Meanwhile, Old Harris seemed not fully satisfied with the praise he had received from the French Minister of Magic.
Turning toward Link again, he asked, "So what about you, Mr. Link Flamel? What kind of place do you think the Heavenly Realm is? How does it compare to the lower world?"
"You mean this Sky City?"
Link took a bite of bread and said, "It's not bad. Pretty novel."
"Novel, indeed. The things here don't exist in the lower world. Since it's your first time here, it's normal to find it novel."
Old Harris said, "Of course, if you wish to immigrate here and live here, that's not impossible either. But you must satisfy certain necessary conditions."
"For example, promoting certain important bills, or governing a lower world Ministry of Magic for over twenty years."
"Your predecessor, Cornelius Fudge, was actually close to completing it. Unfortunately, at the very end, he made such a foolish mistake. Truly regrettable."
"Uh, I think you may have misunderstood." Link shook his head. "Actually, I don't want to..."
"Speaking of which, I want to say that I've already fulfilled the required years of service!"
The French Minister of Magic across from him suddenly interrupted. "I have served three full terms as Minister of Magic."
"This year marks my twenty-first year in office! And in this year's election, I don't plan to participate anymore. I will hand the position of French Minister of Magic to a young man."
"He's different from the Link Flamel standing before us now."
"He has real talent and knowledge!"
"Of course, the most important thing is that he firmly supports the Statute of Secrecy!"
"I believe he will lead the French Ministry of Magic toward a brand-new future!"
"And after that, my whole family will move to the Heavenly Realm and settle there!"
"I feel incomparable joy and excitement about this. The culture and prosperity of Sky City are simply miraculous!"
"Is that true? Damn it, I didn't even notice that!"
Old Harris hurried forward and grabbed the French Minister of Magic's hand enthusiastically.
"According to our immigration laws, outstanding political talents introduced through governance clauses will be collectively assigned to the Road district."
"That also happens to be where I live! Peter, may I call you that? After all, in the near future, we'll be neighbors!"
"Of course! Mr. Harris, it's my honor! Whether becoming your neighbor or having you call me by name!"
"Mr. Link Flamel, what about you?"
"Me? Of course, you can call me by my name directly. That's fine."
"No, no, no..."
Old Harris waved his hands repeatedly. "What I want to ask is, what do you think about immigrating to the Heavenly Realm?"
"Though I'm also very glad you're willing to let me call you by name. Some young people nowadays are really extreme in their thinking."
"They're like powder kegs. Things that seem completely ordinary to us feel like fatal insults to them, enough to make them explode instantly!"
As he spoke, Old Harris glanced at Sigefin with eyes full of contempt.
Sigefin fearlessly met his gaze. Where their eyes met, invisible sparks seemed to fly.
At that moment, Link shifted slightly, blocking their line of sight.
"As for immigration, forget it. I still think life on the surface is better."
"Hmph! Foolish!"
The French Minister of Magic spoke disdainfully, and the other French officials beside him wore similar expressions.
Some were already furious.
To them, the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards, this Sky City they currently stood in, had become a kind of faith.
Old Harris raised a hand to stop the officials who wanted to slam the table and stand up. Confused, he said, "Link, why would you think that?"
"Is it because of your family and friends? It's fine. For exceptional talents like you, we can actually relax some conditions appropriately."
"For example, promoting important bills. This mediation conference itself can count as one of them."
"As long as we can perfectly reach a consensus this time, you could actually obtain immigration qualifications through a special exception."
"Not only that, you can also share this privilege with your family or friends through donations."
"But note this carefully. You can only recommend five people."
"These are extremely generous conditions!"
Link believed that part.
Because the representatives from the French Ministry of Magic, who had just been burning with anger, were now all stunned.
They stared blankly at Old Harris, eyes full of disbelief.
To summarize the immigration conditions for Sky City, or rather the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards, it was all about contributions.
There were many ways to achieve this so-called contribution.
Among the many people present, many had already gone bankrupt for it, willing to give up everything.
After all, this was the Heavenly Realm.
But even so, the only ones who had truly received immigration qualifications were Dumbledore and the French Minister of Magic just now.
The difference between the two was that the French Minister of Magic's thoughts were the same as most normal wizards, desperately longing to immigrate to the Heavenly Realm.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, had absolutely no interest in it.
But that was understandable. After all, Dumbledore's life dream centered entirely around Hogwarts.
Giving up the chance to ascend to Sky City for the sake of Hogwarts could indeed be called great.
But what about Link Flamel?
Did he not understand what Sky City represented?
Or was he simply too young to understand what kind of place Sky City really was?
Yes, that had to be it.
It must be.
A strange silence spread through the enormous restaurant.
In the end, Old Harris coughed lightly, pulling everyone back from their complicated thoughts.
"Link, I want to ask you a question." Old Harris said with a serious expression.
"Do you truly understand what the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards, or rather, Sky City, actually is?"
"Of course I do. In a certain sense, it's basically the wizard version of Noah's Ark, something used to escape massive disasters, right?"
"Noah's Ark? An interesting comparison, but I don't like that term. That's a Muggle myth, not ours."
