The black off-road vehicle drove smoothly on the highway leaving Manhattan.
The atmosphere in the carriage was as lively as when we arrived, even a little more relaxed.
Reggie was holding a large bag of potato chips that he had just bought from the supermarket. While stuffing it into his mouth, he was bragging to Tommy about how exquisitely he had tied the windbreakers of the men in black together.
Tommy rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep his lips down, because Annie had just praised his Telekinesis barrier as being like an indestructible turtle shell.
Although the adjective is a bit strange, it is a compliment and he accepted it in full.
John is sitting next to Lynn, holding a paper bag filled with fresh potatoes.
He never spoke, but looked down at his hands from time to time, and then looked up at Lynn who was driving, leaving only a side face.
The lingering feeling of being needed and being thanked as a true hero was still slowly fermenting in his chest.
John feels that the bag of potatoes he bought today will probably be the most delicious potatoes he has ever eaten in his life.
The fireworks in Long Island Estate are still going on step by step, but in the Vought Tower top-floor conference room in the Manhattan center, the atmosphere has dropped to freezing point.
Stan Edgar stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the streets where explosions and monsters caused widespread traffic paralysis.
He was holding a cup of cold black coffee in his hand, and the expression on his face was as calm as a pool of stagnant water.
Beside the long conference table behind him, Madelyn was holding a thick report, his palms full of cold sweat.
"President, Public Relations Department has followed your instructions and guided the public opinion. The people at the scene recognized John at a glance. After all, that kid was so popular when he was on TV. Although They were silent for a long time, but this time they actually protected civilians on the streets. The response on the Internet was simply crazy. People's trust in Vought International was unprecedentedly high, and the stock price rose by nine percentage points in half an hour."
Madelyn swallowed, his voice trembling.
"But... the body of the beast, and the five men in black who kept rolling their eyes and twitching, are beyond the scope of our knowledge. The experts from the Research and Development Department spent a long time with electric saws and laser cutting machines, but they didn't even cut off a single scale of the monster. It is not a biological structure that should exist on the earth at all."
"Get back those idiots with chainsaws Research and Development Department."
Edgar walked to the desk and put down the coffee cup. "That's not a mutant creature or an alien. It's magic."
Madelyn was stunned. She even thought that the always rational CEO had just taken the wrong medicine.
"Magic? You mean like in fairy tale books..."
"There are many rats hiding in the sewers in this world. They think they have the truth, but in fact they are just cowards who dare not face modern civilization."
Edgar didn't explain much, he just lowered his head and glanced at Patek Philippe on his wrist.
The words just fell.
The originally closed mahogany double doors of the conference room turned into a pile of splinters in an unexpected twist.
Three men in well-dressed formal attire, holding slender wooden sticks unexpectedly in their hands, stepped on the sawdust on the floor and walked into the office that belonged to the highest authority of Vought International.
The leader was an old man with gray hair and sinister eyes.
In his breast pocket was a badge representing Magical Congress of the United States of America senior official.
Madelyn was so frightened that he stood up from his chair and hurriedly tried to press the security alarm under his desk.
"Madelyn, you can go out first, and tell Security Department by the way, don't come up here and die."
Edgar's voice was still calm, and he didn't even blink his eyes.
Madelyn gritted his teeth, glanced at the three arrogant-looking intruders, and quickly exited the conference room with his head lowered.
As the door returned to its original state with a strange fluctuation, only Edgar and the three representatives of Wizarding World were left in the conference room.
"Mr. Stan Edgar, the helmsman of Vought International."
The leader, old Wizards, walked to the conference table and looked at Edgar condescendingly, with an undisguised disgust and arrogance in his tone. "I am the director of Magical Congress Security Enforcement Division. We are here to get back what belongs to us. By the way, I will give you a warning."
Edgar pulled out a chair and sat down, crossing his hands in front of him.
"Your things, do you mean the big lizard that trampled the streets of Manhattan into rubble, or the five attackers who tried to destroy our company's most valuable assets."
Old Wizards sneered.
"That was an accidental teleportation accident. As for those five Auror, they were executing International Statute of Secrecy of Wizarding World to erase those memories that should not exist. Your so-called Superpower monsters not only attacked the law enforcement officers, but also used some despicable means to severely damage their spirits."
Old Wizards raised the Wand in his hand, and the tip of the stick lit up with a dangerous red light.
