Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 493 is in full swing
Mike couldn't help but walk quickly towards the meeting room as he returned to the Masonic Secret Realm from the Foley Manor. He asked Zhou Hong urgently:
"Are you sure?"

"Of course, I have already planted an anchor in Draco Malfoy's mind. Now he is completely our spy." Zhou Hong was also extremely excited at this time. He rubbed his hands and laughed, "And according to his feedback, Voldemort has now confirmed the role of the Vanishing Cabinet and is gathering people to prepare to attack Hogwarts!"

"What about the time? When are they going to launch the attack?"

"December 25th, Christmas Day at 8 o'clock in the evening. This time is exactly when the Christmas dinner at Hogwarts is at its climax."

Mike nodded and said:
"We still have time. Let Franklin take action. We need to start moving the Vanishing Cabinet."

"understand!"

“Any other issues?”

Mike just asked casually. In his opinion, his arrangements were already perfect and it was unlikely that there would be any problems with anyone.

But Zhou Hong looked embarrassed when he heard this, and said in a strange way:

"Well, there aren't any big problems in other places, except for the Muggle Prime Minister..."

Zhou Hong's voice suddenly weakened halfway through his speech and eventually disappeared.

Mike's eyes shone when he heard this, and he turned his head and frowned:
"Why? He doesn't want to send troops?"

"That's not the case... it's just..." Zhou Hong looked strange and couldn't explain it. Finally, he pointed to the meeting room not far away and said, "Anyway, I can't explain this matter clearly. Why don't you go and talk to him yourself? The two-way mirror has been prepared for you."

After hearing this, Mike stopped asking questions and walked quickly into the meeting room.

There were not many people in the conference room at this time, only Benjamin and Penelope were there, and a huge full-length mirror was erected on the conference table, facing Mike's seat.

As soon as Mike walked into the meeting room, he felt that something was wrong, because Benjamin and Penelope looked serious, as if they had encountered some very serious problems.

"boss!"

"Mike!"

Seeing Mike appear, Benjamin and Penelope both stood up. The latter had a guilty look on her face. She was the only one who had problems with the mission among everyone, which made her very uneasy.

She was about to come over to explain, but Mike shook his head, touched her cheek to comfort her, and then sat down in front of the two-way mirror.

Mike moved the wand in his hand slightly, and ripples appeared on the image on the mirror in front of him, and finally reflected the appearance of the Muggle Prime Minister.

It was afternoon time, and the Muggle Prime Minister seemed to be enjoying afternoon tea. The change on the two-way mirror startled him, and he almost sprayed the tea in his mouth all over the desk.

"Cough, cough, cough!" The Muggle Prime Minister coughed violently, and only wiped his mouth after his breathing became smoother. He looked at Mike on the screen with a smile on his face, "Mr. Townley, we meet again. It really feels like a long time since we last met..."

"Okay, no more nonsense!" Mike interrupted him with a gloomy face, "I need your military support now, will you give it to me?"

Mike's attitude was very bad. He felt very distressed when he saw Penelope's aggrieved look. Although he didn't show it, he was already full of anger towards the Muggle Prime Minister at this time.

But the Muggle Prime Minister opposite didn't care. He continued to maintain that perfect smile, shook his head slightly and said:
"Mr. Tang Li is such a straightforward person, but there's no need for you to be so anxious. First of all, we can certainly provide military support. After all, this is something that has long been written in black and white in the contract. But I really can't provide you with the scale of weapons and the number of soldiers you need!

You know, you are so powerful that you don't care about the sanctions of the International Confederation of Wizards, but I am different. I am just an ordinary person. If those wizards find out about this, they will send a few people to me and I will be finished! Who knows, they might even put me in that wizard prison called Avakaban. I heard from other wizards that there..."

"Enough!" Mike rubbed his brow and yelled impatiently, "How many people can you send out?"

