"'Wizet's beard'?" Michael blinked, his gaze falling on Wizet's face before a mischievous grin curled his lips. "Or something else, like Wizet's..."
Realizing what Michael was about to say, Wizet waved a hand to cut him off. "I think we'd better not. I only hope Mr. Merlin holds firm."
At Wizet's words, everyone laughed, and the somewhat heavy atmosphere from before eased considerably.
"But I still have a question..." Chris brought the conversation back on track. "Wizet, you said before that this was only a hypothesis. How did you go about verifying it?"
"Because I really did encounter such a lady," Wizet said. "She was a victim of the 'Paris Region Incident' and later became a patient at Saint Landry."
"Saint Landry?" Chris paused. "Why does that sound like some kind of... well... magical hospital for injuries and illnesses?"
Wizet nodded. "Yes. You can think of it as France's St. Mungo's."
"Oh! St. Mungo's!" Chris nodded. "Now that you put it that way, I get it."
Wizet continued, "That lady originally suffered from anorexia. After the 'Paris Region Incident,' her anorexia worsened drastically, and her symptoms bore a high degree of similarity to a 'hereditary family curse.'"
After recounting Laurence Chirac's treatment, he returned to the Ritual Magic from a couple of days ago. "The timing happened to be right then, so I gave it a try while I was at it."
Chris opened his mouth, his voice slightly dry. "And it worked? Those Muggle higher-ups—you gave all of them the ability to cast spells?"
"Probably... not all Muggle higher-ups..." Anthony took over, his tone cautiously probing. "Can gain the ability to cast spells, right? It can't be like that, can it?"
His eyes flickered with a faint trace of avoidance. Clearly, he did not want his words to become