The Admiral of Hogwarts

As the afternoon wore on, a feeling of excitement, like a palpable cloud, spread over the campsite. By dusk, even the still summer air seemed to tremble with anticipation.

As night fell like a curtain over hundreds upon hundreds of eagerly waiting wizards, the last vestiges of pretense vanished:

The Ministry of Magic seemed to succumb to the inevitable, no longer opposing the people, and allowing obvious signs of magic to emerge everywhere.

The vendors who had previously been concentrated in designated tents Apparated in, carrying trays and pushing carts filled with various match-related merchandise.

"Everyone ready, girls?" Hugo asked, standing in the center of the camp after loading a charmed PPK pistol with unfailing-manufactured magic bullets, cocking it, turning off the safety, and placing it in a concealed underarm holster.

"We can get dressed faster than you think, after all, we can change clothes with one click!" Saint George was the first to come out, wearing a white robe embroidered with gold trim.

Behind her, the others, all dressed in finery, filed out of the tent. Then they gathered in a group in the open space of the camp and chatted.

"Then let's go!" Hugo said to the girls, and then walked out of the camp with everyone.

"Haven't you found the whereabouts of that rat and the mysterious person yet?" Watching everyone gather around, curiously looking around, Hugo privately chatted with Renown, who was responsible for the specific actions in this regard, through the Admiral Network.

"Indeed, we haven't found them. Our people were ambushed in advance near the Riddle family mansion, but they didn't find any traces of those people."

"In addition, we are also maintaining surveillance near Barty Crouch's house. But strangely, without finding anyone visiting, Barty Crouch Sr. was controlled by the Imperius Curse."

Unlike the surveillance of the Riddle mansion, there was a fatal loophole in the surveillance of Barty, but that was also the best choice under the existing constraints.

After all, Barty was a senior official in the Ministry of Magic, and his residence had ample security. Therefore, even if the current ship girls possessed the firepower to destroy the room, including the people in it, in a matter of seconds, they could not monitor the other party for a long time in secret.

"But what we can now confirm is that the wizard who cast the Imperius Curse should be very familiar with Barty Crouch. Only in this way can he enter this building through the Floo Network with the other party's permission."

"Now the question is, who is that person?" Hugo sighed and said.

"We conducted an investigation at the Floo Network Administration's Baffle, but because there is no surveillance of the residences of senior Ministry of Magic officials, we can only know that the other party came from mainland Britain." Saint George shook her head.

"We have changed too many things before, so now everything has entered chaos." Hugo sighed and said, "But you just need to be prepared for this kind of thing."

"Uh—actually, we were planning to take advantage of this Quidditch World Cup to prepare for a small-scale exercise." Saint George said somewhat embarrassedly at this time.

"Exercise? That's a good thing." Hugo nodded, and then connected to the Admiral Network to check the content of this ship girl training, but soon his eyes widened.

"Isn't this exercise a bit too exaggerated?" After reading the report for the first time, Hugo immediately contacted Saint George privately through the Admiral Network.

Because Hugo was surprised to find that all the newly summoned ship girls had joined this exercise, and the weapons used in the exercise even included the W squadron of those Cold War aircraft carriers and the BGM-109 A of the Iowa four sisters.

The reason why Hugo was nervous was because the W squadron was the nuclear strike squadron of American aircraft carriers during the Cold War, and could launch 36 300,000-ton-level bombs in one strike, while the BGM-109 A was a Tomahawk missile equipped with a 200,000-ton nuclear warhead.

"Don't worry, all attacks are simulated attacks, and we will definitely not have accidental attack incidents like human users." Saint George comforted Hugo. "This is just to prepare for the worst-case scenario."

Although Hugo had enough trust in the ship girls, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous when he thought that hundreds of nuclear warheads were ready to go nearby.

Fortunately, out of trust in everyone, Hugo quickly adjusted his mentality, and then focused his attention on the people around him.

Obviously, the Quidditch World Cup was a grand event in the wizarding world, so Hugo also saw a lot of his acquaintances along the way. For example, he found Professor McGonagall gesticulating and talking to several professors around her.

In addition, they also saw many classmates passing by, but everyone just nodded to each other in a hurry and continued to shop or chat.

Clang—At this time, a deep and sonorous gong sounded from somewhere in the distance of the forest. Immediately, thousands of red and green lanterns bloomed with light on the trees, illuminating the road to the stadium.

"It's time!" Mr. Weasley, who was chatting with Unfailing, suddenly became excited, looking as excited as everyone else, "Hurry up, let's go."

Mr. Weasley led the way, and everyone, clutching the things they had bought, strode into the forest along the lantern-lit path.

They could hear hundreds and thousands of people walking around in the direction of the stadium, hear shouts, laughter, and snatches of song.

This frenzied excitement was very contagious. Even though Hugo had been a little worried about what might happen after the plot changed, he was also caught up in the joy at this time.

Everyone walked together in the forest for twenty minutes, chatting and joking loudly, and finally came out of the other side of the forest.

At this time, they found themselves in the shadow of a huge stadium. Hugo could only see a part of the magnificent gold walls around the stadium, but he could tell that it could easily hold ten cathedrals.

Also a stadium that can hold 100,000 people, the wizard's stadium is obviously much larger than the average person's. After all, Quidditch matches require more space.

"It can hold one hundred thousand spectators." Mr. Weasley said with a proud look on his face when he saw the surprised expressions on the children's faces.

"Five hundred Ministry of Magic staff have been working on this for a whole year. In addition to the infrastructure, every inch of this place has been cast with Muggle-Repelling Charms."

"It's really amazing!" Hugo murmured, looking at this kind of ability, he felt that wizards were actually the most suitable as the vanguard of mankind to explore outer space.

"Actually, we can take the harmony between ordinary people and wizards as the goal of our future struggle." Hood said seriously after realizing what Hugo was thinking.

"Anyway, we have great power and a long time, so we can completely formulate a plan that may take normal people several lifetimes to complete as our goal."

"You're right. When immortality is very close to us, we do need to formulate some long-term projects that focus on the future." After listening to Hood's words, Hugo nodded in agreement.