The Muggle Prime Minister raised a finger to signal Mike to wait, then he took out a piece of white paper, coughed twice and read:
"A ten-man team, all of whom are composed of the most elite members of the Royal Navy Special Boat Regiment, and are equipped with the most advanced thermal sensing night vision goggles and L119a1 rifles..."

The Muggle Prime Minister rattled off a bunch of high-sounding terms, leaving Mike stunned.

But he was not a fool. After listening to the end, he finally understood.

It seems that after all the talk, the other party is only willing to provide ten special reconnaissance soldiers and is unwilling to give anything else.

Michael was really angry now, but he didn't lose his temper. Instead, he calmed down and looked at the Muggle Prime Minister coldly and said:

"I want a ground force of about 70 people, including at least 40 armored troops, plus four Savage helicopters and five Skyshaker fighters."

"This is impossible!" The Muggle Prime Minister shook his head like a rattle. "I absolutely cannot do this! Such a large-scale mobilization of armed forces will definitely be discovered by the International Confederation of Magic. By then..."

"You are so afraid of the International Magical Confederation, but you are not afraid of me at all?"

Before the Muggle Prime Minister could finish his words, Mike's faint voice reached his ears.

His face froze, and he looked through the cold mirror at Mike's equally cold expression, and his body suddenly shuddered.

Mike's words without any emotion confirmed one thing for him, that is, Mike was serious. Someone who dared to ignore the international confidentiality law and deliver potions and magic items to Muggles really dared to assassinate the Prime Minister of a country. The Muggle Prime Minister swallowed his saliva, looked aggrieved and said weakly:
"They are all the people of the Great Ying Empire, the pillars of the country carefully cultivated by taxpayers with huge amounts of tax money."

Mike rubbed the blackthorn wand in his hand and said impatiently:
"so what?"

"You have to pay more!"

半个小时后，双面镜之上的画面终于是消失了，在经历了激烈的讨价还价之后，麦克最终以5瓶吐真剂、5瓶复方汤剂、1小瓶福灵剂、100瓶强效治疗药剂以及10套隐身衣的代价租借到了自己所需要的部队总共10天的指挥权。

In addition, what Mike obtained was only the leasing right. If these people and machines were damaged or destroyed in the battle, Mike would have to provide additional compensation. Of course, the specific price had been negotiated. Converted into gold galleons, the pension for each soldier is about 100 galleons, the Skyshaker fighter is 10000 galleons, the Savage helicopter is 5000 galleons, and armored vehicles and the like are calculated separately.

At first glance, it seems that Mike is at a disadvantage in this deal. After all, the various potions required by the other party are high-end goods that are difficult to obtain. If the battle does not go well, Mike will need to pay a large sum of supplies as compensation, which are even difficult for the Los Santos Group to obtain.

But in fact, Mike felt that he had made a lot of money!

You should know that the manufacturing price of the Savage helicopter is as high as 450 million pounds! As for the Sky Fighter, it is even more exaggerated, each one costs more than 1700 million pounds!
To be honest, there are very few Muggle Prime Ministers who want such precious war machines. As long as he has these things, Mike would even dare to fight Voldemort!
On the other hand, the Muggle Prime Minister did not feel that he suffered a loss. After all, these things were old stuff left over from decades ago. The current Muggle Prime Minister, who had not experienced that war era, did not think much of these things. Instead, he cared about those precious magic potions and magical props!
In his eyes, this is the future!
So in general, this is a deal where both parties feel they have made a profit, and everyone is happy!

Penelope and Benjamin, who had been watching from the sidelines, were completely stunned. They had never expected that the Prime Minister of a country could bargain with Mike like an old lady going to Portobello Road Market (a famous large flea market in London)! This completely overturned their perception of the Prime Minister!

Mike, who took in all their expressions, sighed helplessly.

Now he basically understood why Penelope and Benjamin couldn't handle such a trivial matter which seemed easy to him.