"But you can't deny that Sky City serves the same function as Noah's Ark."
Old Harris fell silent.
Magic was not superstition.
Wizards had actually known the Earth was round over a thousand years ago, and through astrology, they understood the relationships between Earth, the sun, the moon, and countless other stars.
So the International Confederation of Wizards was indeed currently doing everything possible within Sky City to develop spatial technology.
This was not only to escape Muggle aggression, but also for the rich resources in outer space.
At present, the magical resources on Earth had basically been mined clean.
Even though Ministries of Magic everywhere had begun protecting ecological resources within their territories, the consumption of nonrenewable resources remained unsolvable.
But what about outer space?
Based on meteorite research, alchemists could already confirm that outer space contained massive quantities of rare magical resources, both known and unknown to wizards.
Once they obtained those resources, it was easy to imagine that wizards would reach an entirely new height.
And among the inner high-level circles close to the International Confederation of Wizards, none of this was really a secret.
That was why the French Ministry of Magic representatives were so obsessed with immigrating to Sky City.
It was leaving behind hope for future generations.
At the same time, the International Confederation of Wizards also needed these wizards to provide research funding and rare resources.
And now, it seemed Link also knew all this.
But if that was the case, why was he rejecting it so decisively?
As if noticing Old Harris's confusion, Link continued, "Mr. Harris, how long has it been since you personally went to look at Muggle cities and news?"
Old Harris froze slightly at the question, but quickly replied, "As the core organization that promotes and maintains the Statute of Secrecy, the International Confederation of Wizards closely monitors the Muggle world."
"Then you should know that Muggle society has already developed to a terrifying level of civilization."
"To put it bluntly, if you remove magic, the one thing Muggles can't understand, Sky City's prosperity and scale are nothing compared to major Muggle cities."
Link smiled as he spoke, "Sky City does have many large buildings. Thanks to magic, wizards indeed have enormous advantages in construction."
"So within such a small area, they actually managed to create a skyline that blocks out the sky itself. That's quite impressive."
"But based on my observations, the tallest building in Sky City should be the International Confederation headquarters building in the city center, right?"
"Around three hundred meters? But among the buildings currently under construction in the Muggle world, the Petronas Twin Towers already stand at eighty-eight floors, with a total height of four hundred fifty-two meters and a roof height of four hundred seven meters."
"As for airships and flying brooms, there's even less worth mentioning."
"To be honest, aside from the methods used to achieve them being somewhat novel, Muggle society already has complete replacements for these things. Many are even more efficient and beautiful than what Sky City currently uses."
"Oh right, and population."
"Sky City probably only has around ten thousand people, maybe fewer. In the Muggle world, that's not even enough to count as a district within a city."
"I remember the French Minister of Magic mentioning Sky City's culture earlier."
"What words did you use for that culture again?"
"Brilliant? Great?"
"Hah!"
"What kind of culture can possibly emerge from a population of only ten thousand?"
"In this Sky City, there probably isn't even the most basic form of cultural conflict."
"I even suspect a large portion of this so-called culture is copied and stolen from Muggle culture."
"Otherwise, why do the women's clothes I saw in that giant advertisement projection outside the window look so similar to the styles my mother and fiancée bought in Paris last year?"
"Even the colors are exactly the same."
"Tsk tsk..."
"The fashion designers in Sky City sure have an easy job!"
Hearing Link's speech, many people turned to look out the window.
From their angle, they could clearly see the giant magical advertisement projection Link mentioned.
The witch on it wore an extremely bizarre robe. Even by wizard standards, where clothing habits were already strange, it still looked weird.
But now Link was saying it had been copied from Muggle fashion?
Since when had Muggles become this bizarre too?
That thought flashed briefly through everyone's minds before anger immediately followed.
There was one thing Link had indeed been right about.
Sky City, in the hearts of these upper-class wizards, was like Noah's Ark to Muggles facing the great flood.
It was no longer just a giant vessel capable of rescue.
It was faith.
And now Link was slandering their faith.
How dared he?
In an instant, the faces of the French Ministry representatives turned red all at once.
Some had already drawn their wands under the lead of the French Auror Director, prepared to immediately destroy this arrogant Link Flamel the moment the situation escalated further.
Some had already drawn their wands under the lead of the French Auror Director, prepared to immediately destroy this arrogant Link Flamel the moment the situation escalated further.
"Councilman Link Flamel.", Old Harris spoke again, his voice now colder.
"It seems you admire Muggle society greatly. So do you believe the cause we are pursuing now is wrong?"
The moment those words came out, the French Ministry representatives who had been furious froze briefly before sneering.
Dumbledore, sitting beside Link, also became serious.
This question was extremely malicious.
Old Harris was trying to pin the label of being close to Muggles and opposing the Statute of Secrecy onto Link.
More than that, he was trying to push Link to the opposite side of the entire wizarding world.
If Link answered poorly, there would be no need to continue the mediation conference. The International Confederation of Wizards would immediately gather Ministries of Magic worldwide to hunt him down, just like they once did with Grindelwald.
Yet after hearing the question, Link merely smiled lightly, as if the question Old Harris had asked was foolish beyond belief.