Dumbledore didn't return to the estate until the early morning of the next day.
At that time, Link and Emily had just finished washing up and were eating breakfast in the dining room with Krell accompanying them.
When Emily saw Dumbledore come in, she smiled and gave him a slight bow.
Her face carried a hint of springtime glow, and she looked to be in a very good mood.
In contrast, Link looked somewhat listless.
He only yawned and nodded at Dumbledore.
He deeply regretted telling the story about Nicolas Flamel yesterday.
Emily had been deeply moved by that story and had even begun to firmly believe that they should have a child as early as possible, so that when they wanted one later they wouldn't end up repeating the tragedy of Nicolas Flamel and his wife.
From a scientific point of view, this actually made a lot of sense.
Because human fertility declines rapidly with age.
This is especially obvious in women.
And Link and Emily also had another identity, that of wizards.
Wizards, as the most powerful individuals among humans, already have weaker fertility than ordinary Muggles, and this becomes even more so as they age.
So, with Emily taking the initiative, Link became the ox that almost died from plowing the field from exhaustion.
Although Dumbledore lacked experience in this area, looking at the young man and woman in front of him, he could roughly guess what had happened.
He frowned and said slowly, "Young people should have moder..."
Before Dumbledore could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a series of urgent and deliberate coughs.
Turning his head, he saw Krell staring at him with a gaze that looked ready to kill.
That made the rest of his sentence impossible to say.
After all, the issue of the Flamel family's descendants was absolutely Krell's greatest concern. Anyone or anything that dared to hinder this plan would be removed without mercy.
Dumbledore felt that if he kept talking, Krell might jump up from his chair and grab a knife to fight him on the spot.
He took a deep breath, barely suppressing his strong urge to lecture the younger generation, and said again, "Link, we rested yesterday, so where do you plan to start investigating today?"
Hearing this, Link raised his head, rubbed his still sleepy face, and instead of answering asked, "Where did you go yesterday?"
"I visited some old friends and asked them about the recent situation in the French magical world," Dumbledore explained openly. "But the answers they gave were… that everything is normal."
"They were just brushing you off."
Link cut a piece of bacon and stuffed it into his mouth as he spoke.
"Yes, that was very obvious. Their acting was too poor. I didn't even need to use Legilimency to see through it." Dumbledore was no longer in a hurry and sat down to enjoy breakfast with them.
"So I could only erase any memories they had related to me. That way, news of our arrival in France wouldn't leak out."
Hearing that, Link smacked his lips with some emotion.
When Dumbledore needed to be ruthless, he really was ruthless.
The kind of people Dumbledore would personally visit at a time like this must be true old friends with deep connections to him.
They must have spent a long time together.
Not to mention that because of Dumbledore's fame, these people would also occasionally hear news about him in their daily lives.
And now, Dumbledore had directly erased all the memories they had of him.
Such large-scale memory erasure would probably turn them into fools, wouldn't it?
Dumbledore didn't care about Link's slightly mocking reaction and continued asking, "So, what do you plan to do today?"
"Hmm..."
Link pretended to think for a while, then suddenly turned to Emily and said, "I heard the French Diagon Alley is much more interesting than the one in Britain. How about we go take a look today?"
Emily, who had been burying her head and eating quickly out of slight embarrassment, instantly raised her head and looked at Link with surprise.
Dumbledore, who was sitting across from them, put down the knife and fork he had just picked up and said, "Link, do you think there's something wrong there, so you want to go investigate?"
Link shook his head, "Not at all. I just want to go shopping with my fiancee."
As soon as he said that, Emily immediately cheered and jumped up from her seat.
She pecked Link on the face and then ran back into the room.
As Link became busier and busier with work, going shopping with him had become a very rare opportunity for Emily.
She felt she had to dress up properly to be worthy of Link's love.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore let out a long sigh and said, "Link, we're not here to play."
"Oh? I don't see it that way." Link said indifferently.
"If this operation were really that dangerous, I wouldn't have brought Emily along, right? So this trip to France is just a simple trip for me."
"As for investigating the Shadowed Figures group, that's just something to do along the way. It would be best if we find something, but it doesn't matter if we don't."
"As for those detailed plans you mentioned."
"Sorry, they don't exist."
The muscles on Dumbledore's face twitched. Having just sighed, he took another deep breath and said, "Link, we are allies. You've always been the one reminding me of that before, and now I must remind you."
Dumbledore's expression suddenly became serious. "We are equal allies! And equality means we must share resources and intelligence! There should be no secrets between us!"
"I'm really not hiding anything from you! Think about it, when did I ever say I had a concrete plan? I didn't even tell you I was coming to France. You were the one who insisted on following me!"
Link spread his hands with an innocent look.
Hearing this, Dumbledore's face had already turned completely dark.
Because things really were exactly as Link said. He was the one who had insisted on coming along.
Thinking about it that way, he really might have overthought things.
And even seemed a bit… shameless.
Looking at Dumbledore's extremely ugly expression, Link finally couldn't help but comfort him, "You don't have to be so disappointed. Actually, I do have some ideas."
"What ideas?"
Dumbledore immediately perked up again.
"My idea is that we should spend this time enjoying ourselves in France. If we find clues, that would be great."
"If we really don't find anything, then we can just go straight to the French Ministry of Magic and Beauxbatons."
"As long as the Shadowed Figures' base really is in France, there will definitely be traces of their activities in those two places."
Link spoke sincerely, but Dumbledore's eyes turned red.
He said expressionlessly, "You're toying with me?"
"No, no, no! You misunderstood!" Link waved his hands quickly. "I'm serious. Maybe while we're shopping, the clues will just show up on their own. Don't you think?"