"Hand over the body of Poison-Horned Lion, return the five Auror to us, and then ask all the knowledgeable executives of your company to line up and receive amnestics. This is the magic France knows the bottom line, otherwise, I don't mind letting everyone in this building become drooling idiots. Don't think that your bullet-blocking Superheroes can stop Killing Curse."
Faced with this naked threat, Edgar didn't even change his sitting posture.
He looked at the red-lit wooden stick as if he were looking at an outdated circus prop.
"Mr. Director, you guys have been hiding in Basement for too long, and your brains have deteriorated."
Edgar Pressed a button on the table, and the huge projection screen on the wall of the conference room slowly lowered.
In the picture, it was the five Auror whose spirits were completely destroyed by Lynn and who were still twisting in pain on the hospital bed.
On the small screen next to it, clear surveillance footage of John smashing Poison-Horned Lion's spine with one punch was played in a loop.
"Your so-called magic elite, Wand, was easily broken by a nine-year-old child in our company. Now he is lying on the hospital bed like a useless person. And the Magical Creatures that you use to maintain your sense of superiority cannot even withstand his punch."
Edgar's voice had no ups and downs, but every word was like a precise scalpel, cutting through the fig leaf of Wizarding World's self-deception.
"Times have changed, Mr. Director. Your brainwashing tricks with small wooden sticks are worthless in the face of absolute capital and crushing power."
"Just like Japan and those Onmyōji families."
Old Wizards's face instantly turned livid, and his hand holding Wand was shaking slightly with anger.
"You are declaring war on the entire magical society! You have no idea what kind of power you are facing! As long as I wave Wand, you will die on this chair immediately!"
"You can try."
Edgar stretched out his hand to straighten his tie, "But I guarantee that before you finish reciting that convoluted spell, the heartbeat monitor under my desk will automatically send five thousand detailed reports on the existence of the magical society, satellite positioning and your hiding place in New York to Pentagon, White House and the cloud servers of major news media around the world."
Edgar leaned forward slightly, his eyes locked on old Wizards like a poisonous snake.
"When the time comes, there is no need for me to do anything. The military, politicians, and crazy scientists who serve the military-industrial complex outside will dig up your Ministry of Magic. You will be locked up in the laboratory, and your blood will be tested every day to study why you can shine with wooden sticks. You will become the most sought-after experimental material in the world."
The conference room fell into a deathly silence.
The red light on the tip of old Wizards flickered unwillingly twice, and finally dimmed.
The two young Wizards behind him had cold sweat on their faces. They were used to bossing around ordinary people, but they had never faced such crazy capitalists who used the entire social system as a bargaining chip on the table.
Seeing the fear in the other party's eyes, Edgar knew that he had won this emotionally charged negotiation.
For him, he doesn't care about the tender drama played by Lynn kids on the street.
All he knew was that Lynn easily overturned Wizarding World's job, but handed him a priceless trump card.
"Sit down, Mr. Director, since you can't turn me into an idiot, then we can start talking about business."
Edgar took out a document that had been prepared for a long time from the drawer and slid it along the smooth tabletop in front of old Wizards.
"We will leave Poison-Horned Lion's body as new research material for Vought International's biopharmaceutical department. You can take away those five wastes, but I ask you to open some supply channels of magic materials to Vought International, and the magic France will acquiesce in our right to act in certain special fields."
Old Wizards looked at the document and squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.
"You are blackmailing."
"No, this is a win-win business in modern society."
Edgar leaned back in his chair and spoke in a chillingly relaxed tone, "If you sign it, tomorrow's news will be just a successful PR for Vought International. If you don't sign it, then we will all be destroyed together. I don't care."
Old Wizards took a deep breath, knowing that he had encountered a real monster today.
A ruler who has no magic power but is colder than any black Wizards.
And at the same time dozens of kilometers away.
In Long Island Estate's kitchen, Lynn is holding a paring knife and skillfully handling the bag of potatoes bought by John.
Reggie and Tommy were fighting over the remote control of the TV in the living room. Annie and Kevin were watching the fun with a smile.
Buddy was lying at the door of the kitchen, wagging his tail lazily, waiting for Lynn to throw the peeled potato skins into the trash can.
[I am going back to my hometown today, so I am missing one chapter. These two chapters are 5,000 words long, hee hee]