In the eyes of Penelope and Benjamin, the Muggle Prime Minister is a very noble position and a leader worthy of their respect. This is also a common shortcoming of the vast majority of Muggle-borns. This may seem incredible to others. After all, the Muggle Prime Minister of Ying Country has always been scolded, and ordinary people are not friendly to them.

But Muggle-born wizards like Penelope were sent to the fully closed school Hogwarts at the age of eleven, and could only stay in Muggle society for a few months each year thereafter, so their understanding of Muggle society has always remained in childhood. As children, they still have great respect for things like the Prime Minister.

And it was precisely because of their respect that they were at a disadvantage in the negotiations with the Muggle Prime Minister, because they instinctively believed that the other party was a person of higher status than themselves, and thus did not dare to take tough measures.

This gives professional politicians like the Muggle Prime Minister an opportunity, as power politics and negotiation are their forte!
"Okay, there's no need to be so sad, it's just a small matter." Mike waved his hand and said, "Next time you meet that half-bald old man, just send him a death threat. Don't argue with him. You are no match for him when it comes to talking."

"understood."

Penelope and Benjamin responded in a low voice, their faces still looking somewhat lost.

But time was urgent and Mike had no time to calm them down. After briefly explaining a few things, Mike took Zhou Hong and other people and teleported directly to the Avery Secret Realm.

The Avery Secret Realm today is very different from when Mike first came here.

The original Avery Secret Realm was in complete darkness 24 hours a day except for some magic lamps placed near the Avery Factory. It was in a desolate state. Normally, no creatures were willing to go there except for the worker ants who went to cut mushrooms.

But now many areas in the Avery Secret Realm are planted with the luminous mushrooms called "night fireflies" found in the queen ant's nest. The light emitted by these mushrooms is light green. The light is not strong, but the number can basically meet the visual needs of humans.

According to Benjamin, he originally planned to deploy magic lamps over a large area. After all, the Los Santos Group regularly sends adventure teams to the undeveloped areas in the secret realm to explore for resources. However, this plan aroused strong opposition from the Queen Ant.

The reason is that the light from the magic lamp is too dazzling and will burn the ants' already severely degraded eyes.

So, at the suggestion of the queen ant, the original magic lamp was replaced with a "firefly". Benjamin was happy to see this, after all, the cost of growing this luminous mushroom was shockingly low.

At the same time, those exploration teams that are sent out regularly are not doing it for free. In addition to magic liquid and magic cloth, there is now another gem named "Black Ant Stone" in the Avery Secret Realm. After testing, this gem is extremely useful in alchemy, and now the profit has even gradually caught up with the magic cloth and magic liquid.

Of course, as a price, Benjamin invested in building a new ore processing plant in the Avery Secret Realm, which processes the raw ore collected by the ants every day.

After arriving at Avery Secret Realm, Mike first visited the mushroom factory and the ore processing plant, and then went to the queen ant's nest, preparing to discuss the upcoming battle with her.

Unlike the huge changes on the ground, there were not many changes inside the queen ant's nest. Everything was the same as when Mike came here before.

The queen ant continued to stay in the cave directly below the mushroom factory. The surrounding area was still full of luminous mushrooms, which looked very beautiful.

But the hole at the top of the cave that was once used for feeding has been abandoned. Now the queen ant's food is entirely carried by the worker ants, and the food has improved a lot. This is one of the benefits that Mike originally promised to the queen ant.

However, the improvement in food was not reflected in the queen ant. Her body was still as weak as when Mike first arrived. Not only did she not gain weight, but on the contrary she became thinner.

But this is nothing strange. Most of the nutrients in the queen ant's body are used to cultivate the new generation of ants, so she certainly cannot gain weight.

Corresponding to her weight loss, the number of ants in Avery's secret realm has almost doubled during this period, so in a sense, Mike's business of improving the queen ant's food has made a lot of money.

Looking up at the still majestic queen ant in front of him, Mike said with a smile:

"Hello, Lilith."

"Hello to you too, dear master."

(End of this chapter)