his hand. "Mr. Gaston."

Gaston didn't say anything more, nodded, and followed Isabelle out.

When the Auror team withdrew from the manor, it was still dark. The last one to leave was the brown-haired prospector.

Looking out from the manor, the Apparition Light Point flickered sporadically a few times on the outskirts of the western slope before darkness returned.

Regulus stood on the second-floor windowsill of the main house.

Orion has already set, and only Sirius remains lit in the west. The eastern horizon has turned from pure black to dark gray, and the outlines of mountain ridges are slowly emerging from the darkness, their edges becoming clearer.

A night has passed.