Dumbledore said mockingly, "You might as well hope the Shadowed Figures and Voldemort choke to death while drinking water. That would be more realistic!"
At this point, Link had no interest in continuing to argue with Dumbledore and said bluntly, "So are you coming shopping with Emily and me or not?"
"Yes! Of course I'm going! I'll be watching you closely!" Dumbledore said with a cold smile. "So you'd better really be going shopping."
Link knew as soon as he heard that Dumbledore still didn't believe what he had said before.
But that didn't matter.
No one here cared about Dumbledore's opinion anyway.
He curled his lips and simply ignored Dumbledore.
———
Perhaps because she was naturally beautiful and didn't need much makeup, or perhaps because she was too excited about this trip.
In any case, Emily didn't spend nearly as much time changing outfits as the girls in Link's usual impressions.
Link had only just finished breakfast when Emily had already changed into a black dress that matched the color of his casual clothes, but was much more delicate.
The two held hands and boarded the carriage Krell had already prepared.
At the same time, Dumbledore also appeared.
This time, instead of squeezing into the driver's seat in front with Krell like before, he went straight into the cabin and sat face to face with Link and Emily.
This made Emily very unhappy.
In fact, she still hadn't recovered from last night's absurd state.
Originally, she had planned to continue being affectionate with Link inside the carriage and continue last night's beautiful dream.
But she hadn't expected such a huge third wheel to suddenly appear.
Her good upbringing forced Emily to suppress her dissatisfaction and glare at Dumbledore with angry eyes.
Unfortunately, that level of glaring meant nothing to Dumbledore.
From beginning to end, he didn't even seem to register Emily's presence.
He focused entirely on Link, staring at him with a half-smiling expression.
Obviously, he was carrying out the promise he made in the dining room earlier.
Watching Link's every move.
Link, however, appeared very generous about it.
No matter how Emily's little hand poked at his side trying to hint at him, he didn't react and simply maintained eye contact with Dumbledore.
Deep down, he was even somewhat grateful to Dumbledore.
If not for him, then today, inside this carriage, he really might not have been able to handle it.
This wasn't because Link's kidneys were weak.
In fact, for young people at this age, as long as they're physically healthy, their kidneys could practically be described as perpetual motion machines.
Not to mention that ever since coming to this world, Link had never stopped training his body.
At present, even among youths worldwide, Link's physical condition would rank among the very best.
What truly limited Link was one of his external organs.
After several hours of continuous ultra-high-intensity drilling work, it had begun sending Link the most direct signal possible (pain), it was about to break.
And so, the group left the estate in this extremely awkward atmosphere. After a fairly long flight and spatial jump, they stopped at a square filled with a strong medieval style.
"Young master, from here on we can only continue on foot.", Krell opened the carriage door and spoke softly.
While speaking, he also glared fiercely at Dumbledore.
Clearly, he was also very dissatisfied with Dumbledore's malicious third-wheel behavior.
Dumbledore acted as if he didn't care at all and closely followed Link and Emily as they got off the carriage.
After getting off, everyone suddenly realized...
There were quite a lot of people in the square.
And most of them were Muggles.
Link even saw a tour group slowly passing through the square under the guidance of a tour guide.
At this point, Emily's attention was finally successfully diverted.
Looking at the people coming and going, she frowned and asked, "Where is this place?"
"Fontainebleau. More precisely, inside the Palace of Fontainebleau."
As Dumbledore spoke, he pointed in a certain direction.
Everyone turned to look and indeed saw a grand and elegant giant off-white building.
It looked very lively there, with tourists constantly walking out happily and others entering with eager expressions.
But seeing this only made Emily frown even more deeply.
Link sighed and added for her, "What Emily really wants to ask is how we appeared here in front of so many Muggles."
"Because of the Muggle-Repelling Charm. More precisely, a new variant of it." Dumbledore said with a look of amazement.
"Under the influence of this charm, Muggles won't completely ignore this area. Instead, they will selectively ignore supernatural phenomena."
"For example, when our flying carriage descended from the sky earlier, they simply wouldn't notice it."
Dumbledore glanced again at the strange wizard-style clothing on himself and Krell.
"As for our unusual clothing, those Muggles will just think we're tourists who like eccentric outfits."
As if to prove Dumbledore's words...
Just as he finished speaking, a group of fashionably dressed girls peeked over and approached them.
The leading girl spoke in fluent American English, "Excuse me, can we take a picture with you? Uh, don't get the wrong idea, we just think your outfits and carriage look really cool!"
The explanation from the girl afterward was completely unnecessary.
Everyone present could clearly see their real purpose for coming over to take a photo.
Because their gazes had never left Link from the very beginning.
Some of the girls in the back row even let out excited little screams when Link looked at them.
Emily's face darkened, and the arm she had wrapped around Link tightened several degrees.
This made Link bare his teeth in a pained smile.
Link naturally refused their request for a photo in very firm terms.
Even though this group of girls, clearly from America, were already wearing summer clothes in early spring, their long snow-white legs shining under the sunlight almost blinding people, it made no difference.
However, the girls weren't too disappointed. In the end, they actually left happily.
Because Dumbledore had very gladly taken a photo with them.
They were also quite interested in this old handsome man in "eccentric clothing" who gave off a mysterious aura.
After the girls walked away, the way everyone looked at Dumbledore completely changed.
Especially Link.
As he looked Dumbledore up and down, he even made strange clicking sounds with his tongue.
They had all clearly seen just now that Dumbledore's move of putting his arm around the girls' waists during the photo was extremely practiced.
It was hard not to suspect that this Dumbledore, who usually presented himself as serious and kind, might have other hobbies in private.
Under these gazes, even Dumbledore couldn't quite withstand it.
He coughed twice with slight embarrassment before leading everyone to stand in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary.